BibSonomy publications for /user/yish/gameMon Oct 17 15:57:24 CEST 201191Game Mechanic based E-Learning : A case study2011design elearning game gamification learning This thesis presents a case study of Game Mechanic based E-Learning. This is put forward as a new approach to E-Learning that tries to mimic games to harness some of their motivational properties. A prototype system was developed as a web application, using an Agile and Lean development approach. The system was evaluated with a class at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. This was done to give an indication of the system’s ability to make work with exercises more engaging and fun. To give context in this thesis, the growing trend of Gamification is unveiled and explained in detail. The major technological delivery posited by this thesis was the prototype, implemented as a web application (dynamic webpage). The major research acheivement was evaluating respondents perception of the system. It was discovered that the chosen Game Mechanic was indeed considered to make work with exercises more engaging, although this effect was marginal. The evaluation was also used to arrive at a general definition for games. This definition can be used to distinguish Game Mechanics based systems from games. It also serves as a much needed guide to designing games and non-game systems that tries to acheive similar motivational benefits as games.Fri May 20 17:28:14 CEST 2011Academic Exchange Quarterly22Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother?152011design education game gamification gee haifa-games-course learning principles Today's schools face major problems around student motivation and engagement. Gamification, or the incorporation of game elements into non-game settings, provides an opportunity to help schools solve these difficult problems. However, if gamification is to be of use to schools, we must better understand what gamification is, how it functions, and why it might be useful. This article addresses all three questions – what, how, and why bother? – while exploring both the potential benefits and pitfalls of gamification.Sun Mar 20 11:19:39 CET 2011Journal of Computer Assisted Learning6399--409Savannah: mobile gaming and learning?202004augmented design ecology futurelab game haifa-games-course haifa-mlearning learning mixed mobile reality This paper reports a study that attempts to explore how using mobile technologies in direct physical interaction with space and with other players can be combined with principles of engagement and self-motivation to create a powerful and engaging learning experience. We developed a mobile gaming experience designed to encourage the development of children’s conceptual understanding of animal behaviour. Ten children (five boys and five girls) aged between 11 and 12 years played and explored the game. The findings from this study offer interesting insights into the extent to which mobile gaming might be employed as a tool for supporting learning. It also highlights a number of major challenges that this format raises for the organisation of learning within schools and the design of such resources.Tue Mar 15 21:54:04 CET 2011Language, Learning & Technology269-87It's Just a Game, Right? Types of Play in Foreign Language CMC.82004MOO foreign game german haifa-games-course language learning online play This study focuses on the various playful uses of language that occurred during a semester-long study of two German language courses using one type of synchronous network-based medium, the MOO. Research and use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) have flourished in the study of second-language acquisition (SLA) since the late 1990s; however, the primary focus has been on the potential benefits of using CMC to increase the amount of communication (Beauvois, 1997; Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1997), motivate students (Beauvois, 1997; Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1997) and foster the exchange of ideas (Beauvois, 1997; Kern, 1995; von der Emde, Schneider, & Kötter, 2001; Warschauer, 1997). Only more recently has research within SLA begun to investigate the types of communication that occur online. 1 An analysis of the transcripts from a second-semester German course and an upper-level German communication course reveal that a large portion of the language use online cannot be described using standard referential definitions of communication, but rather is playful in nature. Using research from SLA and theories on social interaction, this article investigates the different types of play that occurred within the online discussions and the possible implications of the presence of play in online discourse.Sun Dec 05 19:58:19 CET 2010Nature Neuroscience5549-551Enhancing the contrast sensitivity function through action video game training122009action cognition game games haifa-games-course improvement learning performance video visual The contrast sensitivity function (CSF) is routinely assessed in clinical evaluation of vision and is the primary limiting factor in how well one sees. CSF improvements are typically brought about by correction of the optics of the eye with eyeglasses, contact lenses or surgery. We found that the very act of action video game playing also enhanced contrast sensitivity, providing a complementary route to eyesight improvement.Sun Dec 05 19:52:25 CET 2010Current Biology1573-1579Improved Probabilistic Inference as a General Learning Mechanism with Action Video Games202010action brain education game games haifa-games-course learning neurocognition video Action video game play benefits performance in an array of sensory, perceptual, and attentional tasks that go well beyond the specifics of game play [1–9]. That a training regimen may induce improvements in so many different skills is notable because the majority of studies on traininginduced learning report improvements on the trained task but limited transfer to other, even closely related, tasks ([10], but see also [11–13]). Here we ask whether improved probabilistic inference may explain such broad transfer. By using a visual perceptual decision making task [14, 15], the present study shows for the first time that action video game experience does indeed improve probabilistic inference. A neural model of this task [16] establishes how changing a single parameter, namely the strength of the connections between the neural layer providing themomentary evidence and the layer integrating the evidence over time, captures improvements in action-gamers behavior. These resultswere established in a visual, but also in a novel auditory, task, indicating generalization across modalities. Thus, improved probabilistic inference provides a general mechanism for why action video game playing enhances performance in awide variety of tasks. In addition, thismechanism may serve as a signature of training regimens that are likely to produce transfer of learning.Mon Oct 04 18:15:57 CEST 2010Conference Proceedings Media@Terra, AthensThe learning effect of Global Conflicts: Palestine2006Palestine design education game games haifa-games-course learning serious Few field studies have examined students’ using of educational computer game titles in high school. This paper presents results from a research project in two Danish high schools with 51 students aged 16-20 using a playable prototype. The research project evolves around the development of the prototype “Global Conflicts: Palestine” an educational computer game about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Drawing on an evaluation survey that was administered at the end of an experimental game course, we examined how the students used a computer game developed for teaching a subject in historyFri Sep 24 12:57:21 CEST 2010Chesapeake, VA Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia July 3 301-322 Gaming literacies: A game design study in action 16 2007 Assessment Children Creativity Games Literacy design education game gamestar gaming haifa-games-course learning mechanic Educators and education advocates have recently acknowledged that the ability to think systemically is one of the necessary skills for success in the 21st century. Game-making is especially well-suited to encouraging meta-level reflection on the skills and processes that designer-players use in building such systems. Membership in a community of game producers means sharing thoughts and experiences with fellow players. This ability to gain fluency in specialist language and to translate thinking and talking about games into making and critiquing them (and vice versa) suggests that games not only teach literacy skills but support their ongoing use. Rather than imagining that education can be transformed by bringing games into the classroom, researchers should consider not only the effects of the thinking engendered by those who play, but also by those who design the play. This paper offers an overview of the pedagogy and development process of Gamestar Mechanic, an RPG-style online game designed to teach players the fundamentals of game design. It will discuss some of the early results of the project, with an emphasis on the conceptual framework guiding the work, as well as the kinds of literacies and knowledge structures it is intended to support.Fri Sep 24 01:07:01 CEST 2010The ambiguity of play2001game games haifa-games-course learning philosophy play theory Every child knows what it means to play, but the rest of us can merely speculate. Is it a kind of adaptation, teaching us skills, inducting us into certain communities? Is it power, pursued in games of prowess? Fate, deployed in games of chance? Daydreaming, enacted in art? Or is it just frivolity? Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading proponent of play theory, considers each possibility as it has been proposed, elaborated, and debated in disciplines from biology, psychology, and education to metaphysics, mathematics, and sociology. Sutton-Smith focuses on play theories rooted in seven distinct "rhetorics"--the ancient discourses of Fate, Power, Communal Identity, and Frivolity and the modern discourses of Progress, the Imaginary, and the Self. In a sweeping analysis that moves from the question of play in child development to the implications of play for the Western work ethic, he explores the values, historical sources, and interests that have dictated the terms and forms of play put forth in each discourse's "objective" theory. This work reveals more distinctions and disjunctions than affinities, with one striking exception: however different their descriptions and interpretations of play, each rhetoric reveals a quirkiness, redundancy, and flexibility. In light of this, Sutton-Smith suggests that play might provide a model of the variability that allows for "natural" selection. As a form of mental feedback, play might nullify the rigidity that sets in after successful adaption, thus reinforcing animal and human variability. Further, he shows how these discourses, despite their differences, might offer the components for a new social science of play.Fri Sep 24 00:32:42 CEST 2010Handbook of computer game studies2005computer design game games gamesresearch haifa-games-course handbook learning theory New media students, teachers, and professionals have long needed a comprehensive scholarly treatment of digital games that deals with the history, design, reception, and aesthetics of games along with their social and cultural context. The Handbook of Computer Game Studies fills this need with a definitive look at the subject from a broad range of perspectives. Contributors come from cognitive science and artificial intelligence, developmental, social, and clinical psychology, history, film, theater, and literary studies, cultural studies, and philosophy as well as game design and development. The text includes both scholarly articles and journalism from such well-known voices as Douglas Rushkoff, Sherry Turkle, Henry Jenkins, Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman, and others. Part I considers the "prehistory" of computer games (including slot machines and pinball machines), the development of computer games themselves, and the future of mobile gaming. The chapters in part II describe game development from the designer's point of view, including the design of play elements, an analysis of screenwriting, and game-based learning. Part III reviews empirical research on the psychological effects of computer games, and includes a discussion of the use of computer games in clinical and educational settings. Part IV considers the aesthetics of games in comparison to film and literature, and part V discusses the effect of computer games on cultural identity, including gender and ethnicity. Finally, part VI looks at the relation of computer games to social behavior, considering, among other matters, the inadequacy of laboratory experiments linking games and aggression and the different modes of participation in computer game culture.Thu Sep 23 16:20:10 CEST 2010Proceedings of DiGRA 2009Peer Puppeteers: Alternate Reality Gaming in Primary School Settings2009ARG alternate design education game games haifa-games-course learning primary reality Whilst there has been considerable research into the potential uses of digital games in the classroom, there has been less investigation into the educational value of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Unlike console or computer games, in ARGs the game-world is constructed through a combination of on- and off-screen media, and is created and shaped through dynamic dialogue between the designers and players. To create and play an ARG, children are not required to develop programming skills or negotiate gaming software. Instead the players and designers of ARGs create the game elements through the creative and inventive use of ubiquitous communication technologies and artifacts. In this paper I will be reporting on a crosscurricular multi-media literacy project undertaken in a large South London Primary School over two years, which represents one element of my ongoing research into the potential of Alternate Reality Gaming in Primary Education. In this, the children collaborated with the teacher to design and play an ARG with and for their peers. This research demonstrates that ARGs represent an innovative means for children to explore and develop their understanding and experiences of learning and literacy practices across media. In this project, the students made good use of their existing knowledge of games and the affordances of various media and narrative conventions. Through the active production of ARGs, they explored the relationships between these forms, in new ways.Thu Sep 23 12:49:33 CEST 2010RotterdamScience Education as a Pathway to Teaching Language Literacyhttps://www.sensepublishers.com/files/9789460911316PR.pdf18 - 22Play and the Real World: A Response to Katherine Richardson Bruna’s Commentary2010education game games haifa-games-course learning play portal theory Thu Sep 23 12:49:07 CEST 2010RotterdamScience Education as a Pathway to Teaching Language Literacyhttps://www.sensepublishers.com/files/9789460911316PR.pdf14 - 17Commentary on Gee’s Science, Literacy, and Video Games: Situated Learning2010education game games haifa-games-course learning play portal theory Thu Sep 23 12:49:07 CEST 2010RotterdamScience Education as a Pathway to Teaching Language Literacyhttps://www.sensepublishers.com/files/9789460911316PR.pdf1-13Science, Literacy, and Video Games: Situated Learning2010education game games haifa-games-course learning play portal theory Tue Sep 21 18:04:52 CEST 2010BostonFirst person: New media as story, performance, and game85-94Videogames of the oppressed: Critical thinking, education, tolerance, and other trivial issues2004Boal Freire design education game games haifa-games-course learning oppressed theory Is it possible to design videogames that deal with social and political issues? Could videogames be used as a tool for encouraging critical thinking? Do videogames offer an alternative way of understanding reality? Although videogames are now about three decades old, these questions remain unanswered. It seems that even if the medium has reached incredible popularity, it is still far away from becoming a mature communication form that could deal with such things as human relationships, or political and social issues. Or maybe it can never become such thing. After all, as many may say, these are simply games and games have been considered trivial entertainment for ages. Nevertheless, I claim that videogames could indeed deal with human relationships and social issues, while encouraging critical thinking. In this essay, I explore the possibilities of non-Aristotelian game design, mainly based on the work of drama theorist Augusto Boal.Tue Sep 21 15:00:45 CEST 2010Psychological bulletin2182-187Much Ado About Something: Violent Video Game Effects and a School of Red Herring: Reply to Ferguson and Kilburn (2010)1362010education game games haifa-games-course learning video vio violence In this article we reply to C. J. Ferguson and J. Kilburn’s (2010) critique of our meta-analysis on violent video game effects (C. A. Anderson et al., 2010). We rely on well-established methodological and statistical theory and on empirical data to show that claims of bias and misinterpretation on our part are simply wrong. One should not systematically exclude unpublished studies from meta-analytic reviews. There is no evidence of publication or selection bias in our data. We did not purposely exclude certain studies; we included all studies that met our inclusion criteria. Although C. J. Ferguson and J. Kilburn believe that the effects we obtained are trivial in size, they are larger than many effects that are deemed sufficiently large to warrant action in medical and violence domains. The claim that we (and other media violence scholars) are attempting to create a false crisis is a red herring.Tue Sep 21 14:54:29 CEST 2010Psychological science5353-359Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature122001aggression education game games haifa-games-course learning video violence Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.Tue Sep 21 14:52:26 CEST 2010Psychological bulletin2151-173Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review1362010aggression education effects game games haifa-games-course learning video violence violent Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive methodological quality inclusion criteria than in past meta-analyses; (b) cross-cultural comparisons; (c) longitudinal studies for all outcomes except physiological arousal; (d) conservative statistical controls; (e) multiple moderator analyses; and (f) sensitivity analyses. Social–cognitive models and cultural differences between Japan and Western countries were used to generate theory-based predictions. Meta-analyses yielded significant effects for all 6 outcome variables. The pattern of results for different outcomes and research designs (experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal) fit theoretical predictions well. The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior. Moderator analyses revealed significant research design effects, weak evidence of cultural differences in susceptibility and type of measurement effects, and no evidence of sex differences in susceptibility. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias.Wed Sep 15 16:00:10 CEST 2010Hershey, PAThe handbook of educational gamingProductive gaming: The case for historiographic game play2008civilization education game haifa-games-course history learning strategy Recent years have witnessed unforeseen leaps in technology, which many have argued are ushering in a new media paradigm (Games, Learning, and Society, 2005/2007). Video games are an excellent site to examine in order to understand this new medium, because games are natively digital. Video games are emblematic of the current popular culture we live in that has a distinctive zeitgeist. Examining games, we see three overriding themes that demarcate the modern media landscape:Video games are built around a logic of simulation, one that is about possible worlds, rather than inspiring oratory, coherent linear arguments, or purely visual imagery. Games are worlds we explore, and learn within, through interaction and performance. Video games are participatory, in that players have the opportunity to shape the medium itself through (a) production within game worlds (many of which are filmed and published on the Internet), (b) production with game tools (such as modding), and (c) gaining membership in affinity groups, such as gaming clans, guilds, clubs, and so on, to support one’s gaming. Video games provide an aesthetic experience. Video games offer us opportunities to do new things and take on identities that are unavailable in the real world. As Galarneau writes, their potential impact in education may be best thought of as producing transformative experience (Galarneau, 2005 GLS Proc.). A mature theory of game-based learning, we argue, will take into account the underlying principles by which they work as learning environments “naturalistically”, or “in the wild,” to borrow Hutchins’s (Hutchins, 1995) term. Modern video games, with their myriad of toolkits for modding and interface editing, have increasingly evolved from being compelling mediums that merely engage users passively into spaces (and communities) that empower users to willfully create and disseminate content (Jenkins & Squire 2003; Steinkuehler & Johnson, this volume). As such, video games are not only a pervasive popular culture media, but also form some of the central discourses around 21 st century pedagogical practices and what it means to teach or learn in a globalized future. The growing body of literature around video games and learning suggests that games are powerful models for teaching and can potentially affect how people can and ought to learn in the ever-changing landscape of knowledge (Shaffer & Gee, 2006,). A key challenge that remains for educators is how to produce pedagogical models that leverage the strengths of the medium, yet meet educationally valued goals. Restated, we know that players learn through participation in MMOs such as World of Warcraft (Steinkuehler, 2005, Nardi et.al, forthcoming Proc., Galarneau 2006), and that educational interventions that use game technologies (such as networked 3D worlds) can be effective, but how might we harness the simulation, participatory, and aesthetic dimensions of games for intentional learning? This paper will examine the potential of video games as a learning tool given their productive capacity for content creation and dissemination. Using the Civilization III game engine (a turnbased historical simulation-strategy game), it explores whether a group of disadvantaged kids playing a series of historically themed scenarios can become the kind of “producers” of media and knowledge described by Squire and Giovanetto (in press). It seeks to build on the participatory nature of gaming communities (most often virtual) which function for many players as “third spaces” – spaces that emerge out of coherent and shared history of information and tend to perpetuate game practices beyond virtual game worlds and foster social interactions beyond homes and workplaces (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). As of this writing, our community is primarily face-to-face, although we are exploring ways to extend the community into virtual spaces as well.Tue Sep 14 16:24:40 CEST 2010Innovate: journal of online education6Changing the game: What happens when video games enter the classroom12005civilization game games haifa-games-course learning stratagy video Kurt Squire criticizes the current organization of schools based on his experiences using Civilization III in a high school history classroom. Squire's case study reveals that Civilization III appeals particularly to those students for whom a traditional education is simply not working. Students who do well in the classroom, however, are more reluctant to view gaming as a legitimate learning tool and experience much more frustration when playing the game. Squire looks to the hierarchical organization of the classroom as the reason behind this perhaps suprising result. He outlines the benefits of and obstacles to widespread game implementation, pointing out the failures of the traditional secondary curriculum and detailing improvements that would organize school culture around learning rather than social control.