According to a recent article in EdSurge, there’s a non profit developing a game engine that supports learning and include assessment metrics. It goes on to note that this game engine can be used by other ed game developers.
GlassLab Games (“Glass” stands for games, learning and assessment), a nonprofit located on the Electronic Arts campus in Redwood City, Calif., have been building games that serve as formative assessments for critical thinking skills.
According to Ed Surge, in 2013 GlassLab released “SimCityEDU,” a modified version of the popular franchise designed to be used in the classroom. This year, it launched “Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy,” where players make decisions regarding the colonization of Mars.
Both games address Common Core English Language Arts standards around making evidence-based claims, along with Next Generation Science Standards and 21st century skills. An early study conducted by Education Testing Service, Pearson and GlassLab of students who played “Mars Generation One” found “statistically significant improvements in argumentation as measured on external pre-post tests.”
I can imagine using the Glass Lab software development kit on a platform using “Second Life ” ready made spaces such as Ed described to us. However, I don’t understand how the Glass Lab assessment tools could run on a platform like Second Life.
I noticed that a Beta partner is NMSU Learning Games Lab with a game called “Game over Gopher”. I’m wondering what platform NMSU uses to develop their game?
good catch Kris on NMSU learning lab!! and Glass lab…
Platforms are an ongoing confusing reality…as theoretically it’s all connected….but the real world requires specific methods of connection. So one has to ask, “will this work with that, and if so, how does it work?” …sounds obvious, but you’re right we always have to ask.
As far as second life or other virtual platforms, maybe we can get further questions such as this answered by exploring the topic in a meeting with Ed. As you recall he mentioned possibly helping us host a virtual reality space on our own PSA server. Needs some investigation.