Games & Learning: INTE 5230 – Book Review
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
Antoine de Saint–Exupery
Resonant Games opens with this quote, which I believe exemplifies the direction and focus of the book. Within the first couple of chapters the connection authors Klopfer, Haas, Osterweil & Rosenheck, are making is revealed as they communicate that a strong emphasis on learning is most effective when there is an underlying passion driving engagement. Their early reference to games as being cultural and social reveals two components of a resonant game. The book positions an effective game as one with passion, interaction with others, and a connection of content to the real world. The authors note that learning and education are often confused with “schooling”. I would offer that it is no surprise that without the connection to something relevant much “learning” is lost over time.
The authors describe themselves as a group of scholars and game designers working for the MIT’s Education Arcade. MIT’s mission provides the basis for what they draw on through more than a decade of creating learning games.
The MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program and The Education Arcade focus on creating playful, powerful learning experiences using the affordances of new educational technologies. We leverage design-based research to study and develop solutions to pervasive challenges in teaching and learning
Their experience has resulted in a set of principles developed for use in designing effective games, games that bridge the gap between concepts learned at school, use at home, and in the real world. Their principles are an integral part of their game design process as they strive to create learning games that align with their mission. They define the principles as ‘resonant design’ and the resulting games as ‘resonant games’. The games focus on a welcoming environment that engages and ignites a spark, leading the learner to ask questions, pursue a passion, and feel empowered to explore, discover, and learn while utilizing one of the most powerful tools games posses, the opportunity to fail and try again without the discouragement often found in the real world. Games allow the player to retain a sense of self efficacy and a desire to return to the problem, quest, or challenge until they are successful. The following statement from the first chapter describes a resonant game and draws an accurate picture of their quest when designing their games:
..learning games that could come to be your life – artifacts that could be part of your life in school and at home, that could rouse your curiosity and determination, that might even seep into your dreams and imaginations. (p.2)
Through their focus on learning games for children through young adults there is potential to impact a significant portion of the population. However the current “just in time”, quick learning mentality currently coursing through the veins of a majority of Corporate America does not lend itself to incorporation of the longer more comprehensive games reviewed in the book. Although the design for breadth and depth of the longer games may not be of significant value in the work environment they do note that short-form, casual games can also be built off of resonant design principles. Chapter six focuses on Beetles, Beasties, and Bunnies in your Back Pocket, which incorporates the short-form game concept. I believe a game with a focus on one learning objective that incorporates a few of the principals would have a great chance of success even in the corporate environment.
Many of their twenty design principals focus on educators, for example
- The principle of working within an educational system
- The principle of providing professional development
- The principle of making curricular connections
They strive to support educators and when appropriate provide supplemental material and activities to reinforce learning. They also advocate for teachers to use the games as either an introduction to concepts prior to teaching in depth material, or to practice material introduced in class. They note that it is important for teachers to remain a “mentor in the middle” mindset as they monitor and guide student understanding. Resonant Games emphasizes selecting a number of principles to serve as focal points during game design and points to final product where through use of these principles the concepts learned resonate with the learner long after their time spent in play. The games are intended to supplement instruction in a way that draws students into play, encourages them to return and engage, question, and challenge themselves. It is through these processes that learning occurs organically and ultimately resonates over time.
The principals they use as the foundation for design are based on learning science research, which recognizes learning as being at the core of the human experience. These principles summarize many of the concepts we have been exposed to this semester with the foundation of each principle reflected in ideas mirrored by many others in the field. Early in the book the authors reference the underlying research behind their principals and encourage the reader to seek out further knowledge through reading more about the ideas used as center points for each design principal. Research and writings referenced are from those well known in the field of education and design, a number of James Gee’s publications, What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy (Gee, 2003), The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning (Gee, 2008), and Serious Games: Mechanisms and effects (Gee, 2009), are included as well as and Salen & Zimmerman’s Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (Salen 2003), amongst many others. While discussing one idea they believe is central to resonant games Klopfer et al. (2019) state “that learners will best develop knowledge and skills by doing things in the world – knowledge is not delivered but constructed by the learner through and during activity and discovery” (p.16). They wrap up this statement by attributing the development of this idea to educator and philosopher John Dewey.
The authors do not recommend that games are designed with all of the principles in play for each game, but rather suggest careful selection of a few of the principals to serve as the focal points for an individual game. Through use of resonant design principles and an intentional focus on scaffolding, metacognition, and attention to conceptual change they strive to create a learning strategy that moves the learner from novice to expert. They describe what they call the four overarching resonant design principles as
- Honor the whole learner; their likes, dislikes, homes, social world, good/bad days, and the physical learner. Tell a sticky story to meet them where they are, get their attention and draw them in to think, imagine, and solve.
- Honor the sociality of learning and play; learning is an individual and a social experience. Leave room for both in the game’s design through multiplayer challenges, collaboration, discussions, and competition.
- Honor the connection between learning content and the game; the underlying content is the focus, the goal is engagement. Everyone’s idea of fun is different, strive for continuous engagement. Consider and include options for learning choice which creates a personalized learning environment, and with some variety the goal is to tap into something for everyone.
- Honor the learning context; schools introduce most academic knowledge therefore a well-designed game recognizes this as well as the need relate the knowledge to the real world for maximum engagement and retention.
After introducing their experience and the basis for their design principles they provide a deep dive into a number of games they have designed. Their game reviews serve as an effective overview into how to apply the various principles as well as an explanation of the benefits of the principles selected for use in each game. The detailed review of each game clearly points the reader to a better understanding of the process through which the game was designed, thereby giving them the tools to design resonant games.
One of the concepts I found bleeding through many of our readings thus far this semester, one the authors refer to as ‘The Principle of Multiple Pathways and Freedom of Effort’, and one I find most intriguing, is the emphasis on including player choice , which I see as a form of personalized learning. Through experiences navigating my children’s education with them I have seen the power personalized learning opportunities bring to the table and recognize this as another benefit to games. I’ve also witnessed games as an avenue to development of social skills, leadership, collaboration, and the motivated engagement that comes with a quest or challenge presented in games. These were lessons the boys learned through games like Runescape ( Jagex, 2001) and World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2014), games I watched them become highly engaged in. Generally they kept their grades up, worked, and retained an active social life at the church youth group so I didn’t curb their game play-time unless I felt they began to lose balance in another area resulting in yet another life lesson, time management. Recently I have seen many of the skills they gained during game play transfer into their very digital online workspaces. Having seen the social, leadership, and life lessons learned through gaming now utilized in their real world lives I fully support inclusion of games to support learning content . I would like to see educational games designed to continue to incorporate the life lessons the boys learned while also adding the engaging, authentic, real world components to educational game play, for as noted in many of our readings, when the learning content is connected to a place of meaning in the real world, learning strengthens. This is another set of Resonant Games principles, ‘The Principle of Authentic Problems and The Principle of Integrating into Everyday Life’. Who knew fractions could be about baking? I most certainly did not when I was 11 years old.
The question might be raised as to whether their method of design is supported by data that proves it is effective and a valid framework for design. Despite the fact games are as old as time, and we recognized the value of learning games in young children long ago, we are only just beginning to see results from use in public education. The scant bit of data currently available is drawn from games being used by innovative educators in isolated pockets. Incorporating games as part of the learning curriculum is still relatively new and just beginning to try to make its move. Based on the results detailed in the book I would argue the data is strong and provides a positive, solid foundation from which to move forward. As games become more commonplace in classrooms and data is more readily available I believe there will be room for more extensive review of the design principles presented to further support the use of games in education.
One drawback of the book is that the games detailed in the book are fully online, with supplemental material offering an offline component. The missing piece for someone working to design a similar game of their own is likely a team that has the software and programming skills to make the game design come to life. This does open the door for the authors to reap the benefit of contracts for game design from those who do not have software and programmers to create their own games, however I don’t subscribe to the thought that this is their intent through the publication of the book. Those contacting them to contract a game design would, I imagine, be expecting to foot a hefty bill as well. I believe their intent is as they define it, to begin to point educators to the thought process behind effective game design in a way that they might use to incorporate into their own planning.
I have just begun to explore the value of games and look forward to charting a course to revisions and the creation a resonant game. My teaching experience is bound to private music lessons, music theory classes for private studios, and some training in the corporate environment. It will come as no surprise that for most elementary and high school students music theory is not a highly motivating subject . To students music theory is similar to the concept of an English class to students who have spoken English since they were born. It is not uncommon to hear “I already know how to play my instrument, why exactly do I need to know this?” The fact is that the students who understand theory are stronger musicians, and those who participate in the Royal Conservatory of Music’s program are required to take co-requisite theory exams as set points in the multi-year curriculum. Normally it is only to fulfill the co-requisite requirement, in order to get their certificate for the level in question, that they pursue the course. Parents pay a significant amount for both the course and the test, therefore it is no surprise that they are very interested in seeing their children succeed and pass the exam the first time.
The intense, compact, ten-week course requires students to learn a significant amount of material in a short time, commit it to memory, and be prepared for an exam. The added concern with engagement in this online course challenges me to find a way to better connect with the learners to engage them and make the content relevant and interesting. The first revision of one of the courses last Spring, where I introduced a few simple games to reinforce the learned content, resulted in promising results. I now see an expanded opportunity to return the course to revise, and incorporate an engaging narrative, while offering choice, and opportunities for students to take ownership and connect to the game. I’m considering a scenario with time travel in a world students move through as they learn about composers lives, their music, and the theory behind the notes on the page and how the music is written while relating the concepts to the music they play and today’s music . By also finding a way to open the door to collaboration and social engagement I’d like to think I have a place to start. It still seems like a daunting task, however drawing from the design concepts mentioned in many of the other readings this semester it is a challenge I am willing to tackle. I look forward to restructuring one of the courses, then measuring the impact of the changes made based on the principals and concepts in the book and drawn from other sources. The biggest hurdle at this point may lie in finding a way to program the lofty creation forming in my head and push it out to my website for student testing.
I feel that the publication of the book is very timely in today’s educational environment as it brings focus and a method to educational game design. Students continue to enter public schools with more exposure to the digital world and digital games each year and recognizing the value of well-designed educational games, encouraging their use as part of the curriculum, and supporting educators with tools to make the games more effective provides is time well spent.
I would highly suggest Resonant Games to those looking for ideas to incorporate games, personalized learning, and real world application to their curriculum. It was a relatively easy read although I admit I found the first two chapters most interesting and had to break reading and review of each individual game down into separate reading sessions simply to digest everything nested within each game. I would have appreciated a summary page detailing learning concepts, game type chosen, principles used and why, and any information or tools specific to the game as this could would serve as a valuable reference tool when consider game design for individual projects. One drawback for those looking to create games for their classrooms lies in the fact that their game solutions focused on digital games and for the most part did not integrate other learning opportunities, like blog posts, creating additional game tools or ideas, posters, etc., as Paul Darvasi incorporated into his immersive experience The Ward Game, detailed in Teacher Pioneers (2017). However the library of supplemental activities designed to further learning may contain these types of tools. Regardless, someone looking for ideas related to game design will find a number of great ideas that could be transformed for use outside of the digital world and incorporated into the classroom or assignments.