Klopfer Picnic - Augmenting Learning

Augmenting Learning Mobile Simulation Games for Learning

Eric Klopfer MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program Media Lab The Education Arcade

http://education.mit.edu/ar

STEP Pedagogical Frameworks •  What kind of learning environments? •  Create highly engaged, motivated students •  Provide immersive environments, relevant problems •  Facilitate collaborative, project-based learning •  Game-like, active, “Hard Fun” •  A teacher heard one child using these words to describe the computer work: "It's fun. It's hard…" I have no doubt that this kid called the work fun because it was hard rather than in spite of being hard. [S. Papert, 2002]

•  Applicable to formal and informal settings, extending learning beyond walls of the school, beyond hours of the school-day

STEP/TEA Games R&D

Why Games? •  Games model the way that “good” learning happens •  Need new technologies to teach new ideas •  The gamer generation is growing

Learning From Games •  What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Gee) •  Video games (even violent ones) model good learning

Got Game (Beck and Wade) • People who grew up playing games are better adapted to the modern workplace

Everything Bad is Good for You (Johnson) • Games involve critical thinking and problem solving - despite their image as “mindless”

Games? Learning? How many volts do I need for my laser canon to kill 3 x 6 opponents?

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The Legacy of Math Blaster •  Edutainment •  Where play is the reward for learning

•  Instead learning should be playful

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“Labyrinth”

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Learning Games •  Learning games do not need to be •  On the console/desktop

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Mobile Games •  Rise of mobile platforms for video games •  Nintendo DS, PSP, Cell Phones •  $11 billion+ industry by 2009 •  >50 million Nintendo DSs sold

•  Educational mobile games •  •  •  • 

Expected to grow >25% per year Reach $185 million market by 2012 DS, mobile phones, PDAs, iPods Learning anytime anywhere

Mobile Learning Games?

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Mobile Learning Game Hype

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Mobile Games •  Facilitate a new type of game •  Don’t just port big games to the small screen - situate games

•  Combining constructivist and situated learning paradigms.

•  Mobile learning games can be: •  •  •  •  •  • 

Social Authentic and Meaningful Connected to the Real World Open-Ended/Multiple Pathways Intrinsically Motivating Filled with Feedback

Learning Goals •  K-16 - 21st Century Skills •  Engage in authentic science •  Foster collaborative learning and communication •  Capitalize on game play motivation •  Solve complex problems with complex solutions •  Informal Education •  Encourage deeper and broader interaction •  Connect with real surroundings •  Connect and collaborate with others •  Training •  Promote teamwork and collaboration •  Facilitate role playing •  Provide new perspectives on real problems •  Allow safe play

Palmagotchi - Anytime Anywhere

•  Virtual pets with Biology •  Birds and flowers

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•  Like Darwin’s Finches in the Galapagos •  “Every man is an island”

Palmagotchi Game Play •  Foraging •  Mating •  Managing Risks • 

Mobile Web

Augmented Reality

•  Combines physical & virtual world contexts •  Embeds learners in authentic situations •  Engages users in a socially facilitated context

Augmented Reality? •  “Augmenting” the real environment with location specific information provided through technology. •  Immersive helmets •  Handhelds •  Phones •  Terminology •  Pervasive or Ubiquitous Gaming •  Time and Space? •  Hybrid Reality •  Mixing technology and real space

Helmets v. Handhelds •  Light augmentation •  Providing a small amount of “augmented” information. The environment and real people are integral and “real”.

•  Heavy augmentation •  The environment is used as a physical way of navigating through virtual space. Environment can represent anything.

Heavy v. Light •  Imagine that MIT is… Contaminated with a Toxin

An Underwater Aquarium

AR: Environmental Detectives •  First Example - Part of G2T •  “Environmental Detectives” •  Players briefed about rash of local health problems linked to the environment •  Need to determine source of pollution by drilling sampling wells, interviewing virtual witnesses

Why not use a virtual environment?

VS.

• We can make multiplayer online games that recreate the locations and problem-solving in AR games, BUT • Communicating face to face is different from online. • A bility to use the environment differs Ability •Different • Different criteria are applied in decision-making

Socio-Scientific Issues •  AR combines real and virtual •  Opportunity to engage in problems that combine real and fictitious elements •  Also combine subjective and objective information •  Scientific data •  Public opinion

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TimeLab 2100 •  The year is 2100, the world needs your help! •  You are part of TimeLab, an elite group of historical researchers. •  Your mission is to go back in time to the year 2008 and research climate change to make recommendations how to battle the global warming effects observed in 2100

Timelab Video

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Timelab2100 – Which Laws? Players consider possible laws to add to the 2008 Cambridge election ballot, thinking about:

Impact

•  How much the law will help? (IMPACT) •  Will the law pass? (POPULARITY)

What about cost? $$$ The tries to include this: High simulation impact •  assuming the government has funds Law? Some impact to cover these laws • Low individuals consider cost as part of impact law’s popularity Not Likely Maybe Likely Popularity/Likelihood of Becoming Law

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Introductory characters •  remind players of their tasks •  familiarize players with devices, icons, interactions, game mechanics •  meet expert guides – Matt & Anne (MIT grad. students) •  practice reading shared dialog

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Divide into tracks to research laws •  Visit 6-7 people/objects that relate to particular laws •  Read the interaction of Matt & Anne, sometimes with other NPC’s •  Evaluate where on the impact/ popularity grid each law falls

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Sample law interaction

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Sample law interaction

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Sample law interaction

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Sample law interaction

Timelab 2100 - Walkthrough •  Sample law interaction

Timelab 2100 – Back Inside •  Students have ~10 minutes to discuss which laws to nominate to go on the ballot & prepare presentations •  Each group has 30 seconds to nominate one or more laws •  Each student has one sticky note to vote which laws go on ballot •  For each of the top 5 laws, roll a die to see which ones pass

Timelab in Action

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Timelab 2100 – Local & Civic •  Designed to bring to play some features of MIT’s campus yet remain somewhat general •  Designed with the help of MIT experts in global climate change and city governance •  Opportunity for more involvement with the environment (get kids to take eyes off device)

POSIT Game is focused around a single yes/no policy question (fictionalized). For example, “Should we build a biohazard level 4 research facility in our community?” •  Briefing - Potential biohazard facility in Boston •  Roles - Playing realistic roles from scientist to resident •  Initial Opinion - Opinions “in role” are registered •  Collecting Data - Players collect information from virtual characters, and real artifacts/places •  Sharing Opinions - Players share information that they have collected to convince others of their [character’s] point of view •  Influencing Others and Changing Opinions Influence key individuals to sway the vote •  Final Decision - voting

Outdoor AR: In Schools •  Teaching math and literacy to middle school students in Milwaukee, Madison and Boston •  Teacher-customized (using templates) or teacherdesigned games •  Moving towards student-designed games •  Authoring toolkits allow customization of a simulation’s location, content and timescale.

StarSchools •  AR Simulation Games for Mathematics and Literacy Learning with Emerging Mobile Technologies • 

UW Madison / MIT / Harvard University

Why Do We Need AR Toolkits? •  Heavy v. Light

Lots of real world learning here

Why Do We Need AR Toolkits? •  Localization

Lots of real world learning here

“Moving” Games •  The “same” game is not really the same when it is played somewhere else

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•  Experiences that incorporate local information create the best experiences and can motivate learning

AR Games Diversity •  Across wide range of subjects…

•  Public Health/Disease Outbreak (Charles RiverCity & Avian Bird Flu) •  Forensics (Mad City Murder) •  Historical Exploration (Battle of Lexington) •  Mathematics (Alien Contact) •  Economics (Hip-Hop Tycoon)

•  …across locations •  Local Communities (e.g., geographical tours) •  Schools •  Museums •  Science Centers •  Zoos/Nature Conserves

•  …and across time •  Beyond normal “class time” •  Over extended period of time

Outdoor AR Toolkit •  Grab map and GPS coords from Google Maps •  Drag and drop objects, NPCs, triggers, etc •  Customize dialog and media by role and time

Beta version now available http://education.mit.edu/ar

AR Editor - ZSI •  Multi-dimensional space •  •  •  •  •  • 

NPCs Time changes Objects Event triggers Roles Locations

Outdoor AR: Features •  Scenarios can include one or multiple player roles •  Participants interview virtual characters by walking to their real world location (audio, video, images and text). •  Collect data from underlying models using simulated equipment and gather information from items within the game •  Gates allow participants in outdoor simulations to enter real buildings. •  Collect evidence for optional in-game conclusions or to prepare for off-line discussion.

Other Editors – 7 Scenes •  Waag

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Other Editors - Mscape •  HP and Futurelab

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Need for “Editor Jr.” •  Kids learn by creating and sharing games •  Need to reduce the complexity •  Time •  Cognitive load (teacher and student)

Editor Jr. •  Reduce complexity (constrain choices) •  Make a particular type of game

Editor Jr. •  Structure Task

Editor Jr. •  Structure Task

LIONS Context •  NSF-AYS funded program •  After-school and summer program at 9 sites •  Based in University City, Missouri public schools: •  88% non-white •  60% free/reduced lunch

LIONS Goals

•  Learn STEM skills and careers •  Engage with the community •  Promote service -learning •  Develop teacher capacity

Why Mobile Gaming? •  Addresses LIONS goals •  Provides a rich technology experience •  Promotes collaboration •  Leverages existing LIONS program strengths: •  Geospatial technologies •  Place-based education

Leveraging Game Experiences •  Students’ personal game experiences tend to be rich but specific...

•  ...With support they can be abstracted and broadened.

Pride in Games

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The Key to the City •  The key to the city has been stolen. Can you recover it?

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A Series of Clues

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Conclusion

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One More Editor •  Building games in the field

Thanks to: • US Department of Education • Microsoft iCampus • National Science Foundation • Missouri Botanical Gardens • Columbus Zoo and Aquarium • Judy Perry, Josh Sheldon, Marleigh Norton, Lisa Stump, Eric Rosenbaum • TEP MEng and UROPs

• [email protected] • http://education.mit.edu/ar • http://educationarcade.org