21st Century Skills and Games Based Learning

This TED talk from Dr. Richard Van Eck brings up some very interesting points.  I would greatly recommend watching the video, but as it is 20 minutes long and not everyone will have the time, I will summarise the main points here for you.  If you have watched the video, please feel free to ignore the summary, just skip to the black text later on.

• Why raise test scores when they don’t measure what we need them to in the 21st century?
• If we really cared about learning, we would individualise it to each student – not ready to do this.
• There are two main modes of change / reform:

1. Changing because if we don’t adapt, we can’t survive.
2. Disruptive technologies – new technology that solves problems that we face but in a way that forces us to change our behaviour.

• The Industrial Revolution changed the education system to produce workers.  Children were all taught the same things, in the same place, at the same time.  We now live in an ‘information age’ where ideas are the new commodities.  
• Situated cognition - if you are going to teach someone something, you should teach them in the environment that they will use the knowledge – learn by doing.  This promotes faster learning, better retention of knowledge and the transference of knowledge to the real world.  Games allow this.
• Games promote systems thinking – currently education teaches discrete facts, not connections and systems.
• Games promote collaboration – social negotiation of skills, collective intelligence, collective problem-solving all prevalent in games.
• Games promote problem-solving.  The problems presented require new knowledge to be generated to solve it.  There is a value for the learner in solving the problem.  Schools sometimes get the first aspect but usually try and persuade children to “just do it, trust me it will be important later.”
• Games produce engagement (engagement is not about fun or motivation but cognitive effort).  The challenge should be optimal – too hard and they’ll quit, too easy and they won’t want to play.  Zone of proximal development: some things so easy we don’t need help to do them, some things too difficult no matter how much help, some things where the challenge is ‘just right’.  This is where all the best learning occurs as it keeps people operating at the maximum of their ability.  This is what games do – can choose difficulty at start and can’t move on until mastered initial skills.  
• But, games are disruptive technologies and this has practical consequences.  Games will require fundamental shifts in the education system.
• Current tests don’t measure 21st century skills and tests might not be able to ever measure these skills.
• Collaboration vs. cheating – how will we adapt to these new ideas?
• Individualised instruction – currently we fit education to the lowest common denominator, which means that some children are not optimally challenged.  If we individualised learning, some children would take 2 months to complete the curriculum and some, 2 years.  Practical and financial consequences.
• If we bring in games, we will have to adopt everything that comes with them.  Disruptive technologies by definition, destroy things; revolutions are messy.  
• Games may not save the education system, they may destroy it and this might be exactly what is needed.

Dr. Richard Van Eck makes some great points, I completely agree that our current education system is somewhat ignoring these 21st century skills.  I also agree that the education system needs a revolution.  However, I thank that games can be integrated into our current education system very easily and this could produce change for the better now.  People, on the whole, are scared of change and the idea of a revolution, whilst headline grabbing, might not be feasible.  I am not sure if he meant it to come across in this way, but it seems that Dr. Van Eck is arguing that there is an either / or choice to be made: either we stay the same or we have a revolution.  I think there could be some middle ground.

What exactly are 21st century skills?  This is another good article, which lists the essential competencies for a student in the Information Age:

• Ways of thinking - Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning.
• Ways of working - Communication and collaboration.
• Tools for working - Information and communications technology (ICT) and information literacy.
• Skills for living in the world - Citizenship, life and career, and personal and social responsibility.

In a dynamic and competitive knowledge economy, innovation, creativity and problem solving are everything.  We exist in a world dominated by the likes of Apple and Google.  For these firms to survive, they must innovate.  They require a workforce of creative critical thinkers.  Furthermore, to survive in this economy and obtain employment, these are the skills that students need to be learning too.  Games are a great way of encouraging the development of these skills.  Succeeding in playing a game often requires problem solving, critical thinking and most definitely decision making.  These skills can be practiced in a safe environment.  For example, puzzle games such as Portal require explicit problem solving involving physics.  However, all games involve some form of thinking skills such as these.  How do I fulfil my Sim’s life ambition?  How can I make my theme park more popular?  How can I make my town more sustainable (an example of our learning simulation, Sustainaville)?

Communication and collaboration are also extremely important.  On a purely practical level, flatter organisational hierarchies require good communication skills.  This is common in a knowledge economy.  Further than this, the most successful companies have realised that their workforce are their best resources.  They have also found that collaboration can encourage innovation and so on.  For example, Google have special areas of their offices specifically designed to stimulate ‘spontaneous’ communication and collaboration with people that they wouldn’t usually come into contact with.  They also have small collaboration zones such as yurts and huddle rooms.

Image from Marcin Wichary on Flickr.

Games can encourage collaboration in different ways.  First, multiplayer games can obviously provoke communication and collaboration.  For example, players in games such as World of Warcraft, Halo, Portal and so on need to work together to succeed in their mission / level.  In our games-ED learning simulations, players make up sub-teams that need to work together to achieve the overall outcomes of the whole group.  The sub-teams are in control of one sector / building e.g. local council, health sector, private sector which must work together to improve the virtual community that they have been put in charge of.  

Single player games can also encourage communication such as “Guess what I did on Fifa last night?” or “Have you been on this quest in Skyrim?”  However, they can also encourage collaboration such as “How did you do that pass / goal celebration?” or “How did you defeat that boss / find that item?”  While talking about communication and collaboration, I’d just like to bring your attention to this Swedish classroomless school.  This innovative new school in Sweden has no classrooms, focuses on 21st century skills and children are split into grades based on their level rather than age.  One of their main priorities is the promotion of collaboration along with all the other 21st Century skills mentioned.  Is this the school of the future?  For more information on communication and collaboration see ‘The Art of Conversation’.

It goes without saying that IT skills should be encouraged through the use of IT based games.  However, what about the final bullet point above: skills for living in the world?  These benefits might not come about from all games.  However, they will in many.  For example, semi-realistic life and career skills are simulated in The Sims.  You must manage your sim’s life, made up of physical needs, social life, love life, career, family life and so on.  Other games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft have pretty strict rules about social etiquette and citizenship.

Our games-ED learning simulations are designed to educate learners about some of these areas.  For example, The Climate Game teaches students about climate change and environmental responsibility and Young People First teaches students about young people’s issues such as teen pregnancy, worklessness and anti-social behaviour.  For more information on how game-ED aims to encourage these 21st Century (or Personal Learning & Thinking) skills click here.

To conclude, these skills are needed in the 21st Century.  Needed by job seekers, employers, organisations and our future leaders.  In my experience, these are the skills that people are after (employers often just require you to have a degree, not a degree in a specific area) more than the knowledge of facts and figures.  Some specific knowledge is needed sometimes, such as medicine and law.  However, in many fields, knowledge needs to be gained on the job anyway.  Why then, is so much emphasis placed on this type of knowledge in education when it will be forgotten?  Why not put more emphasis on 21st Century skills?

Further Viewing
If you have the time, you might want to watch this video from Dr. Tony Wagner about what he calls, the ‘global achievement gap’ (the gap between what is being taught and what is needed to be taught in the 21st century).

Please follow @paulladley on Twitter, games-ED on Pinterest and like games-ED’s Facebook and Google+ pages for blog updates and other interesting games based learning findings.

Developing Communication Skills via Games Based Learning

"In socially deprived areas more than 50% of children begin school without the ability to speak in long sentences, which experts say can lead to problems in later life. One hundred schools across England are taking part in a day without pens to tackle this speech deficit... Language impairment is found to be an issue for two-thirds of children with serious behavioural problems, 60% of young offenders, and up to 90% of unemployed young men." - BBC

And from another article from the BBC quoting the communications charity ICAN, "Once upon a time a family would spend a lot of time talking and nowadays of course they have DVDs, the internet, the TV and so this formal communication process in terms of talking and listening has got worse due to lack of opportunity."

To be fair to Jean Gross of ICAN, she is not saying new mediums stop conversations but they can become a distraction in family discourse. Of course the alternative might be true; the family might discuss whether they liked a film and what it meant. This leads me on to point I have previously made in this blog. It is not the technology that is the issue; it is the design and the delivery in the classroom that is limiting games based learning outcomes.

And now for something completely different

As I wrote in a previous blog (The Art of Conversation) games based learning can anchor conversations: In our games-ED products the gameplay is structured around rounds, whole class involvement and phases to encourage conversation. The learners talk in their teams, between teams, at a class level and with the educator. The game anchors these conversations  to flow during the course of the plan > do > review phases. These conversations are at the heart of the learning; they are inclusive and are not formalised / one-way. It is through these questions that learning flows.

Moreover, the game provides a situation (creating a sustainable community)  to practice communication skills in terms of listening, presenting arguments and information, negotiating and providing instruction. The games allow different students to communicate and provides a powerful collaborative learning environment.

GETideas: New Look Web Site

Home page of GETideas.org

GETideas.org have recently revamped their website. For those of you who don't know about GETideas.org, they provide anopen, online global community for 21st-century education leaders that exists to foster Global Education Transformation–the “GET” in GETideas.org–via virtual collaboration and international dialogue, including the sharing of best practices and resources.

Contributors to the site  include distinguished education leaders, innovators, visionaries, strategists, and practitioners from around the world. They offer an opportunity for thought leaders to share ideas - see  http://getideas.org/programs/featured-thought-leaders/. I recently wrote a games based learning article for them, which you can find at http://getideas.org/thought-leader/let-the-games-begin-advice-for-educators/.

Also, the site content is in part membership driven, so why not join in the conversation: join up and tell everyone who you are on their members' profile section http://getideas.org/members/paul-ladley/profile.

Sugata Mitra – Four Implications for Games Based Learning

I recently listened to a talk by Sugata Mitra at the Education Technology Conference in Leeds.  I am sure you have all come across Sugata Mitra – he is widely known for his Hole in the Wall experiments carried out in India, which the inspired Vikas Swarup to write his debut novel Q & A, which later became the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

By the way Sugata’s talk followed a similar format to one given at TED (Ideas worth Spreading) – Child-driven education, which you can see below.

When listening to Sugata , I was struck by four implications for games based learning: 


1. Generating Interest: Sugata discussed his work with Arthur C. Clarke, who pointed out that “if there is interest, then education happens.” Games based learning can generate a lot of interest. And a lot has been written about games based learning and its ability to motivate and engage learners. I won’t repeat those points here, but what I will say is that games can suffer from being too interesting. Specifically, the design of the game needs to support the learning process – see blog post “Six Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning”.

2. The role of the teacher: Again, quoting Arthur C. Clarke Sugata said that “A teacher that can be replaced by a machine; should be.” It is worth noting that Sugata doesn’t believe that teachers can be replaced (well not yet), but he does believe that teachers shouldn’t be the purveyors of mere information. He believes that is what Google is for. Instead, they should inspire and help pupils analyse what they have found. Teachers can provide scaffolding and expertise, this particularly true in collaborative games based learning products such as games-ED. As game decisions are input into the game (at a class level) the teacher can ask questions such as, “Why did you buy that?” Game reports can be analysed by the students and the teacher – “What worked, what didn’t and how are we going to improve things this round?”

3. The method of the grandmother: Inspiration can come from unusual quarters. Both in experiments in India and Gateshead, Sugata discovered that students could achieve dramatic results (20% increase in test scores) just by being encouraged by an adult – “wow that looks good can you show me again”.  Again, this isn’t to say that teachers aren’t required, but it shows how important inspiration is in the education process. Games based learning can motivate learners by presenting both an interesting narrative and a competitive challenge. The role of the teacher, as previously stated, is to provide scaffolding and expertise, but they should also simply nudge the players along rather like a grandmother. By moving away from rigid traditional instructional method, teachers allow the students to work together to construct their understanding. See blog “Learn by Doing”.

4. The power of collaboration: Key to Sugata’s learning ideas is the power of collaboration. In his experiments, he encourages the students to work in groups of four with one computer. He believes that the key to delivering improved education outcomes is generating conversations. I completely agree and as I written previously in a blog titled “The Art of Conversation”, collaborative games based learning anchors conversations and enables students to learn complex subjects quickly.

Proof of the Pudding Part 2

Building on a previous blog post (proof of the pudding), this post looks at the practical use of games based learning in the classroom. I didn't deliver the lessons, instead it was delivered by teachers at Kings's School Winchester.

What was particularly interesting for me, is that it wasn't delivered as a facilitated game - this is the way I normally deliver our Sustainaville product. Kings' School still used it as a collaborative game, but the students inputted their own decisions into the game and the teachers supported the game sessions more lightly. The students quickly picked up the game rules (due in part to worksheets produced by Kings' School Teachers) and made group decisions in what is a reasonably complex simulation game.

Report on Sustainaville by Jane Berridge, Enterprise Co-ordinator, Kings' School Winchester
For our year 9 Enterprise Day, we took the 330 students in the year group off time table and set them a business challenge based around a theme.  The theme was sustainability and the students were asked to investigate how they could improve their community in a sustainable way.

We wanted to provide the students with information and learning that related to a sustainable community project whilst being motivational and fun.  So, we chose to start the day with Sustainaville.

Sustainaville Dynamic Main Screen

The whole year group was split into teams of three.  Each team worked at a computer and took on the role of town planners.  Their brief was to look at different sectors of Sustainaville and decide where they needed to invest to improve the town and make it a better place to live.

To make the activity even more challenging, there were tutor group competitions with spot prizes and a prize was awarded to the team with the highest score in the year group.

The game was very successful and the feedback from students and adults was excellent.  The students said ‘we really enjoyed the game, especially when we won the tutor group challenge. We have learned what sustainability is and how to help the environment. Also, we learned how to work with others and to be confident when making business decisions.’  

The teachers said they thought it was a very useful and the students gained a lot from it.

Background on Sustainaville by Paul Ladley (games-ED)
Sustainaville is a games based learning product produced games-ED. The key to success of Sustainaville is that it incorporates the 6 Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning. In particular: it supports group game play; it uses technology appropriately (in Kings's case 1 computer per group not 330 computers) and it supports multiple conversations. The last principle is expanded in an earlier blog post - The Art of Conversation.

Feedback provided via report screens

In terms of Enterprise Education, Sustainaville helps learners to understand the importance of businesses in providing employment and prosperity. Learners understand how investment and specific sector skills underpin sustainable growth plus how generic skills and business improvements impact on competitiveness. They also discover that businesses do not operate in a vacuum and that social and environmental factors can both impact on the success of businesses and can be made worse by business activities.

The game allows the learners to practice skills that they and businesses need. They develop strategies, plan actions and manage budgets. They make choices and work within constraints. They use decision-making skills, practice problem-solving skills and work in teams.

Teaching Methods Deployed:
• Debates
• Discussions (experience transfer)
• Educational games
• Role-playing
• Simulations
• Pupil/student-led activities or exercises.

Six Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning

1. Create a sense of realism (as opposed to fantasy):

• Provide relevant context that draws the learners into an authentic experience / scenario, so they become part of the learning as opposed to passive recipients.

2. Deliver engaging interaction by means of authentic activities (not just playing for the sake of it).

• Game playing can be a springboard for skills and knowledge, but better still game playing can be the development and practice of skills and knowledge.

3. Group level game play where the goal is collaborative problem solving (as opposed to single player games):

• The learning is inclusive and the game easy to understand, to ensure that everyone participates.

4. Provide an anchor for multiple learning conversations:

• These conversations not the technological interactions should account for the majority the lesson.  
• Dialogue and articulation of knowledge occurs amongst learners (sub-teams), at the class level and can be educator-led. 
• The educator provides a crucial role, rather like the conductor in an orchestra, keeping the process flowing and providing scaffolding and stimulus as and when required.  

5. The technology and design needs to be appropriate:

• The use of a single computer makes the games appropriate for all teaching situations.
• Round-based play allows for natural break points to enable group and reflective learning.
• The teacher uses the computer so that the learning flows and the game doesn't become an exercise in ICT skills.
• The interface, game play and technology need to play second fiddle to the learning. Time spent moving around an interface or world, might add to the contextualisation, but it can also reduce the amount of time spent actually learning. One of the key problem of commercial games is they can take too long to get into.

6. The game needs to work in a learning continuum:

• Games need to be integrated into the curriculum.
• Game play and scores need to feed into an assessment model.
• The games need to inspire follow on activities / exercises and encourage reflection. 

This post is taken from a section in our white paper Games Based Situated Learning which can be found on the resource page of our corporate website.

The Art of Conversation

If Elvis had been singing about games based learning, he might have demanded, ”a little less action, a little more conversation”.

The history of the introduction of new mediums is littered with the belief that they kill the art of conversation. Those “halcyon” days when the family gathered around the piano and the men retired for port and conversation have “sadly” gone (as it happens, I would have worked down the pit or in the mill). It is argued that the likes of TV and more recently computer games have put another nail in the coffin of conversation, but I disagree.

New mediums can act as conversational anchors, like the fact that people can chat about Eastenders or Corrie at work the next day. Soap operas offer viewers the opportunity to put the actions and interactions of human beings into perspective, both socially and culturally (Brunsdon, 1997; Gillespie, 1995; Liebes & Katz, 1990). Games can also do this.

Even individually played games can generate conversations. “Have you seen this?” “How did you do that?” We have seen this in action: We have delivered two programmes, involving seven schools, using two different individually played games. These classes were far from quiet! And it also worth noting that “individual” games were often played by pairs of pupils, as they preferred to work this way.

Collaborative games, though, take conversations onto a different level. With our games-ED products the gameplay is structured around rounds and phases to encourage conversation. The learners talk in their teams, between teams, at a class level and with the educator. The game anchors these conversations allowing a natural set of questions (shown below) to flow during the course of the plan > do > review phases. These conversations are at the heart of the learning; they are inclusive and are not formalised / one-way. It is through these questions that learning flows. Together the class constructs their understanding, and makes tacit knowledge (emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observations and internalised information) explicit.

Games can be action packed and so engaging, but it is their ability to anchor conversations that provides the key to their success in the classroom. They also provide a collaborative framework that suits both boys and girls, which I think would make a good starting point for my next blog.

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Brunsdon, C. (1997). Screen Tastes: soap opera to satellite dishes. London: Routledge
Gillespie, M. (1995). Television, ethnicity and cultural change. London & New York: Routledge
Liebes, T. and Katz, E. (1990). The export of meaning: cross cultural readings of Dallas. New York: Oxford University Press