Pivec Labs

Collaborative Learning Platform

vancouver — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:29:19 +0000

We are in beta stages of completing our online multiuser role-play platform. “The Training Room” offers an environment where trainers can define there own on-line role playing scenarios and provide the opportunity for learners to apply factual knowledge and to gain experience through the digital world. Trainers can define new games or adopt and modify sample games without any programming skills. The platform provides a variety of communication means within the scenarios; players can communicate with the use of discussion forums, text and voice chat modules as well as through multi-user video conferencing. An important feature of this product is the collaborative learning design, which allows participants to exchange information as well as to produce ideas, simplify problems, and resolve the tasks. In this product, the teacher is the active partner, moderator and advisor of the educational process.

The teacher or instructor defines the overall game theme, creates a new scenario or adds to an existing one, defines the teams, and enrolls the players. Playing time can fluctuate from several days to several weeks or longer and depends from the difficulty of the theme and basic skills of the students. In the game, basic stages can be distinguished as follows: role assignment, teamwork and team preparation time, general discussion, consensus voting, student feedback, and discussion of the game in the debriefing room.

Version 1 of the platform was written in Flash (AS2) and the demo can be viewed on the game design campus website. Version 2, which will be avaliable shortly, is written in Flex using actionscript 3. Flex provides more programming flexibility for me and a more professional look and feel for the user. The multiuser whiteboard has been enhanced, as has the multimedia forum. There is also a complete admin tool to allow trainers to create their own scenarios, modify existing ones, and control the game (or allow it to run by itself).

Recursive Loops of Game-Based Learning

vancouver — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:30:47 +0000

Commercial computer games are known for creating social environments and cult followings surrounding the gameplay, the character attributes, and player’s abilities; this is where affective learning occurs. Garris et al., (2002) describes affective learning as including “feelings of confidence, self-efficacy, attitudes, preferences, and dispositions” (p.457). Our model not only shows how player ability and experience affects the challenge element and the level of learning (ZPD), but also how the level of cognitive challenge can be appropriate for the learner’s current abilities. It shows the inclusion of instructional design and game characteristics as critical elements of a game or role-play to enable the achievement of the learning outcomes, as well as the additional factor of player abilities. Game-Based Learning occurs in a recursive loop and as such when the player skills are acquired, or incremented, the player moves on to the next level of the game. This is true for both educational and commercial recreational games and role-plays. The scaffolded level of skill requirement is what creates the immersion and the desire to play the game. If the game or role-play is done in a group, inputs such as player abilities are multiplied and hence so are the learning outcomes generated from the social environment.

Garris, R., Ahlers, R., & Driskell, J. E. (2002). Games, motivation, and learning: A research and practice. model. Simulation & Gaming, 33(4), 441-467.

Kearney, P. & Pivec, M. (2007). Recursive loops of game-based learning. In Montgomerie C., & Seale. (Eds.). Proc. of ED-MEDIA’07, Vancouver BC, Canada, 2007, pp. 2546 – 2553.

Perceiving Emotions in Avatars

vancouver — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:47:12 +0000

We conducted an experiment with 20 students in an attempt to recognize and determine emotions in virtual world avatars. A pilot study using eye-tracking technology was earlier carried out to ascertain how we perceive the avatar as a whole. Results showed that we tend to focus more in detail at the unusual parts of fictive characters as opposed to the human like, where we look more upon face. For this study we followed the question if we could recognize emotions from avatars as efficient and in the same way we do from digital photos of people. Second focus of the study was to determine where and how on the face do we look to gather the information.

The results showed that we correctly identify specific emotions in the images of people by viewing the eyes and sometimes the mouth, but struggled with the images of avatars. This was further compounded by the introduction of non-human avatars. However, the eye tracking data showed that all participants struggled to ascertain any emotional perception from avatars, human or non-human. While the majority of human subjects were viewed by looking at the eyes only, or the eyes and then the mouth, the avatars were scanned for other facial and explicable features. When an object such as a hand or jewelry was introduced into the foreground, this was ignored in human images but always viewed in the images of avatars. Detail results of this study can be seen in the publication listed below.

Pivec M. & Pivec P. (2009) Misconceptions about being Digital. Chapter in Robert Zheng. (Eds.): Adolescent Online Social Communication and Behavior: Relationship Formation on the Internet. (IGI Global Publishing, in Press, 2009)

Games in Schools

vancouver — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:27:05 +0000

Literature Review for ISFE

Students today are critical of educational games as the expected quality of a commercial recreational game is often missing. Modifying commercial games has become popular to avoid this, as has allowing the student to design their own game – either to concept level or a prototype if resources allow. Where the computer game is used in the classroom for research, it will often be an educational game specifically developed for the purpose, and often by the researcher. Where a game is utilized as part of a lesson, it will tend to be a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), and often a recreational game, or a commercial game that has been modified for the desired learning outcome.

We were fortunate to be ask to complete a literature review as part of Work Package 2 of the ISFE-EUN Partnership work plan – Games in Schools. The specifics included a review of available literature in the field of game-based learning and specifically how it relates to teaching in the classroom. Hence we provided a critical analysis of some of these studies including a summary of the methodologies employed. The discussion includes the benefits and perceived problems associated with video games, providing specific examples of the use of game-based learning within the curriculum.

To conclude, we analysed the characteristics of video games and suggest how this method of teaching can support the learning process. As games can extend outside the classroom, they provide an ideal platform for study aids and to assist with learning impairments. The medical profession has been quicker on the uptake of this technology than has academia and examples were documented in this report.

The entire report can be download from here and we will present the findings at the request of the ISFE (Interactive Software Federation of Europe) at the 2009 Game Based Learning conference in London.

Movement Based Games

vancouver — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:56:51 +0000

Published research showing that academic achievement can be predicted through the use of cognitive assessments include the tests of working memory, pattern matching, and cognitive skills known as chunking. This has led to the popularity of games and products such as Brain Training and Mind Fitness. Sadly, all these games appear to do is to teach the player how to pass the cognitive test. As we know, practice make perfect and by practicing a cognitive test, the participant will always get better and achieve higher scores. However, does this lead to improved academic achievement?

Movement based games such as Dance Dance revolution (DDR) have been used extensively for physical therapy to treat both obesity in children and for general exercise of young and old alike. However, there has been no research linking any of these movement games with an improvement in cognitive abilities. Our research has shown that players of both DDR and Guitar Hero use Visual searching, pattern matching, and memory chunking as they progress through the levels. Interestingly, they perform these cognitive tasks this without being aware of what they are called. These games place a high cognitive load on working memory. A 4-minute DDR song requires over 1600 dance pad moves, each move is observed, recognized, converted, memorized, and then actioned; up to 7 times per second. Pattern recognition and the rapid conversion to a sequence, chunking these sequences, and storing temporarily would involve the visuo-spatial sketchpad component of working memory.

Many teaching institutions, such as the Scottish Centre for Learning, have introduced Brain Training games into their classroom in the belief that it will improve the cognitive skills of the students. If exercising cognitive skills increases academic achievement, then perhaps movement based games such as DDR should also be included into the mainstream curriculum.