Day 6

Day 6 brought some interesting events.

Two of the students had been playing at the internet cafe over the weekend and had finished advanced training and were now teleported to another aprt of the game. They had also moved over level 24 and were able to use magic and advanced weapons, as well as train and ride different creatures.

This was fine however, as they agrees to return to where the other players were and help them through. The session went really well, I was able to get more video footage of their conversations, as well as all six desktop videos, this time we tested them and they all worked.

The next challenge is to devise a method of using the videos as each one ranges between 6 to 8 Gigabytes in size. I took my portable hard drive in, but a 6 gig video file would take about 2 hours to copy over from the PC. So what to do? Do I take my hard drive in tomorrow and ask them to copy each of the six files over, which would take about 8 hours, or do I take the kids in to the cafe to watch the video? I thought of recording the sessions into Soundforge on my laptop or even using the old fashioned Sony portable tape recorder.

I think I'll just take my portable hard drive into the shop in the morning and ask them to copy the files over through the day, that way I can access the kids at school without having to take them out of school. we can just do the interviews at school and I can record them straight into my lap top. I might even be able to match the video files up with their dialogue!! The aim of this is the "stimulated recall" mentioned below, the identification of cognitive processes as they play. Tomorrow will be an interesting day.

Day 4 & 5

I thought I would put these 2 days together as they were very similar. By now the kids have the routine down pat and we arrive and they just get into it. I barely have time to set the camera up and they are away. The camera is still recording the room and their interactions but no game play. I am relying on the desk top recording software for that... The three kids working together are slightly more advanced than the other three but we are seeing some lovely cooperative play and amazing conversations. I have been observing their play and their conversations;they have this ability to concentrate and play the game, as well as have three or four conversations at he same time going on. When someone needs help they sometimes direct a question to a player that is near them or in a more advanced situation, and sometimes just call out randomly and someone from the group will usually, but not always answer their question. Both days produced some stunning play, but the big disappointment was the desktop video recording software which didn't record the play properly. gasp

The internet cafe guy, Justin, said he had tested it, but on another game!It showed the player logging on and clicking on the play icons, but as soon as the game screen came up the screen went black, which meant only the video recordings of the room and discourse survived the fifth day. So I have scheduled another days play and we have installed another piece of desktop video software called "hypercam" Which we tested and it worked. So we have rescheduled another special session where I will record the play with the new software. Thanks to Flynn, my 12 year old son who suggested it after playing World of Warcraft, and reading in the forums that players use hypercam and "Frapp" to video their game play. So we figured that if it worked with WoW it would work with Rappelz!

I have also remembered some research spoken of by Dr John Edwards called "stimulated recall", You can read about how researchers used this method to examine student in-class thinking . In this method they had two video cameras, one pointing at the student and one pointing at the teacher giving a lesson. They recorded the lesson and the teacher as well then did a very quick edit and dubbing at the end of the lesson on to another tape using a split screen. The student then watched the teacher teach and themselves during the lesson, the student was able to stop and start the tape to talk about what he/she were thinking at certain points in the lesson. They discovered some amazing things about what students were actually thinking about during a lesson.

I have an idea to create a variation on this method, by using the video of the game play and have the students watch themselves playing on video and be able to stop and start the video and explain what they were thinking during the game. This I hope to match to James Paul Gee's 36 learning principles which are embedded in "good" video games and that he feels are too often neglected in schools. These include points such as the self-knowledge principle (learners should learn not only about an external domain but also about themselves and their capacities), the situated meaning principle (the meaning of signs are situated in embodied experience), and the discover principle (overt telling should be kept to a minimum, allowing opportunities for learners to experiment and make discoveries.) As Derek W rightly commented on this blog, that I might have some hunches about what is going on but I have to try and show evidence for what I think is happening. I think Gee's 36 principles might be a good start.

James Paul Gee in "What video Games have to teach us about literacy and learning", discusses how video games teach children about semiotic domains, or systems of symbols and meaning, such as those found in a video game, which he describes as a form of literacy. A traditional concept of literacy is being able to read and write, whereas in this context we are talking about a broader definition; the ability to decode images, symbols, graphs, diagrams and artifacts in specific contexts. Gee argues that video games provide opportunities for learning in a virtual environment where players can experiment with solutions to problems without severe consequences for error.

This element of “play” and experimentation leads to the development of systems of mastery that are constantly challenged by higher levels of play. True learning is based in experiences that the learner is able to build on.

Learning in a real situation or authentic way gives opportunities for meaningful learning, this is called situated cognition.

StevenJohnson argues that over the last thirty years popular culture has becomes more cognitively demanding. Despite television being passive rather than interactive activity, the plot lines and narrative devices used in today's television shows are much more demanding than they were thirty years ago - compare "The Simpson's" to "The Mary Tyler-Moore Show".

Johnson's argument is that same skills exercised in modern pop culture are useful in the modern world and also correlate with the type of intelligence measured by IQ tests. As generations grow up more engaged in behavior that exercises this type of intelligence, their IQ scores rise. He asserts that this may be an explanation for the Flynn Effect, a steady increase in IQs over the last forty years.

He also discusses the different aspects of gaming psychology. The driving force that keeps you hooked on a game is what he terms “seeking.” He uses Grand Theft Auto as an example; the player drives around wherever he wishes, seeing new scenes around every corner.

“. . . Most of the time when you’re hooked on a game, what draws you in is an elemental form of desire: the desire to see the next thing. You want to cross that bridge to see what the east side of the city looks like. . . .”

Probing

Probing is the action that seeking induces. Computer games now are not self-explanatory and obvious. The player has to explore the world before he can reach his goal. This includes exploring the rules of the game and the physics of the game world.

“You sit down at the computer and say, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ You’re supposed to figure out what you’re supposed to do. You have to probe the depths of the game’s logic to make sense of it, and like most probing expeditions, you get results by trial and error, by stumbling across things, by following hunches” .

Some of these rules you can learn just by reading the manual; others have to be discovered by playing. My students did not read the manual, they improved their skill by playing the game itself, gaining new knowledge then applying that knowledge in new situations. So the learning is situated in an authentic context, but skills and competencies learned to progress to one level might not work at a higher level, so they need to be adapted and re-learned in the context of prior learning or experience.

Probing constructs the hierarchy of tasks that facilitate telescoping. This means that the gamer must keep long-term goals in mind as well as the current objectives at hand.

“I call the mental labor of managing all these simultaneous objectives ‘telescoping’ because of the way the objectives nest inside on another like a collapsed telescope. I like the term as well because part of the skills lie in focusing on immediate problems while still maintaining a long-distance view” .

Telescoping:

According to Johnson, multitasking is the action of doing multiple, unrelated things at once, and telescoping is doing multiple actions with a single objective in mind. Johnson differentiates between the two by saying, "Telescoping should not be confused with multitasking. Holding this nested sequence of interlinked objectives in your mind is not the same as classic multitasking teenager scenario, where they’re listening to their iPod while instant messaging their friends and Googling for research on a term paper. Multitasking is the ability to handle a chaotic stream of unrelated objectives".

Johnson talks about the result of multitasking which he calls Continuous Partial Attention. He explains this by saying, “It usually involves skimming the surface of the incoming data, picking out the relevant details, and moving on to the next stream."

Multimedia pioneer Linda Stone has coined this valuable term for this kind of processing: continuous partial attention. You’re paying attention, but only partially. That lets you cast a wider net, but it also runs the risk of keeping you from really studying the fish. In other words, continuous partial attention is the result of multitasking where things don’t get studied in depth; they are only looked at on a surface level. Johnson differentiates multitasking and telescoping even further by explaining this idea of continuous partial attention.

Mark Prensky in "Don't Bother Me Mom I'm learning", argues that the increased complexity and cognitive demands of video games is changing the way the human brain develops, that "the Digital Natives" actually think differently. Repeated exposure to video games and other digital media was found to develop and enhance certain thinking skills, for example, the ability to read visual images as representations of three dimensional spaces, and Inductive Discovery – acting like a scientist by making observations, formulating hypotheses, and figuring out the rules governing the behaviour of a dynamic representation.

Day 3

Day 3 went much more smoothly, however I realise that my playing skills are so much slower than the kids, and they have jumped ahead. I resigned myself to giving up and moving around the room watching the kids play, as I was missing out on too much action in the game. The video capture software is hopefully capturing their game play.

My video camera is capturing their language and discussion, as they seem to have split into two distinct groups. Jordan and Scott have gained higher levels and teamed up with Amy across the table and are working together. Amy is actually the furthest through the game. I suppose I imagined that the boys would be better at this - gender prejudice?

It seems that there is three stages of training, elementary, Intermediate and advanced. They are now working through their advanced training, still on training island though. The other three Harley, Sophie and Stuart are also working together, but at a lower level, not quite moving at the pace of the other three. There are characters in the game that one must talk to - these are guides for the different levels that describe the tasks required to move further into the game.

The complexity of the game is quite astounding, and the kids seem to grasp the rules through experimentation rather than reading the game -play web site. They also gather implements, clothing, weapons, food and of course money. They frequently add powers and skills to their "skill tree". At higher levels one can collect spells and use magic. interesting to see their cooperation emerging, they also run off and play by themselves at times, then team up later at strategic points once they have completed tasks.



You can see examples of game play here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il24RJz9NX4

and here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtGi_E7aV7A&mode=related&search=

The player guides are worth reading in the forum section of the web site:

http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=420293

The comprehensive newbie guide is useful:

http://rappelz-forum.gpotato.com/viewtopic.php?t=310373

MMORPGs for e e Learning

Can the technologies and design principles associated with online gaming support valid forms of ee-learning? What's the other e in ee?

"Historically, electronic and experiential learning have been unique and separate domains of study and practice. The joining of the two e’s in “ee-learning” provides an opportunity to define and organize an emerging pedagogy that brings together these two domains."
Jim Morrison the Editor-in-Chief of Innovate

In their case study, Joey Lee and Christopher Hoadley describe how educators in a summer technology enrichment camp employed two massively multiplayer online games to educate their students about cultural stereotypes, design principles, and how technology can serve as a mediator for different cultures. When the students adopted the identities of online characters with genders and characteristics different than their own, they experienced life as "the other" and soon discovered themselves receiving significantly different treatment from others in unanticipated ways. This eye-opening experience left the students with a more nuanced, less essentialist perspective of diversity, and they drew upon this perspective to design a series of Web sites and projects designed to promote cross-cultural understanding.
(See http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=348

Day 2 - IN "the diary of a digital immigrant"

Day 2 went much better. We arrived and Kathryn at the cafe had also compared notes with her 10 year old son at home, and gave us a quick run down of what he had said. She explained the training island and showed us some of the controls, to make a party a guild, how to make your character sit down etc. See the Player Guide. We were able to quickly get the remaining unregistered player registered by making a temporary e-mail address at yahoo.com.

On the way down in the van I sort of managed to explain my idea of getting us all together in the game, since I was only using my screen for video capture.The thinking behind this was economy of video size; even though all the computer have the software installed, 1 hour of recording makes a file about 6 gigs in size, so the logistics of acquiring and transporting 42 gigs of video in each session was prohibitive. So I made the decision to use just mu PC for video capture...However the interesting thing from today was that the kids were much faster than me in doing the first 8 levels!

They all managed to get through the first 8 levels and be teleported into the main game much quicker than I did. The "digital natives" just learned the game and played the game at a pace I couldn't match! I had the idea of being a kind of Vygotskian mediated instructor, although as it turned out, the kids did most of the instructing! Consequently the first hour of my desktop real time video capture was just my character running around trying to score enough points by killing the lionesque creatures in the training land and collecting money. The others were all off in the main game having fabulous adventures and teaching each other how to play. I knew my only chance was to concentrate and try and get to level 8 as quickly as possible.We had to go half an hour over time for me to eventually be teleported into the main game where to my astonishment the other had all gathered at one point waiting for me, biding their time by collectively teaming up and taking on a series of more powerful opponents. They had mastered a strategy in my absence - that was that you could beat a bigger more powerful opponent by force of numbers.I was astounded.

Scott, the leader from the 1st session had formed a "party" and the final few minutes of the session I managed to find them on my map, move rapidly to find them, join the 'party', which I had to be invited to do by the founding member - and we were able to actually get some video footage from my screen cam of the whole group gathered together on top of a hill. We experimented with some commands like emotions etc and managed to all sit down! We were one, a group - finally united.



There was no objection to my character "Kandorf" being part of the group and I was accepted as an equal. In the van on the way back to school we excitedly discussed the possibility of doing some "quests" together. We parted ways in a very excited mood, as I rushed off to my next meeting. I am excited about the next session, becoming united with the group was a huge achievement. I can't wait to play again - am I "addicted"?

Day 1 reflection

Day 1 finally arrived and as we pulled away in the van I kept running over in my head whether or not I had the right video tapes and the camera and tripod etc. The kids, my six year nine "goths" buzzed in the back of the van. They seemed very intrigued about what we were doing and why, but very excited.
"This," I thought to myself, "is what school should be like - a buzz".

We parked the van only seconds away and arrived at the door of the cafe. We were greeted by Justin, the owner of And Computers which is a computer shop but has a adjoining e-mail/internet cafe. He introduced us to Kathryn (his wife as we would fine out later), who showed us to the computers, four on one side and 3 on the other. I was able to set up my video camera and take in all the players. All the software was installed on the computers, including the real time video capture software - great service guys.

Day 1 was really just a get to know you day as we struggled to get each player's log in and pass word set up. To do this we had to go to the games site and register, once we got through he mine field of filling out the online forms, the site then sent an e-mail to your e-mail address. Once you opened that you could then click on a link to activate your registration - your user ID and Password.

The problem was that the kids could not access their school e-mails from outside the school, and so had to establish temporary e-mail addresses at hotmail. The registration system seems to have a problem with hotmail addresses and would not activate the registration. However after persevering and mucking around we eventually got everyone except two boys into the game, and although we messed around for another 40 minutes, one boy was still not able to get into the game by the end of the session - which meant the others raced off into the game, happily playing and experimenting, while we struggled to get all the players on board! One boy in particular, Scott made spectacular progress in the session and discovered that the first 8 levels of the game are a "training session", on an island and once you get to that level you are then teleported in to the full game itself.

So at the end of the first session we had two players and myself who had hardly started and then the other four, including the girls at varying degrees of levels 1 - 8 in the training, including Scott who had completed the training and was racing around the main game!

My expectation of us all moving through the levels simultaneously in a civilised orderly manner seemed blown out of the water, I had no video footage of game play and I had stopped the camera waiting for us to begin to play. In retrospect I should have videoed this session as it would have revealed some valuable insights into the pitfalls of research using MMORPGs!

I arrived back the first day feeling very despondent - My players were all over the show in the game, how would I get us all together so I could get some cooperation and collaborative play?

Later that night I downloaded the client onto my desktop at home, (which took 2 hours) and discussed the day with my 12 year old. He registered his user name and password from his iBook in his room and I realised that one thing anyone should do who was trying to replicate this research or improve on it, is get the players registered before hand! Then they can just come in and play immediately!

This is what I learned from Day 1. Even if things go wrong you can still get valuable data about how they handle it and what happens. Don't make judgments about what is good data and bad data - it's all data.

My research into MMORPGs and Learning - Introduction

My research into MMORPGs and learning has finally got underway.The plan was originally to use World of Warcraft as the vehicle for a "virtual ethnology", to quote Constance Steinkuhler. However, getting hold of the game to install for seven players, and then organising the subscription for them proved to be too much of a barrier. We decided to go with a very similar MMORPG called Rappelz. which is free. More about that shortly.


Also, I have just started a new job at William Colenso College, in Napier NZ, and although I got a surprisingly good level of interest from the technician and HOD ICT, and fantastic support from the principal and year 9 curriculum director, the fact that the school ICT infrastructure had been set up to prevent exactly what I was proposing, in the end was too much. The download of the client in itself was 1.6 Gigabytes, and we couldn't get it to run on the PCs in the lab we tried it in, it seems the video cards weren't up to it. However I plan to interview them both for their ideas on what the barriers are and would be in the average school and include that in my study as well. The ideal situation would be to play the game in the school environment as one of my ideas is that if we can include the games culture in our learning culture and blend them we might get the best of both worlds not the worst! Also the message is that school can be an exciting and engaging place to be, where youth culture and media literacy is embraced rather than alienated.

Anyway the outcome was that we decided to go to a local Internet cafe/online gaming place that is very close to the school. The mother/baby learning unit agreed to lend me their van in the middle of the day and I negotiated 5 sessions with the cafe for $50 all up, i.e. $10 per session for all seven players, which is pretty good. The owner was king enough to install the game on all seven PCs, and also some software for real time screen video capture, which is fantastic - I could record each session with a video camera set up in the room to capture the real time dialogue and conversations and also reference that with the real time video screen capture. The program records the session and saves it as a .avi file.

I am also interviewing each student with a list of questions about video games and learning, what they expect, whether they think video games have a place in learning etc. This will hopefully give me the triangulation I need. My plan is to synchronize the 2 videos and use a coding system to find evidence for socio cultural or high level learning/21st century competencies etc having just finished James Paul Gees book "What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy", I am hoping to develop a set set of categorories that I can use to explore my data for evidence.

Kate, the year 9 Curriculum Director has selected 6 students from 2 year 9 classes. The school is a bit different in that they are using home group classes with one teacher in the junior school, although the classes do have specialised sessions for ICT and technology. She describes this group as "the goths". Having met them, they don't particularly seems that Gothic, but they are perhaps the more "arty" or "alternative" or maybe "geeky" kids. Anyway they are a wonderful group and out of the six, two are girls, so I will have some interesting gender issues to examine as well, it will be interesting to see what I find!! Here goes...