Neat island simulation game

I found this neat simulation but I am not really sure what it simulates. You chose which technology  you want to concentrate your resources on and the island changes based upon your choices. The animation is good and the actions that you observe based on your decisions are interesting but the controls are not very good since your only option is which button you push. The goal of the simulation is also somewhat unclear since there is no penalty for a bad sequence of decisions. I just thought that someone put a lot of time into a game and left out some vital things to make the game more interesting.

Community Initiative

 

I found this article and I am intrigued that a person takes initiative in the community to ensure that his products are not detrimental to students learning. I also wonder if he is doing the job that parents should be performing?

I found a neat gaming blog

So I was surfing the net for blogs on instructional gaming and found this blog written by Henry Jenkins. Jenkins os one of thos acedemic types who studieds games and how they effect our society and learning. He also has some publications available online, I read this one on narrative archetcture and really liked some of the points that he brought up on storytelling and game development. With games such as bioshock developing more storyline will some games eventually just become interactive stories?

Blinded me with science

Wow!!!! After reading this Prensky article one can honestly say “kid’s just ain’t the way they used to be.” Attention spans are declining, but is that really a bad thing if students can still get the same amount of information by just watching instruction sporadically? Do instructors not like students with limited attention spans just because their instruction is geared for students who learn by focusing on one topic for extended periods of time?

What struck me most about this article was that kids really are different in a physiological way. Our brains form due to our environment and since most students grow up with video games that provide lots of stimulation they also desire similar learning environments. It is a ludicrous idea to think that an educational system designed for learners with long attention spans will work at maximum efficiency for learners who have different educational needs.

I discussed this with some of my students in my senior physics classes and they all seemed to have grown accustomed to “playing school.” By playing school I mean sitting quietly during lecture even though they are not learning much, if anything, from the lesson. I teach physics in an inquiry based approach and I often hear students say why don’t other teachers teach this way? Granted, physics is an area that lends itself to exploration learning since you can teach a lot of physics with duct tape, meter sticks and stop watches. However, technology opens a door to allow us to teach in a manner that will help these short attention span students, which the digital age has produced.

Yes, the article is a bit slanted and inflamatory, but it brings to light a point that is well worth stating. We are going to have to change the systems that we use to teach since the students that are entering the educational system are different at a fundamental level.

“The Sims” for physics classes

So as a physics teacher I am up for just about anything that makes my life easier. I always have a problem when I teach my students some of the concepts in electricity and magnetism because the students can’t actually see the electrons moving about. While doing a little research I found this site that has all kinds of simulations for teaching physics and one that looks really cool the DC light kit. Here is a link to the DC circuit kit.

All of the simulations play in the Java applet so it is not necessary to download any new programs for most users. This is the ultimate for teaching electricity in terms of concept introduction because the students can actually see the electrons. Students can change and modify the circuits that that they create the same way that they can in real life. Hands on or experimental type learners can arrange different circuits and see instantly how the changes affects the light bulbs in the circuit the same way they would in real life. The applet also allows students to use a virtual multimeter to test the voltages of the circuits that they create.

Tools like these are great for me as an instructor since the students don’t have to set up rows of batteries and other supplies to  set up circuits. I probably don’t have to mention that when you give high school students lantern batteries and capacitors somebody usually gets shocked, that doesn’t occur with computer simulations;)

Not the kind of sims game that most people like but still a few good “games” none the less.

Magical Molecule Maker

Alright I really got excited about a program that I saw here on youtube. The whole video is interesting but let it load and skip to 4minutes in to see the application that really caught my eye “The magical molecule maker” by Joe Miller.

I have scoured the net and was not able to find any additional information on this application but the snippet in the youtube video gives me all kinds of ideas for inclusion in instruction.

As a chemistry teacher it is always difficult to get student to visualize molecules at the level of atoms. I can imagine games that could allow students to go on quests and discover how molecules interact with each other ala Osmosis Jones types of game play.

How easy will it be for us to make games someday?

Alright I just saw this game heist and I had a strange idea. Will we ever be able to make our own games? I remember a few years ago and the idea of the average person making a web page of their own was impossible  unless they were a recluse computer geek who lived in their parents basement.

Now almost every high school student has the equivalent of a personal web page with their myspace account. Also just look at the proliferation of software available to help us design our own web pages.

Maybe this is just a pipe dream but I would love the ability to take a picture and then duplicate  the environment virtually to allow  students to interact with characters. I just have a vision of students that put on goggles “that are better than the 3d gameboy” and go on a virtual environment quest through different levels of a real ancient castle so they feel like a medieval night upon a quest. Would this be a great way to teach history to young boys or what?

Or as a teacher I can image a simulation that will allow me to have the sensation of flight up and down a section of strata while I teach a lesson on earth science. I can always dream can’t I? Maybe by the time I retire huh?<–I hope I get to eat my words on this one!

Rolling Stones songs and such….

So today on the drive home I heard “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”and I was thinking, as a gamer what kinds of things do I like and want in a game. When I get a chance to play video games I like first person shooters that move quickly. I really don’t like games that hold me up and waste my time in other words.
One of my favorite PC games was a title called “Hidden and Dangerous” which was a first WWII based first person shooter which also allowed you to set up motions for other member of your team to follow, almost like rainbow six. Anyway the graphics were good for the day and if you planned incorrectly you failed, but you could always replay the level from a saved spot. Most of the levels took time to master but they were able to beat if you learned from your mistakes.

One game that I liked just as well at first but eventually ended up hating was “Thief”. In this game you were obviously a thief and went upon missions to complete . The bad part was that after about 3/4 of the way into the game I got stuck for about a solid 2 weeks and I refused to cheat. I tried a million different things and eventually I gave up and quit playing the game. Finally a few weeks later I found a discussion board that gave me the answer to get past the level.

This was all when I was an undergrad and had time to play video games , but in retrospect it could also be a parable about education. In the shooting game the levels got harder but I was able to complete them but that was because I got better as I played the game learning more skills allowing me to complete the more difficult levels.

Thief on the other had discouraged me and made me want to quit because, to the best of my recollection, I had not closed a door at the right time , a minuscule fact ,thus blocking my progress in the game. The game did not build on those skills sufficiently to make me notice that the door sequence matters.

I don’t mind games challenging me but give me enough information to work with and don’t try yo trick me with unconnected information. This idea could go for education as well as gaming.

It’s late and I am sure that I am not all that eloquent but I guess to paraphrase games need to challenge players but they need to teach them the skills that they need on the next level, something about zone of proximal what? Anyhow enough rambling, say goodnight Alice.

Interesting Article

So I found this article.  Wow!! I am really close to buying a console just to play bio-shock.

But from an educators standpoint what if we could harness this “storytelling” ability into education? I can imagine whole adventures that require the students to learn in a virtual environment.  Using bio-shocks approach a student could go on an adventure and their decisions about situations could affect the ending of their game and/or where their learning goes.

Just a thought.

I have found a few more neat games that I can use in physics but they all have violence i.e-crash dummies in a truck.  Who knows? it’s late will post more later.

Violence vs. Teachability

Alright, first off I would like to admit that I am a quasi well balanced individual I don’t hit people, bully my peers or shoot up shopping malls, but I played video games that were violent when I was younger. Was I the exception or does any game that contains violence turn the player into a rabid violence mongering individual who craves to recreate what they saw in the game in real life?

Our heritage and or neurological hard wiring makes us predisposed to respond and pay attention to violence. The hind brain, mid brain and neocortex are all wired to tune in to violence and aggression. But do people act upon all of their urges? Let’s certainly hope not.

So where did this random rant come from? Well, I started thinking about this after doing some research for games that I can use to teach physics. I found a few really good games but since physics is all about the transfer of energy through movement sometime game designers make games violent but still have the capacity to be used as a teaching tool.

One of the best games that I found that was really useful was a game call stair dismount
and it can be downloaded free from http://jet.ro/dismount/. The game allows you to push a crash dummy down the stairs and score points for the amount of damage that the crash test dummy sustains. You can adjust where the push is at on the dummy and how much force is applied. The game has very good physics modeling and many topics such as inertia rotational momentum and gravitational acceleration can all be taught and demonstrated using the game.

But…..and that is a big but what of I use a game such as this one in the public schools? I have let a few of my students look at the game while I demonstrated it. All of the small group of students that have seen it said that they like the game and see how it could teach physics and they even said that after the game they weren’t motivated to go push anybody down the stairs, but what if I use this game in my class? I can envision a conservative parent standing up at a school board meeting decrying the violence that I am using to teach physics with instead of just having their child do a worksheet to learn physics.

Obviously the blood and guts games are inappropriate but to hold students attention games often contain some violence. Please don’t interpret this as a declaration that all students should be playing violence laden games, but what rule should we use to determine how much violence we can have in a game to be used in the public schools?