Course:ETEC522/2010ST1/SeriousGameEnvironments/Vector5
Introduction
PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2010-2014 report predicts that the 2009 $52.5 billion global games market will grow at a compound growth rate of 10.6% to become a $66.8 billion market in 2014. This would make the games market the second fastest growing segment of entertainment and media.
Why has serious gaming gained such a stronghold on the world marketplace? Serious gaming holds great potential for learning both in the educational context of classrooms as well as the training environments of the corporate sector.
Figure 1 depicts the goals and values that will drive educational decisions of the future. Current and future learners have new demands on how their learning will take place and institutions must place particular emphasis on reaching these demands to offer quality educational experiences to learners.
Figure 1. Goals and values in future education
Serious Games for Learning
Traditional classroom environments have emphasized knowledge and thinking that develops within the confines of the classroom; all learners situated together instructed in the same way, executing little or no control over information flow.
Serious games provide the ability for students to actively participate with material, make personal decisions about which direction their learning will take, effectively taking personal responsibility for guiding knowledge construction. Experience in serious games fosters greater intrinsic motivation for learners to move ahead, driving further knowledge acquisition and skill development. Learners are able to answer "if i do this then ____ will happen", consequently, 'if I don't do this then _____ won't happen" with an immediacy previously difficult to realize with traditional instruction. Decisions are made continuously throughout interaction with a game, usually often and quickly, incorporating critical thinking skills with a self awareness. The decisions are made coupled with immediate consequences, ideal for optimal learning.
James Paul Gee, Professor of Reading in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison suggests that learning is maximal when learners take on a new desired identity, immersing themselves in an identity to know what it feels like to be someone else; to feel how they would feel, speak how they would speak, respond how they would respond and value what they value, opening learners to world views and experiences difficult to simulate or realize with traditional instruction.
Serious games emphasize the need for a variety of skills to accomplish particular tasks. In games involving characters, different characters will take on different roles, each having their own importance in the gaming environment. In this way, learners gain an appreciation for the development of multiple skills and come to approach learning from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Randy Hinrichs of the Microsoft Research Group Research Manager for Learning Science and Technology, suggests that one of the benefits of participation in serious gaming environments is that learners gain "fluency in language and motion...they become familiar with all of the visual cues that are around them, and they interact with these cues in context". Learning becomes immediate, in context and is coupled with immediate feedback for the learner.
Digital learners of today learn in a different manner than traditional instruction. Current and future learners will appreciate multiple streams of information, opportunities for inductive reasoning and will have exceptional visual literacy skills. Piaget hypothesized that cognitive disequilibrium followed by accommodation or assimilation resulted in intellectual maturation (Van Eck, 2006). When learners engage with serious games, they must follow a continuous cycle of hypothesis formulation, followed by testing and revision. The game provides the learner with immediate feedback with which the learner is then able to use to formulate his or her next action. If games can effectively simulate moments of cognitive disequilibrium followed by accommodation, they will prove to be one of the most valuable learning tools of tomorrow.
Serious Games for Business
In the corporate sector, serious gaming will offer many advantages illustrated in Figure 3. Products to increase productivity and minimize costs will appeal greatly to organizations concerned with a bottom line. Serious gaming will play a large part in the future when it comes to positively impacting an organization's bottom line.
The Future of Serious Games
Historically, there has been disjunction in game design. When games have been designed with only pedagogy in mind, the results have been games deemed "boring" by users. Conversely, when games have been developed to be highly engaging, often educational outcomes are not achieved. Future endeavors in serious gaming will need to provide a balance between these two extremes.
Opposition to serious game environment includes perceptions that engaging in serious game play is a solitary experience, with little social interaction. Games of the future must incorporate communities for users to build and participate in. In this way, a community of practice is developed with shared knowledge construction and a shared value system, incorporating and emphasizing the social component of skill development.
Future development of serious gaming environments would also include having learners participate in the process of developing serious games in content areas demonstrating deep understanding of the interrelationship and multidisciplinary nature of their topic of study. Of even greater value, these games could then be built upon by subsequent users fostering the importance of collaboration.
Vector Report Card
Discussion Question
How can serious games accomplish and reach some of the discussed goals that will drive education in the future?
References
Pricewaterhousecoopers. "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2010-2014". Accessed June 28, 2010 at http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/global-entertainment-media-outlook/index.jhtml
Foreman, J. (2004). Game-based Learning: How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century. Educause Review, 39(5), 50.
Van Eck, R. (2006). Digital Game-Based Learning: It's Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless. Educase Review, 41(2), 17–30.