Educational Gaming Commons - Press Start

If you're thinking about adding games to your lesson plan, its a fairly safe bet that you'll see gains in areas like student satisfaction (which in and of itself can be extremely beneficial).  But while satisfaction is great, it can also be somewhat nebulous, which makes it a difficult metric by which to support an educational tool like video games.  If we hope to prove the value of games we must be able to show that they can improve learning - and that means improvements to test scores and grades.

One the goals of every engagement project the EGC runs is to find a way to produce evidence that shows how exactly games are impacting learning.  In the case of ChemBlaster, our Faculty Partner Mary Shoemaker has been collecting data for the past several years on how her students perform on early semester quizzes designed to test students on elements, ions, and polyatomic compounds (the same content which we have used as a foundation for the ChemBlaster game).  As you can likely guess, this sets the stage for a very obvious question - will ChemBlaster help to improve student quiz scores?  But there are also several other important questions we're curious about.  Will the use of a game aid in improved long term information retention?  Will it lead to longer periods of engagement with the subject matter than more traditional study aids?  Will it serve as a catalyst for additional Chemistry based discussion, competition, and mentorship among classmates and friends?  And with Chem101 recently having gone online, will ChemBlaster have a different impact on purely online students as compared to those taking resident classes.  These are just a few of the many questions we're hoping to answer in the coming months when ChemBlaster is deployed to Mary's students this coming spring and beyond.

Just how will ChemBlaster do?  For that answer, you'll need to stay tuned. 

Not Education in Jeopardy - another topic that is continuously debated in the US!

This is in reference to a recent blog post about the game Jeopardy at

http://www.hastac.org/blogs/etussey/pre-digital-edutainment-jeopardy-cla...

It's a short read - well worth the five minutes you'll spend to read it. Things that stick out for me:

• The Jeopardy game is an accepted cultural norm.
• The game can be used as a springboard for social discourse, part of a good learning experience.
• The producers of the game show have a classroom version of Jeopardy that includes authoring software and hardware used to produce a delux experience. See http://www.classroomjeopardy.com/index.aspx .

What other good things arise when we use a "standard" game like this for educational purposes?

BTW - The EGC has a version of the game, named Peril! Check it out.

Though its been a bit longer than I had intended since my last update, I wanted to take a few minutes to show off some new screen shots from ChemBlaster

These screenshots were taken from the game's second level, which deals with ion identification (as compared to level 1 which is about element identification).  Though the core gameplay is the same, in level two, the player fires positive and negative charges at randomly generated elements to build out 10 of a possible 30 cations or anions. 

As you can see if you compare the new screens to the old ones, quite a few new interface elements have been added since the last update.  A few highlights for your reading pleasure:

• Logisitcal additions have been made to the interface, including a score field, timer, current target, and progress meter (right hand side), as well as a level indicator (bottom left as well as background). 
• A "targetting sight" has been added to the blaster itself, allowing the player to fire with greater accuracy (visible in the second screen - a small white cirlce near the top of the board)
• Improved completion animations (screen 3) create an explosion of confetti after a successful "blast" as well as reinforcement of the element/ ion/ or compound blasted on the right hand side of the screen.
• An optional "Elemental Aid" has been added to help players who might be struggling or playing the game on their own without an acompanying chemistry class.  By default, the aid is toggled off (screen 1) but it can be activated at any time and will scroll each of a level's possible targets along the bottom of the screen (screens 2 and 3).  Activiating the aid will cause a score or time penalty. 
• A "next ball" button added to the end of the upcoming blast balls bar (a light blue circle in all screens).  Though not necessary for level 1, this allows players to increase the speed of a playthrough by cycling right to the charge or element they want to fire next.  An advanced feature that will help players improve their score and maximize class bragging rights.

Next up on the ChemBlaster agenda is the addition of compound levels as well as conducting student testing to make sure the game scratches chemistry students where they itch.  Stay tuned for more updates and maybe even a gameplay video in the near future.

I thought I'd share with you some of the things we're working on at the EGC.

First, we have two exciting Engagement Projects started. One is to build a game on ion identification, the other is to spot common grammar and writing errors. Stay tuned for more information on both in the coming weeks.

Next, we're starting to interview the many folks we've worked with over the past year or so. Every two-thee weeks, we'll be releasing a new podcast or vodcast, as well as a short related article that features a PSU faculty member that's using games and/or virtual worlds in their classes.

We're starting to script a short "Here's the EGC" video that will give newcomers a quick overview of who we are and what we do.

Jason Kaveney, our IST intern, is going gangbusters on a library of games that are or can be used for educational purposes. Building on the power of the masses, this library will be open for adding comments and ratings. It may be the first of it's kind in the country and I know it will be of incredible value to educators.

Finally, we're looking for ways to bring the various blogs with which the EGC staff share their words of wisdom together, so you can read posts from not just me, but from Bart Pursel and Chris Stubbs as well.

Stay tuned - the snowball is rolling down the hill, going faster and faster....

Peter Idowu is the brain behind the 1st EGC game, EcoRacer. You should give it a try!

It's great to see that Peter continues to innovate with this game. Recently, he introduced it to folks at the Navy Yard in Philly:

"The folks at the Navy Yard (about 20 graduate students in Systems Engineering) really got into it and had so much fun playing. I had an audience of about 60 engineers at the PECO Engineers day and invited one of them to play during the presentation.  The game was quick to learn and got the audience quite delighted."

And the fun continues:

"The next major event is scheduled on August 4 where EcoRacer will be the focus of a 3-hour seminar in Penn State Harrisburg's Green Summer Program.  Take a look a the following link - http://php.scripts.psu.edu/dept/iit/hbg/Green/kidscollege.php "

As the world comes to grips with a green earth, it make me very proud that the EGC and Penn State are able to provide a game that educates players on alternative fuel sources.
 

Penn State’s Educational Gaming Commons has issued a call for proposals to Penn State faculty interested in incorporating educational gaming into their courses during the fall 2009 semester.

There are two projects, including the development of supporting educational materials for a commercial, off–the-shelf (COTS) game to be used in a Penn State class, and the creation of a small game to be used as supporting instructional materials in a Penn State class.

The application process for these projects is ongoing, and will continue until all available slots are filled. The duration of project development will take one semester, and will include presentation of findings from each project by involved faculty at a future Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology.

For more information and to submit a proposal, please go to http://gaming.psu.edu/2009GamingInitiative or contact gaming@psu.edu.

Please pass this information on!