Ender's Game for Science and Engineering: Games for Real, For Now, or We Lose the Brain War

1
Ender's Game for Science and Engineering Games
for Real, For Now, or We Lose the Brain War

• Merrilea J. Mayo
• Director, GUIRR
• The National Academies
• This presentation represents the authors own
  view and not that of the National Academies

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Enders Game

• Orson Scott Cards novel about a young boy
  playing video games in which he outmaneuvers a
  virtual alien fleet and destroys it.
• Except the fleet wasnt virtual a fact the boy
  found out only after he had annihilated the
  entire alien race.
• Use of games to train, learn, and perform real
  activities in realistic environments. To become
  the best through game-based learning.

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The Brain War

• Emergence of Asia as major locus of technical
  expertise concerns U.S. policymakers.
• As one example, China produces 4x as many
  engineers as the U.S. Their much larger
  statistics not only mean that they will have more
  smart people than does the U.S., but also that
  their smartest people will be smarter than our
  smartest people.

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The Brain War

• The only reason the U.S. has not faced this issue
  before, is that more populous countries did not
  have the educational infrastructure to let their
  smart people reach their full potential.
• In popular press, outsourcing and offshoring have
  become major issues relevant to the creation of a
  highly trained technical cadre outside the U.S.
• As the U.S. continues to stand still, and other
  countries move rapidly towards technological
  prowess, the U.S. faces loss of its leadership
  position.

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US Fraction of Science Engineering Personnel
(2000-2001)
Bachelors Degrees in Engineering
Bachelors Degrees in Natural Science Engineering
Data from National Science Board. 2004. Science
and Engineering Indicators 2004. Two
volumes. Arlington, VA National Science
Foundation (volume 1, NSB 04-1 volume 2, NSB
04-1A).
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Engineering Ph.Ds (2000-2001)
Country of Graduation
Homegrown
Note If we were to add Chinas engineering
diaspora into the Chinese Ph.D. count, China
would annually graduate more than twice as many
Ph.D. engineers as the U.S.
Data from which these calculations were made
National Science Board. 2004. Science and
Engineering Indicators 2004. Two
volumes.Arlington, VA National Science
Foundation (volume 1, NSB 04-1 volume 2, NSB
04-1A). Appendix Table 2-44.
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Asian SE PhDs Climbing Rapidly
National Science Board. 2004. Science and
Engineering Indicators 2004. Two volumes.
Arlington, VA National Science Foundation
(volume 1, NSB 04-1 volume 2, NSB 04-1A).
Appendix Table 2-39.
South Korea
Japan
China
Taiwan
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US SE PhDs Stagnant
National Science Board. 2004. Science and
Engineering Indicators 2004. Two volumes.
Arlington, VA National Science Foundation
(volume 1, NSB 04-1 volume 2, NSB 04-1A).
USA
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Efficiency of U.S. Educational System in
Producing Technical Talent is Poor Higher Ed

• U.S. ranks 80th out of 92 countries in the
  fraction of its college students who obtain
  bachelors degrees in the natural sciences and
  engineering.
• U.S. also ranks 80th out of 92 countries in the
  fraction of its college students who obtain
  bachelors degrees in engineering.
• We educate many more people than other nations,
  but only a small fraction of those choose to
  major in science and engineering.

Data from which these calculations were made
National Science Board. 2004. Science and
Engineering Indicators 2004. Two
volumes.Arlington, VA National Science
Foundation (volume 1, NSB 04-1 volume 2, NSB
04-1A). Appendix Table 2-33.
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Efficiency of U.S. Educational System in
Producing Technical Talent is Poor K-12

• International (TIMSS) test scores show U.S. 4th
  graders to be 12th in the world in math 6th in
  the world in science
• International (TIMSS) test scores show U.S. 8th
  graders to be 14th in the world in math 9th in
  the world in science
• International (PISA) test scores show U.S. 12th
  graders to be 24th in the world in math 22nd in
  the world in science
• The longer we stay in the educational system, the
  worse off we are with respect to our peers???
• Data from National Center for Education
  Statistics (http//nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/PISA20
  03Highlights.asp and http//nces.ed.gov/timss/Resu
  lts03.asp)

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Why SE Games Might Be a Bronze Bullet

• Minor reasons
• Do not have to go through the school system to
  have national impact.
• Possibility for individually tailored learning
  experience according to learning style and rate.
• Each copy of a game would be of uniform quality.
  Each teacher is not.

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Why SE Games Might Be a Bronze Bullet

• Major Reasons
• Reach More People than all of Higher Ed
• Teach People Better than Lecture
• Expected from theoretical considerations
• Expected from biological considerations
• Shown by (very limited) experiments
• Time on task is high

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One Game Can Reach as Many People as the Entire
U.S. Higher Education System Graduates in a Year
Across all Science Engineering Disciplines
Lineage
Lineage II
WOW
Everquest
Ultima Online
Date
Woodcock, Bruce Sterling (2005). An Analysis of
MMOG Subscription Growth. MMOGCHART.COM 17.0. 14
June 2005. http//www.mmogchart.com
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One Game Can Reach as Many People as the Entire
U.S. Higher Education System Graduates in a Year
Across all Science Engineering Disciplines
Woodcock, Bruce Sterling (2005). An Analysis of
MMOG Subscription Growth. MMOGCHART.COM 17.0. 14
June 2005. http//www.mmogchart.com
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Learning Better - Theory

• Preliminary finding of international comparisons
  (TIMSS, PISA) is that US students learn too much,
  too superficially, without understanding
  anything.
• From learning theory, we know some attributes
  assist deep learning
• Experiential learning (you do it, you learn it)
  Active participation decisions that have
  consequences. Typical of immersive games.
• Inquiry-based learning (what happens when I do
  this?) exploration in games.
• Authenticity (the more like real-life the
  learning situation, the more easily learners will
  transfer the information to real life) virtual
  worlds
• Self-efficacy (if you believe you can do it, you
  will increase your chances of succeeding)
  rewards levels in games

For more info, see How People Learn, Washington,
DC National Academies Press (2000).
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Learning Better - Theory

• Goal setting (you will make more progress if
  working towards a well-defined goal) game goal
• Continuous feedback student in conventional
  classroom gets to ask only 0.11 questions/hr. In
  tutoring, student gets 20-30 questions/hr.
  (Fletcher, J.D. Technology, the Columbus Effect,
  and the Third Revolution in Learning, Institute
  for Defense Analysis, 2001. ). Carnegie-Mellon
  Algebra Tutor increases TIMSS scores by 30.
  What result for games???
• Cooperation (team learning) Studies of
  traditional learning show cooperative learning
  results in about a 50 improvement over either
  solo or competitive learning (meta-analysis of
  122 studies by Johnson et al, Psych. Bull 89
  (1981) 47-62. MMOGs.

For more info, see How People Learn, Washington,
DC National Academies Press (2000).
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Learning Better - Biology

• Over millennia of evolution, our brains have
  learned to discard most information and retain
  only that which is important.
• Important is defined by the brain as
  emotionally significant i.e., provoking a
  chemical release in the amygdala.
• The Learning Laboratory in Denmark puts the
  issue most succinctly
• The fact is that we are not even masters of
  our own conscious memory. What we remember and
  what we do not is subject to an emotional
  control, which follows a simple principle. If a
  given impression has emotional meaning we learn
  it. If it does not trigger emotional response it
  is not learned. In this case amygdala works as a
  kind of emotiometer, which regulates
  hippocampus and conscious learning. This serves a
  purpose to economise the resources with regard
  to what to learn. So, if you want someone to
  remember what you say, make sure that it has
  emotional meaning for the person who has to
  remember it."
• Ever wonder why you were unable to learn anything
  until the fear of the final exam was upon you?
• Nikolaj Ilsted Bech, Neuroscience Speaks for
  Practice-Oriented Learning, Quarterly Online
  (Spring 2003). http//www.lld.dk/publications/qua
  rterlyonline/x2003-issue1/artikler/neurosciencespe
  aks/en.

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Learning Better - Biology

• Study of Koepp et al
• Researchers monitor game players during video
  game play players show steady increases in
  dopamine levels in the striatum (which receives
  these chemical signals from amygdala).
• Gamers performance increases, simultaneous with
  the dopamine increases. The correlation between
  emotional stimulation (dopamine levels) and
  performance is strong and linear.
• For their particular game, the data of the Koepp
  study show game players reach dopamine/performance
  levels about twice those of non-players.
• M.J. Koepp et al., Evidence for Striatal
  Dopamine Release During a Video Game,Nature 393
  (1998), 266-267

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Learning Better - Outcomes Data

• Work of North Dakota State University Group
• Developed two virtual world-based games for
  college students Geology Explorer and Virtual
  Cell
• Compared test performance of students using these
  virtual world-based games to both web-based
  presentation of the material and traditional
  classroom lectures.
• The web-presented information increased test
  scores by a margin that ranged from not
  statistically significant (geology) to 13-30
  (cell biology).
• The games further increased learning outcomes to
  either 15-40 (Geography Explorer) or 30-63
  (Virtual Cell) over lecture. These outcomes
  suggest it is not merely visual representation,
  but active engagement that stimulates improved
  learning.
• Reference McClean, P., Saini-Eidukat, B.,
  Schwert, D., Slator, B., White, A. (2001).
  Virtual Worlds in Large Enrollment Science
  Classes Significantly Improve Authentic Learning,
  in J.A. Chambers (Ed.) Selected Papers from the
  12th Intl. Conf. on College Teaching and
  Learning. Jacksonville, FL Center for the
  Advancement of Teaching and Learning, 111-118.

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Learning Better - Outcomes Data

• .Work of Kurt Squires
• Used Supercharged, a game developed at MIT (John
  Belcher, Andrew McKinney) to teach
  electromagnetic forces and interactions.
• Pre-test, post-test, control group.
• The control group receiving interactive lectures
  improved their understanding by 15 over their
  pre-test scores.
• Those who played with the game instead improved
  their understanding by 28.
• Among girls, the control group (lecture only)
  improved on their pre-test scores by only 5, the
  simulation group by 23. Thus, at least in this
  one study, lectures alone did nothing for girls.
• Reference Squire, K., Barnett, M., Grant, J.M.,
  Higginbotham, T. (2004). Electromagnetism
  Supercharged! Learning Physics with Digital
  Simulation Games. Proceedings of the 2004
  International Conference of the Learning
  Sciences. Los Angeles UCLA Press.

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Time On Task

• The average time spent by teenagers in video game
  play is 5-8 hours/week. This is almost exactly
  equal to the time spent on homework by
  college-bound high school students.
• Reference Sax, L.J. Lindholm, J. A. Astin,
  A.W. Korn, W.S. and Mahoney, K.M, The American
  Freshman National Norms for Fall 2001. Los
  Angeles the Higher Education Research Institute,
  2001.

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Ender's Game for Science and Engineering Games
for Real, For Now, or We Lose the Brain War

• Enders Game Ultimate Game
• Brain War Struggle to Generate Top SE Talent
• ? for Real, for Now?

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For Real, For Now

• Need is certainly now U.S. already behind in
  many aspects of SE.
• Physics leadership, strong in mid-80s, has been
  surpassed by other parts of the world.

Papers published in Physical Review (Industrial
Physicist, Oct/Nov 2004 issue p. 13).
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For Real, For Now

• More importantly, opportunity is now
• Strong similarity between serious games field
  now, and nanotechnology in early 90s
• Field starts with 1-2 conferences that attract
  maybe 30 people each.
• A few years later, there are now a handful of
  independent conferences, but
• Researchers still disguising their work with
  other names to get it funded (ultrafine
  composite nanomaterial interactive learning
  environment game)
• Terminology still not standardized. in nanotech,
  it was the issue of what was considered nano
  (0.1-1,000,000 nm?? finally resolved to 1-100
  nm). Here it seems to be the use of the words
  serious games.
• No coherent source of funding
• Independent conferences soon attract hundreds,
  rather than tens, of attendees.
• Soon, major divisions of existing professional
  societies take up the mantra . . .host sessions
  devoted to topic
• Funding agencies develop targeted funding
  programs
• (Sometimes) National initiative develops
  (national nanotechnology initiative)

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