Two weeks ago I had the honor of participating in a fascinating meeting sponsored by the Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and USC’s Game Innovation Lab. They invited game designers, user satisfaction experts (the people who determine if a game is fun or not), assessment experts (mostly academic folk who delve into learning outcomes and socio-cognitive behaviors) and content experts to tackle the complex yet intriguing issue of games and learning.
The meeting kicked off at 9 am (meeting organizers were forewarned that game designers would not arrive any earlier) so I had time to take my eight-year-old daughter to school first. I explained that I was going to a meeting about games and assessment. “Assessment?” she asked, “that’s where your teacher figures out if you’re learning everything, right?” I nodded. “I love those!” she exclaimed. She attends a charter school that employs holistic assessments -and while she has never had a spelling test, she has learned to spell well because of their unique “word study” approach involving matching and collaborative study. In his opening remarks to the meeting participants, Robert Torres, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, explained a major rationale for the convening the meeting: unless we change the way we assess students, U.S. public education will not improve.
So for two days, the group discussed current game topics (highlights included a discussion between Katie Salen and Will Wright and comments by James Paul Gee) and applied concepts learned by tackling game design challenges. Groups of 5-8 participants from diverse fields collaborated on creating games that corresponded with specific areas in education – the only constraint was that the game had to have a learning assessment embedded within. Teams brainstormed, prototyped, designed, made changes and filmed a promotion for their game. My group fashioned a Lemmings-inspired game intended to illustrate to middle schoolers that the decisions they make in middle school ultimately influence college and career options. One group produced a detective narrative/Clue-like game to teach reading comprehension. Another taught fractions and decimals through a game involving a quest for potions on an alien planet.
I was blown away by the creativity of the meeting participants and impressed by what we accomplished in two days partially because a space had been carved out from busy schedules and isolated work spaces where people from diverse fields could come together and collaborate on pressing problems in innovative ways. As game-based innovations gain momentum, perhaps more students and teachers will actively engage with curricula – and maybe even start to consider assessments fun!
Hi,
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Where are they thinking of playing these games? In school or just at home? I realy believe games are a good way of getting a child to learn. There is a game available to teach children to read called ‘HeadSprout’ and this has been found to be very effective. Good luck with the designing!