Games and Education

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Simulation Game Used for Disaster Training

LOS ANGELES — The conventional wisdom about the video-game industry is that it's all about entertainment. But a group of 350 game designers, educators and government officials think that games can be used as a tool to teach critical thinking, and in the process, improve American education.

PLAY GAMES?

Educators Turn to Games for Help

Therefore as educationalists do we need to change how we teach or facilitate learning?

Comments

Alan Hi Jo: There are some interesting findings on this site about gaming.

The Daedalus Gateway

Userpage:bluez?
Thanks Alan: This is a really interesting site and has so much data related to the social science side of gaming - it opens up enormous potential for research in this area.

Jan Clewett What can we learn from video games?

A critical aspect of gaming is the social community which develops for sharing ideas/strategies to solve problems. A gaming community mirrors an educational community of practice (Oblinger 2006). There exists a learning culture where individual members are valued for their diverse contributions towards collective knowledge and skills of group understanding. This culture has support in the form of blogs, discussion threads and online game play which often leads to an international collaboration network.

Games are challenging. Individual needs are met by adaptation through difficulty levels. Higher order thinking skills are utilized for community participation, collaboration and reflection. Learning is based on constructivism and behaviorism theory, where players build on knowledge throughout the game and are rewarded for their positive results. Final completion of a game is empowering. Video games satisfy Gardner’s (1983) multiple ways of knowing theory by stimulating visual and auditory senses.Read more

Yasmin I think that it is critical that we change the way that we teach. I think that the health area is a particularly important as this is where technology will impact heavily in the near future. I can see a major expansion of the roles of nurses and nurse practitioners in patient care and a reduction in the roles of GPs as initial care providers. I see that GPs will become closer to information managers whose role is to use technology to assess and apply information. Simple diagnoses will be made at home using such tools as digital cameras and expert systems. Medical professionals will need to be skilled in medical informatics and as such, there will need to be a change in how we teach.


Paul Simulations in Education
According to Clark Aldrich (Simulations and the future of learning, Pfeiffer, 2004) "Simulations are the first fundamental change to education since the textbook." His thesis is that people learn best by doing, and simulations enable educationalists to provide authentic and exciting learning experiences for our students.

However, time, cost, expertise and other factors make it hard to begin and finish a good simulation. Tools are being developed that make it easier to do the creative parts, but the key is in imaginative instructional design and development. Our School is developing a workplace simulator (a virtual hotel) in which students can practice 'real world' tasks - including problem-solving, customer relations, interpersonal skills and operational procedures. We plan to use it in tutorials where the teacher can introduce and demonstrate various skills, and the students can then go and play with it out of class time. We have built in various tasks, quests, assessments and rewards. But it has taken time (4 months so far) and we have only produced one tutorial alternative (one hour simulation).

Yet, there is no doubt that this educational experience is exciting, fun, challenging and has educational value. Our kids are growing up as gaming experts, well used to the virtual environment. It is probably teachers and administrators in educational institutions that have problems with the concept as it breaks the bounds of education (e.g. sitting in classrooms) as they know it.

Let me know if you want more details of our simulations...I will keep a link on your page. Paul Penfold


RolyI thought this article was very interesting because it took a serious look at gaming. - I found it hanging around the NMC website, while searching for a video to add to my page FET8611 Videos and Podcasts?. - Roly

http://www.nmc.org/macarthur/reblog/archives/category/volumes/games/
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/06/gamesetinterview_henry_jenkins.php


New report on games in education

A report released in September 2006 on a one-year research project Teaching with Games conducted in the UK by Futurelab and Electronic Arts indicates that computer games have the potential to support learning in schools, and teachers do not need to be games experts to use them effectively for teaching.

The study showed that using games in lessons is motivating and engaging, and teachers believe that they improve students’ computer skills, strategic thinking and problem solving. Teaching with Games suggests that there are specific features of game play that could encourage student engagement, such as the opportunity to have control over a responsive environment, and the ability to use games in which they can demonstrate skill or knowledge. The Teaching with Games study revealed that 59% of teachers want to use computer games for educational purposes and 53% say they would do so because they are an interactive way of motivating and engaging students.

Games Experience

As a nursing lecturer my experience with games in education is not extensive as there is a lack of commercial games in this area. However, I can see the benefits and multiple uses of games, simulations and virtual worlds for enhancing students educational experiences.As a starter here are a couple of games that are available for health care.

1. THEME HOSPITAL

The game is set in a hospital, and requires the player to build an environment which will attract patients with different complaints, illnesses, emergencies, and diseases. The game has a somewhat dark sense of humor, which is similar to that of Theme Park in many ways. The player has no direct control over the patients that wander the hospital, although gameplay largely centers on influencing their actions in one way or another. The player does, however, have the ability to pick up any staff member in the building and move them to a different area (to speed up their movement from place to place) and to expel any patients from the hospital (if they are being a nuisance or causing rowdiness).

Each level consists of an empty hospital to plan and design, with set goals in the fields of financial attainment, patients cured, percent of patients cured, and hospital value. Holding negative funds or allowing sufficient patients to die will bring about losing requirements. When the goals have been met the player has the option to move on to a new, more elaborate hospital with tougher winning conditions and more diseases present. The final level in the game, 'Battenburg' consists of an enormous yet somewhat awkward hospital with all the diseases and rooms in the game present, all disasters frequent and very high winning requirements.

In summary:

make a healthy profit
build an expensive hospital
get an ego boosting reputation
cure some patients
don't kill or turn away too many patients

This is roughly in priority order. Who said health care was about the sick?


2. Trauma Center

Is a surgical simulation game developed for the Nintendo DS and the first in the Trauma Center Series. Well suited for the handheld's touchscreen, the user makes incisions, removes diseased areas, and sutures the patients back up. As of June 27, 2006, Atlus has confirmed that they will be relaunching the game by the end of July in the US market, due to the high demand and popularity of the game.

The player assumes the role of Derek Stiles, a young doctor who must perform surgeries and other medical operations. Derek is a descendant of the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, and is gifted with extreme concentration, an ability referred to as the "Healing Touch."

The game takes place in Angeles Bay during the year 2018 where the majority of diseases, including AIDS and Cancer, have been eradicated. However, a mysterious disease known as GUILT (Gangliated Utrophin Immuno Latency Toxin) threatens mankind. The best weapon against G.U.I.L.T. is the "Healing Touch."


3. Immune Attack

Is an educational video game created by the Federation of American Scientists and Brown University, in collaboration with the University of Southern California, under a grant from the National Science Foundation. The game is designed to teach immunology to high school students, although later versions will cater to college aged students as well.

A prototype version of the game containing two levels of play was completed in April of 2006. It is hoped that a full version of the game will be finished by spring/summer 2007.


JO I persoanlly have only played Theme Hospital and it is a lot of fun but can be very frustrating. However, it is a fun way to learn about the intricacies of building and maintaining a hospital. I have used it in Nursing Management teaching and it did get positive feedback but the frustration and lack of gaming skills were the main drawbacks for students.

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Clinical Skills Simulation in the Training of Health Care Professionals

Visions of the Future

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