Video Games as Learning Tools — Colloquium March 7, 1430 at Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) Psychology Building (PC), Room 102 McMaster University
I want to invite you to a colloquium March 7, at 1430-- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) at McMaster University Video Games as Learning Tools Brock Dubbels, PhD., G-ScalE Game Development and Testing Lab McMaster University Dubbels@McMaster.ca Should games and play be considered important in designing instructional contexts? Should they be used for professional development, or even become a part of our productivity at work? Games offer individuals a learning environment rich with choice and feedback . . . not only for gathering information about a student’s learning, but that also demand mastery in recall, comprehension, and problem solving. The difficulty with games may be ...
Video Games and Violence
The recent tragedies of gun violence have resulted in a renewed interest into the role of violent video games and aggressive, anti-social, and violent behavior. The current view is that many young people who commit violent crimes do so because they play violent video games. In some ways, this is like saying that the use of suntan lotion increases the likelihood of drowning. In research, this is called a spurious correlation. A spurious correlation consists of two events or variables that have no direct causal connection--such as suntan lotion and drowning. A spurious correlation is often supported by coincidence, or happens over and over, ...
We are all hardwired for play
We are all hardwired to play. Just as evolutionary theories suggest that laughter is a survival mechanism for newborns to assure attachment and bonding so that they are cared for, there are also evolutionary reasons for play (Sutton-Smith, 1997). Play is typically defined as having intrinsic goals that serve no other objective; play is freely chosen, spontaneous and voluntary; and in utilitarian terms it is inherently unproductive (Garvey, 1990). This intrinsic motivation is ideally what we would like to see more of in work. Often we view work as extrinsically motivated, where the activity is externally regulated based upon receiving a reward ...
Designing Games — the Problem of Learning and Fun
Games and classrooms do not have a monopoly on learning. From an evolutionary perspective, fitting context to enable behavior should lead to extinction, not evolution. What is meant by this is, when we become to comfortable in our environment, and we are not forced to regularly adapt to new challenges, our likelihood of evolving diminishes. What this means is, we prefer to exist using what we already know. This makes life easier, but may reduce our fitness and success when facing unforeseen challenges. But still, we tend towards the familiar, safe, comfortable, and predictable. Perhaps this is why we tend to buy the same ...
Collective Knowledge: The Study of Games, Play, and Learning
What we cannot know or do individually, we may be capable of collectively. My research examines the transformation of perceptual knowledge into conceptual knowledge. Conceptual knowledge can be viewed as crystallized, which means that it has become abstracted and is often symbolized in ways that do not make the associated meaning obvious. Crystallized knowledge is the outcome of fluid intelligence, or the ability to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge. I investigate how groups and objects may assist in crystallization of knowledge, or the construction of conceptual understanding. I am currently approaching this problem from the ...
Gamefication? Or is it Gamefuscation?
Gamefuscation? I am concerned that Gamefication obfuscates the real issue in learning: Transfer. Is there evidence that game-based learning leads to far transfer? Without learning transfer, it doesn't matter how a person learned--whether from a piece of software, watching an expert, rote memorization, or the back of cereal box. What is important is that learning occurred, and how we know that learning occurred. This leads to issues of assessment and evaluation. Transfer and Games:Â How do we assess this? The typical response from gameficators is that assessment does not measure the complex learning from games. I have been there and said that. Â But I have learned that is ...
Creativity and Data-Driven Assessment are Not Contradictory
I don't think anyone would disagree -- fostering creativity should be a goal of classroom learning. However, the terms creativity and innovation are often misused. When used they typically imply that REAL learning cannot be measured. Fortunately, we know A LOT about learning and how it happens now. It is measurable and we can design learning environments that promote it. It is the same with creativity as with intelligence--we can promote growth in creativity and intelligence through creative approaches to pedagogy and assessment. Because data-driven instruction does not kill creativity, it should promote it. One of the ways we might look at creativity and ...
Why Video Games Sustain Engagement: A Cage Match between Social Learning Theories
Why Video Games Sustain Engagement: A Cage Match between Social Learning Theories Brock Dubbels The Center for Cognitive Sciences Department of Curriculum & Instruction The University of Minnesota Abstract: Although games are seen as high interest activities, many children buy them, play them, and move on to another activity. This represents a challenge in creating instructional interventions to achieve an educational outcome or a training effect. This study was conducted to inform an after school program designed to deliver a training effect on female adolescent health. To investigate this, a small sample of young female experts were recruited and interviewed for rich phenomenological ...
Cognitive Ethnography: a Method for Design, Measure, and Analysis for Multimedia Learning and Design
This monograph describes cognitive ethnography as a method of choice for game studies, multimedia learning, professional development, leisure studies, and activities where context is important. Cognitive ethnography is efficacious for these activities as it  assumes that human cognition adapts to its natural surroundings (Hutchins, 2010; 1995) with emphasis on analysis of activities as they happen in context; how they are represented; and how they are distributed and experienced in space. Along with this, the methodology is described for increasing construct validity (Cook and Campbell, 1979; Campbell & Stanley, 1966) and the creation of a nomological network Cronbach & Meehl (1955). ...
Developmental Changes in the Visual Span for Reading
The visual span for reading refers to the range of letters, formatted as in text, that can be recognized reliably without moving the eyes. It is likely that the size of the visual span is determined primarily by characteristics of early visual processing. It has been hypothesized that the size of the visual span imposes a fundamental limit on reading speed (Legge, Mansfield, & Chung, 2001). The goal of the present study was to investigate developmental changes in the size of the visual span in school-age children, and the potential impact of these changes on children’s reading speed. The study ...
More Featured Posts
Video Games as Learning Tools — Colloquium March 7, 1430 at Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) Psychology Building (PC), Room 102 McMaster University
I want to invite you to a colloquium March 7, at 1430– Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) at McMaster University Video Games as Learning Tools Brock Dubbels, PhD., G-ScalE Game Development and Testing Lab McMaster University Dubbels@McMaster.ca Should games and play be considered important in designing instructional contexts?... [Read more]
Video Games and Violence
The recent tragedies of gun violence have resulted in a renewed interest into the role of violent video games and aggressive, anti-social, and violent behavior. The current view is that many young people who commit violent crimes do so because they play violent video games. In some ways, this is like saying that the use of suntan lotion increases the likelihood of drowning. In research, this is called... [Read more]
We are all hardwired for play
We are all hardwired to play. Just as evolutionary theories suggest that laughter is a survival mechanism for newborns to assure attachment and bonding so that they are cared for, there are also evolutionary reasons for play (Sutton-Smith, 1997). Play is typically defined as having intrinsic goals that serve no other objective; play is freely chosen, spontaneous and voluntary; and in utilitarian terms... [Read more]
Designing Games — the Problem of Learning and Fun
Games and classrooms do not have a monopoly on learning. From an evolutionary perspective, fitting context to enable behavior should lead to extinction, not evolution. What is meant by this is, when we become to comfortable in our environment, and we are not forced to regularly adapt to new challenges, our likelihood of evolving diminishes. What this means is, we prefer to exist using what we... [Read more]
Collective Knowledge: The Study of Games, Play, and Learning
What we cannot know or do individually, we may be capable of collectively. My research examines the transformation of perceptual knowledge into conceptual knowledge. Conceptual knowledge can be viewed as crystallized, which means that it has become abstracted and is often symbolized in ways that do not make the associated meaning obvious. Crystallized knowledge is the outcome of fluid intelligence,... [Read more]
