Games and Simulation in Science
October 13th, 2009
Last week the National Academies Committee on Learning Science held a workshop on Computer Games, Simulations, and Education. As part of the workshop, papers were commissioned from some of the influential researchers in the field and they are available here.
The first paper by Douglas Clark and team does an excellent job reviewing the “state of the state” of games and simulations. A read through this will give you a good grounding in where we are with the use of simulations and gaming in education. My only quibble is that it appears to leave out the medical and military advances in simulations and gaming, which are extensive. It may be that the charter for this paper was to focus on K-12, which it covers very well. Just keep in mind that there is a little more out there when it mentions the dearth of options in post-secondary education.
The paper by Quellmalz et al is also a good introduction to both the assessment of learning in games and simulation and the use of games and simulation as assessment.
The final group on the list addresses the problems of bringing these games and simulations to scale. there has been work going on in this area for at least the last decade, but there really have only been a few examples of games that have really reached scale. And of those, the impact on learning is debatable (are they just pleasant diverisons?). The authors of the last papers argue that too often academics are not equipped with the skills necessary to bring NSF-funded prototypes to market, and planning for this move is not done up front.
All-in-all, a good group of papers if this is an area of interest for you.
Tags: games, simulation
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