James Paul Gee identifies 13 learning principles that are incorporated into good gamesPage 1

Keith Richardson’s Summary – how the 13 principals of good learning may be built into my teaching.

Co-Design / Create situations where students play a significant role in designing, creating or producing the learning situation or activity or project. / Have students participate in the design of the story (scenario) we will be working within. I find this most effective in the teaching of Yr 9 Video Production where they often come up with great stories that we then have to turn into a script and eventual video.
Customize / (a) Allow different learning pathways to the same goal.
(b) Encourage students to explore various learning strategies/styles. / In Science, for example when learning about the Sun-Earth-Moon relationship, I could tell students the extent of what I want them to know, than provide a range of learning/research/experience pathways they may choose to follow including web quest, read and answer questions, manipulate physical model, discuss, teamwork or individual, create a drama, watch a video, create a PowerPoint presentation, teach something to others, film a stop-motion-pro animation video, create a flash demonstration, using Animator create an animated gif demonstrating some of the S-E-M relationships.
Identify / Encourage, facilitate and structure the learning experiences so that the student identifies with players in the scenario. / Competition between teams where teamwork and group problem solving is emphasized – set a realistic, achievable yet challenging task that may take, for example, a week or a full day (e.g. 3in6 video competition) to complete.
Manipulation / Place powerful tools into the student’s hands that will allow them to manipulate & influence (possibly at a relative distance from the subject matter) events or objects. / This may be part of the strong appeal of image manipulating software such as Paint Shop Pro or IrfanView or Photoshop.
Well-Ordered-Problems / In the planning of big projects, identify skills that will be crucial in latter stages, and introduce them at a simpler level early on, so that they may be re-used later on albeit at a more complex level. / In IP&M introduce the concepts efficiency, effectiveness, validation, testing etc early on in very real and life-like easy to understand situations.
Pleasantly Frustrating / Challenges should be do-able but feel-hard, and the feedback received by the student during these encounters should indicate where the path of correctness lies and how close to this the student currently is. / In Multi-media and Video Production the use of relatively complex products that the student can de-construct or reverse-engineer then replicate from scratch can be a meaning source of motivation and a worthwhile goal.
Cycles of Expertise / (Tricky one, this!) Pace the introduction of increasing difficulty levels, slowly allowing expertise to rise before moving on thus again challenging ability until expertise once again grows and so on. / Like the one above, but through a pre-determined series of challenges that build on previously acquired skills, introducing the need for more and at a higher level of difficulty.
Information JIT & OD / Place students into a ‘Point-of–need-to-know’ situation then have available the required information or skill-learning facility. / Teacher should have planned in advance the various skills he/she wants the students to acquire. Create for them a sequenced scenario or structured activity the successful completion of which will create the desired points of need-to-know.
Fish Tank & Sand Box / Simplified situations/scenarios that are safe, less-complex but appear authentic. / In IP&M the use of’ drama-acting-in-a-structured-stage-set’ such as when studying security concerns or copyright matters can be useful to allow the students to explore the dimensions, limits and ramifications of various potential worst-case-scenarios.
Skills as Strategies / Set up appropriate goals students will want to achieve then teach them the skills they need to achieve them, working ‘with’ them as a fellow-strategist or facilitator, or provider of JIT skill lessons. / In multi-media setting a big and relatively complex goal e.g. advertising product for an new children’s toy, to be published in three formats – video, web and print. This will demand many and varied skills and understandings of the various media in order to accomplish success.
System Thinking / This is the old “Whole-Part-Whole” principle, that I call “helicopter view-ground search-helicopter again” sequence. / In IP&M provide the students with concept maps and over-views and situational implementations of possible solutions created in coming SACs. Also use Gantt Chart to show the tasks and relative timing of the whole IP&M course so that they can see where they are within the course at any time.
Meaning as an Action-Image / Base the learning of complex, intangible or theoretical concepts on actual or manufactured experiences. / Introduce the IP&M course by asking each student to visit over the Summer vacation the workplace of one of his or her parents to observe and enquire about the use that the workplace makes of IT. Provide them with a checklist of specific and understandable things they must ask about or attempt to discover while they are there.
Overall / Make Learning Fun / Although I tell the kids that I want them to enjoy my classes and to work hard but that the work bit is non-negotiable, I often feel that the advice falls on deaf ears. I need to pay more attention to work as a fun activity, and maybe these 13 principle will help.

D:\My Documents\My Professional Documents\2004\learning principles that are incorporated into good games.doc