| WEEK # | TOPICS | ASSIGNMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and Overview of the Course Game Brainstorming and Categorization: Initial Game Definition Participatory Simulations Introduction - Live Long and Prosper Game Exercise: Responses | |
| 2 | What is a Simulation? What is a Game? Activity - Finding happiness on a checkerboard: What defines a game? a simulation? a model? What makes a game educational? The Modding Revolution | Group presentations on Research on Games and Learning: Gender Collaboration and Competition Individual vs. Multiplayer Technology vs. No Technology Presentations with resources |
| 3 | Exploring "Educational" Simulation and Games Introduction to Edutainment Simulations: Civilization® III SimCityTM 4 Roller Coaster Tycoon® 3 Rise of Nations® Chemicus/Physicus ZoombinisTM Poster Presentation | Paper - Designing Curricula for Games (PDF) |
| 4 | Edutainment in the Classroom Mayor for a Day - SimCityTM SimCityTM in the Classroom Links: Urban Planning Almost the Real World What Do Game Designers Know about Scaffolding (PDF) Uses and Subversions of SimCityTM (PDF) SimCity™ 3000 Teaching Guide What do you learn through these environments? How can curriculum determine the learning experience? See Pictures of Q&A from Class | |
| 5 | Video Games - Board Games Edutainment Wrap-up and Gee Readings Discussion. (Please read Gee book and Squire papers.) Intro to Board Games Activity (see description weeks 6-8) Study on Transfer (PDF) Zoombinis™ Study: Brainstorming Educational Board Game | |
| 6 | Designing and Developing Games to Teach (and Participatory Simulations) Activity - Designing a board game: What are the issues in designing an educational game? How do we solve these issues? Network Participatory Simulation Participatory Simulations - Understanding Systems from the Inside | White paper and proposal for educational board game (PDF) |
| 7 | Designing and Developing Games to Teach Critique and Feedback on Initial Board Game Ideas Special Guest - Steffen Walz | |
| 8-9 | Designing and Developing Games to Teach - Presentations Board Game Preparation and Testing Readings Discussion Board Game Presentations - 20 minutes of playable game | Documentation and Presentation of an Educational Board Game (PDF) |
| 10-11 | Simulation and Game Design - Adventures in Modeling What is a simulation? Overview of Simulation Environments: Agent Based (StarLogo, AgentSheets, Stagecast) vs. Aggregate (Stella, Vensim, ModelBuilder) Programming vs. Equations vs. Visual General Purpose vs. Specific Domain Adventures in Modeling - Exploring Complex Dynamic Systems with StarLogo: The next three weeks will be dedicated to developing simulations or games with StarLogo TNG, a brand new simulation environment under development. Activities and Participatory Simulations Evaluating Models: Good Models and Bad Models - What defines a "good model?" Idea Models - How much detail/reality need to go into a model? | White Paper and Sketch on Model Proposal (PDF) Presentations |
| 12 | Simulation Design - Adventures in Modeling Begin Final Models Introduction to Instructional Design | Final StarLogo Project (PDF) Final Education Research Project (PDF) |
| 13 | Educational Research - How do people learn from simulations? Introduction to Educational Research Muzzylane | |
| 14 | Final Project Presentations | Presentations of Final Projects |