Implications+for+Teaching

Implications for Teaching

// The Space Game // is a real-time strategy (RTS) game: "real-time" because there are no turns, as if the game, or simulation, is taking place in actual time, and strategy, because these games are exceedingly complex, requiring the player to build and acquire resources while defending against an enemy. The creators of games take advantage of "brain-based" learning principles. In other words, since games work the way people learn, and they tend to be highly engaging, many kids will invest a lot of time learning very complex systems. Some of the general learning principles that you see throughout // The Space Game // are: Other features are illustrated on the screenshots captured below:
 * Even at the beginning "training" stages, the learner is producing something rather than passively consuming information (30 – 31).
 * Learners build investment as they manipulate players and a variety of objects (33).
 * The learner gets to assume an alternate role, or identity (32).
 * The necessary knowledge is distributed between the learner and the “smart tools” of the game (34).


 * 1: “Well-ordered problems” in a risk-free tutorial: This is analogous to modeling, gradual release, and scaffolding in the education world. In the world of games, however, students are active participants from the start (35). They get to practice skills in the simplified world of the tutorial before moving on to the "real" game. They can spend as much or as little time in this stage as they want (39 – 40).


 * 2: “On demand” instruction: The learner can choose when – and even if – to take advantage of tutorials built into the game. They can return to them as often or as little as they like (37 – 38).

increasingly complex systems (38 – 39).
 * 3:The "fishbowl": Individual skills are broken down so the learner isn't overwhelmed at the beginning. Yet, these skills are always practiced in the context of the game. Thus, gamers learn essential skills in a simplified system before moving to




 * 4: "Vertical" learning experiences are cases where a learner makes lots of incremental progress on a scale from low skills to high skills, as if moving up a ladder (49). The learner also controls when to proceed and has choices about how to manipulate the environment.




 * 5: The game also provides "just in time" instruction. In other words, as the game progresses, it provides additional information that would have been overwhelming if it had been given before the learner began practicing (37 – 38 ).


 * 6: “Cycles of expertise”: The gamer practices at increasingly complex levels of play, gaining mastery before the game moves on.


 * 7: In education speak, the learner gets to "individualize instruction" by customizing the game according to "level of readiness." Gee would call this "pleasant frustration."


 * 8: Players play games with goals in mind, the achievement of which counts as their "win state". These goals are set by the player, but, of course, in collaboration with the world the game designers have created (148). In the world of education, one important "win state" is grades.

42).
 * 9: Not only are skills practiced in context at all stages of the game, but they form part of a larger strategy that has a goal. Furthermore, it is a goal that is meaningful to the learner (40 –