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Baltimore County Public Schools Partner with Learning Port Strategies on Tool Using Game Technology to Improve Learning
BALTIMORE -- On the heels of yesterday's forum on the growth of Maryland's video game industry, Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) and Learning Port Strategies (LPS) today announced the development of a new learning tool that combines serious game technology with training to help students learn by using a means with which they are already familiar and comfortable: video games.
"For more than a decade, health care organizations and the Department of Defense have used simulated games to train their professionals," says BCPS Superintendent Dr. Joe A. Hairston. "The next logical step is to introduce this combination of technology and training to middle and high school students - who already use computers and handheld devices an average of 38 hours per week to play games and talk with friends - to prepare them for college and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)."
To make that concept a reality, BCPS and LPS worked together to design Learning in a Virtual Environment (L.i.V.E.). The first such program of its kind in the country, L.i.V.E. initially encompasses:
• The Virtual High School (VHS), which serves as a repository for games developed around the STEM curriculum to complement traditional classroom instruction; and
• The Contest, which challenges students to work together to develop a story "pitch" for a game that ties into a specific subject in the STEM curriculum. The contest mimics the way in which professional game developers approach new projects.
Moving forward, L.i.V.E. will incorporate two additional elements:
• Gamification Boot Camp,TM at which teachers are introduced to gaming vocabulary and technology, as well as how to integrate gaming into lesson plans and classroom activities;
• The LPS Loft,TM a group of gaming professionals and tech-minded individuals who will join teachers in reviewing student story pitches and developing the first level of a game, based on the winning Contest pitches.
"In the same manner as online games such as Farmville are developed, The Loft will capture metrics on user game preferences as students play the initial level of the game, helping to further refine the game into a finished product," explains LPS Founder Joe Biglin, a gaming industry veteran who co-founded BreakAway Games in 1998.
Developing games in this fashion overcomes the major hurdle schools have had in using video games as a teaching tool in the past - money. According to Biglin, "It can cost $8-10 million a year to employ a professional game studio, but those costs can be substantially reduced by developing only a single level of the game and then allowing the game to be built out based on user preferences."
"The LPS approach benefits all parties involved," says Dr. Hairston. "Students learn the STEM subject matter being taught in a way that is familiar, comfortable, and acceptable to them - gaming. They also learn important life lessons, including how to work with others on a team to produce a concrete result, namely the game. And students in the future benefit by playing the game developed by today's students."
Hairston notes that participants in The Loft also benefit because they are involved in producing a game that they can add to their portfolios, which could help them to secure jobs in the future, while teachers gain a new skill that enables them to relate the subject matter they teach to the way in which today's students learn. Finally, business gets a workforce that is already technology proficient.
LPS and BCPS already have worked with classes at the University of Baltimore, which developed three STEM-oriented games for the Virtual High School during the past academic year.
In addition, BCPS ran a contest for high school students from Woodlawn and Western High Schools to create a storyboard for a science-related game. The winning game ideas will be built out and eventually added to the VHS for use by other students as an adjunct to their traditional classroom instruction.
"Clearly, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but we believe Learning in a Virtual Environment offers a new and highly effective means for engaging today's students, not just in Baltimore County but worldwide," Dr. Hairston concludes.