Work in Progress

Can games in a tenth grade history classroom make an impact on knowledge acquisition?


Problem and Purpose
Several researchers have started exploring the possibility of games in education, but not just educational games. Immersive, massive multi user role-playing games have brought a new spin on learning within education that is still in the early phases of research. I want to explore the role and capacity in which games play in the classroom. I will be running a quasi-experimental design at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C.. A control group and an experimental group of students will be tested on the same material 3 times through the semester, but have the information presented in two different formats. One format being lecture, text based curriculum. The other delivery method will be game-based curriculum with facilitation from the teacher.
The content mastery will be measured to show if game play actually increases, content knowledge and accuracy.
The purpose of this quasi-experimental study will be to test the theory of Role Playing Games in curriculum within the classroom from lecture and text-based curriculum, for the eleventh graders at McKinley Technology High School. The independent variables will be defined as the role playing game used. The dependent variable will be defined as the teacher in the classes, and the students, and the control and intervening variables will be the curriculum will be statistically controlled in the study.
Research Design
The design of this research is a qualitative analysis and quasi-experimental design. The interpretive purpose is to understand how games impact learning in a high school classroom through observation and pre-mid-and post testing. The students will then be measured on their mastery of the history curriculum for the tenth grade unit. These scores will be compared to each other to look if there are differences between classrooms that incorporate games to those that do not.
Definitions
For the purpose of this study, the following definitions will be used:
∑ Student- tenth grade student at McKinley High School participating in the study.
∑ Teacher- Certified District of Columbia Public School teacher at McKinley participating in the study (DCPS)
∑ DCPS Curriculum- Curriculum mandated by the district to be taught by the public school teacher.
∑ Student Achievement- student scores based on testing in the study related to curriculum content mastery.
Sources of Data and collection strategies
One of the most innovative schools incorporating gaming into curriculum is McKinley High School. McKinley is in the heart of Washington, D.C. only 12 blocks from the Capitol, sitting on the corner of T Street, three stories high, consuming 200,000 square feet. The school was recently re-opened with state of the art technology in every classroom. Several cross-platform labs, a motion-capture studio and even a game design program for high school students are on the roster at this school. 2 groups of tenth graders will be tested in this experiment that have the same teacher. One class will be delivered instruction without games, one with the use of Civilization IV. Students will take a pre-test before the semester begins, based on content objectives for the county curriculum guidelines. Students will then be tested at midterm, and at the end of the study for content mastery.
Data Collection Tools
I will be creating these tools based on the DCPS curriculum for the tenth grade history class. Alongside the teacher, I will make sure an accurate depiction of content mastery is evaluated in this study. We will be creating a pre-test, midterm test, and posttest for students to take. The DCPS content objectives will be considered and correlated to the tests (See Appendix A).
Considerations for use of human subjects
I believe this study will be exempt from the IRB review, but I will take the necessary steps with the school to expedite the process there as well. Subjects will only be identified by category (teacher, student, etc.). No specific names or titles will be used.
Other considerations
Things such as validity and reliability of instrumentation, scoring, and achievement of research purpose are areas that I am still working on and will continue to develop up until the research is conducted.

Meeting.with.Kay

NOTES FROM CONVERSATION WITH KAY, 6/23/06

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.

Rubbish

After chatting with profs the past few weeks.. I am thinking about where to go with the dissertation process.. here is what is in my head so far.. pardon the mess:

Qualitative analysis
quasi- experimental design
relate my lit review to a look at history games over time
this review of games will then show the design of the games makes learning occur

students are the control
3 hypothesis: one covering the pretest to post test (whole semester),
1 from pretest to midterm, 1 from midterm to final
am going to run computer mediated instruction in an 11th grade classroom using Civ IV to support the notion that games support and enable learning

Links for Gaming

some relevent, some not.. just a place to store them..


http://www.charthouse.com/charthouse/liveLearn_schoolFish.asp?

http://www.itofisher.com/sfisher/

http://www-cntv.usc.edu/academic_programs/interactive_media/academic-interactive-professors.php

http://www.soup.dk/

http://www.glsconference.org/faq.htm

http://www.e3expo.com/

http://www.educationarcade.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=67&page=1

http://www.ncrg.org/events/CLE.cfm

http://www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/articles/ucd%20_web_devel.html

http://edtechoutreach.umd.edu/mindtools.html
http://www.academiccolab.org/initiatives/gapps.html

http://edugames.blogspot.com/

http://learningarcade.org/

http://www.digra.org/

http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/start/index.html

http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php

http://www.argn.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_Reality_Game

https://secondlife.com/tiki/tiki-index.php

http://www.onrpg.com/

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/civilization-iv/662218p1.html

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/17

http://www.ige.com/

http://www.digra.org/

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/games/ageofmythology/norse_home.asp

http://www.making-history.com/

http://digg.com/

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp

http://www.onrpg.com/

http://www.multiverse.net/

http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/mmo/students.html

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp


http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova

http://www.gamestudies.org/

http://thottbot.com/

http://www.gatlineducation.com/videogamedesign.htm

Possible Beta?

I am thinking of maybe Beta'ing or rolling out Muzzy Lane software for dissertation.

http://www.muzzylane.com/index.php

I need to contact the software company and see if I could use them for my research.. possible concern: would I be "selling" their software instead of validating the research..?