Dept. Ed.-funded research in educational games (Score 2, Informative)

I am the Program Manager for research project funded by the US Dept. of Ed. in which we are using an online role-playing game (ORPG) setting to teach standards-based Algebra I concepts for middle-school students http://www.physitron.com/web/edutainment.htm). Key to our approach is the requirement that all educational content is motivated by storylines that are self-consistent within the virtual world. I agree that most educational games suck, but that offers no proof that the approach is invalid. I also agree with Squire's comments in that Prensky does a really bad job of grounding his claims/conjectures in the wealth of related research that exists on the role of gaming in learning. However, there is a wealth of research which addresses the strengths and weaknesses. Some of the benefits of using ORPG-based educational software to teach mathematics include: 1) Problems exist in a 3D situational context, increasing student's conceptualization of problems/concepts. Problems are experienced rather than being read or heard. This significantly enhances the process of making abstract concepts concrete. 2)Leverages proven motivation and rewards system in RPG genre to attract (and maintain) more students to mathematics and sciences 3)Personalized instruction: a) Educational content presented to student based on all of student's prior correct/incorrect responses and b) Teaching episode presented to student determined by specific incorrect response, i.e., response indicating a common incorrect conceptualization invokes a teaching episode targeted at the incorrect conceptualization 4) Strong basis for collaboration and cooperative learning--studies show students learn fastest from other students 5) Real-time assessment. I will stop here as post is already long, but there are numerous other advantages and our initial student testing was more positive than what we even hoped.