"Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth."

Blog Post 9 (Chapters 7 and 8)

1. Define the terms "Game" and "Simulation" as they relate to eLearning.

·     There is seemingly little difference between a Game and a simulation. Games and simulations are both purposeful: they teach first and entertain second. Games draw on established conventions of quiz show, board and video games whereas, simulations immerse learners in a work-related context and let them verify that they can complete a task. They both provide some type of immediate feedback. The learner is the player in a Game and the user in a Simulation.

·     The author of our text defined a game as a simulation that involves a personally challenging task (p. 329) an ambiguous definition that does little to help distinguish between the two. Later on he says that the difference between a game and simulation can be determined in the following manner: "If game sounds frivolous, call it a simulation. If simulation sounds too stuffy or expensive, call it a game."

·     Looking outside of our text for clarification on the difference between a game and a simulation, I was reminded of one of my favorite books of all time, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

      For background on Ender’s Game, watch the trailer here.

In this book, Ender has to learn a great deal of new material and have the chance to fine-tune his understanding and application of this material outside of a high- risk environment. Failure to learn and apply could, quite literally, result in the end of Earth. I see the simulation being in 2 locations 1) the battle room where army’s battle each other in zero gravity, with flash suits that freeze their bodies working to master tactics and strategy to find the most successful tactics to best each other and 2) in the time when he works with the foremost battle commander in Earth’s history in the new simulator where he is in charge of entire fleets. Watch a protracted (or just a portion) of the clip here to see the 2^nd simulator. (I have no aspirations of achieving anything this realistic for the courses I plan. :-D)

The game is what Ender works with in his free time when he gets to roam around and interact with the environment created for him by the mind game. The objective of the game for the trainers is to ascertain trainees frame of mind. It’s less formal and (seemingly) less high stakes.

2. What are the key characteristics of a Simulation?

·           The learner is presented with a goal.

·           The learner operates inside of an environment.

·           The learner controls the sequence of events presented as choices in the environment.

·           Learners decide and act

·           Learning results from practice (as much as they want/need) and authentic feedback, the consequences of their choices/actions.

·           Useful for educating and training workers

3. What are some of the strengths or advantages of Games and Simulations in eLearning?

·           The reaction of any class of students when you tell them they are going to play a game.

·           Games and simulations show consequences not normally visible to the learner through normal learning. How will my actions impact my company’s branches throughout Coachella Valley? How will staffing decisions and course offerings impact my school, students and community 3, 5, even 10 years from now? (cumulative effect of widespread changes, i.e. they occur too quickly, take too long, occur far away in physical space, are too small or large or are too abstract.)

·           Games and simulations let learners make mistakes without suffering permanent consequences. They can make mistakes that would result in death, injury, imprisonment, financial collapse, etc. in the real world without actually having to go through it.

·           Encourage learners to pause, reflect and revise. (Allows for the learner to rethink and try alternative approaches.)

Take for example this logic problem that I did with my Geometry students: Traffic Jam I had them act it out with their bodies, but the site has this handy applet: Traffic Jam Applet that allows them to try to solve in various ways. Maybe they’ve found a solution method with 24 moves, but can use the applet to find one with 21 or 15.

·           Provides a laboratory to test different hypotheses, models, tactics and strategies. (as evidenced by the Ender’s Game clips above)

·           Simplify complex situations – make relationships explicit to learners

·           Opportunities for abundant practice and feedback

·           Reawaken learning by play

·           Allow people to master the skills that they need to improve and skip over practice for skills of which they have already achieved mastery.

·           Helps people master the subtlety and more complex skills.

4. What are some of the weaknesses or disadvantages of Games and Simulations in eLearning?

·           A learner has to have enough base knowledge to actually engage.

·           Cost of development is egregiously high.

·           Length of time for development is extensive the more complex (and likely, engaging, too) the game is.

5. Pick a topic and describe a game or a simulation that would be an effective learning activity.

Revisiting my dream algebra 2 honors course, one major idea that students need to master is the identification of types of functions (e.g. linear, exponential, quadratic, etc.) Being able to recognize the characteristics of each of these function types in equations, tables of data, graphs and word problems is critical to successful application for how could one possibly expect to model a situation with a certain pattern if one has incorrectly determined to which function family it belongs. So, with the objective of this game being: teach learners to identify functions in various forms and match them with the same function in its other forms, I would suggest a game of dominos.

The game would work like this:

Players would be able to select:

·           The family/families of functions they would like to practice: Linear, Exponential, Quadratic, Cubic, Rational, Mixed (in selecting this option they can choose both which of the other 5 sets they would like to pull to create their mixed set from 2 groups to 5 groups.)

·           The number of dominos with which they would like to work

Once the learner has made their selections, they would be able to start the game. The interface would open with a jumble of tiles reflecting their previous choices. Then, like the game of dominos, the learner would work to create a domino train that includes all the tiles given. The trains would be designed so that all pieces are used and so that each left hand domino has only one right hand domino match. The feedback comes as they work to build their train. If they finish the train without having placed all of their tiles, then they know that they have made a mistake. As this would be done online, they would also be able to link back into the tutorial aspects in case they need to revisit a certain key characteristic as they work. Upon completion of their train they would submit and, ideally, through these checks and balances they would have applied their understanding of the key characteristics of each family to create a full train.

Ex: (The actual interface would look much better and be maneuverable) 

6. Describe the development process you would use to create the game or simulation described above.

First and foremost, as we design the game we need to keep our objective (as we’ve picked one) in mind.

Objective: teach learners to identify functions in various forms and match them with the same function in its other forms.

Each aspect of the game play needs to support this objective and the goal set for the learner needs to be such that the individual will be able to master the objective.

Goal: Using the dominos given, make a train that links each function to itself as presented in its various forms. You are successful when you have created a train that correctly links all dominos.

Working with my team, we’ll build a prototype image bank. That image bank will have linear, exponential, quadratic, cubic, and rational functions in their graph, equation, table and situation (word problem) forms sketched by our subject matter expert (me). The subject matter expert will share the prototype bank without its image matching tags to see if another subject matter expert (one of my colleagues) can make matches from the bank so that every image has a match.

Once the prototype image bank is built, it’ll be sent to our graphic designer/web coding expert(s) (graphics design class at school and ??? my sister?). They’ll 1) build the images on the computer, 2) tag the images (outside of learner view) so that each image knows its mate, 3) build the graphical interface that pulls from the image bank, 4) assembles these images onto the dominos and sets a solution train based on the tags 5) designs the graphical interface such that the learner can build their train in any pattern that they like so long as it matches the tagged images together along one of the 3 faces, generally following domino train patterns from real life.

Following this work by the graphic designer/web coding expert(s), it’ll go back to the subject matter experts (me and my colleagues in the math dept.) to be tested. We will also make sure to test it in each of the computer labs on campus and on several home computers to verify its functionality over various hardware systems.