Entering the Education Arcade (Via Kurt’s Research.) Mr. Ball seemed to appreciate my previous post of Kurt Squire quotes, so I’ll share the quotes I’ve pulled from a few other articles. This one Squire co-authored with Henry Jenkins, Eric Klopfer, and Philip Tan. There were many quotable segments, and here I’ve categorized them by the section of my own paper they might appear in. Some are lightly annotated. I hope these might be useful to others. There is quite a bit more to come tonight. :)
Intro
– [ ] In their vision for a public high school just a few years from
now “Games are enhancing traditional educational tools such as
lectures, discussions, lab reports, homework, fieldtrips, tests,
and text books. Games are being allowed to do what games do best,
while other kinds of teaching support those lessons.” (Jenkins,
Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, 2003, p. 1)
– [ ] 65% of high school and college students describe themselves as
gamers (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 2) “the challenge
is how to design games that communicate more sophisticated
content”
– [ ] “the medium is now robust enough to support a broad range of
school content” (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 3)
Constructivism
– [ ] “Knowledge developed through game play is not pointless
information to be recalled for tests, but is valuabe information
when confronting new challenges and solving problems” (Jenkins,
Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 6)
Context-embedded
– [ ] Supercharged is learning in context. (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire,
& Tan, p. 5)
– [ ] games are “motivating and authentic” without being “dangerous and
expensive” (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 7)
– [ ] Revolution builds on what we already know about the value of
combining research and role-playing in teaching history, that is,
the game offers kids the chance not simply to visit a “living
history” museum like Williamsburg, but to personally experience
the choices that confrunted historical figures.” (Jenkins,
Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 9)
Inquiry Driven
– [ ] Supercharged has inquiry and choice (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, &
Tan, p. 6)
Socially negotiated
– [ ] ZPD: “Future iterations [of Environmental detectives] might
provide greater scaffolding for this process by analyzing patters
of investigation and suggesting to students when it might be
appropriate to swtch modes if they are relyng too heavily on one
source of data or another.” (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p.
8) also inquiry!
– [ ] “This approach not only provides schools with customized versions
of the game, but can involve students and teachers in the
game-creation process as they design the specific scenario for
their location. By creating their own games, they can build an
even deeper understanding of teh issues at hand.” (Jenkins,
Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 8)
– [ ] “the power of a multiplayer game is that it is a living
community, in which each student has a different set of
experiences. Students can compare and contextualize experiences
through class discussion. By bringing the game into the
classreoom, students are forcedf to pull back form the immediate
play expreience and reflect on the choices they have made”
(Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 9)
21st Century Skills
– [ ] design: “these games often ship with their own level editors or
other mod tools allowing amateurs to customize the content,
design their own “skins,” and develop their own environments.
These tools are sophisticated enough and graphically compelling
as those on the market. They will also support the exchange of
customized materials among a global network of educators.”
(Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 3)
– [ ] Neverwinter Nights mods. (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 9)
Role of the Teacher
– [ ] COTS like SimCity, Civilization, and Railroad Tycoon: “these
games are being used in classes now but we need to develop
customized modification, curricular materials, instructional
activities, and teacher-training programs to assist development
in the schoolhouse.” (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 3)
Conclusion
– [ ] “The next challenges will be as much economic (how do we pay for
the development of educational games); social (how do we train a
generation of teachers to integrate such games meaningfully into
their total curricular activities); and political (how do we make
a case for the kind of in-depth understanding these games
facilitate in an era of standardized testing?).” (Jenkins,
Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 2)
– [ ] the education arcade aims to “do for games what the Children’s
Television Workshop did for broadcasting: support experimentation
and implementation of fresh new ideas, which might not emerg
otherwise in the currnet commercial context.” (Jenkins, Klopfer,
Squire, & Tan, p. 3)
– [ ] “On average, students who played supercharged! did about 20%
better on the post-test than students in the control group.”
(Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, p. 6)
Reference
– [ ] Jenkins, H., Klopfer, E., Squire, K., and Tan, P. (2003). ACM
Computers in Entertainment, 1(1), article 08.