A new Canadian study has tried to take an objective look at video games as learning tools, particularly since the medium is so popular among children and teens.

Under the headline "The Video Game Debate: Bad for Behaviour, Good for Learning?", the Canadian Council of Learning article cites several sources for its analysis, going back as far as 1991. It begins by acknowledging the popualrity of video games (citing U.S. numbers) as well as looking at whether video games can be helpful or harmful.

While some studies seem to go in with predetermined conclusions, this one seems to sit on the fence in its early analysis:

Frequent and unrestricted use of recreational video games may compromise academic performance. Several studies have shown that students of all ages who spend more time playing video games have lower grades than their peers who devote less time to video gaming. This type of correlation should be interpreted cautiously: while research implies that playing video games causes students to perform poorly in school—it could also be the case that students who do poorly in school are more inclined to play video games. Interpretive issues aside, devoting long hours to recreational video game playing clearly does not contribute to academic achievement. (Ed.: emphasis added)

While the study acknowledges the potential tie to violence and aggression, the opposite was also studied, citing video game advocate James Paul Gee's argument that video game players become engaged in powerful forms of learning because:

• They engage players in a problem-solving cycle similar to that in experimental science, based on hypothesis, experimentation, deduction and renewed experimentation.
• Players can customize games to suit their learning styles, encouraging creativity (e.g., designing new skate parks in Tony Hawk skateboard games).
• Players are able to view the world through multiple identities.
• Players are encouraged to take risks and try new things.

The study goes on to examine various types of video games and discuss their possible usefulness as educational tools. In the end, the article concludes:

The tremendous popularity of video games means they have enormous potential as learning tools that capture students’ attention and fire their imaginations. Harnessing that potential requires careful attention to design features and appropriate training for teachers. The understanding of links between video games and learning is still very much at a nascent stage both with regards to game design and effective delivery. As video games in education are gaining attention, it becomes more and more critical to understand why and how games can affect students.

The study comes at a time when Canadian Heritage has funded $375,000 for the creation of a video game and web site to teach "First Nation" youth about their heritage. Tracy Lavin, principle researcher for the CCL article, said:

"It is important to utilize all the resources at our disposal to enhance student learning in any setting. It makes sense to draw on students' fascination with video games in order to expand their learning opportunities and improve their learning outcomes."

The Canadian Heritage game is in open beta and is being developed by BlackCherry Digital Media.

An Oklahoma videogame developer is in the midst of creating a title designed to teach players how to manage diabetes.

Diagnosed himself with Type 1 diabetes at age 10, Adam Grantham and his company Game Equals Life just wrapped up a prototype of their first game, The Magi and The Sleeping Star. The title features a protagonist with diabetes, who must manage his carbohydrate ratio and insulin sensitivity in between battles against robot dragons.

Grantham told NewsOK that his plan was to flavor the game with educational bits in a bid to stealthily provide the ability to learn about the disease while being entertained, "Usually, education games don’t feel like regular games, they seem too academic. But with this game, we’re kind of sneak-teaching them the fundamentals of diabetes.”

Two principles the game teaches are the importance of testing blood sugar and patience—gamers must wait for food or insulin to take hold before the game’s character powers up.

Grantham is seeking additional funding to complete the game. A trailer and game demo can be viewed on the game’s website.

Cheating is always a problem in school, and one that most educational videogames are not immune to.

In creating its latest title—a game designed to teach the history of biology—Toronto-based Spongelab Interactive was concerned about walkthroughs being posted online by those who had already completed the content. Their solution was to hire programmer Alex Maslov, a Centennial College graduate, to make the game dynamic and randomize content.

Maslov’s task took him four months and resulted in a “cheat-proof” educational title. He also landed a new job—Maslov is now employed by Spongelab’s sister company InViVo Communications.

The unnamed title is due to enter beta testing next spring towards a 2010 mid-year release.

ITBusiness.Ca has a video and short story on the subject up on their website.

Developer Epic Games has released a free, Unreal 3-powered development kit that will allow students, schools, researchers or fledgling game developers the ability to experiment with 3D game technology.

The Unreal Development Kit (UDK) can be downloading at the UDK website. The UDK is free for noncommercial or educational use, and a variety of licensing options are available—including a revenue sharing model—for anyone creating commercial content. This specific development kit is for the PC platform only, though Epic is considering console support in the future as well.

Epic notes that over 100 campuses already make use of Unreal Technology as part of their curriculum, including University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina State University, The Art Institute system of schools, Drexel University, Westwood College, DeVry University and Atlantic College.

A game has replaced textbooks as a means of learning at a Florida-based online learning center.

Florida Virtual School offers online virtual education for students in the K-12 range and now teaches the subject of History using a videogame called Conspiracy Code. Created by 360Ed, the online-game based course features ten stages and evolves over two semesters, testing students on their knowledge of American History as they attempt to stop a conspiracy.

Florida Virtual School and 360Ed are working on a series of games, “mostly in the humanities and math,” writes TampaBay.com, and are streamlining the courses to meet other state’s standards, as both Florida and non-Florida residents can enroll for classes at the school.

360Ed CEO Ben Noles, a former VP for Origin and Electronic Arts, added, “In 10 years, you won't even be saying 'virtual school' or 'bricks and mortar school.’  You'll just be saying school.

If you happen to be a thermal engineer with a specialty in low temperature, cryogenic applications and you’re feeling a little out of practice, a new interactive training simulator can get you back up to speed.

Cool-It emerged from The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Information Technology department. Users choose from a selection of jobs for the Navy or NASA—overseeing a variety of minesweepers or space depots—before being tasked with building the object so that it falls within tolerances.

The Flash-based sim is rather polished and the explosions resulting from failed engineering attempts are neat as well… trust us.

A school located in the Sengkang area of Singapore has added the Nintendo Wii to its physical education repertoire.

North Vista Primary School is using the videogame technology to help teach sports to its students, with two weeks out of each five week session utilizing the Wii. Asia One reports that the high-tech means of physical education is a way for the school to connect with its students, who principal Phua Kia Wang called “digital natives.”

The indoor PE classes also overcome the problem of oppressive heat in the region. Outdoor PE classes were previously limited to early mornings to avoid the heat, now PE classes can be scheduled with impunity throughout the day.

The school has also invested in heart rate monitors for older students to ensure they do not over exert themselves.

The article further notes that researchers from Nanyang Technological University are eying the effect videogames can have on children’s attitudes towards exercise.

Kokori is the title of a new educational game in development by the Unersidad Santo Tomas in Chile.

Designed to teach high-school level biology, the title will have players man a nanorobot in order to defend a single cell against an onslaught of viruses and bacteria. Kokori has already received backing from the National Commission of Scientific and Technological Research to the tune of $424,000, reports the Environmental News Network.

Virginia Garretón, project director, stated:

We hope that the video game will motivate and get the player more interested in Biology, as well as all the processes present in everyday life that can also be explained through Biology, and of course that it will become a useful tool for teachers and professors

Beta-testing will be conducted in 70 schools throughout Chile, after which it will be distributed to all seven regions of Chile. It will also be available to play for free on the Internet.

As a follow up to previous news of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s new gig as a videogame promoter and developer, the Washington Post takes a look at the first two games to emerge from her stewardship.

Dubbed “the best” of the two titles currently available online, Supreme Decision centers around the rights of a student prevented from wearing his favorite band t-shirt to school. Players will take on the role of a Supreme Court clerk charged with advising Justice Irene Waters on the case.

Do I Have a Right casts players as a member of a pro bono law firm and has them introducing civil right case clients to lawyers.

O’Connor met a sixth-grade fan (and future World of Warcraft addict?), of the Our Court games, who told her that he stayed up until midnight playing them and now wanted to become a lawyer.  O’Connor  responded:

We're not trying to produce a new generation of lawyers; we have plenty already. But I was pleased by his response.

A research group is studying how game economics may mirror the real world, analyzing the virtual economy of Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II.

According to a story on MSNBC, Edward Castronova, professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, said researchers can learn almost anything about human society in games as they really are human societies. He said that the research team can do controlled experiments in the game that wouldn't necessarily work in real life, which make virtual worlds invaluable as a study tool:

"Controlled experimentation is the very best way to learn about cause and effect. We are on the verge of developing that capacity for human society as a whole."

Some tidbits about the virtual world of Norrath vs. the real world:

• Average age of players is 31 compared to 35 for the general population.
• Eighty percent of players are male versus 50 percent for the general population.
• Players skew more white than the overall population.
• Players are also wealthier than the general population with an average mean household income of $84,000 versus $57,000 for the general population.

The story concludes that as the recession tightens moneybelts, more gamers are flocking to free-to-play MMOs, according to SOE president John Smedley:

"We've gone from box-only products with free play components to monthly subscription models, and now we're seeing an evolution to hybrid models that are very similar to the great number of choices seen in the music industry."

Are MMO economies really worth studying if you aren't a player? It seems like a stretch, particularly since demographics can be so skewed. What do you say?

A new browser-based game attempts to teach students the ins and outs of debt management.

Debt Ski, launched in conjunction by mtvU and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, was developed by Persuasive Games. The title has players guide a jet-ski riding swine—Piggy Banks—through a series of obstacles while charging them with managing Piggy’s savings and keeping him out of debt.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation President and CEO Dave Walker explained to BusinessWorld the impetus for designing the educational games:

Young people, who are arguably the most important audience to reach these days when it comes to inspiring social change, are hard to reach through traditional media.

A Manhattan, New York-based school is taking a new approach to teaching its kids, one that introduces videogames to its curriculum.

Quest to Learn (Q2L) located on East 23rd Street, will use games such as Spore and Little Big Planet, alongside other tools such as PhotoShop, Flash, Google Earth and Maya, in a bid to leverage digital and interactive tools to foster the learning experience. More conventional board games and card games will also be utilized according to a story on MetropolisMag.com.

The Institute of Play, a nonprofit, came up with the idea, and is supported by the Parsons School of Design. Financial backing comes from the Gates Foundation, Intel and the MacArthur Foundation.

Katie Salen, a Professor of Design at Parsons and Executive Director of the Institute of Play commented:

There has been a cultural shift in the past few years. Parents and teachers recognize a kind of engagement children have with games and digital media that could lead to a new way of learning.

School kids may not have to hide their PSPs under their desks for much longer.

Recently, noted game designer Will Wright (The Sims, Spore) interviewed Harvard Professor Edward O. Wilson (left) on NPR’s Open Mic segment and asked if he saw a role for video games in the educational process. Here's what Wilson had to say:

I'll go to an even more radical position. I think games are the future in education. We're going through a rapid transition now. We're about to leave print textbooks behind. For example, I envision visits to different ecosystems that the student could actually enter – taking this path, going to that hill – with an instructor. That could be a rain forest, a tundra, or a Jurassic forest...

 

When children went out in Paleolithic times, they went with adults – they learned everything they needed to learn by participating in the process.

Wilson sees the virtual experiences of video games as a way to help motivate kids to go out and learn by having real experiences. Check out the whole audio interview right here.

Via: GoNintendo

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Senior Correspondent Andrew Eisen…

It's a sad day when one of the web's most intelligent game-oriented sites rides off into the sunset.

And so it is with Water Cooler Games, operated since 2003 by Georgia Tech prof Ian Bogost and researcher Gonzalo Frasca. Both academics are also accomplished designers of provocative, issue-oriented games.

We note the following in the site's RSS feed this morning:

Water Cooler Games is now closed. Thanks for reading all these years. The site has been archived in full (with comments)... For my take on "videogames with an agenda," you might want to read Persuasive Games. I am now blogging at Bogost.com...

—Ian Bogost, August 2009

Because the issue-oriented focus of Water Cooler Games often intersected with that of GamePolitics, WCG was frequently cited here on GP. We will miss it, but it's good to know that it will live on in an archived version.

UPDATE: Ian Bogost has posted a lengthy commentary on the WCG closure:

From my perspective, the Water Cooler Games project was very much a success. The fact that so many venues now exist for discussing of what we coyly called "videogames with an agenda" speaks at least in part to the influence we exerted.

More so, the site had been immensely useful in helping me conduct research. My 2007 book Persuasive Games drew many examples from titles we covered on Water Cooler Games... 

 

Closing WCG opens up new opportunities for my writing, on this site and elsewhere... The truth is that I've said most of what I want to say about [political games, advertising and games, and other topics covered on WCG]...

GP: We wish Ian continued success and the best of luck going forward...

A prominent school safety speaker has advocated the imposition of a 10-day moratorium on video game play and television viewing by students, reports the Grand Forks Herald.

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author, retired military man and longtime critic of video game violence, made the remarks during a keynote presentation to North Dakota school officials yesterday.

As he typically does in his speeches, Grossman linked violent video games with school shootings:

[Grossman] described, in chilling detail, school massacres at Columbine High... the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota and Virginia Tech. Just as graphically, he conjured the brutality of video games such as “Grand Theft Auto” and “Manhunt.”

Grossman, an expert on school violence, went on to trace a connection between the two, complete with brain scans and a study of juvenile murderers. And he pitched a singular idea to gathered educators – a 10-day television, movie and video game “detox”... 

“This is not business as usual,” he said. “This is our world coming unglued. This is our society coming unhinged.”

President Barack Obama has - yet again - referenced playing video games as a metaphor for underachievement.

[GP: click here for other recent examples, although Obama has made similar comments going back to at least 2006.]

In a speech in New York last night marking the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, Obama said:

We have to say to our children, Yes, if you’re African American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not. But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands - and don’t you forget that.

To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework...

 

It also means pushing our kids to set their sights higher. They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can’t all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne. I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers. I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court Justice. I want them aspiring to be President of the United States.

BlackPoliticsontheWeb has the full text of Obama's speech. The Washington Post has coverage of the event, which it termed a "tough love message for [Obama's] fellow African-Americans." The New York Times called Obama's speech "a fiery sermon."

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal took notice of our coverage - and of some comments by GP readers...

In a recent conversation with the Chronicle of Higher Education, famed game designer Will Wright remarked that the video game industry has brought some of its mainstream acceptance problems upon itself by continuing to design games as if the players were all 12-year-old boys.

Among Wright's comments:

We've had this cultural bias against games for the last 20 years, and a lot of it I think is self-deserved, because if you look at what people are doing with [video game] technology it is for the most part directed toward 12-year-old boys. But that doesn't mean the format doesn't have the potential to do a whole lot more...

Games... have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years, with some of the earliest games like Go or Chess. People have looked at those as ways to sort of learn strategic thinking, to expand their minds in certain abstract, symbolic areas...

 

So I think adults that didn't grow up with games, don't play games, have gotten disconnected from the idea of play... We sort of think of play as disposable, useless, time-wasting activity when in fact play really is a fundamental educational technology. We've, as a culture, just kind of forgotten that.

Via: IndustryGamers / Kotaku

Via Water Cooler Games comes word that a new academic journal dealing with video games and education is in the works.

The Computer Game Education Review will be edited by Stephen Jacobs (left), a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (and, we're proud to say, a longtime GamePolitics reader). A blurb on the publisher's website describes what the new journal is all about:

CGER will be a peer-reviewed academic publication addressing issues that concern the teaching of game design and development including, but not limited to, curriculum organization, teaching techniques (e.g., conceptual vs. exemplary), game typology, societal impact, economic and commercial issues, legal aspects, and student evaluation that are of interest to faculty and institutions involved in the education and training of future game developers.

Some Louisiana school children are experiencing the art of video game design first-hand, thanks to a state-funded program.

2theAdvocate reports that middle- and high-school students in the Zachary and Lafayette School Districts are creating educational games that, hopefully, are also fun to play. One of the teams' projects is focused on developing sources of clean energy. Along the way, students have received advice and feedback from game industry professionals.

The program is funded by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development's Digital Workforce Initiative.

A new report published by the Joan Ganz Clooney Center at Sesame Workshop discusses the potentially positive effects of video games in educating children and promoting their physical well-being.

Game Changer: Investing in Digital Play to Advance Children’s Learning and Health urges educators as well as government and the healthcare industry to look beyond the stereotype of video games as harmful. The report also calls for increased investment in the medium:

All groups committed to the public interest—educators, policymakers, the federal government, industry leaders, philanthropies, universities—should invest resources in learning how to maximize the impact of a potentially powerful phenomenon that can advance both children's learning and health.

Because a large percentage of American youth play video games, increased investment in their positive aspects could reap enormous benefits for the next generation, the report concludes. The authors note, however, that video games are under constant scrutiny due to their perceived negative effects:

Despite their reputation as promoters of violence and mayhem, digital games have in fact been shown to help children gain content and vital foundational and 21st century skills.

While noting that some stakeholders have reservations about investing in video game tech because of the perceived sedentary nature of games and potential links to rising childhood obesity rates, the report notes the popularity of  the Wii and Dance Dance Revolution. Nintendo’s popular console and Konami’s best-selling dance game franchise have helped to alter perceptions about negative physical effects of video games.

The authors also point to a number of well-established examples illustrating the potentially beneficial effects video games could have on the education and health of future American generations:

Digital games are here to stay and offer the country a rare opportunity to leverage children's already established enthusiasm in order to reform education and promote healthy development.

Via: Kotaku

DOCUMENT DUMP: Grab the full Game Changer report here. Grab the executive summary here.

GP: With this article we welcome Doug Buffone to the pages of GamePolitics. Doug, a student at Georgetown, is interning with GP's parent company, the Entertainment Consumers Association.