Week_2-Susannah_Gordon-Messer-HD_720p-final
Hi. My name is Susannah Gordon-Messer, and today I'm going to talk to you about using multiplayer online games to help teach math and science. There are many, many kinds of educational games available to teachers. So why are multiplayer online games especially useful for teaching math and science? Well, to begin with, what is a multiplayer online game?
In a multiplayer online game, there are many people playing together in a shared virtual world. Players can see each other, they can talk with each other, and interact as they play. And it turns out that many of the things that players do in multiplayer online games are very similar to how people in math and science think about and solve problems.
Multiplayer online games offer a unique situated learning experience. This means that players are characters in the game, and that they truly feel that they're part of the world, and they understand that their actions can influence that game world. And this makes solving problems seem very real to the player. In contrast to single player games, multiplayer games also offer the opportunity for collaborative play.
And this is very much the same as when a group of scientists collaborate to solve a large problem. While players do have the chance to work together, they're also the ones responsible for directing their own learning within the game. Players choose what actions they want to take in the world, and as they move around the world, they're actively engaging in inquiry and discovery, and exploration, key concepts in both math and science learning.
At the education arcade at MIT, we're actually working on the development of a multiplayer online game called The Radix Endeavor, that specifically covers concepts from secondary math and science. In this version of the game, we'll be covering biology topics, such as ecology and genetics, as well as math topics from geometry and statistics.
To determine which topics to cover in the game, we looked at learning objectives from typical high school math and biology courses. More importantly, we also looked at guides of what teachers were already doing in their classroom. This is really critical, because if we want teachers to use this game in their teaching, it's important to know what they're already doing in the classroom, and how they can incorporate something like Radix into their daily practice.
During the design and development of the game, we used teachers as partners in the process. We talked back and forth with teachers and their students about what was and was not working in the game. We adjusted the game based on their feedback, and then went back to the classrooms to see how the new version of the game worked.
In Radix, players explore and they experiment in order to solve problems, and to explain the world around them. To advance through the game, they use those concepts from math and science in order to complete tasks in the game, and importantly, to help the people who live in that game world. And I'd like to share with you a small part of Radix.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Welcome to Radix. Radix takes place on the fictional island of [INAUDIBLE]. And this is me. I'm the character in blue, and I'm walking around this world. And what you might notice is that while it looks like something that could resemble Earth, nothing looks particularly familiar. That's because in Radix, everything is Earth-like, but it's not actually Earth.
All of the plants and animals that you see are made up in the world. All of their properties are made up. But like I mentioned earlier, because this is a multiplayer online game, I'm situated in the world, meaning that I can talk to other people. So I'm going to talk to this lovely person right here, who is asking me for some help with her garden.
And should I choose to accept her task, I can go ahead and complete this for her. This is part of the way that characters in Radix help the world. And in Radix, this island is actually ruled by a person who has decided that it's important to keep math and science knowledge from the people, and in fact, my main job is to help the people on this island use math and science to solve their problems.
So I'm going to talk to Wilder here, who's asking me to help him build a fence. I'm willing to help him build a fence. This is part of the geometry quest line. And he's asking me to build a fence for this particular little creature here. This is a glum bug. And in order to figure out what size this fence should be, the first thing I need to know is, well, how big is this bug to start with?
So I have a tool that will help me to measure it, and it turns out that this guy is two tooms in length, and one tooms in width. And that will help me figure out what size pen I have to build for him. So I'm going to a tool over here, which is a fence builder. Stationed throughout the world, and also on my tool belt that you see here are sets of tools that help you to complete your quests in both math and science.
And so I want to make this guy a pen, but I can't quite remember exactly how big it has to be, so I'm going to use my quest log here. This is basically my to do list. It helps me remember what I have to be doing, and in this case, this glum bug pen needs an extra tooms in front, two in the back, and two extra tooms on either side. What's a tooms? A toom is our invented unit of measure. It's basically like a meter.
So knowing how much extra room this bug needs and how big he is, I'm going to go ahead and create a pen for him. And when I build this fence, it appears in the world. And this is part of what makes solving problems in this world feel so real, because I made this fence, I see it appear, and I know that that was my action on the world.
I'm going to walk over now to the forest, to be able to show you some of these bizarre plants and animals, and what some of their properties are, and how this might be useful in some of the biology quests. Now we're in the forest, and what you can see around me are more of these slightly strange creatures. So here's this big purple glum bug that I built a pen for in the last case.
I don't know why anyone would keep them as pets, but people do in this world. This character right here next to me is a bloombill. Sort of looks like he's part peacock and part chicken. I have some odd red plants that I don't quite recognize. But I also have someone in the forest who also might have a problem that I can help solve, so I'm going to talk to the doctor in this case, who needs me to use my Trait Decoder.
What this is is a tool that allows you to see the genotype of a particular animal, and I use my Trait Decoder to go find a very specific colored flower, and to see if I can make sure I understand what its genotype is. Which means that I have to have some way of determining what are the properties of these creatures and these plants in the world?
Well, in order to figure out some properties of a creature, I need to catch it first. So I'm going to use my critter catching tool. And then I have a tool called the Trait Examiner, I have a Trait Decoder. I'm going to use my Trait Examiner tool, and what this tells me is that I've caught a bug that is toxic. That can't be good. I've caught a bug that's male, and I've caught a bug with a particular antenna length.
And these properties are really important, because they're used in biology quests where students have to breed specific flowers, or specific animals that have certain traits that can be used, perhaps, say, to make medicine to help the villagers, or to make food. So I can also find out something about the plants in my world. This is a Luma Bell, and it has a dim brightness.
It's a white color, and it's a pretty delicate plant. And these I might end up using to help somebody perhaps make a lamp in their home, or to use it in a piece of art. So as I walk around, you can see more of these interesting plants and animals. You see some of these mushroom like plants here. These are Jelly Hats.
These plants over here actually eat insects. So this is just a quick look at Radix, but I invite you to come back and play more, and to think about how you could use it to teach math and science.