Cognitive
Analyze, synthesize, use inductive and deductive reasoning, solve problems effectively and creatively.
REFLECTION
This was a project I did for EDTEC 670, Exploratory Learning Through Simulation and Games with Carolina Counts, a third-grade teacher. For this assignment, the creation of an educational board game to teach facts about the solar system, we used both inductive and deductive reasoning to make our final product. I had the additional pleasure of using my skills as a graphic artist, plus the joy making something fun for children.
We inductively reasoned we should have our players orbit the sun following the same paths as the planets. We also wanted to make it similar to a trivia game. Those ideas did not work because following the orbits that each of the nine planets would create too many paths and make the game take too much time. Also, we did not want to show something that may confuse students or give them a false idea of the way things were in the solar system. If we showed the planets in their correct orbits and correct correlation of sizes the smaller planets would be nothing more than dots. It was decided to scrap the trivial pursuit idea.
We decided to make the game simpler by creating a race to the sun. Our initial version of this game only had nine spaces, one for each planet. The students would jump from planet to planet answering questions. The “chance” cards later called “direction” cards now called Spaceship cards were mixed into the deck of question cards.
At this point deductive reasoning took over. We started testing a prototype of the game on sample users, a 3rd grade class. This suggested some changes. We again tested not only on 3rd-graders but also fellow EDTEC students. These tests suggested more changes, plus, our fellow students had some great ideas. In the end we discovered the best approach was to make a path that had both question spaces and spaces with obstacles and shortcuts to add an element of surprise and fun. Through trial and error, we eventually achieved a good ratio of fun to learning, along with having a game that did not end to quickly or take too long.
In addition to the things listed on the Web page we made for this assignment, what I took away from this assignment in the area of inductive and deductive reasoning is — “trust, but verify.” That is, you need to have some initial thoughts about how to accomplish something using instructional design based on past experiences and facts that you know. You should trust the initial theories the solution is based on, otherwise you will always be second guessing yourself and nothing will be accomplished in a timely manner. However, these ideas, or prototypes need to be tested in the real world, and changes made based on observation.
This was one of the courses I enjoyed the most. I constantly question why learning has to often be such a dreary exercise. I feel we can harness the energy of gaming to make education be more play than work (inductive reasoning). A recent study by The Federation of American Scientists agrees with this assessment (deductive reasoning) http://fas.org/gamesummit/.