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Reflective Case Study: Michael Bishop

Case Analysis Michael Bishop: Implementing Gaming Technologies K-12

Prepared for:

IMD67200-008

Advanced Design

By:

Linda Ensign

October 20, 2013


Stakeholders

Primary Stakeholder: Michael Bishop

Michael Bishop is the director of a project that is pilot testing educational games

developed for middle school science classes. The school that was pilot testing the games

experienced a large drop in the standardized test scores for science and decided to

withdraw from the pilot test program. Michael met with four district administrators in

an attempt to find a district to continue pilot testing the games. The main issues raised

by the administrators included the amount of time necessary to complete the games, the

deviation of game-based learning from common curricula, lack of guided instruction for

the students, and potential disruption to the students. Their suggestion to pilot test the

games during after-school, summer school or with gifted students was contrary to

Michaels goal of refining the game based learning model to increase scientific inquiry of

all students in their science classes.

Secondary Stakeholders: Advisory Group

Craig Dawson, the director of science education for the state education agency, is

concerned that the games do not provide teachers with proof that learning is taking

place. He recommends adding checkpoints, dated assignments, and quizzes to provide

proof of learning.

Bob Blanchard, a triple-A game designer working for a local midsize company, is

concerned that modifying the games to provide proof of learning will interrupt

gameplay, distract the players and reduce motivation. He recommends that the teachers


receive training on how to guide learning through gameplay and suggests that reports

can be extracted on student gameplay statistics if required to prove learning took place.

Antonia Fisher, the professor of science education at Michaels University, is

concerned that the failure of the pilot program in regular classrooms, will lead to game-

based learning as a viable alternative for teaching critical thinking to be dismissed

outright by schools. She recommends that he pilot the program in summer camps and

homeschools before attempting to test them in regular schools and suggests that

teachers need to be trained to use game-based learning effectively.

Design Challenges

Implementing the project is the primary challenge in this case. The

implementation of this project is faced with two major obstacles including proving

learning takes place and ensuring the problem-based learning approach is implemented

correctly by the teachers.

Providing proof of learning without modifying gameplay and thereby reducing

student motivation to play is the most important challenge because the program was

dropped by the first school that run the pilot due to a drop in their standardized test

scores. If Michael can succeed in providing proof of learning to educators, he has a

better chance of having the program be widely adopted in regular schools.

Ensuring that teachers guide learning instead of directing it is important so that

the project meets its goals of developing critical thinking skills in students.


Case Challenges

The case specific issues all relate to communication in one form or another, and

include a lack of consensus on the best approach for implementing the pilot program,

the apparent failure of the initial pilot, and the rejection of the program by school

districts who cited time and resource constraints as their major concerns. Effectively

communicating the resolution of the two design challenges will go a long way to the

successful implementation of the pilot project in a regular school environment.

Readings and Prior Experience

Both articles helped me understand the concerns that educators have with using

game-based learning. While discussing the pilot program with school administrators

Michael had to deal with negative stakeholder perceptions, concerns about hardware,

concerns about time, the lack of tracking learning, and concerns regarding lack of

alignment with state and local learning objectives. The one concern that was also voiced

within the advisory group was the inability to adequately track learning objectives.

My previous experience as project manager helped me identify that the case

specific issues can all be related to communication and that developing an effective

communication strategy on how the design issues are resolved will assist Michael with

meeting his goal of completing the pilot program in a regular school environment.


Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Enhance the Game

In order not to interrupt gameplay and reduce student motivation, the game

designers should add the following elements discussed below to the game.

Tracking and Reporting

Providing proof of learning is not a simple task, but one that is of vital

importance for the pilot project to succeed. The game can be modified to record the

activities performed by each individual student including which tasks were performed,

how many times the tasks were performed, how long the student took to complete a

task successfully and which additional options (videos, instructions, etc.) the student

accessed. This is assuming that each student has an individual logon to the game.

A program can be written to summarize the data collected for each student and

provide statistics when requested by the teacher. The report program can be run for

each student or for the class as a whole on a scheduled or requested basis.

Guides and Help

Provide the teacher with both a teachers guide to gameplay and their own

logon. The teachers guide will detail how to guide the students to find answers by

directing them where the answer may be found, and the teacher logon will allow them

to experience the gameplay and experiment with different solutions.


Add a help icon on the screen or menu so that students can easily find

instructions, videos, audio, or any other guiding information when they need it.

Programming this will take a little work but will benefit both the student and the

teacher. The key principle here is to make the help unobtrusive so that students who

dont need guidance can ignore it, but visible enough so that students who do can find

it.

Pros

Provides proof of learning to educators.

Allows uninterrupted gameplay to maintain engagement and motivation.

Provides help to students who need extra guidance.

Reduces time spent figuring out how to play.

Statistics will also provide game developers information about which aspects of

the game may require modifications

Cons

This option will require additional programming that will be time-consuming for the

developers.

Recommendation 2: Train the Trainers

Michael can develop a training program for teachers on how the game should be

implemented in the classroom. The training program will cover the following:

The features of the game


The benefits of the game

How the game teaches critical thinking skills

How to guide students during gameplay

The training program can be structured much like the short gameplay session

attended by the advisory team where teachers are encouraged to play the game and

discuss it with their peers. This will allow teachers to experience how collaboration and

discussion enhances gameplay.

Pros

Provides proof that critical thinking skills are being taught

Develops a sense of ownership of the game by the teachers

Illustrates how collaboration and discussion can be used in the classroom

Cons

Developing a training program will be costly

All teachers using the game will need to be trained

The time-commitment for the training may be negatively perceived by educators and

administrators

Final Recommendation

My initial recommendation is #2 Train the Trainers. By training the teachers,

Michael will be creating a pool of advocates for the program teachers who have received


training talk to their peers and cohorts. This is assuming that the training is well designed

and well received.

The short 45-minute gameplay session used by the advisory group can be the

basis of the training program. Limiting the training session to an hour or less will also

reduce the concerns of administrators and educators on the time necessary to receive

training.

As the program will initially be rolled out as a pilot program, the number of

teachers who require training will not be a significant factor.


References

Pedersen, S., Arslanyilmaz, A., & Williams, D. (2007). Teachers assessment-related local

adaptations of a problem-based learning module. Education Tech Research Dev, 57,

229-249.

Pedersen, S. (2012). Michael Bishop: Implementing Gaming Technologies in Traditional

K-12 Contexts. In Ertmer, P.A., Quinn, J.A., & Glazewski, K.D. (Eds), The ID Case

Book: Case Studies in Instructional Design (29-38). Boston: Pearson Education Inc.

Rice, J.W. (2007). New media resistance: Barriers to implementation of computer video

games in the classroom. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 16(3),

249-261.

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