XplanaZine

One of my commitments this year is to be more focused. Like most bloggers I know, this isn’t as easy as it may sound. I’m a husband, a parent, a teacher, a writer, and an executive for a growing company. Like many of the edubloggers out there, I wear lots of hats. But “writer” is only one of those hats so, at least in that realm of my life, I plan to make this year a bit more directed.In terms of XplanaZine, that means picking a few pertinent themes and exploring those on a regular basis. My hope is that this extended focus will help me unravel some of the complexities related to larger issues as well as address unfolding developments as they occur.

One of the “big” topics for this year is Online Games in Education and today I would like to share a few opening thoughts about the scope of this theme and some of the pertinent areas I intend to address this year. To begin with, however, a couple of caveats. First, there is a growing body of academic research related to online gaming in education and I will do my best to point out key research (for example, see the August/September issue of Innovate). Second, a number of serious innovators have spent years pioneering and writing about this territory — James Paul Gee, Henry Jenkins, Albert Ip, etc. — and I hope to feature interviews and conversations with many of these pioneers in these posts. Finally, I should say at the outset that, while I have a background in academia/IT/publishing/software development, my current personal interests are those of a course/game designer and story writer. I will often be motivated by questions of creating universal learning stories that work across multiple disciplines.

On the surface, it’s safe to say that online games in education represents an-as-of-yet-unrealized promise in this new age of technology-enhanced learning. That is to say, considering the success of the video game industry — video games will bring in more than $10 billion next year and will outpace U.S. box office sales for films, and multi-player online gaming is the fastest growing segment of that industry — there is not the corresponding presence of video games in education that might be expected. There are good examples of video games and online simulations created for education, and there are non-profit and commercial opportunities that have emerged to support the development of educational games. But, overall, there has been little integration or adoption on a larger scale.

So, and intending to stay entirely on the surface in this post, what are the major obstacles to the integration of online gaming into mainstream education. I see four major obstacles that, until they are addressed, will prevent online games from playing a larger role in mainstream education.

• Costs — This is always the stickiest wicket when you talk to people about creating online games for education. They immediately think about how much it costs to create individual commercial video games ($10 million and higher) and they see no way to make it work in education. The reality, however, is that games do not have to be elaborate, function on the Xbox 360, or feature the latest in 3-D graphics to be successful in education. Ultimately, games, like books and courses, are about the content (story) that drives them and that content is already available. As a guideline for calculation, good online games in education can be created for no more than it costs to create good textbooks.
• Content production workflows — A second problem when considering online games in education is that, on the surface, they don’t seem to correspond with our current workflows for developing and teaching courses (in Schools or in Higher Education). In reality, however, these games are merely online learning content provided in a proven pedagogical framework. The only gap here is one of mapping this content to existing instructional models and providing a consistent vocabulary that will enable others (instructors and students) to both create and use these online games.
• Gaming platform — Of course , it’s all a big abstraction without some kind of platform for developing and distributing these online games. In the commercial sector, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are still duking it out for platform control. Unfortunately (or fortunately) there are no pervasive platforms for online gaming in education at any level. This, in many ways is the biggest obstacle to the adoption of online gaming into mainstream education.
• Gaming modules for major LMS platforms — One solution to the lack of a common gaming platform, however, is to create gaming or simulation modules that integrate with existing LMS platforms. This, in fact, will have to be the solution in Higher Education since the industry has already settled on a set of standards and a group of commercial and open source LMS platforms for delivering learning content. I believe that we will see the first of these modules released this year which should speed up the development of content.

But, having listed these obstacles, I am encouraged about the possibilities of big breakthroughs in 2006. My enthusiasm stems primarily from the fact that these obstacles are all really just multiple facets of a core problem. Everyone sees the popularity of online gaming. No one denies that many online games (in the Entertainment sector) focus heavily on learning and that the core components of these games already provide a rich platform for experiential learning. In addition, the heart of online games for education consists of the same learning content to which we already have access. Finally, the technology gap, upon closer inspection, is not as big as some have made it out to be.

So, I think 2006 will be the year of online gaming in education at all levels. It will be the year when it all finally happens and I plan on following all the possibilities and developments on XplanaZine in these weekly articles.

Next Week — A inventory of some important online games and simulations for education.