Classtalk helped to clarify the students’
conceptual understanding of the material
by allowing them to articulate and
elaborate their ideas, reflect on both their
own ideas and the ideas of others, and
evaluate the usefulness of having a
number of different perspectives. The key
benefit of a technology-supported system
was that it afforded all the students the
opportunity to present a viewpoint,
whether or not they were comfortable
presenting their ideas to the entire class.
In addition to engaging students in active
learning during the lectures, Classtalk also
enhanced the overall communication
within the classroom.
A more recent example of a classroom
response system implementation is the
Northern Ireland e-Learning ‘Assessment
for Learning’ project, which evaluated the
Qwizdom Classroom Response System
(2003) with 114 students and four teachers
at three schools.
3.2 CONSTRUCTIVIST LEARNING
As introduced in the previous section,
participatory simulations are games
where learners play an active role in the
simulation of a dynamic system or
process. The key challenge is to make sure
the technology is unobtrusive, so that it
facilitates rather than hinders interactions
between the learners.
3.2.1 The virus game
Collella (2000) describes a study where
learners took part in a participatory
simulation about the spread of a virus.
Students were asked to simulate and
observe the spread of a virus in a
population by moving around the classroom
meeting each other face to face. Each
student wore a custom-built ‘thinking tag’
that showed whether or not they were
infected by means of coloured lights.
These tags were worn like badges, and
would communicate with other tags
whenever they were in range; in this way,
meetings between learners were tracked
by the tags, and the virus, which started in
just one person, could spread to other
people as they met and their tags
communicated. The students were able to
take part in a simulation without worrying
about underlying rules of that simulation –
their tags did all the thinking about rules
for them, and the students could
concentrate on the important questions:
“Where did the disease start?” “How does
it get spread?” “Who can catch it?”
Key findings include:
• students readily engaged with the
simulation, and found it to be a
rewarding and stimulating experience
• students successfully collaborated to
answer the relevant questions about
the simulation
• the technology facilitated, rather than
hindered, normal interactions between
the students – the devices augmented
rather than replaced normal channels
of communication, and hence provided
unobtrusive technology support
• students were able to test out
experimental hypotheses within the
simulation after observing specific
behaviours.
This simulation has been re-created for the
PalmOS PDA, and is freely available from
http://education.mit.edu/pda/
games.htm.
3.2.2 Savannah
Savannah (Facer et al in preparation) was
a collaboration between NESTA |
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Futurelab,
BBC NHU, the Mixed Reality Lab
(Nottingham University) and Mobile Bristol
(Hewlett-Packard and University of
Bristol). This pilot study explored the use
of mobile devices to enable a rich,
interactive learning experience where
students got to play the role of, and hence
learn about, lions.
The Savannah study builds on Colella’s
work by taking the simulation out of the
classroom and situating it in an
appropriate environment for the topic.
Students in Savannah got to play the role
of lions roaming in the wild in an area
100m x 50m. Each student carried a PDA
that gave them a window into the gameworld,
displaying content and actions that
were appropriate to their current location
and what was going on in the rest of the
game. Each PDA could be tracked using
GPS, and allowed the students to ‘see’,
‘hear’, and ‘smell’ the virtual savannah
they were exploring. The PDA screen
displayed visual content and indications of
scents, and the children wore headphones
for an auditory experience. The PDAs also
displayed informative and instructional
messages such as “You’re hungry”, “You’re
too hot”, “Return to the den”. They also
had a den area, to which they could retreat
for more reflective learning after being
out in the field.
As in Colella’s virus game, the children
were more than willing to suspend their
disbelief, and reported that they felt they
had really experienced what it was like to
be a lion on the savannah. During the
game, they often talked as if they were
directly experiencing the simulation
(ie “I’m hungry”, “I’m too hot”). They had
the opportunity to explore multiple aspects
of lion behaviour, and reported that the
game had increased their understanding.
Several findings are important to note:
• This study highlights the changing role
of teachers and facilitators in the mobile
learning experience. While in the den,
children were encouraged to reflect on
the success of their activities, but this
was mainly teacher-led. When this
reflection was led by the children
themselves, they were highly engaged
and motivated. When the teacher took
control, the students became more
passive and resistant to engagement. To
be successful as a learning experience,
the game needs to allow the students
to control their own learning.
• Students occupied multiple roles -
including the role of the lion itself,
the role of the child acting as a lion,
and the role of a child reflecting on
his or her actions and the rules of
the game in order to play better -
and needed support in transitioning
between these roles.
• Despite suspending their disbelief,
children had high expectations of the
system; they were disappointed that
they didn’t have access to more lion-like
powers, and expected a more rich and
interactive experience than current
technology can provide.
3.2.3 Environmental Detectives
The MIT Games-to-Teach project seeks
to further explore the development of
‘augmented reality educational gaming’(Klopfer and Squire in preparation).
Augmented reality educational gaming
builds on recent developments in handheld
gaming, where context-sensitive data
and social interactions are used to
supplement real world interactions.
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