Saturday, November 13, 2010

Week 11. Alternate Reality Learning: Massive Gaming, Virtual Reality, and Simulations


The Reflection of the Week:
   There are a lot of methods for teaching and learning we can use. In this week, we talked about online games, virtual reality and simulations.  I believe games are really useful and effective teaching and learning tools. It is enough to look at the term of baby and child in order to understand how games are really important for learning and teaching. We learned or were taught a lot with games.
   Online games enable learning anytime and anywhere. One of the useful point of online games is that player is put in a position to think and solve problem with information provided. Also, in the games, players try to find ways and strategies in order to win the game, which strengthen the ability of critical thinking.  
   In order to create educational games, we should take the following into consideration: A game which has a good scenario or story can make players to participate in games. Just imagine you are a hero and are supposed to save the world. I think this make players more motivated. Context is also really important, which helps you where you are and where you should go.  For players to engage in games, the beginning of the game, players should not know who will win the game.
   Games allow players to do what they cannot do in real life like flying, walking on the water and running so fast. Also games and simulations can be used to teach difficult scientific concepts. For instance, we cannot recognize the colors of the light which contains all colors but a simulation that were created by The phet project team, creates educational simulations, can visualize and demonstrate all colors light contains easily.

The Example of the Week:
The world of war is a strategy game, covers 8 different races fighting each other, which allows players to play online and real time chats among players all across the world. The research that was conducted regarding the game indicates players learn spontaneously how to play game, what the strategies are and should be done to win the game by asking questions via chat. So this chat session creates great social interaction and informal learning environment.
(Bonnie A. Nardi, Stella Ly, & Justin Harris (2007). Learning conversations in World of Warcraft. forthcoming in Proc. HICSS 2007. Retrieved on June 25, 2010)
The Quote of the Week:
Game designers should allow players to learn new skills and apply them in a variety of situations.
This quote reminds that chess was played to improve the strategic skills by the generals of old world.
Squire, Kurt (2005, February). Game-based learning: Present and future state of the field. The Masie Center. Retrieved on June 25, 2010, from

The video of the Week:
Dr. Robert Appelman talks about games for learning. Students from Jackson Creek Middle School visited the IU Bloomington campus to participate in a study by the School of Education about video games. Researchers gathered data on the students' technique and decision-making in the games to help develop instructional technologies that will better impart knowledge in the classroom. 

1 comment:

  1. Hello Cesur,

    While I am not a big game player, but I agree with you that games and virtual reality enables learning, especially for younger generation. From a personal experience, I see my sons learning from playing different educational games in my iPhone. They learn letters, words, colors, and shapes, and they have fun.

    Furthermore, I agree that games provide many advantages for people to learn from being put in different situation, but my concern is that educational games are not in the level or place to compete with commercial games. I think there are lots of work to be done in terms of design and implementation. As you mentioned, students need to be motivated to participate and interact with these new form of technology

    Finally, I not familiar with the world of war game you choose as an example, but I liked the video link.

    Keep up the good work.

    Best,

    ReplyDelete