Gaming in the School Library
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Gaming in the School Library: the How & Why Beth Gallaway offers a presentation of best practices in literacy-based gaming of all types from in U.S. libraries, including a guide to launching gaming at your library, no matter what your size, space, staff or budget.
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Gaming in the School Library
- 1. Gaming in the School Library: The HOW & WHY Presented by Beth Gallaway for [email_address] West October 2009 Monterey CA
- 4. Gaming = Literacy Aa B b Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz X 01000001 &4 /3 I2 5
- 17. Game Design Elements* * Slides provided courtesy of Chris Castaldi chris.castaldi@gmail.com
- 18. Probe, Hypothesize, Reprobe, Rethink
- 19. Games, Learning & Society http://www.gameslearningsociety.org/research.php
- 20. Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom http://www.playingtolearn.org/
- 21. Best Practices
- 22. Board Gaming in School Libraries http://sls.gvboces.org/gaming/
- 29. Scrabble Club Woburn Public Library, MA
- 30. MA Curriculum Frameworks: English
- 31. MA Curriculum Frameworks: Language Strand
- 32. Max
- 33. MA Curriculum Frameworks: History
- 34. Ancient Civilizations Elba Central School District, Elba, NY
- 35. MA Curriculum Frameworks: US History I Standards
- 36. 1960: The Making of the President Oakfield-Alabama Middle-High School Media Center, Oakfield, NY
- 37. MA Curriculum Standards: Science
- 38. Power Grid Letchworth Central School, Gainesville, NY
- 39. Simulation Games
- 40. Simulation Games
- 41. Civilization “ The experience of playing Civilization III is a cerebral blend of planning, building, managing, and competing with other civilizations; in this study, that experience appealed to students who were interested in geography or enjoyed building and managing virtual societies and using mathematics in game play.” Squire, K.. 2005. “Changing the game: What happens when video games enter the classroom?” Innovate 1 (6). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=82 (accessed September 29, 2009).
- 42. In-House DS Circulation Pierce County Library System South H i ll, OR http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/pierceds.html
- 43. DS Games for In-House Circulation http://www.delicious.com/informationgoddess29/ds
- 44. Link to Serious Games http://www.gamesforchange.org
- 45. Ayiti: The Cost of Life http://costoflife.ning.com/
- 48. Darfur is Dying www.darfurisdying.com
- 49. MarioKart/Super Smash Tournament Ann Arbor District Library, Ann Arbor, MI http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/aadlssbbkart.html
- 50. Madden NFL Tournament PLCMC, Charlotte NC http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/plcmcmadden.html
- 51. Library WoW CALS Little Rock, AR http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/calswow.html
- 52. Library D&D www.acrl.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teentechweek/ttw08/resourcesabcd/techguide_dnd.pdf
- 53. LAN Party University of Alabama, Huntsville AL http://lib.uah.edu/lanparty/
- 55. Golfing in the Stacks University of Hartford Library, West Hartford, Connecticut http://libraryminigolf.org/
- 56. National Gaming Day 11/14/09 http://ngd.ala.org
- 57. Career Night Phoenix Community College, Phoenix, AZ http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/pcl.html
- 58. Rocket Boys Big Game Reidland High School, Paducah, KY http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/rhsbiggame.html
- 61. Information Literacy Instruction Using Fantasy Football http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/uodfantasyfootball.html
- 62. Game Design: College Students Creating Games with Middle School Students Manhattanville College, NY http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/manhattanville.html
Notas do Editor
- Born with a chip? (tech savvy, out of fearlessness) Trophy kids (overscheduled, driven to achieve) Direct (prefer honesty & transparency) Smarter (IQ tests getting harder, they do better!) Social Competitive Wired Self-aware Always On Heroic Multi-taskers Global Collaborative Risk Takers From John Beck & Mitchell Wade’s Book Got Game, which compared characteristics identified by gamer and boomer generation workers Healthier (less likely to smoke & do drugs, more likely to exercise, less violent) More liberal (multiculturally and globally aware) More conservative (patriotic and spiritual) Well-balanced
- Tools and toys in new technologies have burgeoned over the last 20 years, and so has our understanding of what literacy is and can be. Awareness of what it takes to be an active and engaged participant in society has changed; so libraries have changed the way they understand, promote and support literacy. Libraries have provided collections, programs and services in support of traditional literacy skills for centuries. Today, ideas of what literacy is include digital, information and communication technology (ICT), media, programming, and visual. Reading and understanding information is vital. In all these literacies, users are required to produce new knowledge from their informed conclusions and to share that new knowledge with their communities. Libraries of all types promote the development of literacy skills in numerous ways: information literacy classes in colleges and universities, gaming programs to promote problem solving and the development of higher order thinking skills in public libraries, and other services that improve technical and literary fluency. Regardless of the type of service libraries may provide, they are all important in strengthening these multiple literacies. There is no doubt that gaming and literacy go hand-in-hand. If you can’t read, you can’t play. Games come with instructions, menus, and more. Learning the language and mechanics of any game, from chess to Little Big Planet, involves acquiring a new vocabulary.
- The condition or quality of being literate, especially the ability to read and write. The condition or quality of being knowledgeable in a particular subject or field: cultural literacy; biblical literacy. Answers.com. http://www.answers.com/topic/literacy. Accessed February 9, 2009. The use of multimodal literacies has expanded the ways we acquire information and understand concepts. Ever since the days of illustrated books and maps texts have included visual elements for the purpose of imparting information. The contemporary difference is the ease with which we can combine words, images, sound, color, animation, video, and styles of print in projects so that they are part of our everyday lives and, at least by our youngest generation, often taken for granted. ~NCTE. Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies. http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/multimodalliteracies (accessed February 17, 2009). Images: Book of Hours, 15th Century, France. Lehigh University, Special collections. http://cf2.cc.lehigh.edu/projects/exhibits.asp?id=3&num=02&exp=false. (accessed February 17, 2009). Guitar Hero III Manual. Activision, 2008. Replacement Docs. http://www.replacementdocs.com/request.php?6488 (accessed February 17, 2009).
- Print Literacy is the to read and write proficiently. Card games, like Pokemon and Magic: the Gathering , require deciphering the academic language of if/then clauses to determine the outcome of the battles that ensue when cards are played. James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy ALA. Office for Outreach and Literacy Services. www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/olos/index.cfm. February 16, 2009. Resources on literacy outreach to specific populations. National Institute for Literacy.www.nifl.gov. February 16, 2009. A federal agency providing leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults.
- 21 st century is the ability to use a range of tools and skills to communicate and participate in today’s society. Authentic, modern board games such as 1960: the Making of a President, Settlers of Catan, Snorta, and Power Grid! provide a learning environment that presents a variety of new challenges, supports creative problem solving, and provides support for overcoming failure. All of these skills can be linked to national standards for student achievers. For more information, check out the Genesee Valley BOCES training on using modern board games in the library. ALA Information Literacy Wiki. http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php/Information_Literacy. January 27, 2009. Contains resources for all types of libraries on information competency or fluency. ACRL Information Literacy. www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/issues/infolit/informationliteracy.cfm. January 27, 2009. Association of College & Research Libraries Information Literacy (ACRL) Information Literacy website is a gateway to resources on information literacy. Digital Directions. www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/01/21/03techlit.h02.html. January 27, 2009. Provides an overview of literacy in the 21st century. NCTE. The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies. NCTE, 2008. www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition. January 27, 2009. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTA) position statement on 21st century literacy includes technology proficiency and working with multimedia among other skills. NoodleTools on 21st Century Literacy. Noodle Tools, 2008. www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/. January 27, 2009. Provides overview of skills needed to locate, retrieve, assess and use information Partnership for 21st Century Learning. Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2008. www.21stcenturyskills.org/. January 27, 2009. This organization offers a unified, collective vision for 21st century learning that can be used to strengthen American education. Warlick, David. Warlick's CoLearners. 2008. www.davidwarlick.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedefiningLiteracyForThe21stCentury. January 27, 2009. Online handouts for Redefining Literacy and Literacy & Learning presentations.
- Visual Literacy is the ability to interpret, assess, process and make meaning from visual images. Games like Pictureka ® or I Spy ® develop visual literacy skills. Baker, Frank. Visual Literacy. 2008. www.frankwbaker.com/vl_defined.htm. January 27, 2009. Visual literacy definition. International Visual Literacy Association. www.ivla.org/. January 27, 20o9. An organization dedicated to research study and publication of visual literacy. Visual Literacy. Wikipedia. 2009. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy Article on visuacy.
- Media Literacy is the ability to critically assess messages presented by media outlets such as newspapers, blogs, television shows, and movies. A videogame discussion group to talk about issues of gender, race, and violence in games develops media literacy skills. Center for Media Literacy. www.medialit.org/. Center for Media Literacy, 2008. January 27, 2009. Best practices, resources and lesson plans for media literacy. Media Literacy.com. Media Literacy.com, 2009. www1.medialiteracy.com/library.jsp. January 27, 2009. Resources for advancing media education. PBS Teachers: Media Literacy. PBS, 2009. www.pbs.org/teachers/media_lit/index.html. January 27, 2009. Resources for teachers, including activities related to PBS shows.
- Science Literacy is the ability to understand and be fluent in the nature of science and scientific methods. Power Grid provides students the chance to run a power company. Up to six students build up their companies by bidding on power plants, purchasing the resources necessary to power those plants, and expanding the network of cities they supply power to. There are a variety of resource plants available to purchase throughout the game, including: coal, oil, garbage, nuclear and wind. The resources are purchased from a free market that is replenished at the end of each turn, though the replenishment rate changes over the course of the game. Initially, fossil fuels are abundant and cheap but as the game progresses they become scarcer, driving their costs up and forcing students who depend on them too much to scramble to find alternative energy sources. Students earn money based on how many cities they are able to power each turn, and when the game ends it is the player able to power the most cities (NOT who has the most cities) that wins the game. National Science Digital Library. NSDL Science Literacy Maps. The National Science Digital Library, 2009. strandmaps.nsdl.org/. January 27, 2009. Tools for teachers and students to find resources that relate to specific science and math concepts.
- Technology Literacy is the ability to use the tools of creation and communication, such as computers, cell phones, MP3 players and more. A Big Game is one where the surroundings of the participants come into play as the game board. It can be a quest type game where the participants ‘capture’ certain things in their town such as sign posts captured digitally with cell phones and cameras. It could be a scavenger hunt where clues are searched, and answers are texted in. ISTE. National Education Technology Literacy Standards. ISTE, 2009. www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS. January 27, 2009. Standards to test proficiency, knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed in today’s Digital Age. ITEA. Technology Literacy Standards. ITEA, 2005. www.iteaconnect.org/TAA/Publications/TAA_Publications.html. January 27, 2009. Provides technological literacy standards by the International Technology Education Association (ITEA).
- The ability to understand and applying programming principles to create change in technology. Game design, from Ben 10: Alien Force Game Creator to more complex programs like Alice or Scratch, combines computational fluency, mathematics, logic, storytelling, sound and graphic design (with their implicit elements of symbology and user-orientation), systems concepts and information management in developing programming literacy skills. Edutopia. Programming: The New Literacy. The George Lucas Foundation, 2008. www.edutopia.org/programming-the-new-literacy. January 27, 2009. Success stories about what works in public education.
- Information, Communication, Technology (ICT) Literacy is the ability to learn and use software and hardware to communicate knowledge and ideas. A special set of controllers or buzzers add to the quiz show feeling of this movie trivia game. Players must learn how to use the remote controllers to play the game. Similar to Personal Response System - $2500 Personal Response System (PRS) Library: LaChance Library, Mt. Wachusett Community College uses 32 Qwizdom Q4s In Library instruction & Information literacy sessions instructors pose quiz style questions, students buzz in. Instant feedback. Please share any quotes from participants: "Can we take all our quizzes using these?" "All instructors should be using these" What advice would you give to other librarians who might want to replicate this program or service? It's worth the money to invest in a PRS. It's also worth taking the time to learn how to use the technology. It helps you reach out to multiple learning styles, and fosters discussion. ICT Digital Literacy Portal. Lempster Group, 2008. www.ictliteracy.info/. January 27, 2009. This website represents a global partnership among leading business, education, and public policy stakeholders to promote universal ICT Digital Literacy.
- Multimodal Literacy is the ability to understand and interpret the same information presented in multiple formats. National Council of Teachers of English. www.ncte.org/positions/statements/multimodalliteracies. January 27, 2009. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) position statement on multimodal literacy.
- Steinkuehler, C. (2007). Massively multiplayer online gaming as a constellation of literacy practices. eLearning, 4(3) 297-318.
- Hutchinson, David. Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom. Teacher Ideas Press/Libraries Unlimited, 2007. Classroom activities related to gaming that do not include actual game play.
- A game like Ticket to Ride employs strategy in building train routes, and teaches North American geography and map reading skills.
- A game like Snorta relies on knowledge of barnyard animals and the sounds they make
- A game like Diplomacy is centered around negotiations, alliances, teamwork, and strategy
- A game like Nanofictionary, centered on storytelling, encourages creativity and appreciation for well told tales.
- Authenticity: Avoid “Educational” games. Students (85%-90% of whom are gamers) see right through the limits of these games. The first key is quality game design. A well-designed game has more than one path to winning, and employs multiple skill sets – gets both sides of your brain working. They are designed to be fun and challenging, NOT to be educational. Alignment: Can you justify the use of the games as you would any other library resource? Are there curriculum connections? Information literacy standards met? Time: Games for use in schools must be set up, learned, and played in about 40 minutes. A public library gaming program may run for 1-3 hours. And attention span is usually about two minutes, plus age. Time is a factor. Return on Investment: If you are going to spend time learning and teaching a game, it should be the best option to meet your program goals.
- You may have to use a personal credit card and get reimbursed.
- he National School Scrabble Association contacted the Woburn Public Library to see if the library was interested in a Scrabble Club, and WPL jumped at the chance. Students from grades 3-8 (and now grades 9-12) meet weekly to play competitive Scrabble against each other and other organizations (schools, libraries, Scout troops). The club follows the official School Scrabble rules. The goals of the program are to encourage children in grades 5-8 (now 3-8) to meet weekly at the library to play Scrabble and to get them interested in playing in local, regional and national tournaments. Running the Program Burlington/Woburn tournament At the weekly meetings, kids drop in at a set time for 1 hour. They set the boards up, decide on teams, then jump right in and start playing. Burlington and Woburn Public Libraries co-host "mini-tournaments” of three rounds (tournaments are normally 5-6 rounds) twice each year, one in winter and one in summer, open to any teams that want to play. After tournaments, students and coaches usually talk about how the games went, what mistakes they realized they made, what other teams did, and what they'd do differently. During practice, feedback occurs during play so students can learn while doing. Students often keep their score sheets to track progress. If a team is being selected to go to the National Tournament in Rhode Island, there may be some competitive matches to see who is ready to go if that isn't already obvious. The National Tournament is videotaped and televised, if not in its entirety then the final round. Literacy Connections There is a strong literacy connection here as students learn new vocabulary words. Many memorize the words, but others learn the definitions as well, just as they might in spelling bees – and then play them. During gameplay, misspellings cost teams points if they're caught and challenged, so spelling counts! Many peculiar words are out there, and students love to learn them so that their opponents will challenge them and thereby lose a turn when the word turns out to be real. Some examples are words like: gox, bap, jif, qaid, za. Schools that use Scrabble as part of their curriculum have the advantage of requiring students to memorize word lists, whereas libraries that have a more recreational aspect to their programs might scare off kids by "quizzing" them on lists. The more motivated kids tend to learn the information on their own. During practice (weekly meetings) students are allowed to use the School Scrabble Association's "Cool Words to Know" tip sheet (available on the website). Their knowledge of the more peculiar words they learn on their own using the Official Scrabble dictionary, which includes words that do NOT appear in most "normal" dictionaries. It's interesting to see how motivated kids can be to learn new words! Funding A starter kit from Scrabble (which may no longer be available) includes 6 boards, tiles, racks. Egg-timers cost $49.95. Rotating boards, official timers, and specialized tiles (plastic or large print) all cost extra. Most equipment can be purchased through Wordgear, but sets are also readily available in stores. Hasbro used to donate prizes, but they no longer do, citing economy. They do provide really nice prize packets for the national tournament. Tournaments usually include snacks and drinks and prizes, which are governed by what the tournament sponsors choose to spend on them. When Burlington & Woburn Libraries have a tournament, the Friends of each library provide $50 per library for prizes, drinks and snacks. Impact The result of participation is that Scrabble scores increase; words are more complex; students understand the strategies better and improve word placement to gain higher scores. In tournaments where local participants are playing against competitors who have been coached differently, it's interesting to see how they place. During weekly sessions students play for fun, but they do keep a close eye on the score. In tournaments winners are those who place first, second and third, and occasionally there are other “contests” such as the non-winning team that plays the highest word using Q, J, X, or Z, for example. Success is measured at weekly meets by frequent attendance and enjoyment of the game as well as improvement in play. At tournaments, success is also marked by rank within the group. WPL's emphasis isn't on cutthroat play and winning, it's on enjoyment of the game and friendly competition. Some coaches take a decidedly different tack! It's interesting to note that there are very specific rules on sportsmanship on the School Scrabble website which forbid running down opponents, trash talking, disrespect, etc. Violation of sportsmanship can result in disqualification of the team and expulsion from the tournament. The impact of the WPL Scrabble Club continues to grow – schools in the area have picked up the idea and started teams, and a growing number of local libraries are also adding it to their Children's and Young Adult offerings. It is being seen less as a "nerdy" activity, which gives more kids who might have been avoiding it because of fear at being labelled an interest in trying the game. A high school Scrabble club is in the works, but getting it off the ground is proving tricky because so many high school students are involved in extracurricular activities after school. The most recent tournament was January 31, 2009.
- One of the best examples of games for young children is Max, a cooperative game from Family Pastimes. In Max, players are working together to help three woodland creatures reach the safety of their homes in the big tree before they are caught by Max the cat. Each turn, a player rolls two dice with an assortment of green and black dots. For each green dot that comes up, a woodland creature is moved; for each black dot, Max moves. If Max is getting too close, a player can use his or her turn to call Max back to the porch for a treat. This is a great game even through kindergarten and first grade for encouraging conversation and cooperation. To see the real power of the game, try playing it as a competitive game with adults. When each player has their own creature, the tone of conversation around the board turns much darker. Literacy Connections Max requires players to collaborate and to communicate effectively. Building on prior knowledge of colors is key to playing the game. Impact In Max, young players have to face two high level challenges. First, they have to work together to see the best path for all of the creatures as opposed to becoming fixated on “their” creature. Second, and even more difficult for four-year olds, they will sometimes have to sacrifice their turn to roll the dice to use their entire turn to call Max back to the porch for the greater good of all. Though it may not seem like much to us, this is asking quite a bit of young players. Budget $15.00
- To help support a fifth grade class studying ancient civilizations, she asked the director of the local School Library System, Christopher Harris, to think about developing collections of games to support certain units Fitting games to curriculum instead of arranging curriculum to incorporate specific games requires approaching games in much the same way that librarians already approach books. The search for games to support a middle school unit looking at ancient civilizations was a tumultuous search, fraught with all the danger and excitement that one might expect from a romp through the ancient days of gladiators, barbarian conquests, and Mongol assaults. In other words, not all the games selected for this unit ended up working as well as expected. When selecting modern board games for education, Brian Mayer of Genesee Valley BOCES developed four criteria: 1. The game must be an authentic game, with quality game design, not a game designed just to teach a lesson. 2. The games must meet curriculum standards, so it can be as easily justified as any other library resource. 3. The game must be playable in a standard class period. Games for use in study halls or to create casual reinforcements in a class need to be set up, learned, and played in about 40 minutes. 4. The game's return on investment is important. If a teacher is going to spend a week of class periods on a game, then it had better be the one of the best ways for students to learn a topic. All of these games passed the first test; they are all authentic games. When we looked at the second criterion, that the game must be curriculum aligned, some didn’t do so well. An example is Roma. While it is a fun little game, the dice rolling mechanic just didn’t seem to fit well enough with the ancient Rome theme to let us recommend the game as a curriculum supporting resource. The third test looks at time; setting up, learning, playing, and picking up a game takes time, sometimes a great deal of time. This is where we got worried about a few games. Perikles provides an incredibly in-depth look at ancient Greece, but takes two hours to play. In addition, it has a great deal of set-up and take down issues with tons of little wooden cubes. While this does not always remove a game from consideration, it makes us evaluate it more closely in the fourth step: does the game provide a strong return on investment? Again, Roma didn’t do so well; sure, there is a very low investment, but the return for learning is also pretty low. Perikles provided a decent level of learning, but the level of investment pushed it well out of the reach of our middle school audience (more of a college level game, probably). The final selections all did well in the evaluations. They provide a nice mixture of play styles and play times while providing a high level of enrichment and learning through game mechanics and themes. These four games are all middle school appropriate, and most can be taught and played in a single class period. Iliad game * Illiad (Asmodee USA) is a fast-paced card game that involves characters and other historical aspects of the Trojan War. * Amun-Re (Rio Grande Games) is an auction game that has players bidding to claim territories in Ancient Egypt that they will then improve with farms and pyramids. * Chang Cheng (Z-Man Games) immerses players in the political intrigues of ancient China as they work to build the Great Wall; completing a section wins you glory, but if your section is attacked by Mongols you fall into disfavor with the emperor. * Tribune (Fantasy Flight Games), our Roma replacement, is a 30 minute game where players fight to control the factions of the city in order to gain favors and meet victory conditions. Literacy Connections One nice feature of these games is that they are all language independent. After players learn the rules, there is no additional reading required during game play. This allows students for whom reading is a challenge, or students who are English language learners, to engage in a critical thinking task without worrying about language. This makes higher order thinking and our 21st-century learning skills more accessible to all, regardless of reading level. Impact Assessments can be formal or informal and are at the discretion of the school librarian and classroom teachers. Again, these games are being used in the classroom as part of lessons and units. Their value is measured by their ability to help students understand and connect with the curriculum, as well as to engage the students in an enjoyable experience. The latter is easily determined through conversation and feedback, while the prior becomes evident through more formal testing. Funding $171.89 Games were provided by the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES. * Amun-Re $39.95 * Iliad $21.99 * Tribune $59.95 * Chang Cheng $50.00
- 1960: The Making of the President is a two-player game that simulates the historic 1960 election between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. Players use cards featuring historic events, with primary source images, that influenced the outcome of the election. Card topics include the civil rights struggle, national defense issues, the economy and candidate specific events (i.e. Nixon’s Lazy Shave). Using the cards, players can highlight the event or use the card for points to perform different actions like campaigning for support in different states or building strength in the issues of the day. The game is played over several turns, including a debate phase, and concludes with elections and a count of the electoral votes. 1960: The Making of the President s fantastic sounding game, but it's a two-player that takes two to three hours to play. Brian Mayer and Chris Harris made it work, with several classes of students in the Oakfield-Alabama Middle-High School Media Center. Working with Renee Burns the teacher-librarian and a classroom teacher, we set aside a few days of class time to allow the students to work through the game. Using two copies of the game, adults split the class in half and then split those halves in half, making four teams. Each team worked together as campaign managers for the candidates, providing guidance and focus on one aspect of the game while contributing to the overall discussion of strategy and action. By bringing the students into groups and giving each student tasks, instructors were able to involve and engage the entire class. Because this is a longer game and it was being used with multiple classes, instructors needed a way to capture the information on the board. A camera wouldn’t work because there is just too much happening Map An outline map of the United States was used as a scoring sheet so that students could write in what support they had in each state, along with the other information needed in the game. By creating a scoring sheet that mirrored the playing surface, the games were able to continue over the course of several days. Marketing School librarians need to sell the concept of using gaming in the classroom. Classroom teachers and administrators need to see the level of engagement and learning that takes place when games are used as learning tools. Literacy Connections The historical-themed game 1960: Making of a President strengthens skills in critical thinking and inquiry-based research. There is reading involved, players learn new vocabulary, history and U.S. geography as they play the game. In addition, the group play required collaboration and teamwork. Budget $99.98 Games were provided by the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES. 2 copies of 1960: Making of a President: $99.98 Impact Assessments can be formal or informal and are at the discretion of the school librarian and classroom teachers. Again, these games are being used in the classroom as part of lessons and units. Their value is measured by their ability to help students understand and connect with the curriculum, as well as to engage the students in an enjoyable experience. The latter is easily determined through conversation and feedback, while the former becomes evident through more formal testing. The collaborative project was a success. The students were actively involved in the electoral process and that unique time in our country’s history. They were able to build on the knowledge they gained in the classroom and deepen their understanding by putting it to action. By bringing multiple copies of a game and having students working in groups we were able to involve all of the students in the class. In the case of games that last longer than one class period, a way to track the students progress between days is required; we also needed to modify how one of the games ended. Because of the level of engagement needed and the sophistication of the curricular content, these types of challenges can come with including games as educational resources in the high school media center. Like any resource being used, the school librarians should familiarize themselves with it before introducing it with teachers and students. Despite presenting challenges for implementation, the return on investment is very high. Students are engaging with the curriculum in a meaningful way. They are growing as learners through play!
- Power Grid provides students the chance to run a power company. Up to six students build up their companies by bidding on power plants, purchasing the resources necessary to power those plants, and expanding the network of cities they supply power to. There are a variety of resource plants available to purchase throughout the game, including: coal, oil, garbage, nuclear and wind. The resources are purchased from a free market that is replenished at the end of each turn, though the replenishment rate changes over the course of the game. Initially, fossil fuels are abundant and cheap but as the game progresses they become scarcer, driving their costs up and forcing students who depend on them too much to scramble to find alternative energy sources. Students earn money based on how many cities they are able to power each turn, and when the game ends it is the player able to power the most cities (NOT who has the most cities) that wins the game. Power Grid provides some powerful insights into energy choices, scarcity and a free market economy. At the request of Amelia White, the middle-high school teacher-librarian at Letchworth Central School, Genesee Valley BOCES staff brought in two copies of Power Grid to work with her and the environmental science teacher. The class was split into groups to work on each game. This class was smaller and did not require players to partner, but for larger classes students could partner up making it possible to involve up to 12 students per game. Working over three days, instructors introduced and guided the students through a successful gaming experience. The first day focused on game set up and walked through the game with the students, playing just one turn. Because the mechanics of each turn are the same, this set the students up to understand the flow of the game for the follow two days of game play. By using the first day as a learning experience, this keeps students from being penalized for not immediately picking up on all the nuances. This is important, especially at this level of gaming, because many modern board games feature a style of game play that students have never encountered before. On the second day, starting a fresh game to allow students to utilize the skills and knowledge they acquired from the previous day’s practice. Power Grid takes between one to two hours to complete, so we provided two full class periods over a two-day period for the students t o play. One group came close to the end of the game, while another was just a little behind them. Regardless of this difference, both groups were able to work towards the goal of finishing the game. The true victory condition is triggered by the number of cities that are connected; at that point, the player who can power the most cities is the victor. Unsure if the students would have the time to connect the number of cities necessary, instructors modified the endgame and used time to trigger the end of the game, more specifically the end of the second day. At that point, the student from each game who was able to power the most cities was the victor. This modification in no way detracted from the experience or the quality of the game and the students, many who were reluctant learners, were genuinely engaged with the gaming experience. Marketing School librarians need to sell the concept of using gaming in the classroom. Classroom teachers and administrators need to see the level of engagement and learning that takes place when games are used as learning tools. The gaming alignment documents we put together are an excellent advocacy aid for school librarians to show in support of games as educational resources. Literacy Connections The science-themed game Power Grid requires reading to play. In addition to the information on energy sources, the game covers geography and money management. Budget Games were provided by the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES. 2 copies of Power Grid: $89.90
- “ 25% of students in school situations complained that the game was too hard, complicated, and uninteresting, and they elected to withdraw from the gaming unit and participate in reading groups instead. About another 25% of the students (particularly academic underachievers) loved playing the game, thought it was a "perfect" way to learn history, and considered the experience a highlight of their school year. For these students, many of whom actively resisted school-mandated history curricula that they regarded as "propaganda," the game-based curriculum provided opportunities for replaying history and for considering hypothetical historical scenarios, such as the conditions under which a Native American tribe might have successfully resisted European settlement or even colonized Europe. In post-interviews conducted after the completion of the study, these students developed new vocabularies, better understandings of geography, and more robust concepts of world history.” (Squire 2004).
- Check out from Information Desk Teens suggest games DS/DS Lite $129, PSP $129 http://www.vgcharts.org/ in 2005, 32 % of households surveyed reported owned a handheld device that played games, up from 11% in 2004 Mobile gaming is expected in quadruple by 2010, from $2.6 billion this in 2006 to $11.2 billion by 2010. (source: Informa Telecoms and Media. “Mobile Games 2nd edition strategic report explores the entire mobile games value chain.”) According to In-Stat/MDR, the market is projected to reach $1.8 billion by 2009 in the US alone.
- Trauma Center Trauma Center: Under the Knife Play a medical intern, leaning how to operate and perform triage, advancing your skills to become a doctor. Call of Duty: In CALL OF DUTY 3, players control an infantryman marching through France after the D-Day invasion at Normandy. Working with Allied forces (players buddy up with the French Resistance, Polish troops, Scottish soldiers, and others), players participate in some of the fiercest fighting of the European ground war. In rural towns like Saint Lo, Mortain, and Chambois, players storm German positions on strategic hills, go house-to-house to clear enemies from French villages, and secure critical infrastructure (such as bridges and ports). Cut scenes elaborate on the war strategy -- giving some much-needed context -- but the game forgoes traditional narrative; instead it uses occasional bits of gallows humor or an intra-squad flare-up to set the scene.
- This is a serious game about deportation.
- Tournaments for all ages Prizes Youth commentators Online community
- The goals of the program were to bring people together at various branches throughout the system to test their skills playing the popular game of Madden Tournaments for all ages Prizes Youth commentators Online community
- The goals of the program were to bring people together at various branches throughout the system to test their skills playing the popular game of Madden Tournaments for all ages Prizes Youth commentators Online community
- The goals of the program were to bring people together at various branches throughout the system to test their skills playing the popular game of Madden Tournaments for all ages Prizes Youth commentators Online community
- Due to the response, we've decided that our three main tournaments will be in Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike: Source, and Smash Bros. Brawl. We will be adding a second console tournament shortly. November 6th Update: Big thanks to Coca-Cola for signing on as a sponsor for our LAN Party. Coke will be providing a number of cases of energy drinks, including Rock Star and their new product called Redjak. Also, drop by the registration pages for CounterStrike: Source and Team Fortress 2, as we've added the rules for those tournaments. November 4th Update: We're happy to announce some more specifics about our upcoming LAN Party today. First, we've finalized most of our plans for our tournaments as you can see above. Within the next day or two, we will decide on a final console game to be held as an official tournament game. All of our tournaments will be starting around 7:00 to 8:00 PM and will last up until 11:00 PM. Registration is open through this website, but you can also register at the door if you arrive by around 6:00 PM. Registration is not required to play other games for fun, but you will need to register with us online or at the door to participate in the official tournaments. We encourage everyone to bring whatever games and consoles that they would also like to bring, we will have plenty of screens and power outlets for a number of other games that can be played just for fun. We encourage everyone to bring Guitar Hero or Rock Band games and instruments if you have them as well. Also, we're happy to announce that we will be providing a number of door prizes and tournament prizes at the LAN Party. Door prizes will include gift certificates to the two Jazzman's coffee shops on campus, and tournament prizes will consist of cash prizes and gift certificates to the university bookstore. Thanks again, we can't wait to see you all this coming Monday evening!
- The ability to understand and applying programming principles to create change in technology. Game design, from Ben 10: Alien Force Game Creator to more complex programs like Alice or Scratch, combines computational fluency, mathematics, logic, storytelling, sound and graphic design (with their implicit elements of symbology and user-orientation), systems concepts and information management in developing programming literacy skills.
- Gaming events are hosted by the library during the end of semester study break. Holding the event required no convincing, since the student life organization held similar events. Running the Program Initially, the library staff brought in board games to play. After the success of the first study break, the library began building a board game collection that was used during each of the following semesters. The library's growing board game collection was put to good use each semester with a number of large groups of students playing games. PS2 Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) Supernova and DDR Supernova 2 were played during 2007 and spring of 2008. The mats were consistently busy with both students and library staff playing. The library used Wii Sports for the Fall 2008 study break. During the Spring 2008 Study Break, eight football student athletes set up their own DDR tournament that continued beyond the scheduled time for the study break.
- We’re still going through all of the data from National Gaming Day (November 15), but we’ve already got some pretty amazing numbers and stories. Here’s what we know so far. * 617 libraries registered to participate * 597 libraries reported results back to us * 14,184 people participated in NGD at those 597 libraries * 5,548 people played Pictureka! on Gaming Day * 1,137 people played Dungeons & Dragons or Magic: The Gathering That’s pretty amazing, given how little lead time most libraries had. Most were public libraries (95%), although we did have a few academics, schools, and even a park library and a military library participate. The anecdotes they gave us show an overwhelmingly positive response from the public. Here are just a few of my favorites (honestly - I really did pare down this list!). * “I was beaten - twice - at Pictureka by a 3-year old!” * “Our library has a tough time, as do many, with attracting tweens and teens to programs and getting them to be ‘excited about the library’. Gaming day at our library was great because kids/teens came, they were excited and enthusiastic, and had a great time. It was really great to have many of them who see me everyday asking me my name (they never really cared before) and kept asking if we would be doing more events like this and if we would definitely be doing this next year.” * “It was great to see the YA Room filled with teenage boys. We have one 8th grade patron who has been a very shy and quiet teen, but with video games he is a champ, friendly and out-going; he totally came out of his shell. Never thought a library could do that.” * “We have a library orphan that is here all the time. He uses up his computer time (2 hours) then usually gets in trouble for boredom related disturbances. On Saturday, he actually sat and played Pictureka and Scrabble with another child (and came up with several 5-7 letter words, a miracle for this non reader) Later on the boys were ‘caught’ playing Risk with 4 other children and one of our library substitutes was giving them a lesson on strategy. The best part is that this child was able to stay at the library most of the day, before he was asked to leave for playing with the big screen in the meeting room!” * “One of our teen patrons who has recently moved to our small town came to tell me that one of the video games we purchased for the programs was not compatible with the system we purchased. He asked to ride with me when I took it back and helped me pick out another game to take its place. He asked me if I owned the library. I replied that I was the director but that I didn’t own the library, I only managed it. He asked me who did own it and I replied, ‘Well, you do.’ I explained that public libraries were owned by the citizens that used them and/or lived in the community, that their taxes went to pay for the services. He thought about it for a minute and said ‘That’s really cool! I guess I’ll have to hang out here more since it’s mine.’ It made my day.” * “At least two different parents were shocked to learn that we were not charging admission for our event, and continually thanked us for hosting it. At least one parent got their first library card - we kept the entire library open, unlike at our first event where we were only open for the gaming event. This was a major plus.” * “The Pictureka! game was great for intergenerational groups. I also witnessed a non-English speaker pick up the card pieces of the game after their children had left; perhaps trying to match the word ‘hair’ with finding hair on the board, etc.” * “At one point there were eight people playing [Pictureka!] at once. The race to win was between a ten-year old and an eighty-five year old.” * “I had advertised that you could duel the librarian at Guitar Hero and cut your fine in half, or beat her and and have it erased. I had a 12 year old show up that I had never seen in the library before carrying his own guitar. His mom told me that he had been up since 6:30 waiting to come to the library. He didn’t have any fines, but I told him I would duel him for some copies of Thrasher magazines that we were selling. He stayed most of the day and thanked me over and over again for having a game day.” * “Also, one of our patrons (a crotchety old man if ever there was one) would play chess on the computer if we would let him. When he got bumped off, he came downstairs to our National Gaming Day room and played Pictureka for 3 hours straight - with patrons of all ages!” * “Two sisters who had been playing backgammon via online connection for years showed up to meet at the library for gaming day and loved it. They never thought about meeting at the library to play before. They had such a good time actually meeting face-to-face they asked if they could continue to come to the library and play. We were happy to oblige them.” * “We had a 6 year old come in with a mohawk hairdo ready to rock the library on Rock Band. He was ready to take on the high schoolers.” * “At the end time, I had to ask a group of teenagers to leave. They responded quickly and started moving toward the door and then one of them said, ‘Do you want some help with these chairs?’ At the time I was too tired to turn down help and enthusiastically said, ‘YES!’ They helped me put the room back in order very quickly, moving a dozen tables and about 50 chairs. But my favorite part of the day had to be hearing the teens cheer for each other during the Brawl contests and clap at the end of the battles. They all got along so well even though we had quite a range of ‘teenagers’ — 18 to 8!” * “The Smash Bros. Tournament drew a large, cheering crowd as the battles were very intense. I also had the joy of [seeing] a 12 year old girl defeating a grown man, patting him on the back and telling him maybe next year.” * “There are a group of kids in our small town who tend to be unsupervised and are seen often ‘hanging out’ downtown. They came into the library, saw the brand new magic sets and it was like Christmas to them. They offered to open the sets, sort them into decks and get the game organized. They then stayed for hours playing and invited other friends to come join them. It was so nice to see these kids off the streets enjoying our library and they were so surprised to hear that the cards would be available to them anytime the library is open. I’m sure we will see a lot of them in the near future.” * “A young mom came in with her two elementary aged sons. Upon seeing all the games out and hearing about the program, she said, ‘Wow! I didn’t know there were fun things to do at the library! I thought it was all about being quiet! Guess it’s okay for me to bring my kids in here after all!’ “ * “An 11-year-old girl played games with her 9-year-old brother for 4 hours, and told me, ‘I haven’t been on the computer the whole time I was here!’ “ * “Not so much an anecdote, but the fact that people came and stayed most all day. That was a great thing for us.” * “To win the door prizes, everyone was given tickets to enter into the various drawings. The kids got one ticket for coming in, one ticket for playing their first game, and an additional ticket for each person to whom they taught a game. This caused many of the kids to go out of their way to introduce new games to kids. Many even really enjoyed teaching.” * “It was like bringing them into a new world that they didn’t know would be available to them locally. They connected with the library staff and just kept thanking me and expressing their amazement at our library collection. One ordered sci fi books, one picked up Sci Fi books, one requested Civil War materials, 1 requested a tour of our Virtual services. Basically it opened eyes and created interest for people and gave the library great exposure. We will be adding a monthly gaming day to our program.” If you didn’t get to join in this year, be sure to start planning now for next year’s event on November 14, 2009. We also want to thank everyone who participated this year to help make it such a success. It will be a tough bar to clear next year, but I have every confidence we will!
- Rainbow Studios employees Tie into curriculum
- 2-day scavenger hunt Text messaging Internet searching
- Can you think of a specific example of how you can alter your approach to appeal more to a gamer?
- Safe to Fail Place the student in an unfamiliar location they have to work their way out of to create "safe to fail" environments. Motivation Build excitement within class through activities that are "pleasantly frustrating." Just in Time Learning Stop frontloading instruction. Drop canned searches and provide relevant topics. Use teachable moments. Incorporate Interactivity Vote on what to cover next. All slides can be provided later, let audience needs direct the session. Teamwork Allow students to collaborate in groups. Customize Encourage students to create personal identity. Make individual adjustments to address personal learning styles. Leveling Up Build on past skills, like in Super Mario Brothers. Emulate a practice/production cycle. Show Their Expertise Start with a goal -- call it a challenge! Ask them to show how they got there, & share that info Feedback Create continuous feedback, like in Guitar Hero. Monitored practice is connected to feedback loop. Update/Expand Continually add new content, like in World of Warcraft, to bring people back to the library through their academic career.
- Fantasy Football University of Dubuque, Dubuque, IA One way to introduce information literacy is through fantasy football, a game enjoyed by more people than play World of Warcraft. Players are organized into leagues run by a commissioner, and participants "draft" real-life football players for their team. Points acquired through the course of the season are affected by player statistics. The game has been in existence for nearly 50 years, and many companies and organizations associated with professional football, such as NFL.com, host leagues or offer fantasy football support and online tools. Running the Session The University of Dubuque librarians conducted two fantasy football-themed orientation sessions in August 2007, with a total of 71 students. Each session began with a brief PowerPoint on how to evaluate web resources, followed by just 2 minutes to answer the question, "Who is currently the #3 rated running back (RB)?" The research activity resulted in a wide variety of potential sources and created opportunities to touch on information literacy topics. The student athletes discussed the sources and argued over their conclusions. These discussions could have taken place in any traditional information literacy class and were the true intent of the session itself. The students seemed surprised at the similarities to academic concepts. The librarians who taught the sessions had varying degrees of experience with fantasy football. One librarian had no previous experience and emphasized that the program's success was more about research than about football. At the end of the sessions, the students completed a short evaluation that assessed both criteria for evaluating sources and library perceptions. More than 80 percent of students were able to describe two of three appropriate source evaluation criteria and more than 60 percent provided all three. The students were asked to describe what research meant to them before the session and responses included, "headaches," "work I didn't want to do," and "school work." The responses to the same question after the sessions showed a dramatic change in perspective and included, "making sure one is getting accurate information," "comparing and knowing where I'm getting my information," and "fun work." While the "fun work" might be a stretch when homework is involved, it does show a change in perspective and awareness about research. One student first said that before the session, research meant "school," but afterwards he responded, "everything."
- Students will design games for middle school students on how to use the library to find a book, use a general database, ask for reference help, navigate the library website, and develop a time management plan. Running the Program A group of MAP (Manhattanville Advancement Program) students will be instructed in game design during their pre-freshman summer program in August 2009, then divided into groups to create games about how to use the library. The students will share their games with middle school students in the MPALS (Manhattanville Promotes Academics and Lifelong Success) leadership program at the start of the spring 2010 semester.
- The music pounds and the sweaty teenagers stomp their feet in rhythm while another pair swing their guitars in the air. No, this isn’t a rave; it’s the local library. Many libraries are integrating gaming into their offerings for users, targeting younger members of the community. Libraries are bringing in teenagers through gaming programs who haven’t visited since their parents brought them to story time, and many are being exposed to other library services in the process. Cleverly placed books and media on computers, games, and other related activities go home with the users. One role of many libraries is to serve as a community center where people living in the same area can meet and enjoy activities together. Games, as the next new media, are quickly being integrated into library services as an offering for groups of users who may not frequent the library for other reasons. As with any phenomenon, scientists wish to understand more about this intersection of gaming and libraries. In order to explore games in libraries, researchers from the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, the American Library Association and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana are working together. As the project grows, Director Scott Nicholson hopes that it will attract other researchers: “The advantage to having a common place to gather, both physically and virtually, is that it allows us as a group of researchers to explore gaming in libraries more effectively than if we were all working individually. Our connection with the profession through the ALA will allow us to focus on the most important issues with the scholarly rigor that good science demands.” Other researchers involved with the process are Ian MacInnes and R. David Lankes, both from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and David Dubin, from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. These researchers are tackling early problems of the development of a classification structure for games and determining the public good served by the library providing gaming programs. George Needham, VP of Member Services at OCLC, has been speaking on gaming in libraries for several years and brings a perspective from the largest worldwide library cooperative to the project. In addition, Jenny Levine, from the American Library Association, has considerable experience with gaming in libraries and will be bridging the research with the practice of librarianship. To extend their current work, the researchers are working to secure funding to build a research laboratory at the Information Institute of Syracuse, where they can replicate the gaming programs currently put on in libraries and explore new program ideas. The researchers wish to explore the effectiveness of different types of gaming activities - not only video games, but also physical face-to-face games like board and card games - with different socioeconomic and age groups. In addition, the laboratory will be portable so that results can be tested in local libraries. The results will be disseminated to libraries as a guide to selecting gaming activities for a particular demographic profile and program goal. Questions about this project can be directed to Scott Nicholson at srnichol@syr.edu.
- The music pounds and the sweaty teenagers stomp their feet in rhythm while another pair swing their guitars in the air. No, this isn’t a rave; it’s the local library. Many libraries are integrating gaming into their offerings for users, targeting younger members of the community. Libraries are bringing in teenagers through gaming programs who haven’t visited since their parents brought them to story time, and many are being exposed to other library services in the process. Cleverly placed books and media on computers, games, and other related activities go home with the users. One role of many libraries is to serve as a community center where people living in the same area can meet and enjoy activities together. Games, as the next new media, are quickly being integrated into library services as an offering for groups of users who may not frequent the library for other reasons. As with any phenomenon, scientists wish to understand more about this intersection of gaming and libraries. In order to explore games in libraries, researchers from the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, the American Library Association and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana are working together. As the project grows, Director Scott Nicholson hopes that it will attract other researchers: “The advantage to having a common place to gather, both physically and virtually, is that it allows us as a group of researchers to explore gaming in libraries more effectively than if we were all working individually. Our connection with the profession through the ALA will allow us to focus on the most important issues with the scholarly rigor that good science demands.” Other researchers involved with the process are Ian MacInnes and R. David Lankes, both from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University and David Dubin, from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. These researchers are tackling early problems of the development of a classification structure for games and determining the public good served by the library providing gaming programs. George Needham, VP of Member Services at OCLC, has been speaking on gaming in libraries for several years and brings a perspective from the largest worldwide library cooperative to the project. In addition, Jenny Levine, from the American Library Association, has considerable experience with gaming in libraries and will be bridging the research with the practice of librarianship. To extend their current work, the researchers are working to secure funding to build a research laboratory at the Information Institute of Syracuse, where they can replicate the gaming programs currently put on in libraries and explore new program ideas. The researchers wish to explore the effectiveness of different types of gaming activities - not only video games, but also physical face-to-face games like board and card games - with different socioeconomic and age groups. In addition, the laboratory will be portable so that results can be tested in local libraries. The results will be disseminated to libraries as a guide to selecting gaming activities for a particular demographic profile and program goal. Questions about this project can be directed to Scott Nicholson at srnichol@syr.edu.
- Through its research projects, symposia, and outreach programs, CMS explores the social, economic and cultural impact of digital technologies and their analog forebearers. CMS research and educational projects examine a wide variety of traditional media and their uses in education, entertainment, communication, politics, and commerce. CMS faculty are widely recognized for developing interactive projects and creating new models for producing and using digital media. We develop prototypes which will have real world applications. These initiatives are governed by our underlying commitment to "applied humanism," taking what we know in theory and using it to create practical applications in this period of profound media change. Historically, this work has been shaped by several core themes: * Creativity and Collaboration in the Digital Age * Media in Transition * Transforming Humanities Education * Generation.org: Childhood and Adolescence in a Hypermediated Society * Global Culture and Media * The Informed Citizen and the Culture of Democracy