Learning from The Game Theorists

Today I watched a great video about what makes games fun. I want to relate what they said to educational games.

Here is the video:

Important Notes:
- Games satisfy our human needs
- Competence (feeling of mastery, completion and gaining powers)
- Autonomy (You have control, choosing their own adventure, meaningful actions)
- Relatedness ( You matter to others, multiplayer)
- Cultures


My Thoughts:
-I view games as a sport for the mind. They help us improve several skills and they help us live out experiences, much like the way dreams prepare us for failure by letting us "Experience" it beforehand.
-The success of achievements, the birth of extremely hard games, and the many level upgrades in games like WOW have shown that players really enjoy playing games in order to achieve greatness.
-Making choices in real life can be dangerous, we fear of making big mistakes and hurting others in the process. With games we are able to make many different choices, learn from mistakes and play out possibilities. The Sims proved to be very successful, allowing people to live out their dream lives and letting them make mistakes proved to be very enjoyable.
-There is no better feeling than beating your brother in a game of Fifa, or showing off your high score to your friends, we like to win and we like others to know it. Multiplayer games like many of the Nintendo franchises have proven to be very successful because they invoke that inner competitor inside all of us.


Implementing ideas into educational games:
-Allow players to level up, keep track of their progress and show them their options. Congratulate them when they succeed and motivate them when they fail.
-Give them choices, instead of mimicking the current school system, let them decide what they want to learn, let them choose their path, the order they learn things in.
-Add multiplayer competition, perhaps add a small handicap system to allow two differently skilled players to be able to play against each other. Mario kart is very successful at giving all players a chance to win.

Learning from Lebron James

LeBron James is one of the best Basketball players in the game today. Night in and night out he just manages to bring 100% of his abilities to the game.

What does LeBron have to do with educational games?

well it is very simple, James is the physical representation of self motivation, hard work and goal achievement.

Since he was in high school, many believed he was going to be the next great one. This may seem like a wonderful thing, but it also came with a huge magnifying glass. Every bounce of the ball, every jump, every word was under extreme observation. This leads to many flaws being pointed out, and many haters attacking him.


But LeBron is a prime example on how you should react to criticism, he took what other people where saying, filtered out comments that had no real worth (like insults) and took a look at what he needed to improve in his game. And this is what he does every summer, he focuses on a task, on a particular aspect of the game he wants to improve and he works at it relentlessly until in is no longer a flaw but an asset he possesses.

But lets focus now on how this mentality can help us make better educational games. Lets break down the process:

1. Learn about areas that need improvement.
2. Set goals
3. Work at them
4. Review results

With this in mind I have created VCM (Virtual Challenge Manager). The goal of VCM is to provide the player with a set of custom challenges that they can attempt to complete, and keep track of their progress, always congratulating them on their achievements. 

As an example you can think of how you play video games, let's say Super Mario Bros. In my mind, sometimes I decide "let me try and beat the game in under 10 minutes" or "lets try and pass the entire game with small Mario" or "Let try and get over 20 lives" and so on and so on.

This is a gamers mentality, always striving to improve and beat tougher challenges. What VCM would do is that you would automatically get a set of challenges you might want to tackle next, all in exchange of a reward (virtual currency). 

I have developed a demo of VCM for this blogs Learning Game #2. The game production is still in prototype stage, so ignore all the programmers art.. The goal of the game is to build groups of 6 circles. in order to build a group you click on a circle and move around to get a sequence of 6 (only 6, any more or less doesn't count). 

Let me know what you think:

As you can see every time you complete a challenge you are given a tougher challenge to attempt.

Learning from ASAP Science

Today I saw a very interesting video from ASAP Science, you can check out their channel here: Channel

The question of this video is a very important question for Educational Games,

Can Video Games make us Smarter?

Here is the video, check it out and we can try to analyze it.

Important Notes:

1. Increase in Cognitive function (Memory, Strategic Planning, Fine Motor Skills)
2. Increased Attention Skills
3. Object Tracking
4. Future Jobs
5. Skills are only good if you use them

My Thoughts:

1. These skills are key components to Problem solving, a trait everyone needs on an everyday basis.
2. This skill can help people focus and concentrate better, another trait that will help everyone do a better job at anything.
3. This could be related to multitasking
4. Anyone that is not fully literate in technology will be in great disadvantage in the future, having kids grow with educational games will prepare them for the future.
5. It is important for the games to also encourage activities outside of the house, to help kids understand how to use what they learn. 

Some time ago I did a game very similar to the one of the colors on the video, check it out and measure how good you can get.

Learning from Vik Nithy

I just viewed a very interesting video on Why We Procrastinate

Here is the video:

Even though I find this very helpful for our everyday life, I don't want to concentrate on that. Instead I want to explore an idea that came to my mind while watching the video. I want to analyze what he talks about and relate it to games for education. 

First he talked about the Amygdala, a part of the brain designed to trigger a response when we feel threatened and that it shuts down a very important part of our "working" brain called the Prefrontal Cortex. I can't help but think of students all over the world with fears of making mistakes, failing a test and how their performance is greatly affected by how they react to the situation. 

Vik gave some really good points on dealing with procrastination, which in a sense were tips on preventing anxiety and not triggering the amygdala fear response. here is the Bullet point list:

1. Plan Goals
2. Plan Time
3. Plan Resources
4. Plan Process
5. Plan for Distraction
6. Plan for Failure

these are all really good tips, many of these I do on my everyday life for doing work I need to do, here is a couple of examples of how I do this:

As you may notice, I like keeping track of things, but it is an extra load of work to do this, therefore it is not something easy for kids to do. 

But we are lucky enough to not be dealing with paper any more. Computers would be able to open up a screen and help the kid determine what goals they have for the session, also keep track of achievements and keep them motivated in order to reduce any chance of discomfort.

My Thoughts:

This is how I envision these key points being integrated into a game to help keep the student focused and entertained.

-Have a pop up screen where the player chooses what to work on, so if it is a multiplication game, they can determine if they want to work on their fives, or their eights. This should allow for them to clearly determine how this will benefit them.

-Let them set a session time. the game could have short, med or long mode. at which the student would not feel forced into playing longer than what they would like.

-Resources is a tricky one, as the game should have all elements integrated.

-Process is another hard one. I could see maybe in a logic game, a player determining what strategy they are going to use. but it is also very hard to integrate.

-Distraction is a key challenge. they need to stay focused, so adding some distractions or mini games can also act as a stress relief moment. Something like the little side islands in Super Mario Galaxy

-Failure is inevitable, but I think a good way to add failure into the game is with a story. everyone likes a comeback, everyone roots for the underdog, so maybe, with characters you are able to create a story for the player. something like saying it was a great chance, but now, "name of player" you must gather your tools and get ready to try again. the town needs you!

Anyways, this was a very interesting video, I know I viewed it from a completely different point of view, but I have a strange feeling that there is a key element for educational games hidden somewhere in what he said. 

Expect some prototypes of these ideas on the next Learning game from Impudia (the Math game).

Learning from Conrad Wolfram

Today I watched a TED talk video from Conrad Wolfram and I just wanted to share some thoughts on what he has to say:

Important Notes:
-"No one is very happy with math today"
-"Stop teaching calculating, start teaching Math"
-Why teach math? (jobs, living, logic)
-80% time doing Computation in schools
-What is math? (question, formulation, computation, verification)
-Don't make computers teach kids how to do math by hand
-If you really want to check if you understand math write a program to do it.


My thoughts:
-Math is a very unpopular subject in schools, the majority of students tend to think that it is too hard or that they are too dumb to understand this. I am completely against this idea, I think math is something everyone can understand if they are presented with the information in a fun way and they are given time to understand at their own pace.
-Calculating is boring, long, and can easily lead to making mistakes. and it doesn't really proof that the student knows math. they just know a part of it.
-I really like the logical part of math. it is perhaps why I feel it was my favorite subject, it just makes sense, and it helps you start thinking logically
-Check out this website for computation! https://www.mathway.com/
-I liked the definition of math that he gave. for me it is crucial to pose the right question.
for example, if there is a family of 4 and they have $2,000 per month, how should the money be distributed?
in this case, a very basic math mentality, would simply divide $2,000 by 4 (giving each member $500 to spend), but a real math solution would look at factors that are not just right there, it would lead to more questions, like how much rent do they pay?, debt?, school? it would look at a problem with a broader view.
-This one really gave me something to think about, in the past I have worked on making games teach calculation, when I could be trying to make the games be more of applying math logic to play.
-Here is a great link for those of you that want to give this theory of programming math a try!  http://projecteuler.net/

Learning Game: Art Duels Thoughts

It was a very exciting experience to have the game show in school. Overall the experience was really positive. A good way to measure success is by seeing if kids smile, laugh, tease each other, and if they want to win.

Here is the game



My Thoughts:

Positive:
1) Kids really liked the visual questions. Having questions that require attention more than knowledge helped all students get involved and motivated them to participate.
2) Painting reinforcement. Using the same painting but asking different questions helped students form different connections to the painting.
3) Student Interaction: I found out that asking them questions about what they thought of the game ended up giving me great feedback, they were really helpful.


Negative:
1) Points took too long to show up
2) Students didn't use helpers (they just guessed the answer in 5-10 seconds)
3) No incentive to win made them not really care about competition. Students from all teams would answer the questions.

Learning about Learning

Today I want to take a look at education. In order to make a successful game we need the game to provide education to the players.

I tried looking at many different videos, but this one was the one that I really felt a connection with. I really feel that the current system of teaching is by far less effective as it can be. For me a multimedia approach to learning can end up building very strong connections in our brains.

Important Notes:
-Learning by Doing
-Take you away from distractions
-The more you use a skill the stronger the neuropaths are
-When you experiment with new ideas or solve a problem you create new cognitive maps
-New pathways need to be reinforced, otherwise they vanish
-Reinforce with Positive feedback, practice using skills, mental rehearsal of using skills

My Thoughts
-Interactivity involves many parts of the brain and it can help create more paths
-A focused student can really improve their learning, I remember spending long hours in school thinking about anything but what the teacher was talking about, if I had focused then I could have learned a lot more.
-Repetition makes perfect, you see how NBA players make amazing shots, but in reality they practice those same shots hundreds of times per day.
 -I wonder if there is a way to make kids associate new things they are learning with things they do every day, maybe that way their ideas would be reinforced daily..
-The idea of having the user take their knowledge and think of how they would use it in real life sounds like a great idea, I was always amazed at how many kids would ask their teachers a very simple question "When am I going to need this?" it seems like an instinctive question to me.

Learning about Educational Games

Educational games are the future of education, there is much to learn about them, but if one thing is certain, is that they have the power to change the way we view education. Here is a list of some of the key goals educational games have:
 1) Engage students and increase their desire to learn.
2) Entertain kids and allow them to explore their knowledge.
 3) Test kids with new and improved methods.
4) Adapt quickly to a fast changing world.
5) Connect the students using social media elements.
6) Become powerful tools that teachers can use to manage their classrooms.

As you can see, it is a very complex goal, this is why I decided to make this blog. I know that each element is crucial to creating a successful goal and the only way to achieve success is to work together and explore all kinds of possibilities.