From the U. of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning This is a nice collection of twelve strategies that you can use to create an active learning session with any content. They are mix and match use as many or few as you like. There is a downloadable set of powerpoint slides to get you started.
The Firefly Group has a number of usefullgames and simulations available at no cost on their website. Brian Remer, the founder, is a colleague through the North American Simulation and Gaming Association. He is one of the most insightful trainers I have experienced.
60 Second Lectures from the University of Pennsylvania reminded me of an creation of Sivasailam Thiagarajan (aka Thiagi) called 99 seconds. A group of presenters gave 99 second presentations. There was something for everyone attending the session. Handouts were available to ease the remembering.
You can learn what it takes to give a powerful presentation by attempting a 99 second event. Read more in Thiagi’s newletter and tips from ISPI Michigan. Jeff Thomas Cobb of Mission to Learn provides 6 presentation tips from the 60 second lectures.
The Out on a Limb - Instructors' Guide will walk you through the a series of conflict resolution presentations and exercises. It also has additional activities to be used in the classroom and home.
Designed for use with children, I thought the materials could be adapted for use in a training session for the workplace. The conflict resolution styles presented were easier to understand and in that way more useful than some of the more traditional materials usually used in conflict resolution.
Instructional Games Here is a set of Free online course materials from Utah State University on using games for learning. The course is aimed at the computer/video game end of the game spectrum although the underlying readings are of interest to any game designer. Great collection of readings as a part of the course. Many with links to other freely available materials.
In Financial Football Players tackle financial questions like professionals in a fast-paced, quiz-style game. Compete by answering finance-themed questions to earn yardage and score touchdowns. This is fun. From Practical Money Skills for Life
I have written about the Beer Game developed at MIT a number of times. Just reading the description about it may not be enough to give you a good sense of the experience. Here is a short video that shows the simulation in action.
Instructional Games Instructional Games This is a small collection of useful tools for teachers to help them develop games for use in the classroom. The tools crossword puzzle, flash cards, bingo card generators and more.
Plunge 2 Poverty Waco couple hopes to convey reality of poverty--from the Dallas Morning News comes this article on the Dorrell's, who have created a guidebook for delivering an poverty simulation aimed at building empathy and understanding for children. The book is available through Amazon.com for 10-15 dollars.
Baldicer: A Simulation about World Food Hunger Baldicer: A Simulation Activity About World Hunger From the Peace Corps: China, here is a ready to use classroom simulation. From the web site "Baldicer is a simulation activity where students assume the role of the leader of a country in an informal “United Nations”. It is student-centered in that the activity allows students to learn from their own experience. The goal of the activity is to have students work together to reflect on the issue of World Hunger." Happy thanksgiving.
Tabletop Olympics at NASAGA The other week we were at NASAGA, Bernie De Koven, funsmith, led a session that introduced Junkyard Sports ® Tabletop Olympics. (Those are Becky's hands playing High Cup Jump.)
It was a great session and a very useful idea. Read more from Bernie at Deepfun.com
Ready to Wear
Here are a couple of ready to use simulation resources. These come out of operations research but have implications for many domains as they are based in systems thinking.
The Distribution GameThe Distribution Game is a freeware computer-based simulation game of a two level distribution system. The player controls shipments from a supplier and from a central warehouse. Student reviews have been enthusiastic. The animation of the trucks is a crowd-pleaser. The game is designed to be run in about 2 hours. By Peter L. Jackson, John A. Muckstadt School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University
Experiential Learning Activities for Operations ManagementThis page describes the experiential learning activities and games Ron Wright and Salwa Ammar use while teaching production and operations management at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY
A Parade of Games The Parade of Games web site was created to provide educators and trainers with easy-to- assemble educational games in a technology- enhanced environment to support key learning points. The site demonstrates the creative use of popular game shows and other familiar games to reinforce learning.
The site has nice collection with a decision matrix on selecting games for a specific learning outcome.
Second Life Teambuilding Activity Training Simulations in Second Life Here is an interesting use of second life that provides a team building group activity in a virtual world. From the description it is along the lines of the many classroom activiies used for team-building. It is available for lease or purchase. There is a tour available from the company AHG.
Eduforge: Flash Based RPG Game Engine: Project Info Eduforge: Flash Based RPG Game Engine: Project Info A Flash (ActionScript) based game engine to be used as a platform for delivering role playing game (RPG) based stories. Dubbed RPG Storyteller. A free download of the first stable release in availalbe along with game development tools also available on the site. I have not had time to play with this but it looks interesting.
Interacting with the Elements of Interactivity Clark Aldrich's Blog: The Elements of Interactivity Clark is a prolific writer about the field of simulation (computer supported) for learning. He writes "Think of this as an evolving glossary or a non-linear book, rather than a traditional blog." The guide, like a simulation itself, requires your active participation. There is much here that applies to all forms of active learning.
Video Games, Virtual Environments & Education
Here is an interesting presentation on games and learning. Perhaps the more interesting item is where I found this. Slideshare.net is like You Tube for informative powerpoint presentations. Just like You Tube they provide the html for embeding the show in another blog.
Futurelab--Games and Learning games_and_learning.pdf a handbook by FutureLab. Futurelab is pioneering ways of using new technologies to enrich and transform the learning experience. This handbook focuses on computer based and video games for learning. This is a PDF file format. At 36 pages a quick read.
Active Learning Research
These Research Summaries on active learning may be helpful to you when justifying an active learning approach. One of the summaries says basically that if you lecture 6 minutes less in a session and substitute an activity you can increase learning by a dramatic amount. Impressive, but then if your reading this you probably know this already. By Dr. Charles Bonwell at http://www.active-learning-site.com/
Mudoku! Mudoku! From the FAQ--"What is Mudoku? Mudoku (TM) has the same rules as Sudoku, but up to 8 players can play on a single board simultaneously. In addition, each player receives immediate notification whether or not a move was correct, and gains a point for a correct move, or loses one or more points (depending on what difficulty level has been set) for an incorrect move."
Bernie Dekoven is a wonderful game designer and playful guy. Back in September I wrote about Giant Pick Up Sticks, a game inspired by Bernie's work in the last century (1976) in Philadephia as a part of the centenial celebration in the City of Brotherly Love. This time, I want to introduce you to one of Bernies more recent innovation. The Junkyard Golf Course and Community Building Event with Potluck To quote Bernie "Everybody can play. There are calls to creativity and collaboration, invitations to inclusion, incentives for sharing, and it all somehow connects people to each other and to the world they are creating together." Bernie freely gives you a complete set of intructions for how to play in a do-it-yourself way. An alternative is to get his book JunkYard Sports and get directions for this and many other fun activities. We have done junkyard golf indoors as a part of the NASAGA conference. We did it with the help of this book, (and a call to Bernie).
If you are a trainer or conference organizer and like this idea, but need a truely structured simulation game activity for a conference or teambuilding. Bernie does sell a complete facilitator guide and participants materials for an indoor version called Finger Golf. This version provides you with a structure that helps you not only have fun and create community, but also begin to reflect on community formation and about how you can take more responsibility for your participation and the benefits you receive.
Game Design Principles
In her article Computer Game Design: New Directions For Intercultural Simulation Game DesignersElaine M. Raybourn provides some very useful and simple notions about games in both the online and offine world. Her ideas are very adaptable to developing games using readily available tools such as chat, discussion forums, and e-mail. As my friend Thiagi once said. "Interaction is in your mind, not in your mouse."
Interactive Micro-economics
A nice collection of Simulation Games by Peter Wilcoxen at the Maxwell School at Syracuse Universtiy. The collection includes one of my favorite games archtypes sometimes called "tragedy of the commons". Professor Wilcoxen's game Greater Tuna is a one player version of the game. Other games include:
Macrosoft--Monopoly behavior in the software industry
Thiagi: Training Games Collection
These Training Games are ready-to-use activities from a number of game designers. The collection was harvested from Thiagi's Online Newsletter--a monthy must-read for designers and facilitators of active learning.
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Start Here. Go Places. - Games This one is a surprise! My own limited sterotypes of CPA's are shaken by this excellent web site. http://www.startheregoplaces.com A career interest builder web site. It's a Kind of a "Go Army" for the business set. They have five games available that all look interesting. I have not gotten to play yet. (A free user account is required).
How to Teach Using Games How to Teach Using Games A friend, Professor Bruce Blaylock at Radford University, sent me an interesting set of links on games based learning. The subject matter happens to be Geology but the methods can be applied to any topic.
Helium Stick
I had an opportunity to meet Dennis Meadows in October at the North American Simulation and Gaming Association's annual meeting. Dennis did a great session on demonstrating systems thinking principles using very short activities. He decribed one called Helium Stick I am planning to use it later this week. Since I found this nice decription of it in a great collection by James Neill I thought I would pass it along.
update: It's not as easy as it looks. The weight of the stick needs to be less than or equal to the combined upward pressure of the team otherwise it is easy to lower the stick. I found this out while field-testing with some friends at work. Fortunately I ran into Ron Roberts at the ISPI meeting in Washington DC. I demonstrated the activity with three flipchart markers stuck together end to end. We had a great time trying to lower the stick. This lead me to making a "stick" by rolling a sheet of flipchart paper into a tight tube(newspaper would work fine too). Presto, a disposible stick. Thanks to Ron for the insight.
