MMORPGs in education - jury’s still out?
By Lee Davis • Jul 16th, 2008 • Category: Games, Teaching and learningI was at NECC 08 recently and bumped into some interesting people. One of whom was Mark Wagner who presented on his PhD research into the use of massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPGs) in education.
According to the literature review for his thesis, MMORPGs offer significant possibilities for rich social interactions and learning. They include:
- Engagement and motivation
- Context-embedded learning
- Inquiry-driven learning
- Socially negotiated learning
- Reflection and metacognition
- Social change
Mark set about testing these via the Delphi method and, from his discussions with a number of experts in the field of education, learning and gaming, he concluded that these benefits were possible but that a good body of evidence needed to be further developed.
He does, though, have a number of recommendations for educators and these are as follows:
- Use existing commercial MMORPGs with students, particularly in relation to developing 21st Century Learning Skills.
- Support MMORPG play with dedicated, structured and frequent debriefing.
- Use MMORPGs to motivate and engage students.
- Use MMORPGs as a context for student learning, including social learning.
- But beware infrastructure needs and logistical challenges.
We went through a few examples that he recommends, which I have diigo-ed. You can find them here. Please take a look when you can.
thanks.