CONFERENCIA/CHARLA el jueves, Septiembre 23

Universidad de Costa Rica, Turrialba de la Sede del Atlántico

Potencialidades de los juegos digitales en la educación?

Educational potentials of computer games?

This month I’m in Costa Rica as a visiting researcher within the program COOPEN
Erasmus Mundus. I’m here to widen my perspectives and learn more about what is
happening in your part of the world when it comes to educational technologies – and
also to share my experiences on these issues.

I have the great pleasure of working with the Fabian Rojas Ramirez. Thank you for
organising this lecture.

Presentation of the participants.

Some words about the Malmö University.

In May I presented my doctoral dissertation with the title “Simulated ‘real’ worlds:
Actions mediated through computer games in science action”.

I have been exploring how people use and engaged with computer games, and if and
how computer games can be employed for educational purposes in school, and
specifically in science education.

The games that I have been working with are a mobile game that we have been
developing ourselves called Agent O, and a commercial-off-the-shelf game called
SimCity 4.

Today I will share some of my experiences from studying computer game play in a
Swedish school context. I will first say something about the educational potentials of
computer games brought forward by previous researchers. After that I will present
two educational projects involving computer games.

In the end there will be time for a joint discussion about these issues.

If we start with the basic question:

What have computer games and game culture to do with school?

The question of how the introduction of new technologies and tools, such as digital
media and computer games, change our world is not just a question about
technological innovation and materialistic development.

It is also a question of how these tools changes the way we act upon the world, and
how we respond to the possibilities that new technologies and tools bring along.

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The usage of tools influence how we search for information, how we communicate,
collaborate, our learning strategies.

Basically, the tools that we make use of in everyday life influence how we think, how
we act, how we behave

To summarise: learning is situated in a material, social and cultural world and

depended on what community we are associated to, as well as on what tools and
resources are available for us to utilize.

To learn and develop “is not just a matter of what goes on inside people’s heads but
is fully embedded in [situated within] a material, social and cultural world” (Gee,
2003, p. 8).

This view implies that the introduction of new tools in society changes the standards
for what, and how knowledge is acquired, and puts new demands on the educational
system.

– and this is certainly something that our educational system has to acknowledge
and take in consideration.

This we can all agree upon I guess.

I do not have any figures about the situation in Costa Rica, but in Sweden nearly all
boys (96%), and more than two thirds of the girls (71%) aged 9–16 play computer
games(Swedish Media Council, 2008). In the rest of Europe and in the US we find
similar figures.

A central question to ask is how the usage of tools such as computer games
influences how we learn to communicate, collaborate and scan information? And
what are the potentials of actually making use of this kind of tool for educational
purposes?

Playing computer games in school?

If we want to integrate and make use of new technologies and tools in school, how to
do it and what tools to use?

One proposals widely discussed over the last decade is the possibility of using of
computer games for learning. So far, a great variety of visionary ideas, and beliefs
have been brought forward in most cases by researchers from the US and some
from Europe, and some very few from Asia.

I don’t know if there are any educational researchers here in this part of the world
specifically working with games.

Can you learn anything from playing computer games?

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Of course, you can.

Playing a computer game is about step-by-step learning how to manipulate a

dynamic system, and to understand how the different factors and elements in a game
relate to each other.

In a way you can say that gaming is learning. If you don’t learn how the game
mechanics work then you will not be become a very successful game player.

In the following I will mention a number of claims brought forward by previous

researchers. All the references you can find in my thesis.

What is a game?
But before that maybe I should just say that it is rather impossible to talk about
“computer games” in general terms since there are so many different genres and
platforms. To play Tetris on a cell phone is of course something totally different than
play Wii Sports together with your friends, or WoW online.

These learning qualities that I will mention can be found in come games and in other
not.

A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules,

that results in a quantifiable outcome. (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004)

Games can be defined by six common features (Juul, 2005):

 Game are based on rules.

 Games have a variable and quantifiable outcome.
 Different values (positive or negative) are assigned to these outcomes.
 The player invests effort to achieve the desired outcome.
 The player is emotionally ”attached” to the outcome.
 Games have negotiable consequences for real life.

Educational potentials of computer games brought forward by previous

scholars

Situated practice/learning
Contextualising problems
When playing a game the problems are placed/situated in a context and it actually
makes sense to solve them. The content is contextualised.

Situated practice here refers to the notion that learning occurs most successfully
when it takes place in authentic contexts rather than decontextualised settings.

Authentic resources
It is also claimed that games allow for the embedding of authentic resources and
tools that are critical to succeed during game play. These tools are situated, and

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required to proceed, solve problems and complete tasks. It therefore becomes
meaningful to make use of them.

Active participation
Playing a game requires engagement and participation. Gamers are forced to take
the role of an active stakeholder. Without active participation, there can be no
progression in the game play. During the game play the gamers have to actively take
decisions.

Inhabit roles and play with identity

Game play allows students to play with identities and move outside the traditional
student role in the classroom, and into the role of an active participant stakeholder.

Provide challenges
Gaming is a very goal oriented activity. A computer game might even be described
as a goal-driven problem space with very clear goals.

The gamers learn step-by-step how to play the game and the level of difficulties
increase along with the level of gaming competency. In order to reach a higher more
difficult level you have to develop the skills in doing so.

As I mentioned challenges in a game are problem-based and gamer-defined, and

that are meaningfully actualised in the game world. After performed action in the
game world, the game reacts, provides feedback, as well as furnishing new problems
to solve.

Re-playability
The re-playability of most computer games and the possibility to commit mistakes
and start all over again are brought forward as important features when it come to the
educational potentials of computer games. Mistakes are seen as stepping stones and
not like “mistakes”.

Probing principle
Learning to play a game can be described as a cycle of probing the world (acting in
the world); reflecting in and on this action, on this basis, forming a hypothesis;
reprobing the world to test hypothesis; and the accepting or rethinking the
hypothesis.

Explore and discover

Failure-based learning
Try-and-error
Action vs. consequences
Feedback
In a game the gamer get immediate feedback so that they can recognize and assess
their errors and see where their expectations have failed.

These basic principles and intrinsic learning qualities of some computer games are
claimed to hold great educational potentials and something that can be used to
organize learning activities at school.

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HOWEVER – these are the visions how it looks in reality is another question.

So far there have been very rather few empirical studies done, and most of these
vision are based on theoretical assumptions.

This is where our research contributes with one small piece since I’ve been
conducting empirical studies on computer game play in school.

Playing a computer game in school is not like playing at home.

When playing a computer game in school it is for a specific purpose, and to achieve
certain learning goals set by the teacher.

Apparently, gaming is an activity of great variation that can take many directions.

That the outcome of a gaming session in a classroom actually corresponds to the

teacher’s expectations is not necessarily the case.

The role of the teacher

In our work we would like to highlight the importance of the teacher to help students
link the experience of computer game play to relevant content from an educational
point of view.

So, the challenges that we face in our research are not just about the actual tool; the
computer game and the game play. It is also about how the teacher should prepare
and facilitate such learning settings in order make it into a good learning experience.

And to start even before that, the challenge of how to educate and prepare our
teacher students for their coming role of professionals using educational technologies
in a school that is up to date with contemporary society, and make use of the
powerful tools available to us.

After the break I will show you two examples of how computer games can be used in
school in order to enhance science learning.

In the two cases the students play games as a part of a classassignment

Agent O & SimCity 4 played in the national competition Future City.

BREAK