I found this great list of design patterns for serious games. For example, here is an entry on what types of interaction work well to teach certain subjects. Use modes of interaction adapted to the type of knowledge to learn. If the project has a constrained budget or if you don’t know all the knowledge [...]
I heard through the Games 4 Change mailing list about this article on motivations in gaming: http://immersyve.squarespace.com/gamification/ They talk about extrinsic rewards versus intrinsic, and they identify three intrinsic motivations that I quite like: Autonomy — We like to have meaningful choices and don’t like it when we cannot choose. We also feel satisfied when [...]
My friend Catherine at Tom Snyder Productions showed me this video lecture of Ted Hasselbring talking about the research behind FASTT Math. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZSOUIhBR_o&p=2158D1315F3B41FC&index=1&feature=BF His basic points are: (1) one needs to memorize basic math facts (addition and multiplication tables) in order to do higher order math. The reason is to free up working memory for [...]
Alex Cho Snyder in this excellent article describes how he helped design FoldIt a protein folding game. He mentions the use of Skill Chains from this article. Skill Chains are basically a flowchart of the different skills a player encounters and must master to progress through the game. With respect to educational games, it is a [...]
I’ve heard of James Gee all over the place but I’ve never delved into his ideas before. I stumbled upon this interview with him on Edutopia and he very succinctly describes how video games are little learning environments. http://www.edutopia.org/james-gee-games-learning-video
My friend Lois Huang just told me about an excellent book—The Seven Laws of Teaching by John Milton Gregory. Published in 1884, the seven laws are things every teacher knows such as “Never begin a class exercise until the attention of the class has be secured.” But the way Gregory lays them all out simply [...]
Scott Brodie in writes Gamasutra about creating more meaning in games by using life experience, distilling it to a core truth, and building your game around that. Brodie applies this idea for making games more fun, but it could be used to make games more educational as well such as mathematics or problem solving. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4263/truth_in_game_design.php
I love adages (waste not, want not) and here is a huge list of adages for game designers. It was started by Hal Barwood who I met at LucasArts many years ago and Noah Falstein who worked there before my time. http://www.theinspiracy.com/Current%20Rules%20Master%20List.htm
Here’s a good article on Teach for America’s studies on their teacher’s effectiveness and what they now look for in new hires. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/good-teaching
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