withDr. Kevin LimNMiEF 2011 @ Innova JC22nd June 2011

Gamemechanics

Learning as a multiplayerexperience

“Passionate Teacher / Sleeping Students”at Yale Law School entrance frieze

http://www.henrytrotter.com/scholarship/yale-law-school-sculpture.html

“Passionate Students / Indifferent Teacher”at Yale Law School entrance frieze

http://www.henrytrotter.com/scholarship/yale-law-school-sculpture.html

PUSHHow to naturalize

learning objectives.

Students everywhere using FacebookHere’s a Russian clone, VKontakte.ru

PULLDiscover the hook of

social networks.

Teachable Moments Cartoon by Matthew Henry Hall (Jan 2007)http://www.insidehighered.com/views/teachable_moments/cartoon24

Printed “essays” and “response papers” used in

many classrooms traditionally promoted a closed dialogue between the student and teacher.

In contrast, social networks allowed for an open multi-logue among the student, his or her

peers, the instructor, and the potential public.

When Derek Lackaff and I taught our Internet

communication courses back in Spring 2007, we tried to see if blogging could support a truly

active and collaborative learning experience.

Our Story

We also worked it into a multiplayer

game.

Our Magic Sauce

Michael Heilemann’s 25 Most Influential Gameshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/heilemann/5013484/

I'm interested in how game mechanics acts as a form of architecture that doesn't necessary focus on restriction, but rather stimulates specific behaviors.

From video games to real-world settings such as classrooms, we can be steered towards socially productive ends, e.g. to override tragedy of the commons

Why this is interesting...

Casual games consist of...

a crazy collection of addictive mini-games

drive the player to perform trivial tasks

in pursuit of the almighty “dollar”.

Real-life consists of...

a tired collection of boring mini-games

drive the player to perform trivial tasks

in pursuit of the almighty “dollar”.

Photo by flickr user: kenyee

Labor

need not be

laborious

making house / work chores fun... chorewars.com

Epic Win

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/science/earth/31compete.html

The Panic Status Board

The Panic Inc. Status Board as seen on http://www.panic.com/blog/2010/03/the-panic-status-board/

How the heckdo we create

fun ?

What makes popular social platforms addictive?

To motivate students, I tried using Amy Jo Kim's game mechanics (2006)

Visible ScoreboardVisible Scoreboard

Amy Jo Kim explained game mechanicswith how Frequent Flyer Miles work

Photo by flickr user: Nemo's great uncle (Aug, 2008)

“I see a game mechanics working well on sites like YouTube, Yelp, Twitter, and Flickster. [...] like points, leaderboards, level-ups, social exchanges, and customization to a strong core experience.”

Amy Jo KimCreative DirectorShuffleBrain

Five Game Mechanics1. Collecting2. Earning Points3. Feedback4. Exchanges5. Customization

Amy Jo KimCreative DirectorShuffleBrain

Amy Jo Kim’s idea was in the presence of a scoring mechanism.

Established a blogging leaderboard via technorati.com authority ranking algorithm.

Provide our students a basic measure of how they were doing against one another.

Students also given weekly audits of the class overall performance.

Earning Points

For quality blog posts, students earned weekly awards

Variety of awards promotes diverse behaviors

Awards can be traded for extra credits or the ability to gain “immunity” from extra assignments.

Collecting Things

Comments and trackback allow students to understand the quality of the blog and wiki contribution.

Students are given the opportunity to improve on posts if they have not reached the assignment deadline.

Accessibility of feedback allows students to accelerate mastery in each week’s theme.

Feedback

Students instinctively personalized their blogs by the first week of use.

Low level: Blog templates

High level: Sidebar widgets

Social Objects- personal photos- favorite music- branding- chat box

Customization

To track the layers of interaction, we visually aggregated RSS feeds of their blogs and wikis using Netvibes.com

Exchanges

ReciprocityPerhaps the most anticipated factor

that motivates people to give.

ReputationThe willingness to help others can all work to increase one's prestige in a

community.

Sense of EfficacyThe feeling an individual has that makes them feel that they have some effect on the environment

around them.

NeedOne may produce and contribute a public good for the simple reason that a person or the groups as a

whole has a need for it.

AttachmentThe commitment one has to the

group, one’s utility.

Side-effectPrivate behavior makes cost of

sharing near zero.

Motivations for Contributing

Title : JFDI Academy - http://jedi.ddns.comp.nus.edu.sgModule : CS1101S Programming Methodology @ NUSProfessor : Ben Leong / Collaborator : Su Yuen

The Third PlaceBeing a shared space means fairly equal standing in power

Motivates the user by choice (self-interest) over coercion

InformalityInformal channels allow for more spontaneous interaction.

Distinguishing motivation for using Facebook vs. Blackboard

Capturing Spontaneity

Image Source: http://mchabib.com/2006/10/05/digital-library-as-third-place/

The Digital Divide in terms of video media literacy (Stavchansky, 2006)

!

Digital Divide- Parallel Backchannels- Participatory Literacy- Polarized Performance

Open to Subversion- Private vs. Public discourse- Opposing learning objectives- Community self-moderation

Swings both ways...

Dealing with Complexity

http://maxpictures.com/weblog/2007/04/11/product-placement/

One more thing...

I work at The National Art Gallery, Singapore

foursquare iPhone app location-aware gaming with virtual & real-world rewards

art.sg/307

Artwork as Social Objects

✦ rapid & economical✦ shared experiences✦ game mechanics✦ granular analytics

If you are on twittershare your thoughts

@brainopera

Thank You