Project Title: Food Force: A video game aiding world hunger.

Author: Adolfo D. Jaramillo

Summary: Secondary level social science students analyze current issues and social problems. World hunger is a social problem. War, poverty, and natural disasters all contribute heavily to the world hunger dilemma. The United Nations relief operations are difficult to simulate in classroom settings. I have created a project using Food Force, a simulation of UN food relief, and a discussion forum (blog) to help students learn and reflect about UN efforts in hunger stricken regions of the world. Students learn about the challenges associated with creating and sustaining relief operations by playing Food Force and posting onto a blog through a discussion forum. The project can be utilized within the context of teaching and learning about economics and world hunger.

Context: The project can be applied to secondary level students in a social studies class. Students analyze current global social problems and their relationship to world hunger and economics.

Objective: The goal of this project is to give students the opportunity to play Food Force and reflect upon their experiences in a discussion forum. Students gain perspective of providing food to hunger stricken regions of the world by playing Food Force. Students empathize with UN organizers and their efforts to conduct food relief.

Sample lesson plan and blog:

Sample lesson plan: http://lesson.taskstream.com/lessonbuilder/v.asp?LID=a_zqhqcgf5cif4cf

Example of a blog:

http://worldhunger2011.blogspot.com/

PART 1: Rationale For Project

Students gain perspective of how difficult it is to provide food in war stricken or poverty-stricken regions of the world. Families around the world have food shortages due to war, poverty, and natural disasters. The Food Program at the United Nations brings awareness to the world about such conditions. Educating our youth about the hunger dilemma can help create solutions and raise awareness for this social problem. Most recently there have been social outbreaks in Afghanistan and Libya; and natural disasters in Japan and New Zealand. All four regions mentioned have innocent people dying of malnutrition due to a lack of food. Food simply does not reach all victims. Playing Food Force and having a blog discussion about their experiences playing the simulation will foster new ideas and feelings about world hunger and strategies to combat it.

Learning is doing. Learning is observing. Learning is internal and not always displayed. Albert Bandura called this the Social Cognitive Theory. This theory emphasizes reciprocal influences of behavior, environment, and personal/cognitive factors. These three factors (behavior, environment, and personal/cognitive) play important roles in learning according to Bandura. The Social Cognitive Theory is mainly a theory of observing, learning and social behavior. Considerable learning occurs through watching and listening to competent models and then imitating what they do. This theory emphasizes not only on his/her environment, but also, what he/she does in his/her environment to assist his/her learning. Through the game play, the participant begins to ‘think like’ such a professional, incorporating the profession’s practices regarding ‘ways of knowing, ways of deciding what is worth knowing, and ways of adding to a collective body of knowledge’ (Shaffer, 2004).

PART 2: Project Description

The project I have designed is for students to play Food Force and respond to prompts provided by the instructor found on his/her blog. The purpose of the project is for students to become familiar with the fight against world hunger. The project will also facilitate a blog intended for students to reflect upon their own experiences playing Food Force and comment on other’s experiences as well. The project also gives the instructor flexibility due to its asynchronous nature.

First, the instructor must create a blog on Blogger.com. Second, the instructor must invite his/her students to the blog. Third, the instructor must post instructions on how to download Food Force (an example of doing this is on my blog “Food Force objectives”). Fourth, the instructor must provide prompts for his/her class to respond to on the blog (examples of such questions are on my blog http://worldhunger2011.blogspot.com/). Fifth, the instructor must assess the blog posts. A rubric is recommended to evaluate students’ posts. A sample rubric can be found as an Appendix.

PART 3: Evidence Supporting Project

How does learning occur?

Through the game play, the participant begins to ‘think like’ such a professional, incorporating the profession’s practices regarding ‘ways of knowing, ways of deciding what is worth knowing, and ways of adding to a collective body of knowledge’ (Shaffer, 2004). Edward Castronova (2005) adds, video games offer immersion and interaction. The immersive and interactive potential of video games suggests that authentic experiences that simultaneously entertain and educate are within reach of students.

James Gee explores two ideas that are helpful in understanding the learning potential of video games: 1) the ease with which ‘just in time’ delivery of information can take place; and 2) distributed knowledge (Gee, 2005). ‘Just in time’ learning suggests that new information is more easily assimilated and more permanently retained when it is acquired in manageable portions and in a context where its usefulness is readily apparent. Human beings are quite poor at using verbal information (i.e. words) when given lots of it out of context and before they can see how it applies in actual situations. They use verbal information best when it is given ‘just in time’ (when they can put into use) and ‘on demand’ (when they feel they need it). Good games give verbal information. Players don’t need to read a manual to start, but can use the manual as a reference after they have played a while and the game has already made much of the verbal information in the manual concrete through the player’s experiences in the game.

Gee (2005) states that this distribution of knowledge between the player and the artificial intelligence affords the opportunity for the successful mentoring of the player by the game through the game. With distributed knowledge, a student is not required to learn all of the important concepts before entering the application phase of the experience but, rather, as in life, learns during the process. Gee (2005) says computer and video games inherently involve action at a (virtual) distance. The more and better a player can manipulate a character, the more the player invests in the game world. Good games offer characters that the player can move intricately, effectively, and easily through the world. Beyond characters, good games offer the player intricate, effective, and easy manipulation of the world’s objects, objects, which become tools for carrying out the player’s goals.

In what environment can technology promote learning?

This project can be utilized when studying economics or natural disasters in a social science classroom. The blog discussion accompanied by the playing of Food Force can help students learn more about world hunger and United Nations efforts to aid hunger stricken regions of the world. This project also has the ability to infuse a global approach to the instructor’s teaching pedagogy. A global perspective applied to any global issue is admirable. The project encourages students and instructors alike to engage with technology through the use and design of the blog. Video games are designed to motivate players to successfully learn and improve their skills (Klopfer, 2005). Needed to complete the blog discussion and play Food Force is the following: desktop computers with audio, laptops, and an Internet connection.

What is the process by which technology enhances learning?

The asynchronous nature of this project allows students to be creative and autonomous thinkers. The project also is designed to promote and produce higher order thinking through its blog prompts provided by the instructor. Video games provide authentic experiences that simultaneously entertain and educate through their immersive and interactive design. Good games are enjoyable because each individual player is continuously challenged without becoming frustrated. Players develop strategies and mastery, see concrete improvements, and gain confidence and skills to face even more sophisticated challenges (Klopfer, 2005). Games also draw heavily upon important 21^st century skills such as problem solving, collaboration, and communication. The project allows for more opportunities for students to gain meaningful feedback from their instructor. Assessment of learning is made easy for the instructor the blog discussion. Playing educational video games is fun!

References

Castronova, E. (2005). Arden Institute Prospectus 3, http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/iree/v9n1/lawson.pdf

Gee, J.P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gee, J.P. (2005a). Video games, mind, and learning, iDMAa Journal, 1(3), 37-42.

Gee, J.P. (2005b). Learning by Design: Good video games as learning machines. E-Learning, 2(1), 5-16.

Klopfer, E. (2005, July). Playing to learn. Access Learning, 10-11.

Lawson, C.L., & Lawson L.L. (2010). Adventures in Learning: Creating role-playing video games to teach and learn economics. International Review of Economic Education, 9(1), 93-110.

Rutsch, H. (2005). Food Force: UN video game on hunger a surprise smash hit. UN Chronicle, 2, 78-79.

Shaffer, D.W. (2004). Pedagogical Praxis: The professions as models for post-industrial education, Teachers College Record, 106(7), 1401-21.

Squire, K. (2006). From content to context: Video games as designed experience. Educational Researcher, 35(8), 19-29.

Appendix

Rubric

Discussion Forum (Blog) Rubric

Content actions

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This work is licensed by Adolfo Jaramillo under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 3.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.

Last edited by Adolfo Jaramillo on May 7, 2011 4:30 pm -0500.