DHSS Wrap Up

 

 

I want to promote an event being held today—Friday, May 13, 2016.

Prof. Tamar Carroll will host a reception for DHSS in Clark A in the SAU. Refreshments will be served. The agenda is as follows:

• 3-4 pm Faculty Meeting -- Brief reports on the DHSS program's progress in our first year followed by open brainstorming on goals for our second.
• 4-5 pm Faculty/Staff/Student mixer -- Meet our DHSS majors -- six and more considering (not including admitted freshmen who will join us on campus in the fall). Prospective students are also encouraged to attend to learn more about the program and meet the faculty.

Information on RIT's DHSS program may be found here: http://www.rit.edu/cla/dhss
Trent and I will be there — and we look forward to seeing others and sharing ideas about GBL/PBL.

Wrapping Up the Semester!

Our semester has ended, and we have failed to include updates regarding our last two events. So, let's catch up!

On Monday, April 18, four of us met at a local pub/restaurant to talk about how things were going adding and/or incorporating game-based learning and project-based learning ideas into our assignments or, even, our framing for classes. We also discussed how we might present our experiences at the RIT-organized THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp).

On Friday, May 6, four of us attended the first-ever THATCamp  arranged by RIT and held at the Strong: National Museum of Play.

 

In the morning, we heard an amazing talk by Angel David Nieves.

In the afternoon, Trent and I lead sessions on game-based learning and digital tools, respectively. Trent passed around a deck of cards for each of us to select a card with a number on it. Then, moving through a list of terms on white pads/large post-its, Trent added the number that a person had drawn to a category from the list to determine its "weight" in the playfield of a game to be developed within a class. It was exciting and, even, interesting !!!, to see how a deck of cards and a list of terms could serve as the scaffold for constructing a narrative. See Trent's post here.

Following this session, I lead a session on Wordpress and Tiki-Toki. In this session, I introduced novice users to the front end and back end of a Wordpress site (differentiation between .org and .com; themes, imagery/visuals, posts and pages, and nuances of the admin). I also shared several of our RIT Museum Studies exhibition sites developed over the past year with students in courses that I teach. Following this, I introduced the group to a web-based timeline tool that allows for awesome collaboration. See the description here.

 During the Wordpress/Tiki-Toki session I was facilitating, Trent, Ammina and Michael spoke about GBL/PBL. (I didn't attend, so I can't report on it:)

Gathering Around Incidental Learning

Andrea and I led tonight's session on problem-based learning and project-based learning. This was our second evening gathering, following Trent's facilitation of a discussion on game based learning. (see previous post below!)

Something that I realized that we did not actually discuss was the definition of terms like Problem-Based versus Project-Based Learning. To me, it seems that both types of practice engage students in collaborative learning with defined roles and structures, however problem-based learning tends to have higher stakes in terms of applicability to real-world situations versus project-based learning which may not have a deliverable for an audience. Specifically, according to Nilson, problem-based learning tends to involve real-world, human-situational, open-ended, high-uncertainty, and risky challenges with multiple respectable solution. This is in contract to project-based learning that may involve some aspect of the aforementioned challenges and opportunities with lower-stakes if no dissemination is present. Second, the very nature of problem-based learning is to approach a problem - to solve an issue, question, or complicated situation; whereas a project-based approach can refer to a mode of learning that may not be seeking resolution but does incorporate group work.

We discussed readings by Nilson and Crawford & Machemer. The Nilson book is of particular interest to me because it has research-based pithy chapters that look at a variety of approaches and structures for teaching, assessment, and learning. The Crawford & Machemer article focuses on incidental learning as an important component for PBL. I selected this reading because I feel that we under-value incidental learning in the academy. I am reminded of this every time that I have students in my courses participate in the Smithsonian Institution Transcription Center projects. To transcribe a bumblebee label, students often perform additional tasks beyond the primary task of transcribing a label. This takes the student down the rabbit hole of critical thinking. And, I am always incredibly pleased to witness this. But, how can we measure this type of work beyond the framing of the course content and rubric?  I do not ever ask students to locate Ecuador on a map as part of a museum studies course; but their work at finding this country on the map and then locating a specific city to ensure that their transcription was accurate demonstrates incidental learning, critical thinking, and integrative learning (See here for discussion of AACU's value rubrics, including integrative learning.)

Juilee going over project sites developed
by her students at RIT.

Discussing what works and what doesn't.

Below are three lists. The first is the number of my RIT project sites that we viewed: 

https://ritmuse.wordpress.com/
http://library.rit.edu/depts/archives/history-exhibits-listing/people
https://muse.rit.edu/transcribe/
http://sbawalkingtour.weebly.com/

The second list consists of sources that we read in preparation for tonight's discussion:

• Crawford, Pat and Patricia Machemer. 2008. Measuring Incidental Learning in a PBL Environment. Journal of Faculty Development. 22:2 (May 2008): 104-111.
• Nilson, Linda B. 2010. Teaching At Its Best: A Research Based Resource for College Instructors. 3E. San Francisco: Wiley.

The third list consists of sources that might be useful for further discussion:

• Quinlan, K. (2000). "An Evaluation of a Literature Database to Support Problem-Based Learning." Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 11(2/3), 27-39.  (keen on developing the idea of the facilitator model rather than sage on the stage)
• Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C. H. (2004). Foundations of Problem-Based Learning. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
• http://plpnetwork.com/2013/01/10/problem-vs-project-based-learning/ (good distinctions drawn between both terms)
• List of 16 value rubrics from the AACU:  https://www.aacu.org/value-rubricsVALUE Rubrics, organized by learning outcome

In April, we will meet to discuss our plans for a works-in-progress/lessons learned/future steps in thinking about GBL/PBL relative to digital humanities and social sciences. This will be a preparatory meeting for our presentation and discussion at the RIT THATCamp on Friday, May 6.  Working on a session that close to the unconference of THATCamp may be unnerving to some; however...an unconference, in Tom Scheinfeldt’s words, is fun, productive, and collegial, and at THATCamp, therefore, “[W]e’re not here to listen and be listened to. We’re here to work, to participate actively.[…] We’re here to get stuff done.” 

Though slightly unnerved, I love the spirit of THATCamps — I have been to several myself. So I look forward to sharing my work and to learning from all of you, too.

Game Studies and Game-Based Learning Resources

These are resources I recommend you check out as you continue to explore critical explorations of games and play as well as game-based learning. There's a lot here, and it's quite varied, so let me know if you want help narrowing it down. For me, Gee is the "must read" of the list for designing a course that incorporates games or game mechanics.

• Bogost, Ian. How to Do Things with Videogames. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. Print.
• ---. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007. Print.
• Bogost, Ian, Simon Ferrari, and Bobby Schweizer. Newsgames Journalism at Play. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010. Open WorldCat. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
• Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2009. Print.
• Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. Rev. and updated ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.
• Kahne, Joseph, Ellen Middaugh, and Chris Evans. The Civic Potential of Video Games. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2009. Print.
• McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Press, 2011. Print.
• Tekinbaş, Katie Salen. The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2008. Print.

Those are all good starting points. If you want to go deeper into a certain application let me know. There's been a lot written on the game Civilization, for example, as well as Minecraft.

And here are some good lists of "serious games" that try to persuade players through game mechanics.

• http://www.missiontolearn.com/learning-games-for-change/
• https://gamesandimpact.org/games/
• http://www.gamesforchange.org/learn/game-databases/

Of course, I'm happy to meet with you individually to discuss assignments, units, or courses that you're considering adding games or game elements to improve learning outcomes for students. A few big challenges with games and game-based learning are 1) scope of what can be done given the institutional time and space we're given, 2) framing activities so students understand what it is they're doing and why before, during, and after a play session, and 3) making sure you don't unwittingly create a lot of extra work for yourself.

I hope this unit on games and game-based learning was useful for you! I look forward to seeing how you're thinking about applying games in your courses.

GBL Discussion Led by Trent 2/29/16

Thank you to everyone for making time to join the conversation about Game Based Learning on Monday evening. Thank you to Tamar for joining us, bringing DHSS to mind, and providing a wonderful dinner. Thank you to Andrea for hosting us—video games playing the background were such an appropriate atmosphere. And extra thanks to Trent for leading our discussion and for reminding us of the range of opportunities that game based learning portends.

We will gather at Juilee's on Monday, March 28th around 5:30. Please bring a drink. We'll sort out readings, directions, food, and other details ab it later. 

Btw, I failed to take any photos during our group meeting, but did manage to capture a few of the remains of the dinner.

Lovely mango cashew salad.

There may be a few chips left in the bag on the left.

Fizzy water. It may be bad for your teeth,
as Michael relayed to us, but it sure tastes lovely.

Extra Credit List of Games for Education

The team at Extra Credit, a web video series dedicated to games and game culture, have compiled a very useful list of games they deem suitable for educational purposes in the online store Steam. Check it out!

shameless plug: narRITives project space

Andrea and I have begun working with Brian Larson in CIAS to develop narRITives, an interdisciplinary project to develop and curate digital stories from RIT. See here.

Andrea and I will talk about this project when we meet up in March (after the February meeting focusing on GBL with Trent). We will also discuss each of our approaches to project-based and problem-based learning. More information forthcoming!