Episode 33 Make More Mistakes

Make More Mistakes

Hi and welcome to Experience Points by University XP. On Experience Points we explore different ways we can learn from games. I’m your host Dave Eng from games-based learning by University XP. Find out more at www.universityxp.com

On today’s episode we’ll cover how we learn through games by making more mistakes.

Mistakes happen to be just one part of life. They are something is common to anyone anywhere. We’ve all made mistakes at some point in our lives. Games are no different. In fact, games are hot beds for mistakes.

Games are one of the best places where we can use and apply what we’ve learned through our mistakes in order to inform our experience. Games-based learning is an application where we can use games as formative learning experiences to develop ourselves and our students. Games-based learning is based on experiential learning: learning through experience.

But there is one thing for certain that needs to happen more in experiential learning:

We need to make more mistakes.

One of the most important considerations to make when using games for mistake-driven learning is to ensure that the consequences of our decisions are used to inform what we will do next. That comes from an active reflection period over what has happened and determining went wrong.

You want to avoid the short term memory gain that comes from making a mistake without having the context for correcting it. Mistake-driven learning (like games-based learning) thrives on the mistakes that students and players make. When they make those decisions; they need to immediately be shown the results of that decision.

Now that may not happen for many existing classes; if you fail to study for a midterm then it may be weeks before you get the grade for your ill preparation. But with games we have the opportunity to do more. There are some games, long strategic ones in particular, where the results of our decisions aren’t immediately apparent. But, for mistake driven learning to take hold, we need to be able to see the results of our decisions prior to us making informed new choices.

Seeing the errors in this transformative, and educational light, is important in order for us to grow and develop. Players proceed down the player journey, and students progress towards a pathway of enlightenment. Using errors to humiliate students serves only to drive them away from the very thing that they could use to improve themselves.

But why do we focus on errors? What makes mistakes so important? For games, errors are part of the feedback process and are a critical component of the core loop. This feedback is what gives players information about the decisions they made and the results of that decision. The core loop is a series of actions that players will take over and over again until the game ends.

One way that educators can think more gamefully about how errors can be used is in the way that feedback is given to students. Sometimes that feedback comes weeks later when we get our paper back that is full of red marks. Other times, it’s immediately after taking a test or exam and our own personal feelings from it.

However, we can also think about how that feedback can be used constructively. The first level of Super Mario Bros 1-1 is famous for this. It’s been hailed as one of the best game tutorials for not even being a tutorial. The number of times that players have killed off Mario have been innumerable; but the feedback given to them has been invaluable. Through successfully navigating the first stage; players are given all the information, direction, and the skills necessary to finish the game after that simple level.

Getting students to be happy about rapid trial and error is not an easy thing. Our human condition wants us to constantly push towards success; but the errors that we experience often stops us from pushing forward. That’s why educators, teachers, and trainers must continue to motivate students through the feedback that they receive. That feedback can be gained through education; games-based learning; and training which allows them to apply what they’ve learned.

Great games are like great instruction. They allow you to just jump right in and begin playing. Experience is one of the most powerful motivators for us to learn and improve. Great instruction allows us to examine what we know and what we can do.  Ultimately we can then improve upon it.

Games allow you to make mistakes – often ad nauseam. But what we learn and how we learn from games is where games-based learning’s power truly lies. While commercial games are setup with this core loop and series of feedback in mind; educators need to think deeper and more intuitively in order to use commercially available games for educational purposes.

Specifically, when it comes to experiential learning (where we use experience as the medium for learning), we need to constantly engage in active reflection in order to help our students grow, learn, and develop. Often that active reflection includes some basic but necessary questions: What did I do? What happened? (and) What do I want to change?

The reflection is part of the experiential learning cycle which helps us to form concrete connections and conclusions of what we’ve experience so far. Then we can apply what we’ve learned.

This is especially necessary for table top games. Whenever I host new games with my group I always narrate the tutorial and my own turns for the first few rounds.  I do this in order to demonstrate and connect theory to action. The theory is the explanation of the game; how it works; and how you win. The narration connects that theory to action in player turns, scenarios, and actions.

So when using games-based learning for teaching and education; make sure that your game has the following: Your game continues to motivate players to play and keep learning. It doesn’t do anyone any good if your game isn’t engaging enough for your students to keep playing. By having a strong core loop; you can constantly provide your students feedback on their actions which keeps their engagement high.

Likewise, your game should provide the right type of feedback. If your learning outcome is to demonstrate how a complex economy works; then it’s no good to provide students summaries of characters backgrounds in the game. If you want students to take away certain things from the experience, then make that content abundantly clear in your feedback to them.

Lastly, your game should allow learners to practice the task that they need in order to succeed in the game and reach their learning outcomes. Outcomes must match activities in this scenario. You wouldn’t use an accurate flight simulator of a 747 in order to teach students the experience of the workers on the assembly line that made that jet. The experience and the outcome don’t align.

I hope you found this episode useful. If you’d like to learn more, then a great place to start is with my free course on gamification. You can sign up for it at www.universityxp.com/gamification You can also get a full transcript of this episode including links to references in the description or show notes. Thanks for joining me!

Again, I’m your host Dave Eng from games-based learning by University XP. On Experience Points we explore different ways we can learn from games. If you liked this episode please consider commenting, sharing, and subscribing.

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References

Boller, S. (2014, January 15). 4 Mistakes That Ruin A Serious Game's Learning Value. Retrieved October 7, 2019, from https://elearningindustry.com/4-mistakes-that-ruin-a-serious-game-learning-value

Iyer, A. (2018, July 28). Analyzing Super Mario's level and tutorial design. Retrieved October 10, 2019, from https://medium.com/@abhishekiyer_25378/the-perfect-game-tutorial-analyzing-super-marios-level-design-92f08c28bdf7

Kulman, R. (2012, February 6). Improve Your Video Game Play by Making Mistakes. Retrieved October 7, 2019, from https://learningworksforkids.com/2012/02/improve-your-video-game-play-by-making-mistakes/

Papadopoulos, N. (n.d.). ARTICLES: The Generation Game: Make Mistakes to Learn More. Retrieved October 7, 2019, from http://www.metalearn.net/articles/generation.

Wallis, C. (2017, July 26). Why Mistakes Matter in Creating A Path For Learning. Retrieved October 7, 2019, from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/48770/how-making-mistakes-primes-kids-to-learn-better

Why Mistake-Driven Learning Is Important. (2019, July 25). Retrieved October 7, 2019, from https://www.capytech.com/index.php/2019/07/25/why-mistake-driven-learning-is-important/