my PERC 2012 poster/paper

My poster and accompanying paper for PERC 2012: "Improving Physics Instruction by Analyzing Video Games."

Abstract: Video games can be very powerful teaching systems, and game designers have become adept at optimizing player engagement while scaffolding development of complex skills and situated knowledge. One implication is that we might create games to teach physics. Another, which we explore here, is that we might learn to improve classroom physics instruction by studying effective games. James Gee, in his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2007), articulates 36 principles that make good video games highly effective as learning environments. In this theoretical work, we identify 16 themes running through Gee’s principles, and explore how these themes and Gee’s principles could be applied to the design of an on-campus physics course. We find that the process pushes us to confront aspects of learning that physics instructors and even physics education researchers generally neglect, and we suggest some novel ideas for course design.

[Now I just gotta write it!]

Video Game Design course with a Physics Education kicker

This article describes a course similar to one I want to develop.  I envision a course for physics students with enough coding experience who work over the course of a semester to develop a video game that teaches a physical concept of their choosing.  They would learn about the physics, game design, collaborative work.

Another Gee book

Perhaps you already know about this, but I just discovered it:

• Good Video Games and Good Learning

White House Studies Effects of Video Games

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-26/edcuational-video-games-white-house/52908052/1

Anyone have Obama's phone number? I have an idea for a game...

gamifying computer scienc

Here's one approach to "ramifying" a course:

• http://www.lucidbard.com/cs160/about

Strikes me as kinda arbitrary. I'd rather see "learning the subject" become more game-like, rather than dressing it up with a bunch of arbitrary game-like rules…