Prep Students Get Into the GameDesk

By Diane Ainsworth on March 20, 2009 9:11 AM

A revolutionary new approach to improving student cognition and engaging young minds in an active learning process was unveiled at Crenshaw High School this semester.

Known as GameDesk, the USC Viterbi School program challenges 15-to-17-year old pupils to create their own computer games using game tools, such as GameMaker, to build educational and entertainment video games from scratch. The program combines technology, art and mathematics in a unique curriculum that encourages students to learn basic concepts if they want to turn their ideas into live-action games.

GameDesk currently consists of a three-school pilot program developed and implemented by researchers from USC Viterbi’s Integrated Media Systems Center.

“GameDesk is designed to improve students’ mathematical and analytical skills, and stimulate their natural instincts to learn,” said Victor Lacour, associate director for games research at the center. “The approach is active rather than passive learning, because that approach engages and empowers them to create something that is all their own and that they have control over. But they have to really understand certain mathematical equations and science concepts in order to create their games.”

The pilot schools are Jordan High School, Crenshaw High and Pomona Valley High. The institutitions were chosen in part because they are among the Los Angeles Unified School District’s “high priority/program improvement” schools. That means they are targeted for curricula and faculty improvements, as well as standards-based instruction and assessment procedures to enhance student test scores and graduation rates, said Scott Specter, the district’s technology specialist.

“Many of these kids have it tough and they feel like going to school is largely irrelevant to their daily lives,” Specter said. “We needed to find some new approaches to classroom instruction that would get them excited and be more relevant culturally and educationally.”

After refinements were made in the program, based on lessons learned in the Jordan High School pilot course, GameDesk went live at Crenshaw High School several weeks ago.

“I have high expectations for GameDesk’s positive influence on teaching and learning at Crenshaw High School,” said Sylvia Rousseau, professor of clinical education at the USC Rossier School of Education and USC’s representative in the Greater Crenshaw Educational Partnership, which has oversight of Crenshaw High.

“The value of the GameDesk class is that it integrates technology, art and mathematics to create opportunities to learn,” she said. “These tasks result in real products created by students. The process of creating products is a major means of helping our students adopt identities as producers, not just consumers, particularly of technology. Hopefully, the school will continue creating opportunities for students to engage in product-based learning. Students will then carry perceptions of themselves as producers into other learning situations and into life.”

GameDesk’s magic is embedded in game lesson modules, which the students must use to build their games. Learning to solve the equations fulfills standards-based educational requirements.

“In a physics class, for instance, a motion equation would traditionally be introduced by the teacher in the form of a lecture and is ultimately tested in exam form,” Lacour said. “But in GameDesk, they make ‘Car Crash Derby,’ learning the motion equation as a game tool to build the game.”

The trick is not to force difficult topics onto the students but to capture their interest and make them want to learn these concepts, Lacour explained.

“So, in the first semester, the students learn how to make several different types of games, each one having embedded standards within the games design and tutorial processes. Math standards such as fractions, algebraic equations and percentages are part of the process,” he said.

The GameDesk technology includes several skills sets identified by University of California, San Diego professors as necessary for successful learning, Rousseau said. The program uses mathematics diagnostic testing to identify where students are weakest and creates game-making lessons to address those critical areas.

“We are extremely hopeful that the use of technology and the motivation to create a ‘product’ (game) will make these math skill sets more accessible to our students,” Rousseau said. “Obviously, we hope to see significant changes in our students’ mathematics conceptualization and performance.”

Team-building is an important part of the GameDesk learning process, Lacour said. At Jordan High, it was a new experience that proved to be valuable.

“It gave students a chance to belong to something, to create a fraternity or club-like atmosphere and to learn how to communicate with each other,” Lacour said. “It also allowed them to discover their own strengths and weaknesses. Whereas one student might be really good in problem-solving, another might be artistically inclined.”

Another unique aspect of GameDesk is giving students a culturally relevant learning experience. “The games they are creating are really a form of self-expression, because they are based on personal experiences, what’s going on in their communities and in their lives,” Lacour said.

David G. Brown, a Jordan High School teacher and graphic artist for the L.A. Sentinel, reported a vast improvement in Jordan High School students’ attitudes toward classroom instruction.

“You should have seen the change in attitude when the students were introduced to game-building,” he said. “I was amazed at how well they responded to the challenge and how interested they are in learning how to build their games.

“When they started doing something that was driven by their own ideas, they really got excited,” he added. “They became empowered … they started asking questions and wanted to know more.”

Lacour and two USC graduate students provide classroom technical assistance several times a week for the program. Once the program caught on at Jordan High, the Integrated Media Systems Center team began planning part two, in which game teams would work with assigned content teachers in math, physics, history, geography and other subjects to build an educational game.

“We utilize translational learning as a methodology to help students learn actively, passionately and with context,” Lacour said. “So in content learning, such as a World War II history lesson, the students really have to understand the material before they can create a game based on a World War II battle. They have to translate the knowledge. That’s where the real learning comes in.”

Rousseau added that educators hope to integrate other content and skills into the program, and involve more teachers and students in GameDesk learning starting this fall.

As it stands, GameDesk already has exposed hundreds of at-risk teenage students to its innovative and engaging curriculum. And that’s not counting the third pilot school, Pomona Valley High School, which is still eagerly awaiting its turn.

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