Whitton, Nicola. "Learning with Digital Games"

From Brock University's Digital Humanities Compendium

Jump to: navigation, search

[edit] Learning with Digital Games

by Nicola Whitton

Review by Spencer Roberts, March 2, 2010

Nicola Whitton, Learning From Digital Games
Nicola Whitton, Learning From Digital Games
Whitton’s book is largely a practical user’s guide for implementing video games in education. The main points of focus in the first part are defining games for learning, understanding the pedagogy behind learning through games, and identifying types of games that can be used for education. Throughout the book, Whitton works from the very basic elements of games to develop the reader’s understanding of their potential. In this section, she provides the following characteristics of digital games:

1. Competition – The goal is to achieve an outcome that is superior to others.
2. Challenge – Tasks require effort and are non-trivial.
3. Exploration – There is a context-sensitive environment that can be investigates.
4. Fantasy – Existence of a make-believe environment, characters or narrative.
5. Goals – There are explicit aims and objectives.
6. Interaction – An action will change the state of play and generate feedback.
7. Outcomes – There are measurable results from game play (eg. scoring).
8. People – Other individuals take part.
9. Rules – The activity is bound by artificial constraints.
10. Safety – The activity has no consequence in the real world.

From here, Whitton moves to the pedagogical approaches to digital games, touching on concepts such as constructivism, situated cognition, cognitive puzzlement, social collaboration, experiential learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. She expands these concepts by describing their application and presence within education through games.

The third section of part one works to describe and discuss the various types of games available as learning tools. The genres include adventure, platform, puzzle, role-play, shooter, sports, and strategy games. Whitton then discusses types of learning that can be facilitated through gaming, such as applying skills, developing strategies, analysing information, evaluating situations, changing attitudes, and creating knowledge. She concludes the first part of her book by commenting on other types of games, such as mobile and alternate reality games. The second part of Whitton’s book focuses on integrating digital games into the curriculum of education systems. She identifies four main factors to be considered when attempting to bring games into education: people, environment, organisation, and technology. She also discusses the following models of integration that she envisions as possible in a standard school setting:

1. Single-session game
2. Multiple-session game
3. Optional game
4. Embedded game (a course built around a game)
5. Online game
6. Mixed-reality game.

The second section of part two begins the lengthy discussion on designing games for learning by addressing pedagogical concerns, such as aligning game play and learning objectives and providing supportive collaboration. Whitton then describes the following possibilities for designing games:

1. Commercial entertainment games
2. Modifying existing games
3. Commercial educational games
4. Virtual worlds
5. Bespoke games

She also defines guidelines for those creating games to consider, which cover such topics as: learning objectives, genre, plot, activities, constraints, collaboration, and reflection.

Chapter Seven deals with assessment while using digital games for learning. In order to provide insight into the students’ experiences, Whitton suggests the use of reports, presentations, creation of artefacts, discussion, collaborative websites, narratives, reflective accounts, and portfolios. For gathering information about students’ perspective of the game, she recommends five categories of inquiry: perception of challenge, perception of control, immersion, interest, and purpose. The third part of the book deals largely with the technology of digital games and includes recommendations and tips for those who desire to create or implement games within a classroom setting. In chapter 8, Whitton describes the steps necessary to adapt the existing games as defined above. In the subsequent chapter, she moves on to the creation of a new game for education, where she lays out roles that are required to create such a game. She also defines the areas that designers must consider when creating the game.

Roles
1. Subject expert
2. Educationalist
3. Game designer
4. Programmer
5. Interaction designer
6. Graphic designer
7. Writer

Areas of Focus
1. Environment
2. Navigation
3. Tasks
4. Characters
5. Objects
6. Object interaction
7. Player interaction
8. Status information

Furthermore, she defines six factors that create engagement in games: narrative, puzzle-solving, community, completion, competition, and creativity.

The final section of part three discusses methods of evaluating games created for learning. Whitton recommends the use of paper prototyping, Wizard of Oz prototyping, scenarios, expert walkthroughs, think-aloud walkthroughs, observations, interviews/focus groups, and piloting. Finally, she mentions that there are two main points of consideration when assessing a digital game for learning: accessibility and usability.

The book concludes with a chapter that looks at various case studies and draws conclusions from those situations. In my opinion, Whitton’s book is useful for instructors or researchers who are attempting to design games for learning, but the whole text could be boiled down to the bare practical strategies and uses without much of the exposition. I would not be surprised if anyone who tries to use the book skipped through to the most useful parts and avoided the lengthy explanations or examples.

Personal tools
Bookmark and Share