Serious Games: Digital Game-Based Learning in Higher Education
Our plenary session this year focuses on a topic that has been garnering much attention recently: digital game-based learning. Many faculty and students in higher education feel games and simulations can be engaging and effective, and they can have a place in learning. Others may feel these types of experiences are unrelated to what goes on, or should go on, in a university education. The recent article by Richard Van Eck from the Educause Review, "Digital Game-Based Learning" It's Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are Restless," reviews some of the research that has been conducted on the effectiveness of game-based learning and the pedagogy behind well-designed learning games, and suggests what needs to happen next for proponents of digital game-based learning to make a case for their tools as serious learning environments. In reality here at Duke and in nearby institutions, faculty are already using commercial games, developing custom games and critically evaluating games and game culture from an interdisciplinary perspective, as part of their educational offerings. This panel will allow three presenters involved in game-based learning to describe their projects and perspectives on use of games and simulations as learning tools, and the relationship between of game culture and society. .
Dr. Jeffrey Sarbaum (University of North Carolina-Greensboro) and Dr. Jeffrey Taekman (Duke University) will both focus on the case where the game *is* the core of the learning experience. Dr. Sarbaum is working with a team to develop a game that will take the place of an introductory economics course (for students desiring that option). The game, which will debut in Fall 2006, allows students to play a character encountering situations in which economics knowledge is useful. Players discover the information they need through interacting with the game, and apply it within the game environment while getting feedback on their performance. Dr. Taekman is actively involved in high-fidelity simulation training and research. He recently received a grant to develop a three-dimensional interactive game platform to teach teamwork and communication skills to healthcare workers. These skills are critical for healthcare workers to master but difficult to teach using traditional methods (failures in teamwork and communication are the most frequent cause of patient injury in modern medicine). In 3DiMD learners will work together in realistic, virtual environments to manage challenging healthcare situations. The project is modeled after a popular educational tool used for military training and rehearsal.
Richard Lucic (Duke University), along with other ISIS faculty, will be teaching in Duke's new game-related FOCUS course cluster in Fall 2006. Professor Lucic is interested in the gaming environment for enhancing education, but also in examining gaming, modeling and simulation in a critical way for what they can say about culture, politics, and the representation of data in the sciences. The ISIS FOCUS program will ask students to integrate information from courses, on game theory, visualization, programming, and game development and consider the information from a cultural studies perspective.
The panelists will each speak briefly, allowing some time for discussion and questions from the attendees. In addition, one or more of the presenters may be available at lunch (12:30-1:15 pm) to continue the discussion with those who are interested.
About the presenters:
Richard Lucic is Associate Professor of the Practice in Computer Science at Duke University. Lucic also serves as the Faculty Curriculum Director of the Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS) program, the mission of which is to study and create new information technologies and to analyze their impact on art, culture, science, commerce, society, and the environment. He holds an MS in Materials Science from Stanford University.
Dr. Jeffrey Sarbaum is Assistant Professor of Economics at University of North Carolina-Greensboro. His teaching and research interest is in the area of Experimental Economics. Sarbaum holds a PhD in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Dr. Jeffrey Taekman is Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, the Director of the Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center, and the Assistant Dean for Educational Technology in the School of Medicine at Duke University. His research interests focus on the use of advanced computer technologies in the continuum of healthcare education. His current work includes investigation of various simulation techniques (desktop, virtual reality, and high fidelity simulation) as well as other forms of interactive training. Taekman has an MD from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and is the Secretary of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.