Level Up! Supporting Curricular Goals through Digital Design Activities

Level Up! Supporting Curricular Goals through Digital Design Activities Illinois School Library Media Association 2008 Annual Meeting Brian Myers Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

Gaming at Wilmette Public Library _________________________________________________________ Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Innovative program serving a previously underserved population Support and facilitate involvement in participatory technologies Promote media literacy and technological competencies Broaden existing gaming programs Why Game Design . . . At the Library? __________________________________________________ Professional initiatives

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game design as a context for promoting media literacy ___________________________________________________ “ Our position is that there is an emerging form of media literacy that we sometimes call ‘Gaming Literacy.’ Gaming Literacy has to do with information management, understanding complex systems, social networks, a critical design process, and creativity with digital technology. Increasingly, this new form of literacy will be crucial in the workplace and in our social and civic lives. The process of game design, which combines mathematics and logic, storytelling and aesthetics, writing and communication, systems and analytic thinking, among other elements, is one of the best ways of engaging with this form of literacy.” Eric Zimmerman, interviewed by Henry Jenkins (December 21, 2006) Retrieved July 23, 2007 from http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/12/an_interview_with_eric_zimmerm.html

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info “ When kids learn to design games they not only learn how to explore the possibility space of a set of rules but also learn to understand and evaluate a game’s meaning as the product of relationships between elements in a dynamic system . . . Game design as a context for promoting systemic thinking ___________________________________________________ “ Educators and education advocates have recently acknowledged that the ability to think systemically is one of the necessary skills for success in the 21st century. We believe that game-making is especially well-suited to encouraging […]t he skills and processes that designer-players use in building such systems, be they games or communities of practice.” Katie Salen, Gaming Literacies ( December, 2007)

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info James Paul Gee (“What Videogames can Teach us about Literacy and Learning”) _________________________________________________ http://digitallearning.macfound.org

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Gaming Pedagogies _________________________________________________

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info STUDIES ON VIDEOGAMES

PLAYING

Gee, 2003

Steinkueler, 2004

Squire, 2005

Halverson, 2005

Schaffer, 2006

CREATING

GAME MODDING

Good & Robertson, 2004

Squire, 2005

El-Nasr, 2006

El-Nasr & Smith, 2006

GAME MAKING

Kafai, 1995

Kafai & Resnick, 1996

Salen & Zimmerman, 2003

Overmars, 2004

Kafai & Peppler 2007

Salen, 2007

Game Studies: Game Play vs. Game Design ________________________________________________________ A slightly different version of this slide originally presented by Kafai and Peppler at GLS 2007. Used with permission.

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Froebel & Co. ________________________________________________________

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game Studies ________________________________________________________ Seymour Papert Idit Harel Caperton Uri Wilensky Yasmin Kafai Mitchel Resnick

Constructionism:

Performance precedes competence

Learners develop understanding and knowledge through the making of things... constructing ideas and personally meaningful projects.

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Constructionism ________________________________________________________ From “Talking Turtle” (BBC Open University, 1984) http://tinyurl.com/2tnzs2/

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Design Pedagogies ________________________________________________________ Mitchel Resnick Why Design? Engage kids as active participants Encourage creative problem solving . . . Interdisciplinary, bringing together ideas from art, technology, math and sciences . . . Encourage kids to put themselves in the mind of others . . . Provide opportunities for reflection and collaboration Positive feedback loop of learning Mitchel Resnick, Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age (2002) www.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/wef.pdf

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Design Pedagogies ________________________________________________________ How have educators used game-making activities? 1. Helping students to learn programming tools and concepts 2. Helping students learn content 3. Facilitating the understanding of design concepts and engendering fluency with digital technologies.

Alice

www.alice.org

3d animations

Simple games

Cross-platform

Open source, free download

Developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, version 3.0 is under development in partnership with EA.

Randy Pausch’s web site: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

Design programs that teach programming concepts and skills ________________________________________________________ Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

Greenfoot

www.greenfoot.org

Simple games

Integrated Java development environment

Cross-platform

Open source, free download

Developed by researchers at the University of Kent (UK). Funded by Sun Microsystems.

Design programs that teach programming concepts and skills ________________________________________________________

ToonTalk

www.toontalk.com

Animations

Simple games

$24.95 w/quantity discounts

Windows 95+; will run on PC emulators like SoftWindows or Virtual PC.

Developed by Animated Programs; version 3.0 just released.

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

MicroWorlds Logo

www.microworlds.com

Graphics

Animations

Programming Commands

Simple games

$49.00 - $99.00

Windows/Mac

A family of multimedia applications that teaches programming skills and promotes media literacies. Developed by LCSI, a company founded by Seymour Papert.

Scratch

scratch.mit.edu

Animations

Simple games

Includes built-in graphics & sound editors

Cross-platform

Open source/free download

Developed by the MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group.

StarLogo TNG

education.mit.edu/starlogo

3d animations

Uses “programmable blocks” coding environment, similar to Scratch.

Cross-platform.

Open source, free download.

Developed by researchers at MIT’s Media Lab, in collaboration with the Teacher Education Project.

Game making applications ________________________________________________________

Games Factory

www.clickteam.com

2D games

Windows only

$59.00

Developed by Clickstream, makers of Multimedia Fusion and Multimedia Fusion Developer. The successor to the Klik & Play product.

RPG Maker

www.enterbrain.co.jp

2D/3D games

Includes built-in graphics & sound editors and a large library of graphics,tiles and sound effects.

XP version implements Ruby scripting.

Windows only.

$60.00

Developed by Enterbrain, Inc., a Tokyo publisher of game-related software, books and magazines.

Game Maker

www.yoyogames.com

2D/3D games

Windows only

Freeware

Registered version: $20

Developed by Marc Overmars of Utrecht University for freshman computer science students.

Stagecast Creator

www.stagecast.com

2D simulations and games.

Includes built-in graphics & sound editors.

Windows XP/Mac OS

$79.95

Developed by Stagecast Software, Inc. of Burlinghame, California.

Boku

http://research.microsoft.com/projects/boku/

3D simulations and games.

Windows and XBox 360

Currently being tested internally; project was announced at the 2007 ETech Conference in San Diego.

Gamestar Mechanic

www.gamestarmechanic.com

MMO that requires the player to build games in order to advance through levels..

Due for release in 2009.

Currently undergoing beta testing at various locations. Developed by Gamelab (Lead design Katie Salen) and members of the University of Wisconsin Academic ADL Co-Lab.

Scratch Programming Environment _____________________________________________________________ Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

STEM fields ________________________________________________________ Cartesian coordinates Negative numbers Degrees/Angles Distance Randomness Variables Fractals Greater/Less than Calculus Equations, Operators Math concepts Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

STEM fields ________________________________________________________ Object orientation Boolean operations Flow control Variables Conditional expressions Collision detection User input Keyboard controls Inheritance Functions, methods Programming concepts Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

Content domains ________________________________________________________ Digital stories Tutorials Demonstrations Serious Games Multiple choice exercises Interactive Projects Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game making lesson plans, rubrics, projects ________________________________________________________ http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewforum.php?id=7

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game making lesson plans, rubrics, projects ________________________________________________________ http://wiki.classroom20.com/Scratch

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game making lesson plans, rubrics, projects ________________________________________________________ http://wiki.yoyogames.com/index.php/Information_For_Teachers

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game making lesson plans, rubrics, projects ________________________________________________________ http://www.texasgames.net

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game making lesson plans, rubrics, projects ________________________________________________________ http://www.freewebs.com/schoolgamemaker/

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Game making lesson plans, rubrics, projects ________________________________________________________ http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/g/int.htm

http://www.glsconference.org/2008/ Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Games + Learning + Society ________________________________________________________

Wilmette Public Library www.wilmettelibrary.info Create Relationships ________________________________________________________ Download and install Scratch at home Experiment, have fun Invite IT & Learning Technology staff to play with Scratch Install Scratch on Media Center computers Explore Scratch galleries and Educator’s wiki Share sample projects with teachers Establish yourself as the school’s Scratch liaison

Brian Myers [email_address]