Simulations, Computer Games and Pedagogy
Summary of Clark Aldrich's talk at CSTD in Fredericton.
Where we are today
Take One
Training is not important... learning is... having measured results is... having a positive ROI is... meeting the needs is... making a profit is... having the right people is... having the right experiences is... training is.
Take Two
The Hype Cycle: stages through which technology goes.
- Starts off as a theory.
- Then to the innovater stage, where people make it actually work.
- Then it becomes seen as a magic bullet; money begins to flow in.
- Then there is a crash, mass confusion, and people move on.
- But the something happens, people recommit to the original vision, with a lot of lessons learned (strategic advantage).
- Then finally it gets promoted to infrastructure.
Where different things are:
- Infrastructure: search engines, virtual classrooms, etc.;
- Strategic advantage: LMS. People are implementing them, they are generally going well. (Some discussion of whether LMSs will move into infrastructure; it depends on what else is coming along, eg. ERP - Aldrich - when LMS goes into infrastructure, that's when it goes away).
- Confusion trough: LCMSs. Knowledge Management systems. Skills and competency management.
- Hype: outsourcing, mobile learning, workflow-based learning, blogging as a way of supporting learning, game-based learning
- Theory: dashboards, social network analysis, open source e-learning
Take Three
Where everything fits together, measuring alignment. "Don't take a knife to a gunfight" (I guess that analogy doesn't really work here).
Tactical reasons: cut budget, enabled by IT infrastructure, cost-reduction. etc. Versus Strategic Reasons: learner survey, etc. Project and process management. etc. (See circle diagram in slides). There needs to be an accord between these.
Simulations
What is a simulayion? Things like 'learning by doing'. A flight simulator, for example. The tricky part is when you drill down into that. Everyone thinks they have a common understanding, but it breaks down quickly. Eg., role-play, computer games, moot court, fun, flight simulators, simulated architectures. After these concepts come out: everybody's personal experiences are different from everyone else's. There is a clash of expectations. It becomes an intellectual mesh.
Four types of simulations:
- Branching Story: you are given a situation, a background, you have to make a decision based on what you hear, you choose a, b or c, and based on that you move to the next branch. The architecture is a branching structure. This model works well for new employees. Also, I know where you are at any given point in the experience; makes giving help easier. Comments: easy for new learners, experienced learners figure out what's going on very quickly. Limited options.
- Interactive Spreadsheet: you are put in some kind of god-like manager position and you have to make resource (or other) allocations. Then you get results. Repeat. You have some primary variables you are tracking; they tend to ber inter-related, complex. The Beer Game, most famous version. Often deployed in teams competing with each other. Often instructor chaperoned, often used with high-potential people. Can be interspersed with video clips. Comment: from a learner perspective these can be quite good because they show causal relationships.
- Game-Based: take a traditional game that people already know - eg., word-jumble - and put the content into it. "Nobody wants to take a test; everybody wants to be a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" Good for people who don't do well in formal, test-based environment. Game-based models work really well and are always very controversial. The more you care about content, the less patient you are with a game-based veneer. Games can be culturally based.
- Virtual Product Lab: fairly realistic models of things. Eg. virtual watch. What you do in the simulation is a paert of the content, not something that leads to the content. Eg., mouse movements that mirror kinesthetic movements.
Those models are not enough - they are not the future of simulations.
- Systems Content - ways of getting at the underlying systems.
- Cyclical / Kinesthetic - the interface should make me think. We need an interface that allows 15-20 actions that all intermingle.
- Linear content: case studies, processes, quotes, stories, etc.
- Experience elements: simulation elements: these must be balanced. Eg. How do we create an atmosphere the same as the real atmosphere. How to create realism.
- game elements: simplified interface, faster results. Reliving roles.
- pedagogical elements: what is the material that we put on top of the experience? Graphs, coaching, forced moments of reflection, etc.
My comments: this was a pretty light talk which at times consisted of lists of names of technologies. I think I would have been happier had it started with the 'simulations' section, above. The 'hype cycle' stuff didn't really add anything, and the useful content - after the 'four types of simulation' - was stuffed into the last five minutes of the talk.
Comments
Re: Simulations, Computer Games and Pedagogy
Who wants to be a millionaire [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]
Re: Simulations, Computer Games and Pedagogy
The hostility to science goes back for millennia. We don't like brute facts, we don't like having to check our wishes and hopes against the reality of how the world is. We'll submit to the necessity for survival purposes, we'll learn what we need to know of leopards and rabbits, fire and ice, but beyond that we want the right to believe our fantasies. 'May God us keep/From single vision, and Newton's sleep!' said Blake, and Wordsworth agreed: 'Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;/Our meddling intellect/Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--We murder to dissect. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]
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