Educational technology is essential to help children develop a digital literacy, but there are still questions about the effectiveness of educational technology – particularly when it comes to games and simulations, which have become known for for their entertainment qualities than their persuasive or educational abilities.

Although the games for learning field is still young, scholars can count on several “facts” about games that make them perfect for teaching and learning. This series of blog posts will investigate these game facts.

Previously, we discussed active learning environment of games and flow.

3) Video game avatars do affect the way players interact, in both positive and negative ways. The proper utilization of avatars can reduce barriers like a lack of self-confidence.

Nick Yee calls this the “Proteus effect.” The Proteus effect refers to the idea that “an individual’s behavior conforms to their self-representation independent of how others perceive them.” In one study Yee found that young people with an aesthetically pleasing avatar with more intimate with their peers in the game than those with less attractive avatars. In another one of his studies, those with taller avatars behaved more confidently than those with shorter avatars, matching studies of how taller and shorter people behave in a real-world experiment. Avatars can be harnessed for a more confident, active learning environment in a virtual landscape.

Educational games are designed to teach subjects like science and mathematics, but schools also teach students more abstract concepts, like how to collaborate on projects and how to respect diversity and social boundaries. As with disciplines, some students have an easier time with the social aspects of schools than others. Shy or insecure students, who would improve with the one-on-one guidance and encouragement, are increasingly getting lost in a classroom that demands teachers drill large classes in how to pass a standardized test rather than provide a nurturing environment for growth.

A virtual world can hardly be expected to replace traditional classrooms, but with the use of avatars those students who suffer from low self-esteem or those that don’t feel comfortable being themselves can, however briefly, explore a world with a completely different form. If Yee’s Proteus Effect is real then teachers can use customizable avatars to help introverted students confidently approach problems in a free virtual environment. Games like MinecraftEDU are already exploring the idea of letting kids enter a virtual world with custom avatars, letting the teacher dictate what concepts the students learn in this environment, providing only the tools to create an entertaining interactive experience.

Educational technology is essential to help children develop a digital literacy, but there are still questions about the effectiveness of educational technology – particularly when it comes to games and simulations, which have become known for for their entertainment qualities than their persuasive or educational abilities.

Although the games for learning field is still young, scholars can count on several “facts” about games that make them perfect for teaching and learning. This series of blog posts will investigate these game facts.

1) Video games are designed to convey complex ideas and practice these concepts repeatedly – these abilities can be used for serious purposes.

It’s an old game design adage that players don’t read the instruction book; game designers must account for the large majority that doesn’t want to read a book before experiencing play. A game should be easy enough to comprehend right from the game’s opening screen that the engaged player can understand controls and objectives from the start. Unfortunately there is a similar problem with today’s educational system; there are those that do not want to “read the booklet” or simply study theory when practicing these ideas and concepts is far more engaging, even in some cases entertaining.

Educational games are designed to play free of the “instruction book—” games like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail take concepts like geography and history and make them an intrinsic part of gameplay. And through gameplay players gradually learn educational concepts like the distance between different countries in Europe or the historical diet of settlers moving out West in the 1800′s. James Paul Gee posits that this kind of “active learning” is more effective than reading the same kind of concepts in a textbook and testing them on the subject. While games don’t necessarily guarantee active learning, a well-designed game has a better chance of engaging the player/learner than any one text can possibly accomplish.

Intelligent, committed and creative teachers can engage the student and produce an active learning environment, but that kind of experience is only possible in smaller-sized classrooms and with students who are all roughly at the same level in the material. Today’s schools are facing budget cuts upon budget cuts and classrooms are expanding every year. The active learning environment is becoming a distant dream in many cases. Even if access to a computer is limited, giving students a short time with a cheap tablet and truly engaging educational programs can help to improve the educational experience even if it cannot fix the whole of what has gone wrong with the public school system.

I had the pleasure of attending the 9th annual Games for Change festival this June, a celebration of “serious” games with high goals and expectations for the budding medium. In my first report I discussed the importance of transfer when making a video game for education; in the second I talked about open-ended game play. Here is the third and final rule.

3) If all else fails, have them make the game themselves. Using game design as a teaching tool in the classroom was a major theme over the weekend. Whether teachers use game design tools such as GameStar Mechanic or adapt scientific and mathematical concepts to creative puzzles in Portal 2, more and more educators and designers are seeing the power of invoking the students’ own creativity and interests, and thus their engagement. Better still, an interest in game design can open a whole new creative experience for students, one dependent on STEM skills that might otherwise be dismissed as “boring.” The technology showcased at Games for Change revealed a sliding scale of abstraction and technical complexity, from Gamestar Mechanic, a completely GUI-based tool for middle schoolers, to more complex tools like GameSalad and Microsoft’s Kodu. Valve, the company behind puzzle game Portal, has created a level-building tool specifically for teaching physics and scientific concepts by having players create their own puzzles and adventures.

Because the kids learn through doing, they take ownership of their own education; rather than just getting a Game Over when they mess up, students have to account for boring play or unwinnable challenges to their friends and peers, otherwise known as their playtest group. On the other hand, when they succeed they don’t just get to win the game — they have created something to be proud of and return to time and time again.

I had the pleasure of attending the 9th annual Games for Change festival this June, a celebration of “serious” games with high goals and expectations for the budding medium. In my first report I discussed the importance of transfer when making a video game for education. Here is the second rule.

2) Don’t spoon feed game play. The best educational games are open. There’s a game design rule that has always proven again and again to be true – don’t depend on the instruction book to teach game play; no one reads them. It’s the same with educational videogames. Walls of text and specific linear game play, leading kids on a leash, doesn’t lead children to ask questions or think critically about the material; it’s about as helpful as leading a kid through an instruction book on the concepts you are trying to teach. They’ll tune out.

Jessica Millstone of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Allisyn Levy of BrainPOP presented case studies where teachers flocked to games that didn’t explicitly explain rules, instead opening both players and teachers to multiple styles of play and instruction. The Lure of the Labyrinth, for example, releases players into the game world after a short narrative comic, with no explanation for how to play or what mathematical concepts the game will teach. It is up to the player and their instructor to experiment with the point-and-click interface, which allows children to explore and problem-solve and teachers to provide any level of instruction. Another example, the educational version of Minecraft, duplicates the original commercial game’s open-ended sandbox design, while giving instructors extra powers to better harness the world to their own instructional purposes. Attending educators were especially pleased with Minecraft.edu’s versatility and their ability to craft lessons around its simple block-based game play — teaching children things like collaboration alongside traditional mathematical lessons.

In the final part, I’ll talk about one of the most popular topics at this year’s Games for Change – having kids design their own games for learning.