The
NDSU GAMES Project
Games
are Graphically Advanced Multi-player Educational Simulations. The GAMES idea
is to create multi-player, educational, simulated worlds (sometimes called
synthetic or virtual worlds); then to populate those worlds with authentic
simulated artifacts (objects, devices, agents, and so forth); and then to
open the world to learners for exploration, discovery, problem solving, and
learning.
When
playing in GAMES, a human learner is immersed in a Reality-Oriented Learning
Experience (ROLE). The players in a ROLE-based environment actively participate
in a sustained problem-solving simulation. To succeed in these virtual worlds,
and to effectively play the GAMES, a learner will necessarily master the concepts
and skills required to play their part in the ROLE-based environment. ROLE-based
learning is learning-by-doing within the structure and context of playing
a role. Rather than simply teaching goal-based behavior and task-oriented
skills, ROLE-based learning teaches a way of practice - where you do not just
learn the law, but how to "think like a lawyer" as well.
By
putting a student in a world that "sufficiently" models the domain you are
teaching, the student learns about that world the student learns their role
in it the student learns about the domain.
A
GAMES world is:
- Predictable
because it makes sense in terms of the real world -- in other words, the
simulation is "sufficiently authentic."
- Compelling
and Engaging because a comic-like graphical interface (the MOOPort)
presents the virtual world.
- Reactive
because the game is built on an existing architecture for real-time multi-player
games (MUDs), using the most flexible implementation (Pavel Curtis's LambdaMOO,
from Xerox PARC).
- Sensitive
because there is a Proactive Tutor in the simulated world, watching the
players' actions and informing them when they do something questionable.