Everquest in an educational setting

By:

Knut Augedal & Jo Singstad

Cand. Polit in Media Science

Knut.augedal@usit.uio.no

Jo_singstad@yahoo.no

The purpose of the project: Use an ”ordinary” computergame in an educational setting

in a junior high school.

Ordinary: non-proprietary platform – accessible by all

Why this focus? Research on computergames has mainly concentrated on

violent content and negative effects on the players. Other approaches are needed within this field: How can computergames be used as a medium of

communication? How do people communicate and interact in online

computergames? How do computergames combine social and technical

aspects? How to take advantage of computergames’ motivational

aspects in an educational setting?

How?Choice of subject: Foreign language (english)

Use a computergame for students to practice foreign language in a playful environment where they can talk and interact with other people

The game: Everquest – One of the most advanced 3D-environments available

• At the most, 75 000 users have been online simultaneously• A total of almost 400 000 subscribers

The School: Vestre Aker Junior High school

• Practical-theoretical oriented education • Five students were involved in this project

Ways of structuring the lessons Different possibilities

The game as a ”pure” classroom

The game as a chat/irc

The game as a ”game” – active use of game-elements

Practice Half a school class – five students Eight lessons One teacher and two students from the Institute of

Media and Communication. For some lessons, two more students were helping out

Bilde1 bilde2 bilde3 bilde4 bilde5 bilde6

Findings Are online-games suitable for education?

Yes… Relatively user-friendly application The students communicated and interacted

according to the following criteria:• Mutual awareness• Relevant responses• Conversations to action• Action to conversation

Example of communication between instructor(Piety) and student(Trond)

Piety says, 'What does he look like'Trond says, 'hi is small and ugly'Piety says, 'Small and ugly?'Trond says, 'yes 'Piety says, 'Does he wear any clothes?'Trond says, 'yes whit clothes'Piety says, 'Does he carry anything in his hands?'Trond says, 'i dont no'Piety says, 'What is it with Josiz?'Piety says, 'What do you want with him?'Trond says, 'make he normal'Piety says, 'Normal, is he sick?'Trond says, 'he is evil and ugly'Piety says, 'Ok, how did he become evil?'Trond says, 'i dont know’Piety says, 'Was he evil to you, Trond?’Trond says, 'no to my frend gunneh'Piety says, 'Oh, what did he do to Gunneh?'Trond says, 'he maked him invisible'Piety says, 'Oh, that's evil'Trond says, 'ye'

Other positive findings Highly motivated students Low risk for the students to express themselves

• Atmosphere characterized by game and play Suitable for involving students in the creation of lessons

to be held Suitable tool for problem-centred learning

Negative findings Easy to use for the students, but time-consuming for

those who have to create the lessons Vulnerable to technical problems Limited possibilities for constructing ideal environments

within the application The students claimed that they didn’t learn anything

from this project – What is learning?

Possible ways of developing this project Integration with other parts of the foreign language

education Cooperation with producers of computergames Develop content for foreign language education for use

in a broader context

Selected writings:Main thesis:Everquest used in an educational setting(Norweigan)http://www.media.uio.no/forskning/hovedoppgaver/files/hoeverquest.pdf

Short version of this thesishttp://briefcase.yahoo.com/jo_knut

PapersNye kategorier for online-spillhttp://www.media.uio.no/internettiendring/publikasjoner/tekst/augedalsingstad/

innhold.html

QUAKE: Spillopplevelse, sosialt samvær, vold? http://www.filmtilsynet.no/Dataspill/Utredning1998_del5.html

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