Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014 - 38

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 37

She co-developed a new computer-based
game with embedded assessments called
Newton's Playground, which uses 2d simulations to teach about gravity, mass, and
other physics concepts. The game measures
actual effort rather than a student's selfreported answer about that effort.

Q& A

The Big Picture
Of Digital Games

Factoring In PD

By Robin L.
Flanigan

G

ame-based assessments are making it easier for
teachers to more quickly evaluate students in a dizzying
number of ways. ARTHUR C. GRAESSER, a University of Memphis
professor of experimental and cognitive psychology and the
2011 winner of the American Psychological Association's
award for distinguished contributions of applications of
psychology to education and training, spoke with
Technology Counts Contributing Writer Robin L. Flanigan
in a telephone interview about the current and future role
of game-based assessments in the classroom.

On a psychological level, how is
it different for students to have
game-based, rather than traditional,
assessments?

GRAESSER: You're not going to get a
valid assessment if students are bored
and tuning out. Having an assessment
that matches their style of living would
be the hope. If they're used to playing
games, the contrast between that and
looking at academic material can be huge.
It really intensifies the growing schism
between formal and informal learning
environments.
What's next for game-based
assessments?

GRAESSER: I'm involved in a group
that's commercializing a game with
Pearson Education. In the course of a
10-hour game on research methods and
scientific reasoning, it collects 6,700
measures. One of the major avantegarde waves of the future is figuring out
how you map all these measures onto
psychometrically valid constructs. For
example, how discriminating are students
in making subtle distinctions? So as they
progress through the game, you can get a
peek at how well they're doing in each
skill at any time.
Can there be such a thing as too
much information for teachers?

GRAESSER: Oh, yes. Yes. And maybe
there should be an open learning
environment where students get to take

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EDUCATION WEEK

>> MARCH 13, 2014

a peek at their own profiles and don't
necessarily share them with the teacher, to
help build self-efficacy before the teacher
tests them in a more conventional way. All
of this needs to be explored.
How can teachers be sure they're
choosing the right games to
evaluate students?

GRAESSER: In the commercial market,
there are a lot of games that look
visually sensuous and captivating but
don't have deep tentacles to the learning
sciences and rigorous assessments. That's
one of the challenges with informal
learning environments, because if games
look as if there's anything academic in
them, kids think they're being tricked
into learning something. You have to
be very subtle in smuggling in serious
content.
One thing to look for, and this is the
real world we live in, is whether the
assessments are aligned with the common
core, Educational Testing Service, and other
organizations that have a solid scientific
foundation.
What else should teachers know?

GRAESSER: One purpose of the
assessments is for the teachers, but there's
a different set of goals to think about, and
that's for students to become motivated
enough to want to do their personal best.
Just the feedback can be motivating in
itself. That's what makes assessments fun,
rather than a drag.

Still, experts warn that while digital
learning games may be able to provide an
authentic context for assessment, their
large-scale impact is limited without a significant level of professional development.
"The projection is that over time, they'll be
more commonplace, but until teachers are
using them more consistently as a way of life
in the classroom, this technology isn't going
to be very effective," said Arthur C. Graesser,
a professor of experimental and cognitive
psychology at the University of Memphis, in
Tennessee.
Third grade teacher Joli Barker, who has
been recognized internationally for the
ways she incorporates digital gaming into
lessons, wants to see more assessments
overall mirror the kind of student information she regularly gleans from her class
at the 660-student Earl H. Slaughter Elementary School in McKinney, Texas. Ms.
Barker uses MinecraftEDU to assess geo-

"

We have
to consider that
the way our
educational system
approaches testing
isn't necessarily
reflective of what
students are
learning."
JOLI BARKER
Earl H. Slaughter Elementary School
McKinney, Texas

metric concepts, and with BrainPop's "Guts
and Bolts," she has students "screencast"
sessions-digital recordings of computer
screen outputs-with the volume off and
microphones on so they can explain their
choices as they make them.
"I know whether they have the skills
and how they're applying them," said Ms.
Barker. "I feel that if I'm asking them to
use their imaginations and creativity
during class assignments, then assessing
them in a similar way is important. We
have to consider that the way our educational system approaches testing isn't
necessarily reflective of what students are
learning."
Added Mr. Farber, the New Jersey teacher:
"And the kids don't even care they're being
assessed. That's a bonus, right?" n
Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014

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