Internship Program in Technology Supported Education (IPTSE)

Winter School 2009

Partnership between the Indian Insititute for Information Technology in Hyderabad and Carnegie Mellon University

With sponsorship from the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center and the MacArthur Foundation


Instructors: Carolyn P. Rose, Matthew Kam, Derek Lomas, Bhiksha Raj, and Rita Singh

Overview CSCL Track Educational Games Track Speech Technology Track Application Process

Educational Games Track

Overview Task Option 1

Overview

Low educational levels remain a challenge to economic empowerment in the developing world. On the other hand, educational games can make a profound impact on the learning needs of underserved communities. At least two non-government organizations, Pratham and the Azim Premji Foundation, have deployed computer games in their initiatives with children living in the urban slums and rural areas of India respectively. Most importantly, a large-scale evaluation conducted jointly by Pratham and the MIT Poverty Action Lab has demonstrated significant gains on mathematics test scores when over 10,000 urban slums children in India played math-learning videogames (Banerjee et al. 2007). Studies by the Azim Premji Foundation (2004a) and Kam et al. (2009b) with rural children in India have shown equally promising outcomes with e-learning games for English as a Second Language (ESL) and other subjects.

Videogames can be designed such that they employ good educational principles, and hence promote learning benefits (Gee 2003). Games have immersive properties, such that the player experiences himself as being “inside” the game. Games recreate virtual environments with rich backgrounds where players participate actively. Games continually challenge players to develop new skills and reward the acquisition of these skills, especially when they spend hours playing the games. Finally, games can be social experiences that create a shared context for social communication (Kam et al. 2009a).

This track aims to introduce participants to the theoretical, technological, and methodological issues underlying research in educational videogames, and to extend state-of-the-art research in improving the quality of learning experiences in videogaming environments for underserved learner communities. The course is oriented around a hands-on project that will offer participants the opportunity to gain experience with available tool kits and make progress towards making their own contribution to human development using videogames. Applicants who are accepted to the winter school are expected to complete a short assignment as preparation for the program.

For their team projects in this track, participants may choose between MILLEE or Playpower. MILLEE involves language and literacy learning games that run on affordable cellphones. A recent article reports on the phenomenal sales of mobile games in India, and adds that although mobile games there are currently targeted at urban consumers, “the real market … lies in rural areas” (Times of India 2006). This phenomenon is part of the broader trend in which the cellphone is the fastest growing technology platform in the developing world. At the same time, public schools in developing regions face numerous difficulties. From the literature (Azim Premji Foundation 2004b) and our fieldwork in the poorest state of India, for example, one significant factor stands out: non-regular school attendance owing to the need for children to work for the family in agricultural fields or homes. E-learning games on cellphones and other inexpensive mobile devices have the potential to make educational resources more accessible to rural children in out-of-school settings, at places and times that are more convenient than school.

Playpower extends MILLEE by building a global community of open-source contributors who support the development of affordable, effective and fun learning games. Playpower volunteers currently focus on an existing $10 TV-computer as a platform for learning games in the developing world.