I just noticed this in today's Chronicle of Higher Ed:
The basic premise is to get around the "observer's paradox" by using video games to explore how students think/learn -- without creating the nervousness that goes along with test-taking.
Thoughts?
Wow this is intriguing. I'd be interested in what the folks involved in Penn State's Educational Gaming Commons (is that the correct name?) think about this. Could we consider co-sponsoring a forum to discuss this?
This is in the same vein:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html
A recent TED talk that addresses games and learning in a broader sense.
I know the guys well in the gaming commons and will touch-base with them this month. Maybe we can shoot for something this Spring around this topic. Good find Chas!
I just had a chance to go back and read the entire article. This idea has been around for a while (Squire, Gee, Dede and others), but the hard part is the game itself. The article mentioned the utilization of a game called Taiga Park developed by Indiana. I have not seen the game, but I know of similar games that came out of the same group at IU. These endeavors typically are resource-intensive and often supported by external grants.
When I was in the EGC, we eagerly awaited a game authoring environment that was:
1) easy to use, where instructional designers could be trained to create games in the environment, and
2) provided a back-end system catered to assessment, allowing the teacher/administrator to capture lots of data points.
Unfortunately, we are still waiting for that authoring environment :(