Eric Klopfer

Environmental Detectives: PDAs as a window into a virtual simulated world

The use of computer simulations is changing the nature of scientific investigation and providing us unique insights into the way that the world works. As simulation moves from the desktop to more ubiquitous portable devices (such as PDAs), we can draw upon the unique affordances of these devices-portability, social interactivity, context sensitivity, connectivity, and individuality. The purpose of this research project is to develop and examine a new simulation platform that is designed from the ground up for handhelds to create augmented reality simulations (i.e. simulations that bridge virtual and real worlds). This paper describes environmental detectives, one such augmented reality simulation that is currently being developed at MIT. In the upcoming months, we develop and test this concept as well as produce a suite of authoring tools that students and teachers can use to design their own augmented reality simulations.

Entering the education arcade

Responding to social, economic, and technological trends which make games the most powerful medium for reaching young learners, The Education Arcade project, based in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, seeks to prototype games that teach, develop curricular materials which support existing commercial titles, and help prepare teachers to use games in the classroom. This article reports on the first three prototypes that are producing -- Supercharged! (electromagnetism), Environmental Detectives (environmental science) and Revolution (American History).

Mystery at the museum: a collaborative game for museum education

Through an iterative design process involving museum educators, learning scientists and technologists, and drawing upon our previous experiences in handheld game design and a growing body of knowledge on learning through gaming, we designed an interactive mystery game called Mystery at the Museum (the High Tech Whodunnit), which was designed for synchronous play of groups of parents and children over a two to three hour period. The primary design goals were to engage visitors more deeply in the museum, engage visitors more broadly across museum exhibits, and encourage collaboration between visitors. The feedback from the participants suggested that the combination of depth and breadth was engaging and effective in encouraging them to think about the museums exhibits. The roles that were an integral part of the game turned out to be extremely effective in engaging pairs of participants with one another. Feedback from parents was quite positive in terms of how they felt it engaged them and their children. These results suggest that further explorations of technology-based museum experiences of this type are wholly appropriate.

Comparative analysis of Palm and wearable computers for Participatory Simulations

Recent educational computer-based technologies have offered promising lines of research that promote social constructivist learning goals, develop skills required to operate in a knowledge-based economy (Roschelle et al. 2000), and enable more authentic science-like problem-solving. In our research programme, we have been interested in combining these aims for curricular reform in school science by developing innovative and progressive handheld and wearable computational learning tools. This paper reports on one such line of research in which the learning outcomes of two distinct technological platforms (wearable computers and Palm hand-helds) are compared using the same pedagogical strategy of Participatory Simulations. Participatory Simulations use small wearable or hand-held computers to engage participants in simulations that enable inquiry and experimentation (Colella 2000) allowing students to act out the simulation themselves. The study showed that the newer and more easily distributable version of Participatory Simulations on Palms was equally as capable as the original Tag-based simulations in engaging students collaboratively in a complex problem-solving task. We feel that this robust and inexpensive technology holds great promise for promoting collaborative learning as teachers struggle to find authentic ways to integrate technology into the classroom in addition to engaging and motivating students to learn science.

SPATIAL VARIATION IN ABUNDANCE CREATED BY STOCHASTIC TEMPORAL VARIATION

A central question in ecology is explaining spatial variation in the abundance of species. Patterns of spatial variation in abundance can often be explained by spatial variation in the environment, including resource availability, climatic variables, and other factors that influence a species’ reproduction and survival. We show that spatial patterns in abundance may also be driven by temporal environmental variation, in the absence of any fixed spatial environmental variation. To illustrate this, we build on work by J. H. Brown, D. W. Mehlman, and G. C. Stevens, who demonstrated spatial patterns in bird abundances that can be explained by fixed spatial variation in the environment. Using a pair of simple stochastic models of bird population dynamics, we show that similar patterns can be generated through temporal environmental variation that has no fixed spatial component. This occurs when population dynamics are characterized by very weak density dependence, so that population densities exhibit near-random-walk behavior. Because similar patterns of spatial variation in species’ abundances can be produced by either fixed spatial environmental variation or spatiotemporal environmental variation, we argue that interpreting spatial variation in abundance may sometimes require understanding temporal variation in abundance.

Ubiquitous games for learning (UbiqGames): Weatherlings, a worked example

This paper provides a rationale for a class of mobile, casual, and educational games, which we call UbiqGames. The study is motivated by the desire to understand how students use educational games in light of additional distractions on their devices, and how game design can make those games appealing, educationally useful, and practical. In particular, we explain the choices made to build an engaging and educational first example of this line of games, namely Weatherlings. Further, we report results from a pilot study with 20 students that suggest that students are engaged by the game and are interested in learning more about academic content topics, specifically weather and climate, after playing the game. Research should continue to determine whether Weatherlings specifically does increase learning in these areas, and more generally to determine whether any learning gains and similar results with regard to engagement can be replicated in other content areas following the general model for game design.

The Simulation Cycle: Combining Games, Simulations, Engineering and Science Using StarLogo TNG

StarLogo The Next Generation (TNG) enables secondary school students and teachers to model decentralized systems through agent-based programming. TNGs inclusion of a three-dimensional graphical environment provides the capacity to create games and simulation models with a first-person perspective. The authors theorize that student learning of complex systems and simulations can be motivated and improved by transforming simulation models of complex systems phenomena (specifically this study examines systems including epidemics and Newtonian motion) into games. Through this transformation students interact with the model in new ways and increase their learning of both specific content knowledge and general processes such as inquiry, problem solving and creative thinking. During this study several methods for connecting the simulations to game dynamics were tried, ranging from student-created games, to altering existing games, to students playing premade games. This article presents the results of research data from two years of curriculum development and piloting in northern Massachusetts science classrooms to demonstrate the successes and challenges of integrating simulations and games. This article also explores the results of these interventions in terms of ease of implementation, student motivation and student learning.

Collaborative learning through augmented reality role playing

This research investigates the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, specifically handheld computers, to create an emotionally compelling, rich context for collaborative learning. Building on work in collaborative learning, we sought to design games requiring positive interdependence, promotive interaction, individual accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing. While the collaboration within groups was strong and successful in the first generation AR games, the collaboration between groups was limited or non-existent. Several new game play elements added to a new engine created a more dynamic game play experience. These features included time dependence, cascading events and distinct player roles. In subsequent iterations of AR games, we have found these new features to be effective at fostering collaboration, which in turn scaffolds a more authentic investigation process

Technologies to support the creation of complex systems models—using StarLogo software with students

Research on complex, adaptive systems has made significant advances in recent years in the study of natural and social phenomena that exhibit random variation and selection, resulting in learning or evolution. Unfortunately, students (including K-12, undergraduate and graduate) in most biology programs have little opportunity to explore complex systems during the course of their studies. StarLogo and the Adventures in Modeling Curriculum [Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo. Teachers College Press, New York] provide an easily accessible entry point into complex systems modeling for students and other novice modelers. These specialized tools can provide powerful insights into the dynamics of systems and create opportunities to explore challenging and meaningful domains in the biological sciences. Specific applications to epidemiological and ecological systems are explored, including the often debated topic of the evolution of reduced attack rates in predator-prey systems.

Fun and Learning: Blending Design and Development Dimensions in Serious Games through Narrative and Characters

This chapter describes the development of four versions of a game for learning and comparative study carried out in a Singapore high school to shed light on the effectiveness of puzzle and narrative-based games in engaging students, their learning experience and understanding of the physics concepts of displacement and velocity. In particular, it describes the introduction of an off-screen character to help reach a synergy of fun and learning, through an optimal blend of design and development dimensions. The off-screen character achieves this through narration of an extended narrative/story intertwined with aspects of the learning topics. In this way the character’s purpose is twofold; firstly, as part of the narrative/story and secondly, as learning partner or assistant. Results from the study demonstrate that while some aspects of learning were comparable from both the puzzle and narrative versions of the game, the narrative versions provided a flexible and powerful approach to introduce technical/scientific terms and language associated with the topics of learning. In addition, players consistently rated the narrative versions as being more fun, more exciting, and more engaging. While relatively simple, it is argued that this approach is cost-effective and accessible in informing academics and teachers in schools in customizing their own virtual environments, simulations, games for learning, serious games, and commercially available off-the-shelf titles (COTS) with topics from the curriculum.