The Education Business Blog

Ed Note: Are video games and simulations essential learning tools for the 21st Century? Guest Blogger NT Etuk responds to my post about Ethics in the first of two posts on this topic.

By NT Etuk – CEO and Co-Founder, Tabula Digita.

Video games and simulations are among the most efficient learning tools ever built. Period. This is not a guess. It is not a hypothesis. If you don't agree I'd like to share the perspective of someone who is working with schools to incorporate video games into classroom practice.

But first, let’s reset our minds about videogames. If you can, forget all of the media hype. Forget all of the preconceptions about how good or bad they are for children. Instead, let’s take a fresh look. Let’s view videogames from a new perspective and together let us really see what’s happening …

In fact, let’s look at this through the eyes of a child …

Process Matters

When a child picks up a new videogame, he or she knows very little about the game. He or she knows little about the world the game operates in, the rules of the world, the rules of his or her character, or the rules of the interaction of his or her character with that world. The child doesn’t know what problems they have to solve to advance through the world, and in many cases the child doesn’t even know how to solve those problems ahead of time!

Yet, to win (and that is the goal of most videogames), he or she must learn those rules, master those rules, learn the problems, solve the problems, and fail a hundred times before finally succeeding!

Imagine a system so ingeniously designed, so pedagogically efficient that it takes a child from beginner to master in 40 to 60 hours (the standard amount of time a game plays), forces them to fail dozens of times before achieving ultimate success, but is so inspiring and so engaging that they solve the problems on their own, actively ask friends for help, and even do research to find answers.

Content Matters

Now imagine that what they’ve mastered, what they’re curious about, what they ask for help on, and ultimately what they succeed in is not Super Mario Brothers … but Algebra …

Now – if you were asked to design a system of education, wouldn’t that result be your goal? If you were an administrator or a principal and you were asked to manage a system of education, wouldn’t you be hoping that was the behavior of your students? And if you were a teacher, wouldn’t you be begging for the tools to help that become not just a dream, but a reality?

Of course! We all would! So as educators, we actually owe it to ourselves and to our students not to be frustrated by the videogame medium, not to be afraid of the technology, not to be suspicious of the engagement factor, but actually to embrace it and to ask the critical question “Why?”

In the next post we explore the question of why this works.

A Note from the Author:
This is the first in a series of discussions around the idea of educational gaming, simulations, and immersive learning. It’s a small snippet meant to start a dialogue. I’ll try to keep the piece short so we can dialogue together – so please, any questions, answers, retorts, replies – please post. More than happy to hear them and respond.

About Tabula Digita:
Tabula Digita is the award winning publisher of the DimensionM series of educational videogame titles. DimensionM titles encompass action and non-action titles and allow students to play other students within classrooms, across schools, and across the country, all while learning and increasing achievement. View Tabula Digita titles at www.DimensionM.com

What tools do teachers find useful for learning and teaching? The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies out of the UK conducted a survey in 2007 that asked people to submit their top 10 tools - they then came up with a list of the top 100.

If you are an educational software publisher the results may not be what you want to hear. Not 1 of the top 10 is an education specific title and only 5 of the top 50 are (if we include Wikipedia). All the rest are general productivity tools and range from Office apps, search tools, social networking sites, mind mappers, RSS readers to name just a few categories. In an even more interesting twist 37 of the top 50 are free.

This survey is very unscientific, 107 self selected responses. Take it with a large grain of salt. On the other hand the questions it raises are fascinating.

• Could it be that the age of education specific software is coming to an end?
• Are educators embracing general productivity tools as the solution?
• Will they need scaffolding to bring these tools into the classroom effectively?
• What will be the business model to support this trend - will it be Professional Development instead of Software Systems?
• Will schools tolerate or even encourage "free" products that are advertising or sponsorship driven?
• If schools do move to a sponsorship model what implications does that have for traditional media like textbooks?

Comment away if you have thoughts on any of this.

If you are attending the panel on games and learning tomorrow the correct room number is 320 EF. I posted an incorrect number yesterday. Hope to see you there.

(First post from the iPhone. Works like a charm. )

FETC 2008 starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and colleagues from across the Education Technology industry.

I'm participating in a panel discussion on Thursday afternoon about games and education that will balance practitioners with vendors in a discussion about the state of games and learning. From the practitioner side John Rice of the Education Games Research Blog will be there along with Gary Weidenhamer, Education Technology Manager at Palm Beach County District. Dave Martz from Muzzy Lane Software and I will be speaking from the business perspective and Karen Billings from SIIA's Education Division will be moderating.

The panel runs from 1:50-2:45 PM Thursday in room CS4. Hope to see you there!

PS - Check the on-site notices - the room may change.

Hype alert - Web 2.0 Marketing is a paradigm shift but only a portion of the market is using it today. In Part 1 I argued that market trends should be pushing you to use social networking, blogs, wikis, and the other tools of Web 2.0 in your marketing mix. Given the uneven adoption of these tools in your customer base you will be managing a mix of the old and new for quite some time. So think of it as expanding your paradigm.

Before we go on I want to add to what I said in Part 1. There is one additional reason for doing all this that is specific to the education market. Most teachers are isolated in their classrooms - they yearn to have their voice heard and to be part of a larger community. The asynchronous nature of most social media are ideal for meeting this need. It is one of the reasons there are so many education groups already on Ning.

So what does this “paradigm expansion kit” look like? Here are five ways of thinking like a Web 2.0 Marketer that you can add to your toolkit.

Idea #1 - You can’t do this on your own. The value from Web 2.0 is other people talking about your products. For people to do this they need a context where they are comfortable interjecting their voice. Many companies believe that they can build their own walled garden so that they can control it. But customers want Switzerland - a neutral zone where they can get useful information - not company controlled spin. Your first goal is to become a trusted player in the larger on-line community. Join and support the networks that are out there and blend your network into it rather than trying to go it alone.

Idea #2 - Web 2.0 Marketing is a process not an event. You manage it the way you would any other process - with a sustained commitment to continuous improvement. This breaks the paradigm of a lot of event driven marketing. You don’t manage your personal relationships this way (“I sent my wife an email last week - don’t need to worry about talking to her for a while....”) and you can’t build on-line relationships with customers this way either. This is a budgeting challenge because you have to dedicate resources to managing your on-line presence. My suggestion is to look at some of the most expensive items in your budget (trade shows, advertising, etc.) and dial back on them as you dial up on Web 2.0 activities. Smaller newer companies should start here and add the other elements as they can afford them.

Idea #3 - It is about authentic conversations. When you engage on-line speak as yourself. This is not a new and improved way to push your spin into the world. People will sniff out on-line phonies and expose them. Ridicule is not going to help your brand identity - particularly if it shows up in Google. A positive example of how to do this is Randy’s Journal - the blog of Boeing’s CMO. He speaks from a personal rather than corporate voice. Marketers are welcome to the conversation if you add value and contribute expertise. Oh - and don’t spam bloggers with press releases - it just annoys them. Make comments on their articles or phone them up and talk.

Idea #4 - Web 2.0 should be embedded in your products. Seth Godin in his latest tract - "Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?" - makes the point that most companies try to graft Web 2.0 approaches onto existing products and services with predictably disappointing results. Consider this - on-line gamers spend 1 hour reading about the game on companion websites for every 2 hours playing. That is because the companion sites have been encouraged to develop as part of the games’ ecosystems. Imagine what your customers would be saying about your curriculum content if students were showing similar levels of engagement. For more ideas on how to do this see my article 10 Ways to Build Instructional Products for 21st Century Skills.

Idea #5 - Set your expectations correctly. Social media sites are hugely popular as measured in total traffic, but fewer than 1% of your customers will probably be contributing participants. If you expect everyone to comment and contribute you are going to be disappointed. You are trying to reach the influencers who will help spread the word. Overhyping the participation rate in order to get a project funded is a time honored tradition at many education publishers - but in this case since actual participation is so easy to measure it will ultimately undermine your project.

Some of this probably looks like common sense, some of it may look a little weird. My strong suggestion is that in order to understand how to use these tools for your company you need to first use them for yourself. Next in this series we’ll look at some ways you can get started with social media.

Part 1 - Web 2.0 Education Marketing

Education marketers have been slow to adopt wikis, blogs, social networks, and virtual worlds. There are valid reasons for this (see below), but it is time for us as an industry to begin embracing these tools. In this series I'm going to explore the industry context, the gestalt, and some concrete ideas to help you get started down this path.

Over the past year I have been asking people "what is the first thing you do in Amazon after you make sure you have the product you were seeking?" The almost universal answer is that people scroll down to look at the user generated comments. This is the power of Web 2.0 at work - what your peers have to say on a subject is far more important than anything a company might say.

There are two primary reasons the education industry should be employing Web 2.0 tools:

1. The education industry is going through huge change driven in large part by technology substituting for older ways of doing things. In this time of transition staying close to your customers and their shifting priorities is going to be a requirement. Web 2.0 tools are some of the most effective ways to create a real two-way dialog with customers - what I have elsewhere called Socratic Marketing.

2. Our customers are becoming accustomed to using these tools everywhere else in their lives. If we don't keep pace we run the risk of becoming irrelevant.

There are some good examples of people working with these tools like here, here, and here. But they tend to still be the exception not the rule.

So if these clear needs are out there why haven't we seen more of this in education? There are three reasons that come to mind:

1. A key factor is the concentration of decision making at the district level that we have seen in the past few years due to NCLB. Without a need to reach broad numbers of teachers companies simply see this approach as a lower priority.

2. Some of it has to do with the inherent conservatism of education and the spillover of that mindset into the companies that serve them.

3. Finally, most of those setting budgets and priorities at the larger education companies are digital immigrants to the world of Web 2.0 - it is unfamiliar, vaguely threatening, and will require learning new ways of thinking and acting. It is easier to keep doing what you are already doing.

Of these three reasons only the first is a valid "marketing" reason not to do it. The other two are just excuses for holding back. If your product truly touches just a few people at the district office then this may not be the path for you (on the other hand with 14,000+ districts it may still make sense). But if your products are in the classroom or serving a broad network of people across a district then you should begin to think about how you can tap into the power of that network.

Next in this series - 5 core concepts for marketers for working in a Web 2.0 world.

By Guest Blogger Randy Wilhelm


Educator's love the internet but they have valid concerns about using it in the classroom. Thinkronize’s study, “Schools & Generation ‘Net” uncovered compelling insights from nearly 1,000 principals and library media specialists. Relevancy, commercialization, information literacy, instructional validity, and children's safety were all significant issues. Today we look at 5 ideas that can help you rethink your on-line offerings to fit into today's classrooms.

1. The Internet is a Valuable Instructional Resource
First the good news. Our survey confirmed that educators value the Internet, with 90% rating it as an “excellent,” “very good,” or “good” educational resource.

2. Concern over Relevancy and Commercialization of the Net
The study found that educators are worried about the quality and relevance of sites students find on the Internet with the following ratings:

• 79% expressed concern about useless or irrelevant search results.
• 78% percent expressed concern about students being redirected to commercial or pay sites.

Publishers have an opportunity to create web destinations that are lively and instructionally relevant without overdue commercialization.

3. Information Literacy is Low
When it came to information literacy, there was concern over students’ ability to judge online information sources critically. Our study results showed:

• Only 4% “strongly agreed” that students were equipped to think critically about the accuracy, authority and possible biases of the information sources they encounter, with the rest expressing responses in varying degrees of uncertainty.
• When asked about the teacher’s role, 88% “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that teachers need additional professional development in this area.

These findings correspond to another recent study conducted on behalf of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Their key finding was that 88% of voters say they believe that schools should incorporate 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, technology literacy, communication, and self-direction into the curricula.

4. Web use for Instruction/Curriculum
We asked about teachers’ use of the Internet and student searching being integrated into the school’s curriculum. Our findings included:

• Over one-third of respondents (35%) reported that “almost all” teachers in their schools use the Internet regularly for instructional purposes.
• 81% “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that student searching on the Internet has been integrated into the curricula.

5. Actions Taken to Protect Students Online
Finally, virtually all the educators report that their schools or districts are taking actions to protect students. The most common precaution that schools take is to install filters. A majority of schools also rely on providing information to faculty, students and parents. However, only about one-third have purchased and installed special search engines to keep students safe. Specific actions taken to improve students’ Internet safety included:

• Installing filters – 97%
• Giving students instructions on safety – 79%
• Giving faculty instructions on safety – 75%
• Providing parents with tips and information – 56%
• Purchasing special search engines – 32%

The Web, though a place of immense value, is creating a new front of concern as it is a place where anyone can post content that may be inaccurate, biased and even dangerous. It is vital that we teach our students how to evaluate sites and be critically aware of the ways they are being targeted for potentially dangerous and commercial purposes.

The bottom line – educators believe there is significant room to improve the Internet as an educational resource. And, in order to keep the Internet a valuable resource, tools like filters, training, and safe and contextually relevant search engines, like netTrekker, are critical.

Link to first article in this series.

Will a middle school video game to teach ethics using a story line out of zombie movies and Frankenstein work? Doug Thomas at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication is working on “Modern Prometheus” a game that involves plagues, body parts, and building a better monster.

My hat is off to the Professor and his team but I question how much real life ethics they are going to teach. One of the fundamental challenges we face in creating serious games is the balance of fantasy vs. reality. Deciding whether or not to dig up graves for body parts just isn’t something your average middle schooler is going to be faced with on a regular basis. On other hand - being nice to the new kid or saying goodbye to a friend who is using drugs are very real.

It also surfaces one of the more vexing issues the entire game industry is facing - how do we move away from guns and gore and yet maintain fun game play? Mainstream gaming sites are full of lamentations about how staid and formulaic most games are today (despite fascinating new entrants like “Portal” from Valve - crazy fun and mind bending at the same time).

In the world of edugames a range of solutions to this challenge is emerging. At one end of the spectrum you have titles like Modern Prometheus and DimensionM from Tabula Digita which use themes involving shooting and gore that are close to mainstream games. [UPDATE: I should have been clearer in my writing here. Tabula Digita's products do not involve gore. They do have some shooting, although this is not the focus of the game and is directed at inanimate objects. Look for their thoughts on this question here soon.] The argument in favor of this approach is that it is familiar to the students. This should make adoption easier and make it more engaging.

The problem with this approach is that for good reasons most schools have strict rules about violence and its depiction on campus. The similarity in educator’s minds to more violent and socially unredeeming games could stall adoption at the school door.

At the other end of the spectrum we have games like Food Force from the UN and River City from Harvard School of Education which attempt to model real life scenarios using video game technologies. While interesting these games can feel a bit stilted at times.

I was encouraged to see that the USC team is allied with Sasha Barab’s Quest Atlantis project because they are taking the middle road. A fantasy world for sure - but one that doesn’t rely on violence to engage the learner.

In the end, success for edugames will depend on sound game play. If you are not familiar with Raph Koster’s work on this topic I encourage you to read his book A Theory Of Fun and his blog. Raph and the group of thinkers he is a part of talk about game play “atoms” and other essential concepts that should allow us to take instructional content and build games that are insanely fun to play.

You should also play as many games as you can (work work work..). Knowing the canon and the vocabulary (visual, linguistic, social, and competitive) of modern games is an essential grounding for helping us all take this concept to the next level. Get in touch if you want some suggestions on where to start.

We have to find some new environments and themes to ground edugames in - shooting and flinging body parts around isn’t going to cut it except in Forensics 101.