This document discusses how online games can help develop 21st century skills such as problem solving, communication, and collaboration. It suggests games facilitate these skills through cooperative play, managing information, and thriving in chaotic virtual worlds. Examples are given of the military and researchers seeing value in gaming for skills. Principles for designing effective skill-building games are outlined. The future potential for games as mainstream, lifelong learning platforms that supplement formal education is pondered.

2. Collateral Learning:
Online Games for
21st Century Skills
Lisa Galarneau
Ph.D. Candidate
The University of Waikato
New Zealand
lisa@socialstudygames.com

3. The future
seldom looks
like we
expect it to…

4. Or hope…

6. The future is often
imagined within
existing
paradigms…

9. And yes, the
future is written
in the present…

10. But hints often
come from
surprising
corners…
Pop culture…

11. Sub-culture…

12. Technological
innovations…

13. Early
adoption…

14. Apparently bad
ideas…

15. Perhaps just
before their
time…

16. So what
does our
present
say about
our future?

18. Virtual
Worlds…

19. The face
of work is
changing

20. Knowledge
workers…

21. What
skills
do we
need?
How
do we
learn
them?

22. We most
often learn
without
meaning
to…

23. Collateral
learning…

24. Can games help us develop so-
called 21st century skills?
 Soft skills, emotional
intelligence, enterprise skills
 Problem-solving, decision-
making, team-work,
communication, collaboration,
managing self, information
literacy, relating to others,
entrepreneurship

25. Even single
player games
are often
played
cooperatively

26. Because
games have
always been
primarily
social…

28. Social play is
particularly
good for
learning…

29. How can online games facilitate 21st
century skill development?
Dede’s critical skills:
 Manage information
 Comfort with
diversity
 Thrive on chaos

33.  The U.S. Military (Massive
Multiplayer Online Gaming: A
Research Framework for
Military Training and Education,
2005) -
Who believes? http://www.strategicleader.us
/ExperientalLearningPapers/
GameReport_Bonk_final.pdf
 Researchers: Katie Livingston
Vale, Constance Steinkuehler,
Toru Fujimoto, Nick Yee, Aaron
Delwiche

34. Periodic
 Storypath/story-based curricula
(content)
 Team-building/cooperation/
communication (skills)
 Research (skills)
How might it  Simulation/synthetic worlds
(systems thinking)
look? Ongoing
 Communities of practice united
around play (content/skills/
sociocultural literacy)
 Lifelong learning (content/skills)

35. Principles (Bonk and Dennen)

36. Industry Player

37.  Join an existing group of at least 4
members. After gaining their trust and
loyalty, persuade the group to hunt at a
different spot.
 Start a group, and then get the group to
Leadership a designated location deep within a
level-appropriate dungeon to get a drop
Training (as from a specific mob.
imagined by Nick  The leader of a guild that is about to
fracture over a long-standing issue has
Yee*) just stepped down from the position.
Keep this leaderless guild together while
keeping attrition to a minimum.
 Create a guild of at least 50 active
members with a weekly attrition of not
more than 5%.
* http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000515.php?page=3

38. Galarneau, Lisa and Melanie Zibit.
(In Press)
The future is written in the present:
Online games for 21st century
competency.
Much, much
In Games and simulations in online
more in learning: Research and development
forthcoming frameworks.
book chapter! David Gibson, Clark Aldrich, Marc Prensky
(Eds.)
Draft available at:
http://lisa.socialstudygames.com/
Galarneau_Zibit_OnlineGames.pdf

39. To ponder…  Will online games/virtual
worlds become mainstream
activities?
 Will we all inhabit a variety
of worlds?
 Will we sign up for lifelong
learning? Like sports, will
online games be not only
fun but good for us, too?
 Might our educational
system develop an
appreciation for informal,
collateral learning?

40. QUESTIONS?
Vintage Images from Tales of Future Past: http://davidszondy.com