Barab, S., & Dede, C. (2007). Games and Immersive Participatory Simulations for Science Education: An Emerging Type of Curricula. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1), 1-3. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40186766
What are immersive participatory simulations?
... Games and immersive participatory simulations, with their focus on doing science (not receiving science), are becoming an emerging type of curricula for supporting science education.
The environments discussed here build on
theoretical frameworks positing that ‘‘knowing’’ is a contextual and participatory act, and that the context
in which one learns any particular content shapes the resultant understandings of that content (Barab et al., 1999)
Central to this perspective is that, rather than
simply telling students about science facts or even
socio-scientific issues, knowledge and skills in science should be situated as an inquiry process and that new
technologies and design methodologies can facilitate
this process.
The various articles that comprise this special issue are inquiry-based, leverage multiple media, and integrate game-design principles and scenarios to establish rich inquiry-based contexts for engaging scientific issues
Over the last two decades, a growing movement is documenting that science education is more meaningful to learners and more effective when ...
The learning context utilizes information and communication technologies (ICT)
Is grounded in important societal issues (Zeidler et al., 2005)
Places the student inquiry at the core.
... a primary goal for science education is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and epistemologies necessary for dealing with 21st century, real world scientific issues.
Programmes are inquiry-based, involve new forms of technology, and have a game-based scenario at their core.
Narratively driven, experientially immersive, and muti-media rich
We view information communication technologies as
having the potential to greatly aid both in fostering
students’ inquiry and in providing richly situated
learning experiences despite the relative isolation of
many school classrooms (Dede, 2000)
Engaging children in rich socio-technical contexts
Address meaningful problems
Collaboratively experience all inquiry
Learn
provide a strong sense of engagement and opportunities to learn for all students, even helping learners with low self-efficacy start afresh with a new ‘‘identity’’ not tagged as an academic loser.
... the potential to establish participatory narratives that can aid learners in developing a contextual understanding of what are all too often presented as decontextualized scientific facts, concepts, or principles
Supporting motivation
What is the impact of these games on learners? See: Squire, K., & Jan, M. (2007). Mad City Mystery: Developing Scientific Argumentation Skills with a Place-Based Augmented Reality Game on Handheld Computers. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1), 5-29. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40186767
How can the underlying theory about using game-contexts support science learning? See: Rosenbaum, E., Klopfer, E., & Perry, J. (2007). On Location Learning: Authentic Applied Science with Networked Augmented Realities. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 16(1), 31-45. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40186768
How can the field scale up this powerful type of curriculum?
interacting socially (not just individualized learning)
doing science (not simply memorizing information)
involving socio-scientific inquiry (not
just learning science facts and recipe-like processes)
A medium initially designed for entertainment purposes, a key goal for each article is to illuminate the tensions among repurposing the medium towards academic ends
Many researchers have argued that, even as an entertainment medium, videogames support rich discursive and inquiry-based practices (for example, Gee, 2004, Steinkuehler, 2006; or Squire, 2006).
The linguist James Gee (2003), in particular, has described the discursive richness, complexity of game play, depth of collaborative inquiry, opportunities for consequentiality, rich perception-action cycles, exploration of situated identities, and complex forms of learning and participation that can occur during game play.
... enlisting this same medium and repurposing it as a curricular context to support academic science learning is a new opportunity with a host of challenges
Key Considerations:
1) Use multiple layers of narratives and tasks
2) Situate activity in a contesting game locale/physical space
3) Engage players in professional role
4) Scaffhold learning through multimodal representations
5) Lead to social interactions that promote collaboration, competition, and reflection-in-action