2 posts tagged “education”
Exploring the Potential of the Digital Game as a Medium for Science Communication
http://www.gamasutra.com/education/theses/20050802/aitkin_01.shtml
Abstract
Scientific culture is not popular because the essential nature of science – the models and practices that make it up – cannot be communicated via conventional media in a manner that is interesting to the average person. These models and practices might be communicated in an interesting manner using the new medium of the digital game, yet very few digital games based upon scientific simulations have been created and thus the potential of such games to facilitate scientific knowledge construction cannot be studied directly. Scientific simulations have, however, been much used by scientists to facilitate their own knowledge construction, and equally, both simulations and games have been used by science educators to facilitate knowledge construction on the part of their students. The large academic literatures relating to these simulations and games collectively demonstrate that their ability to re-create reality, model complex systems, be visual and interactive, engage the user in the practise of science, and to engage the user in construction and collaboration, makes them powerful tools for facilitating scientific knowledge construction. Moreover, the large non-academic literature discussing the nature of digital games (which are themselves both simulations and games) demonstrates that their ability to perform the above tasks (i.e. to re-create reality, model complex systems, and so forth) is what makes them enjoyable to play.
Because the features of scientific and educational simulations and games that facilitate knowledge construction are the very same features that make digital games enjoyable to play, the player of a scientific-simulation-based digital game would be simultaneously gaining enjoyment and acquiring scientific knowledge. If science were widely communicated using digital games, therefore, then it would be possible for there to be a popular scientific culture.
"Playing at Reality: Exploring the Potential of the Digital Game as a Medium for Science Communication" by Alex Aitkin, Doctoral Thesis, Australian National University, 335 Pages,PDF
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=6098
In a more reality-based fantasy scenario, the Japanese government has gotten in on the idea of using serious games as tools for education. The software in question; Zaimudaijin Ninatte Yosan o Tsukurou! Yosan Sakusei Game, or “Let’s Become the Minister of Finance, and Balance the Budget! The Budget Drafting Game,†is rather self-explanatory. The free-to-play browser-based game launched in early July, quickly becoming the most popular area of the Japanese Ministry of Finance website. Presumably the aim of this serious game is not only to educate the population about the current state of Japan’s 781 trillion yen debt (US $7.015 trillion), but also, through its difficulty, to take some of the heat off of the ministry itself for its inability to resolve the debt in a timely manner. Predictably, almost every outcome suggests that the budget problems will continue for at least another generation. Wouldn’t it be something if the ministry of finance were actually monitoring the results of this game in order to choose the budget that would make the most sense to the public?
http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/
The New Scientist is carrying a report into an unusual experiment in
artificial intelligence being conducted by a number of European
universities. The project intends to use simple AI in an online
environment to simulate the evolutionary development of a society, in a
manner clearly inspired by MMO games. Unlike games though, the idea is
to give AI agents a simple set of rules and abilities and then watch
them interact, working out how societies might spawn from simple laws.
However, Edward Castronova of Indiana University told New Scientist.
"We have real human societies that grow up on their own within
computer-generated fantasy worlds. The most sensible research project,
it seems to me, would be to study these societies directly, rather than
conjure artificial ones." Mr Castronova perhaps misses out on the idea
that only by studying emergent AI in action are we ever going to be
able to make use of the AI itself. These studies are, after all, in
addition to, and not instead of studying human MMO cultures. Perhaps,
if academic research like this provides insight for practical
programming applications, we'll one day see online worlds in which
humans interact with convincingly evolving AI cultures, making the
experience a lot less stiff and inflexible than online worlds are today.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7674
Some other stuff I ran across while looking at the above
http://www.verystrangesims.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/walsweer/16607907/in/pool-living_in_wow/
