James, Vicki, and Holly
1. What’s common about our research:
a. Linda is our chair
b. we are exploring virtual worlds
c. these are design studies, examining the design of these worlds
4. Kay’s suggestions for Holly
a. Holly is particularly interested in experimenting with the effects on history learning of a video game, Civilization IV.
b. While she has considered using same teacher, one class with the intervention, and the other a control group, because the teacher is already an enthusiastic user of CivIV, Kay suggested that that might be a confounding variable. An alternative is to find a strong teacher who doesn’t have such experience. With the elements of an experimental design being randomization, control, and manipulation, and the reality that Holly can’t ensure the first two, a better approach might be to have the students be their own control group, using pre- and post- tests.
c. This way, she can focus on effect on comprehension of the video game and let go of other issues.
d. Design is quasi-experimental, with hypotheses about the effect of the video game on the learning, starting with a pre-test, a mid-experiment test, and a final test.
e. Review of design of previous history games will be included
f. Product will be report on the results of the intervention, and discussion of design elements
THINKING ABOUT NOW:
g. NOTE: after discussion between VS and HL, the issue of her interest in next generation learners and next generation games, and how the research as described above isn’t really related and doesn’t address it at all, really (except as possibly the significance or importance of the study). VS & HL discussed the possibility ofy a mixed methods approach? For example, first phase in Spring 2007 is to do design review and look at research on intervention results of representative history games from 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and the relative technology literacy of student populations during those same periods (?). Make hypotheses based on this research, and test them in the experimental mode in the fall.
