Session 7: Cost of Living

Cost of Living

Cost of Living is a role play game that really challenges the players thinking and reasoning ability and in my case can sometimes angers the player! At the beginning of the game you are introduced to the Guinard family who lives in Haiti, they have five members in their family and your goal as the player is to assign jobs and education to the family. At the very beginning of the game you are to select your goal for the game, the goals to choose from are education, money, happiness, or health and you strive to reach that goal throughout the game. As you assign the family to jobs and education your money fluctuates throughout the game, if you work your people to hard they will get sick and if your family is dead by the end of the game you lose. The game is set up to cover 4 years of the family’s life and each year is divided into seasons.

      I had a very challenging time completing this game. My family kept dying! I never made it past year two and tried a variety of strategies between job placement and education, at times I made risky decisions that paid off more than my logical decisions did! I even went back through each time and changed what my end goal of the game was. I found that when I had enough money and occasionally bought the family items their happiness would go up and I would make it further in the game. Overall, a very challenging game that really makes you think, evaluate, and then reevaluate your actions and choices. I can’t wait to use this in my classroom!

Below are my responses to how the components of flow were presented in this game.

o   Task that the learners can complete         

§  This component was definitely met in the way in which the game was set up. The player completed small sections of the game at a time in order to complete the entire game. For example, the player completed 4 seasons that made 1 year and then 16 seasons which equaled 4 years. The ability for this game to be broken into the previous small sections made small feats for the player to strive and win.

o   Ability to concentrate on task

§  I believe that this game was able to draw learners in. I especially believe this because of the many strategies that can be used to play this game. Thinking skills, math, problem solving, and reading skills are some of the many skills that learners need to use to achieve success in and throughout this game.

o   Task has clear goals

§  The goals of the game were clear. You wanted to earn money so that your family could survive and you could purchase things. Other things that you wanted to strive for throughout the game were happiness, education, and health. The game had many graph-like components as well as the expression on the characters faces to let the player know where they were at in each of the categories throughout the play of the game.

o   Task provides immediate feedback

§  I really enjoyed this component of the game because the feedback was both instant and delayed. For example instant feedback came when you placed your family members at either education or a job and once you did you were able to see the money start coming in as your financial amount grew. You were able to experience delayed feedback through the fact that if you worked your family to hard and had money to show for it they eventually got sick and tired and had to either rest for an entire season or you had to spend money on medical care.

o   Deep but effortless involvement

§  This game presents something that not a lot of its players are familiar with living like. The involvement is effortless in a way because it opens a situation that the players are unfamiliar with. The game is also effortless because the player has the ability to quit and start over.

o   Exercising a sense of control over their actions

§  The player of the game has full control over the decisions and actions of the game. The fate of the family is left to the player and the decisions that they make for the family. Some of these decisions work and some do not. The player has control over large decisions like schooling and work and medical treatment but the game does not allow control for things like eating and sleeping. Also, if you do not have enough money for certain things the game keeps you from getting those instead of making you go further in debt.

o   Concern for self disappears during flow

§  The game does present the “life & death” scenario as the decisions that are made for the family throughout the game determine if they are happy and continue living or if they are worked to hard and die.

o   Sense of duration of time is altered

§  This game makes learners lose track of time very easily as the game presents a 4 year time span broken down into years, and then broken down into seasons in only a matter of a few minutes to be played. The game can be delayed based on the decisions that the player makes or the other actions that are chosen throughout the game. A sense of time can also be lost because of the players ability to begin the game again and again many cycles of the game can be played.

Session 6: Analysis of Card & board Games

Analysis of Card & Board Games

I chose to play the game Life in both digital and non-digital form. I enjoy the game Life and find it an easy game to incorporate into the classes that I teach and well, I just like it! I find the game Life to be a beneficial game in which you are provided with scenarios that you will encounter down the road, if you are a child/student playing this game, or if you are an adult maybe add humor to the life you live. The game is traditionally played on a game board and players navigate their way across the game board and along the way encounter a sequence of events. I think most find it fun because it is almost what some would call a simulation in which they are “pretending” or being someone else throughout the game.

If you would have asked me this question prior to this lesson I probably would have said no. After playing both versions and playing the digital format on my iPad I have to lean toward the fact that yes the format does matter. I feel that through the digital format the player becomes more engaged because of the presentation of the game, colors, movement, and music – it’s an experience in itself. What the player misses out on though is the fun and excitement of playing with others like the board game presents. As stated above and based on the components of my definition I feel that fun is a strong component in the digital format. In the non-digital format I feel that the component of engagement is very strong because there is something irreplaceable about being gathered around a game board playing a game with friends. I believe that the game Life itself meets a lot of my components that are involved in what a game should be some of them are as follows: rules, fun, interaction, organization, goal oriented, conflict, luck, and chance. To give a better picture of where I am coming from here is my definition of a game: A game is made up of an established set of organized rules in which people seek enjoyment or fun while playing. A game consists of interaction to some extent whether it is interacting in the game or with others through the game. Most generally games are goal oriented and seek some sort of final outcome, somewhere along the way the players of the game must encounter certain degrees of conflict or luck in order to determine the winner which is left to chance.

I found it to be best to answer the Comparison 2 by responding under each of the questions for easier flow of reading my responses. They are as follows:

-          Communication between/among players during the game play

Yes, a difference in format does make changes in the communication between/among players during the game play. The digital format you are able to play by yourself and with others where the non-digital format is most fun when interacting and communicating with those playing with you. Due to this fact a weak component based on my definition of the digital format is the fact that the interaction with others is very little.

-          Cooperation between/among players

This response ties directly to my response above in the fact that the digital format you are not working with others because you can play it by yourself. When playing the board game you gain the skill and ability to work and cooperate with others.

-          Engagement to the games

I believe that both of the games are engaging for the player but in two different ways. A player might engage in the digital game because of the colors, graphics, images and sounds that they are engaged in when playing the game. A player might engage in the non-digital game because they are seeking interaction with friend are family and are internally driven by that component.

-          Motivation to play the games

I feel that between the digital and non-digital games motivation to play them comes to play better with the non-digital format because the drive and motivation to play against someone else, physically, and beat them is a large motivator.

Summary 5: Puzzle, Quiz & Sports Games

Title:  Puzzle, Quiz, & Sports Games

My current learning style based on Kolb’s Learning Styles quick activity is very much AE, Active Experimentation. When taking Kolb’s Learning Styles quick activity I scored a 20 in the AE category. I believe that being in this category of learning style does not only outline the type of learner that I am but definitely shows how I have taken my learning style and made it into a career. Since I teach FACS, Family and Consumer Sciences (Home Ec), everything that I teach is hands on and a large part of what students are doing is learning through doing the task at hand. The best example of what this would look like in my classroom could be seen through a various array of classes in which students in a foods class would be cooking and “actively experimenting” with foods, a sewing class would be “actively experimenting” in making garments, and a child development class would be “actively experimenting” by working with computerized babies. I work with active experimenting and hands on learning daily and have found that it is a form of learning that is able to reach a vast majority of students.

Based on Prensky’s list I scored myself at a 37, with the majority of my answers leaning more towards the fives than the number ones. Prensky believes that today’s learners lean more toward the ones. I could go on describing why I am at the further end of the spectrum but because I am an educator and work with students routinely I feel I can pose episodes to support Prensky’s idea of today’s learners being more prone to the one end. The question on Presky’s list brings out the most obvious reason why today’s learners would tend to lean to the low end of the rating scale in relation to twitch speed versus conventional speed. With the vast forms of technology available today kids expect things to be instant and only take a minimal amount of time. This also ties directly to instant gratification, because kids are so used to the quick technology and feedback they do not understand the concept of delayed gratification and not being able to see fast results. I believe that I greatly differed from the outlook of today’s learner because I was raised very differently than most of today’s learners.

Based on the VAK learning styles I am most definitely a visual learner. Discovering I am a visual learner based on the VAK learning styles directly connects to my AE, Active Experimenting, I discovered through Kolb’s learning styles. The VAK learning styles continue to define the fact that I am a “seeing and doing” type of learner. I will choose visual learning style for this week’s game list.

The two games that I choose to play were 1.) Map Games and 2.) Vocabulary.co.il. I really liked both of these games and found them to be fun and engaging. I also chose these two games because they pose a best and least scenario for my classroom use. Map games were my least fit for my classroom because I would find it very difficult to justify its use in my classroom. Vocabulary.co.il was my best fit because anything dealing with reading skills would help the ELL students that are in my classes, help the special education students, and also be beneficial to the other students in my classroom with their reading skills.

      Map Games was a game dealing with the placement of states and capitals in the United States. The game, depending on which selection you chose, would give you either a state or a capital and you had to click and drag it to the correct place on the map. The game allowed for you to retry if you messed up and the challenge existed in the amount of time it took you to complete the game. The game also presented challenge levels by offering to place the grid of the United States on the map so that you could know where the states went. Due to this fact I believe the game could go from almost a puzzle type game to a quiz game if the outlines were not present.

Vocabulary.co.il was a fun interactive game that I really enjoyed playing. The game involved trying to put words together that were near each other in a jumbled up box type formation. As you tried to match the letters, four or more, together the blocks would keep building on the top. This game also allowed you to correct moves, or in other words you were not penalized for wrong moves that I observed. You moved up in levels throughout the game and my only complaint about the game is that it would move you up a level in the middle of the game without letting you finish the level you were on first.

The components that I feel make Map Games weak for the type of learner that I have outlined is because it deals with one concept, mapping of the United States.    There is no way to identify whether the prior knowledge, that would have had to of taken place for the child/student to interact at the level of the game, took place in hands on approach. A student could not use the hands on approach with this game in order to teach themselves, they would have to have some other form of learning involved prior to help build the foundation to play this game. We do not know what type of learning was demonstrated through administering the prior knowledge.

The components that I feel make Vocabulary.co.il a strong game for the type of learner I have described is because working with vocabulary is something that is daily and the hands on approach of having the material evidence of a book in your hand and learning and reading all kinds of different words is a great form of hand on learning. This confines of this game do not exist, many words exist to be used and tried throughout the game. This game is also great because for the hands on learner it not only provides reading development and vocabulary development but also spelling.

I believe that my best-fit and least-fit criteria, as somewhat discussed previously, comes down to the constraints of the game. A hand on learner learns through their own experimentation. In playing the Map Game the game is based on one area and does not leave much room for exploration whereas the Vocabulary game lets students explore a large variety of means through spelling, reading, and vocabulary. 

Session 4: Sim Game Analysis: Blood Typing

Sim Game Analysis: Blood Typing

The BloodTyping game is based on the 1930 Nobel Prize of Physiology of Medicine. The game was created to be educational and was made within the AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine initiative to spread the word of Nobel Prize achievements to those who are younger. A better review behind the making and information of this game can be found at www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/bloodtypinggame/  To play the game you may go to http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/bloodtypinggame/game/index.html

            The Blood Typing game was very fun to play and extremely educational. The game is played by selecting patients and drawing blood from them in the game. Once you have drawn the blood you then but it into three vials that are on the screen to test for blood type and RH factor. The awesome part about this game is that it gives you tutorials to gain background knowledge on everything you need to know to fully complete the game. Once you have tested the blood it is then your responsibility to give the patient the appropriate blood in a blood transfusion.  The patient then responds as to whether or not you gave the correct transfusion or not. Based on how well you give the patients their transfusions depends on how many “drips” of blood or points your receive at the end of the game.

            This game really meets the simulation of a real world situation because this is information and work that someone who works in the medical field must now and perform on a daily basis. Now just because someone plays this game does not mean that they are readily able to go out and give blood transfusions to patients. Playing this game, though, does give the player the simulation of what it would be like to have a job that involved this and give the player the sense of urgency that is placed in their hands to make sure the patient it taken care of and made better.

            The target learning group that I chose would best be accommodated by this game, according to Kolb’s Learning Styles, would have to be the accommodating group. I believe the accommodating group best fits here because they are in what Kolb refers to as the “feeling and doing” component and this game definitely requires the doing aspect. The accommodating group also encompasses the processing component, that would be included in the tutorial aspect that this game presents and it also allows for experimentation too. I have been able to come up with an objective for each of Bloom’s labels on the pyramid except for one, that one being creating. Creating is at the top of Bloom’s list and depending on how students took to playing this game would depend heavily on what I would have them create to demonstrate their knowledge. For the other components of Bloom’s Taxonomy I have come up the following objectives:

-          Students will evaluate this game through answering a series of questions related to their experience and it will reflect their overall attitude towards the game.

o   By forcing students to evaluate something based on questions it much more involved than simple yes or no questionnaires and when set up correctly serves as an evaluation tool to help the teacher gauge future use of the learning tool, in this case, the game.

-          Student will analyze their answers to their questions and justify why the answer that they chose was right or why it was wrong.

o   By having students analyze why their answers were correct or why they were wrong will help them to further understand the concepts being taught throughout the game and will also require them to use information gained throughout their tutorials too.

-          Students will be able to apply their knowledge from the tutorials from towards the success in winning the game.

o   For a students to successfully be able to play this game they must utilize the tutorials that are given to better understand and play the game.

-          Students will be able to understand how their choices throughout the game is directly tied to the patient they are taking care of.

o   If a students does not utilize the information correctly their patients care is in their hands, just like in real life, and the patients outcome is up to them.

-          Student will be able to remember what the variations of blood types are used throughout the game.

o   To play this game students will have to use their memory with the concepts that are used over and over again in order to play the game effectively.

The definition of a game to me is as follows, “A game, to my definition, is made up of an established set of organized rules in which people seek to find fun or enjoyment while playing. A game consists of interaction to some extent, whether that interaction is within the game or with others through the game. Most generally games are goal oriented and seek some sort of final outcome. Somewhere along the way the players of the game must encounter certain degrees of conflict or luck in order to determine the winner which is left to chance. “The components of a game, based on my definition, that was present during the game were rules were involved, enjoyment was established, there was interaction, goals were present,  and there was a final outcome. This game actually ended up meeting all of the component of my definition. The rules of the game were to be sure that you knew what the right blood type was to give the person, if you did not give the patient the right type of blood you were not following the rules. The game sought to bring enjoyment, I felt this component would be best suited as a game of enjoyment for those wanting to gain more knowledge through this field. The interaction existed between the player and the computer. Last of all the final outcome of the game was to win and get the most blood drops.

            I look forward implementing this game into my class when we talk about investigating careers. I constantly have students wanting to pursue something in the medical field so what better game for them to play when doing their research but this one! This game would really help the understand what is involved in a career such as this. Since this game meant all of my definition components of what a game was I believe that it easily helps me to meet my above mentioned learning objectives.