Syllabus for Games4EducationAlexander Repenning, Instructor Part I: Introduction and warm-up projectsweek of Jan 13: SokobanReadings: Kurt Squire, Video Games in Education, Jan 15 (Course Introduction Slides) (Slides including upload instructions) week of Jan 20: Sokoban DueReading: Todd Oppenheimer, The Flickering Mind (look inside the book: read introduction only) by Jan 20 (Slides Jan 20) Reading: Marek Bronstring, The Future of Adventure Games, by Jan 22 week of Jan 27Reading: Nathan Bos, What do game designers know about scaffolding? Borrowing SimCity design principles for education, by Jan 27. week of Feb 3: Sokoban 3D (Thursday)week of Feb 10: Sims Due Feb 17 (Thursday)slides: Game AI chapter 1 slides: Game AI chapter 2 Part II: Final Projectsweek of Feb 17: Education Projects; Project pitches; Form teams/Select projectweek of Feb 24: Prepare proposal; proposal due Thurs, Feb 26slides: final project pitch preparation Voting Results week of Mar 2: all templates need to be posted (general > game template)slides: presentation guidelines here are 3 examples (not including good storyboards) old example 1: Agent Hunt old example 2: Shadow Tactics old example 3: Space Penguin Thurs March 4: Slide presentation of Project Design, critiques posted to general > game template.Presentation Feedback from Day 1 (.DOC, 22KB) week of Mar 9slides: Pragmatics of educational technology, E3 announcements week of Mar 16: First prototype due (march 18); preliminary playtestweek of Mar 23: Spring Breakweek of Mar 30: Thurs Apr 1: second prototype due; playtestReading:Cognitive Walkthrough (accompanies discussion for March 30) Walkthrough evaluation notes from class Reading: gamasutra, Game Design Methods, by April 1. This is a fairly lengthy paper. At least skim it, read it more closely if interest/time permits. NOTE: you can use l:turney@colorado.edu p:sokoban if you do not wish to register at gamasutra.com week of Apr 6: PlaytestReading: gamasutra, Playtesting piece, by April 6. Use login/password above or register to access. Reading: John Anderson, Implications of the ACT-R Learning Theory: No Magic Bullets, by April 8. Of course you are welcome to read all of this paper, but a couple of sections are perhaps less important for our interests than the rest. Please read from the beginning to the middle of page 6, then resume reading in the middle of p 12, reading until the middle of p 19. The finish by reading the summary, which starts near the bottom of p 23. Here are some study questions to help relate this reading to your project:
week of Apr 13Reading: Klawe, M. M. (1999), Designing Game-Based Interactive Multimedia Mathematics Learning Activities, by April 13. [Follow link to Klawe, 1999] week of Apr 20Assignment for Thursday, April 22.Post an answer to one of the following questions: (1) I think that playing violent video games is harmful to kids, and this is what we should do about it: (2) I don't think that playing violent video games is harmful to kids. My criticism of the research that suggests it is harmful is: Your answer to either question should be informed by reading about the subject, in the references below or elsewhere, not just by "your opinion". Note about accessing the readings: CU has free access to these, as you'll find if you link to them FROM CU. Off campus, you will need to use the CU VPN client ("virtual private network"... it makes you look to the internet as if you are at CU, and hence tells the publishers' sites that it is OK to give you access. If you do not have the VPN client you can download it from the CU ITS site). (If you are interested in the TV study, it's at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/295/5564/2468.pdf ) For effect on physical fighting:
For desensitization (loss of empathy, increased acceptance of aggression):
For the meta-analysis:
The sound blast controlled experiment: http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/psp784772.html Alex's notes from in class discussion on violence in video gamespoll: changed your mind after readings week of April 27: Final playtestReading: http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/crash.html week of April 29: Final version due
week of May 3: Final Presentations
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