1. Ira Goldstein Siena College
Education Gaming In K12
Ira Goldstein
Siena College

2. Agenda Follow-up: Raspberry Pi Education Simulation and Gaming In K12
Q & A

3. Raspberry Pi Experience

4. What is a Raspberry Pi? University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory
Decline in skill level
Designed for education
A credit card sized PC
Plugs into a TV or monitor
Inexpensive(ish) ~$35 each
Capability:
Programming
Electronic Projects
Office
Play HD Videos

5. RPi Experience Everyone has their own RPi Linux - All Command Line
Shell Scripts
Perl
Web
Apache Server
HTML Forms
CGI in Perl

6. Education Simulation and Gaming In K12

7. Active, Critical Learning

8. Two Classes
Exogenous – of, relating to, or developing from external factors.
Content Focus
Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune
Endogenous – having an internal cause or origin.
Environment Focus
Learning as a result of playing
Emergent – Systems thinking
Hard to map outcomes - Need to draw conclusions
Civilization series or Minecraft

9. Simulation and Gaming Compelling activities – Encourage learning
Immediate feedback – Regime of competence
Participation – Not passive consumption
Take chances – Not real-world
Avatar – Try on new personas
Mistakes are private (or at least not in front of the class)
Often teamwork
Regime of competence - Scaffolding
PBL-like

10. Some Games
Dig-It!’s Mayan Mysteries
Filament Games’ Reach for the Sun
Gamestar Mechanic  
Alice – Object-based educational programming language
Civilization – “What If” history
Railroad Tycoon – Resource Allocation
Minecraft – Create and Explore
World of Warcraft -

11. Alice A modern programming tool Animation 3-D graphics
3-D models of objects
Foundation for learning other computer languages
Animation
Objects can be made to move around the virtual world (a video game or simulation implemented in 3D)

12. Traditional Problem Solving in CS
Read and understand a problem or task specification
Design a solution (develop an algorithm)
Implement (code)
Test
Revise, as needed

13. Problem Solving in Alice
Read and understand a scenario – tell a story, play a game, carry out a task.
A princess has been grounded by her father (a wizard). Being a rather rebellious princess, she has ed the local dragon taxi service. The dragon will fly to the princess and she will climb aboard the dragon to escape from the castle – to meet some friends at the village dance club.

14. Objects Any thing that can be identified as unique from other things
Has a name
Has properties:
width, height, color, location
Can perform actions (methods):
associated actions it can perform
tasks it can carry out

15. Mini-Bib
Gee, J. P. (2007). What videogames have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Gee, J. P., & Hayes, E. R. (2010). Women and gaming: The Sims and 21st century learning. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Halverson, Richard. "What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming?." Innovate: Journal of Online Education 1.6 (2005): n6.
Stufft, Carolyn J. "From Playing to Learning: Using the Learning Principles of Video Games to Rethink Classroom Literacy Instruction." TEXAS ASSOCIATION FOR LITERACY EDUCATION YEARBOOK (2014): 78.
Computers in the Schools: Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, and Applied Research, Volume 31, Issue 1-2, 2014 Special Issue: Digital Game-Based Learning