What does a research based classroom look like? - blog 6

I have been researching what a research based classroom looks like and this blog is about the concept of using video games to learn.  A well designed video game increases motivation and student interest and can encourage the student to spend more time playing it than the student would with a traditional assignment.  One major challege would be whether the student is interested in the content and really learning or just interested in the technology and gameplay.  A well designed game can overcome that obstacle by involving enough content that the student would need to understand in order to successfully play the game.

The example in an article located here is River City.  River City is a graphical multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) where the students will become inhabitants.  The design of the game involved reasearch and is intended for middle school students.  Middle school is generally when girls lose interest in science so one of the lead characters was created as a female.  Girls also prefer to work collaboratively so the game is designed to work in teams of three.  The MUVE curriculum was implemented in two urban public middle school classrooms.  The pretests showed that 6 of the 11 lowest performing students were female and tests after just 2 weeks showed the self-efficcacy of these females increased 7%.

The River City MUVE is a city with a river running through it.  The students inhabit the city and then health problems start to develop.  The students goal is to identigy the source of the health problem, either water-borne, air-borne, or insect-borne.  The students ability to engage with inquiry in an authentic setting was high and in one classroom, 5 different ideas about the health problems emerged.  The first cycle of the MUVE was a success.

The designers modified the River City MUVE based on the feedback of the inital classes.  The second cycle of the MUVE was again modified, implemented, and modified again.  The point of the repeated modifications is tied to the content and not the technology.  Some of the modifications were made because they were confusing and distracted the students from the content.  Examples are:  the students could easily get lost in the game, the students did not understand the artifacts that were placed in the game, and the students wanted to be able to read the books in the River City library when they were confused.  Changes were made to remove these distractions and make the MUVE more focused on content.  A major change was with the students avatars.  The students wanted to choose their avatar and wanted their avatar to experience health problems when they were close to the cause of the illness (cow manure and polluted water).  Not all recommended changes were made.  One student recommendation was that the students wanted to create their own avatar.  Based on their findings, creating an avatar is not a condition for success so it was not implemented.  Again the focus is on the content and not the technology.

I grew up with the idea that educational technology was The Oregon Trail.  Now instead of dying from dysentery, the students in the River City MUVE can develop ideas of why they are seeing health problems arise and gain a deeper understanding of science.




Sources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/02/oregon-trail-ip.html
http://64.94.241.248/rivercityproject/documents/nelson_edtech_nov2.pdf