Finally!
The World of Cheddar website published reviews of three more games:
You can read these reviews at www.worldofcheddar.com.
We’ve included links to the games, so go play them yourself and then come back here and tell us what you think!
Do you have first hand experience using these games with your students or other young people? If so, please share your experiences here.
We just published Episode 3 of the World of Cheddar podcast series!
In this episode, World of Cheddar founder explains why she created the World of Cheddar website and what she hopes to accomplish.
You can listen to the latest episode at the World of Cheddar website by clicking here. And you can listen to the podcast series at iTunes by clicking here. And you can always subscribe to the series via iTunes.
In the last post, we asked if games could be transformational.
This time, we ask, can game-play transform financial literacy and financial decision-making?
Let’s consider role-playing games, or RPG’s for short. In an RPG, each player selects a character through which they play the game. The character has strengths and deficiencies that can impact how successfully the player can play the game. Also effecting player success are the player’s strengths and weaknesses. The player must merge her skills and knowledge with those of character, which creates a new character. The player has the power to develop skills, knowledge and abilities of this new character through game play. In fact, character development is required if the player is to progress in and succeed at the game.
The player not only brings her existing skills, knowledge and abilities to the game, but also personal beliefs abut the world, the game, the game genre. These personal beliefs are challenged as the player merges with the game character and attempts to develop the character’s abilities to succeed at the game. One could say that transformation is taking place in this specific game environment as the player develops her own and her character’s abilities to win challenges. Transformation could be taking place in this specific game world whenever as new hypotheses are tested. Personal beliefs related to this game environment are challenged and modified as the player continues to progress in the game.
If transformation can take in entertainment games, why could this not happen with a well designed financial literacy education game? Forget, for the moment, about whether or not such a game actually exists and consider, what if such a game did exist?
Imagine a game where a player/learner plays a financial RPG as a character who has who has strengths and deficiencies that impact that character’s ability to make effective financial decisions in the game. The player also has his own set of knowledge, skills, abilities and personal beliefs about money, finances and all those elements that impact financial success. In this financial game, the player has to merge his skills and beliefs with those of his character, and during the course of game-play, discovers how his personal beliefs help or hinder his success at the game. Would not such a game be considered transformational?
What do you think? Do you think such a game could transform a player/learner’s financial decision-making?
In an earlier post, we asked if games could be transformative. Here’s a game that looks like it could transform how children think about nutrition: Fitter Critters.
You can read about the game here: http://appsforhealthykids.com/submissions/6134-fitter-critters
You can play the game here: www.fittercritters.com
Okay, so it’s not a financial literacy game, but it is worth taking a look at for it’s transformative potential.
The game is fun to play. I played only a few levels to get the gist of the game. My guy’s name is K A Tribblekip — the player can choose its name. Tribblekip is given three challenges per level which can include eating & shopping — two of my favorite activities — exercise, and a way to earn some money. All of the foods in the game have nutrition labels. Tribblekip’s shopping and eating challenges require that he read the nutrition labels in order to successfully complete them. I can see over time how these activities could teach children both how to read nutrition labels and to think about reading nutrition labels in the store or when deciding what to eat. It also teaches them about healthy food alternatives, and over time could possibly get them to select healthier foods outside of the game.
So, here’s a game that I think has great transformative potential.
Go play the game an let us know what you think
Can a game be designed to transform how the player/learner thinks?
We know that a game can help the player/learner acquire and improve a skill set. A game can develop problem-solving skills. Players can become active learners in that they seek out information that empowers them. A good educational game encourages player/learners to apply concepts and principles, to develop and test theories and strategies. In an earlier post, we suggest that a good game can be a form of problem-based learning in that it invites the player/learner to seek out the knowledge and skills, and to collaborate with others to craft solutions to ill-defined problems presented in the game.
But can a great game transform the lives of the player/learner with respect to the subject of the game by the vary act of playing the game? Can game-play change a player/learner’s attitude about the subject of the game? Can it affect the personal beliefs about the subject of the game?
Jane McGonical thinks so. (you can learn about her in an earlier post). She even created a game that transformed her life called Super Better. She created this game to help her overcome brain injury, and has since helped others to adapt Super Better to transform their lives by managing severe illness.
We thinks games can transform lives, too.
What do you think?
In the next post, we’ll explain why we think transformation is important in financial literacy education.
There are many types and uses of games (and simulations) that can be used to educate learners. There are board games, card games, and activities that use game features to make them more engaging. They can be even more engaging when structure as simulations, ARG’s (alternate reality games) or role-playing games. Games can be implemented at a distance, online or face-to-face.
In their quest to encourage their target audiences to make better choices, financial literacy educators try to include some sort of game as part of their instructional strategy. And most of the available games, when implemented properly, can make a lesson about financial skills and concepts more fun.
Most of the available financial games are actually opportunities to practice concepts, principles and skills that have been introduced in class. They may be fun, even engaging, but are these games transformative? Do they lead the player to change their attitudes or beliefs about money? Most of these games do not transform lives.
World of Cheddar knows that the right kind game can be transformative. The right kind of game can put a player/learner in a situation where they discover their own personal truth about money. The right kind of game allows the learner/player examine how their personal beliefs about money impacts their decision around money, and they can experience the effects of the decisions that these beliefs cause them to make.
We’ll explore this idea in a future post, but for now, what do you think? Do you know of any transformative financial education or financial literacy games? Do you think it even possible that “the right game” could transform a player/learner’s financial decision-making skills?
Here’s an interesting application of gamification: Using gamification to take the monotony out of answering surveys.
Gamification.co published the op-ed Magazine Question Hunt: Using Gamification in Surveys for Children by Betty Amadou of ResearchThroughGaming. Ms. Amadou’s quest is to turn the survey-taking experience into a fun experience. In her op-ed, Ms. Amadou describes the outcomes of a survey that she created for children using gamification principles. The results were beyond expectation. Her client wanted 500 responses from children ages 7-10 years old in two weeks. Her result? 700 responses in 7 days! From kids, no less.
Sounds like an interesting idea. Would you be more inclined to complete a survey if it engage you like a game?
[Remember our post on Manipulation? If gamification is used to make a survey more engaging to coerce… er, motivate you to fill it out, is this manipulation? And is it wrong to do it?]
Is a good video game a form of problem-based learning (PBL)?
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy that asks learners to solve real, meaningful, complex and ill-defined problems. In pursuit of solutions (there are often multiple solution alternatives) students draw from their own experiences, actively acquire knowledge or skills that help them define and develop solution alternatives, and typically interact with others in the process.
Doesn’t that sound like the winning strategy for a well designed video game:
In an earlier post, Gee: What we can learn from video games, we posted a short video by James P. Gee that describes video games in a way that shows the similarity between video game-play strategy and PBL. Go take a second look.
In their March 21, 2012 Edutopia post James Gee: What Do Video Games Have to Do with Project-Based Learning?, Buck Institute for Education project-based learning experts David Ross and John Larmer ponder the PBL nature of video games that they learned from attending a James Gee presentation on the topic.
So as financial educators, a good financial game could provide and opportunity to use PBL to teach effective financial decision-making skills. What are your thoughts? Have you found such a game? If you have, please share the name of and your experience with the game.
In our July 9 post we introduced the idea of gamification as a form of manipulation.
This time we ponder: Is gamification always a good thing?
In her blog post “Gamification Can Kill,” blogger Nicole Lazzaro — founder & president of XEODesign, Inc., and player experience design expert — wrote that gamification can kill the intended positive outcome. She describes a gamification attempt to shape driver behavior on the Bay Bridge that produced unintended negative consequences.
Throwing game elements at a process or task doesn’t always work as expected. As educators we have to think through some of the latest instructional strategies that purport to make learning “fun” to ensure that learning goals are met. Or at lease experiment with these new strategies to find out if they actually help our learners. Students can recognize the difference between an engaging game and a learning exercise that is dressed in game clothing. If if the game is poorly conceived, it wastes everyone’s time and educates no one.
Gamification should be used responsibly — or not used at all.
Your thoughts?
Is manipulation wrong?
The answer is, “It depends.” If manipulation is used to make us make decisions that we eventually regret, then we think of manipulation as distasteful, bad, or even evil depending on the end result.
“Manipulate” tends to have a negative connotation. According to Merriam-Webster.com, “to manipulate” can be defined as:
2 a : to manage or utilize skillfully; b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage
3: to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose
Sounds sinister, doesn’t it?
But what if a business, designer or teacher induces “change by artful… means so as to” increase sales or productivity, to make overcoming personal illness “fun,” or to encourage students to develop a deeper understanding of physics? What if a business, designer or teacher chooses to gamify a process to make an unpleasant task more enjoyable which in turn encourages their target audience to do something they’d rather not do? Is this manipulation, and if so, is wrong?
Nir Eyal, behavioral engineer and creator of the blog http://www.nirandfar.com, writes about manipulation in this post: The Morality of Manipulation . He discusses the idea that the intent behind the activity defines four types of manipulation. Here’s a table from his blog post that identifies four categories of manipulation:
Read his blog post to learn more about these four types of manipulations. Then let us know: a) is “gamification” a type of manipulation? and b) in which category do you think it falls?
[Need a refresher on gamification? Read our earlier post on gamification by clicking here.]
The blog Richdad.com, from the author of the best selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad gets it right in this post http://bit.ly/Nhlzpk
In this post he focuses on your income source: Don’t rely on only one source of income, despite what you’ve been told by society. In today’s economy this is sound advice.
We agree that your financial freedom depends on you, but we take a bigger view. Your financial freedom starts with understanding what you want from life, and making decisions about your career, spending habits and savings goals that will give you the life that makes you happy.
What do you think about the reality of implementing this richdad.com post advice?
http://edudemic.com/2012/05/how-to-use-gaming-to-improve-financial-literacy/
Wall Street Survivor, a game that teaches about the stock market, is working with Bunchball to improve their game experience. This link has a cute video that shows the value of playing this game.
So, what does it mean to “gamify” something? It means to add elements or attributes that give that “something” a game-like feel, to make it engaging in the way that games are engaging. “Gamification” is the idea of adding game mechanics (jargon for those elements that make games engaging) to a process with the intent to convincing people to interact more and longer.
Here’s a video of Jane McGonigal at the 2011 Gamification Summit explaining what makes games so alluring and how adding those elements — gamification — to processes can encourage participation in ways you’ve never imagined.
You may have heard of Jane McGonigal. She creates alternate reality games, such as Evoke. She was on NPR discussing how she created a game called Superbetter that helped her recover from brain damage that she suffered due to illness. She also wrote a great book, Reality is Broken, which explains how we can leverage the power of game mechanics to make different aspects of life more engaging. This video gives a good introduction to her book thesis as well. Jane speaks for the first 25 minutes, then answers questions for the remaining 23 minutes.
Jane McGonigal: How Games Can Change The World
from The Gamification Summit on FORA.tv
Now that you get the gist of gamification, what examples or stories of gamification come to mind?
What examples can you think of in marketing or even inside businesses that might be making use of gamification?
Katie Salen is another scholar who is focused on identifying the instructional strategies that video games use to develop player game-play mastery, and applying these strategies in the education environment. In this Edutopia video Salen discusses what educators can learn from video games.
In our quest to provide you with some background on games and education, we must not forget forgot James Paul Gee, aka, J.P. Gee, the baby boomer scholar who explained why boomers shouldn’t dismiss the educative power of video games in his book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Second Edition: Revised and Updated Edition.
The book is a great read; educators should read the book. Here’s a Edutopia video of Gee explaining the types of learning that take place in video games to give you taste of what he discusses in the book.
Virtual Roundtable: Game-based Learning – Why It Works and Where It’s Going
Apr 22 – May 18, 2012
This is a week-long virtual discussion round-table that invites people to share their perspectives on the title topic.
Not ‘Natives’ & ‘Immigrants’ but ‘Visitors’ & ‘Residents’
Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement
by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu
From the Oxford University TALL Blog
http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2008/07/23/not-natives-immigrants-but-visitors-residents/
Here’s a link to a blog post that summarizes a paper written by Dave S. White and Alison Le Cornu that reframes the Prensky idea of digital native and immigrant — which is based on technological skill or comfort as a function of age — as digital visitors and residents, which is base on culture and context. Digital residents thing of the internet as a space in which to hangout, while digital visitors consider the internet as a giant toolbox.
This link takes you to a video in which David White talks about digital visitors and residents and their implications for education.
http://blip.tv/play/AYGm8AwC.html?p=1
Want the full story? Here’s a link to the entire paper:
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3171/3049
What do you think?
by Zoe Handley,
Oxford University Press
http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2011/01/20/digital-natives-fact-or-fiction/
Blogger and English as a Foreign Language teacher, Zoe Handley, explains her frustration with the Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants hypothesis that Marc Prensky published in 2001. (Go here for an earlier post on this topic.) In this blog post she refers to research that questions the supposition that people born after 1982 tend to be Digital Natives. She references studies that state, for example, that people aged 35 to 44 tend to be the heaviest users of technology, and that younger people are heavy users of technology for social networking and not for content creation.
By the way, Prensky has revised this hypothesis since in articles published in 2002 and 2009, however, the original Digital Natives v. Immigrants hypothesis is still widely quoted. In 2009, he conceded that “old folks” can be digital natives.
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently?
By Marc Prensky
H. Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom
by Marc Prensky
Here are links to the next two article where Marc Prensky continues to develop the idea of digital natives and digital immigrants.
Take a look and then tell us what you think.
by Annie Murphy Paul
Ms. Paul’s blog post highlights the research conducted by Jacob Habgood and Shaaron Ainsworth, two researchers from the University of Nottingham in England, who wanted “to find out whether children could detect such subterfuge, and whether they benefited more from lessons that masquerade as games—or from games that make learning an end in itself.” Their research showed that children who played a math game that use intrinsic reward tested better than those who played a game that used extrinsic reward.
******
Okay, in the old days when I was a kid in school, we played games in the classroom in order to practice a newly introduced concept, principle or skill. Teachers used team competitions, relay-races, scavenger hunts, variations of hot-potato and baseball, even a knock-off of Jeopardy to help us practice what we learned in a more engaging way. If implemented correctly, there was a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic reward, and for a few moments, we students forgot that we were stuck in a classroom. This was before the age of video games. These days, the holy grail quest to create educational games that inspire commitment and devotion in the same manner as do entertainment role-playing video games seems to result in a lot of “chocolate covered broccoli.”
Sadly, there seems to be many “chocolate covered broccoli” online financial games on the Web. Most of the online games we’ve investigated present more as interactive activities than flow-inducing games. What has been your experience with educational games, especially those that teach financial literacy? If you’ve identified engaging financial games, please tell us about them.
We are constantly working to raise the bar on our services. If you have any questions or concerns about your experience, please let us know by visiting the contact us page.
