Games
Games
Games
Contents.............................................................................................................1
About Dave Moursund, the Author...........................................................5
Preface................................................................................................................6
Learning Through Game Playing.............................................6
Computational Thinking...........................................................7
Puzzles......................................................................................8
Brief Overview of Contents.....................................................8
Chapter 1: Thinking Outside the Box.....................................................10
Puzzle Problems.....................................................................11
Problems and Problem Solving..............................................14
Problem Solving is Part of Every Discipline.........................16
Cognitive Maturity.................................................................17
George Polyas General Problem-Solving Strategy...............18
Modeling and Simulation.......................................................19
Games Can be Addictive........................................................20
Final Remarks........................................................................21
Activities for the Reader........................................................22
Activities for use with Students.............................................23
Chapter 2: Background Information.......................................................25
Types of Games Considered in this Book..............................25
Games-in-Education as a Discipline of Study........................27
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
Expertise.................................................................................28
Competition, Independence, Cooperation..............................30
Learning to Learn...................................................................33
Situated Learning and Transfer of Learning..........................34
Learning in a Game Environment..........................................37
Precise Vocabulary and Notation............................................38
A Few Important Research Findings......................................39
Final Remarks........................................................................40
Activities for the Reader........................................................40
Activities for use with Students.............................................41
Chapter 3: Sudoku: A Puzzle....................................................................42
Introduction to Sudoku...........................................................43
A 4x4 Example and a High-Road Transferable Strategy.......44
Metacognition.........................................................................45
Is the Puzzle Problem Solvable?............................................46
Getting Started in Solving the Puzzle....................................47
Persistence and Self-confidence.............................................48
The Elimination Strategy.......................................................50
Final Remarks........................................................................51
Activities for the Reader........................................................52
Activities for use with Students.............................................53
Chapter 4: More Puzzles............................................................................54
Goals for Using Puzzles in Education....................................54
Free Puzzles............................................................................56
Jigsaw Puzzles........................................................................57
Incremental Improvement......................................................57
Online Jigsaw Puzzles............................................................59
Complexity of a Puzzle or Other Problem.............................60
Water-Measuring Puzzles.......................................................61
Spatial Intelligence.................................................................62
Tower of Hanoi.......................................................................63
Bridge Crossing Puzzle Problems..........................................66
Brain Teasers..........................................................................67
Miscellaneous Additional Examples of Puzzles.....................70
Final Remarks........................................................................72
Activities for the Reader........................................................73
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Preface
The word game means different things to different people. In this book, I explore a variety of
board games, card games, dice games, word games, and puzzles that many children and adults
play. Many of these games come in both non-electronic and electronic formats. This book places
special emphasis on electronic games and the electronic versions of games that were originally
developed in non-electronic formats.
There are many other types of games that are not explored in this book. For example, I do
not explore sports games, such as Baseball, Basketball, Football, and Soccer, or any of the sports
in the summer and winter Olympic Games.
Since my early childhood, I have enjoyed playing a wide variety of games. Indeed, at times I
have had a reasonable level of addiction to various games. In retrospect, it is clear that I learned a
great deal from the board games, card games, puzzles, and other types of games that I played as a
child.
In recent years, a number of educators and educational researchers have come to realize that
games can be an important component of both informal and formal education. This has become a
legitimate area of study and research.
There are oodles of games that are now available in electronic format. While many of these
are distributed commercially, many others are available for free play on the Web, and some can
be downloaded at no cost. In this book, I am especially interested in games that are available at
little or no cost and that have significant educational value.
Some electronic games are merely computerized versions of games that existed long
before computers. Others only exist in a computer format. Computer networks have made
possible games that allow many thousands of players to be participating simultaneously. The
computerized animation and interaction in these games bring a dimension to games.
Learning Through Game Playing
This book is written for people who are interested in helping children learn through games
and learn about games. The intended audience includes teachers, parents and grandparents, and
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
all others who want to learn more about how games can be effectively used in education. Special
emphasis is given to roles of games in a formal school setting.
As you know, education has many goals, and there is a huge amount of research and
practitioner knowledge about teaching and learning. This book is well rooted in this research and
practitioner knowledge. Five of the important ideas that are stressed include:
Learning to learn.
Learning about ones strengths and weaknesses as a learner.
Becoming better at solving challenging problems and accomplishing challenging tasks.
Learning some general strategies for problem solving is a unifying theme in this book.
Transfer of learning from game-playing environments to other environments.
Intrinsic motivationstudents being engaged because they want to be engaged. This idea is
illustrated by the following quote from Yasmin Kafai, a world leader in uses of games in
education.
If someone were to write the intellectual history of childhoodthe ideas, the practices, and the activities that
engage the minds of childrenit is evident that the chapter on the late 20th century in America would give a
prominent place to the phenomenon of the video game. The number of hours spent in front of these screens
could surely reach the hundreds of billions. And what is remarkable about this time spent is much more than
just quantity. Psychologists, sociologists, and parents are struck by a quality of engagement that stands
in stark contrast to the half-bored watching of many television programs and the bored performance
exhibited with school homework. Like it or not, the phenomenon of video games is clearly a highly
significant component of contemporary American children's culture and a highly significant indicator of
something (though we may not fully understand what this is) about its role in the energizing of behavior
(Kafai, 2001). [Bold added for emphasis.]
Computational Thinking
Your mind/brain learns by developing and storing patterns. As you work to solve a problem
or accomplish a task, (as you think) you draw upon these stored patterns of data, information,
knowledge, and wisdom.
Beginning more than 5,000 years ago, reading and writing have become more and more
important as a mind/brain aid. In the past few decades, computers have contributed substantially
to mind/brain processes by providing improved access to information, improved communication,
and aids to automating certain types of human thinking processes.
Notice how the thinking of mind/brain and the thinking (information processing) of computers
are melded together in the following brief discussion of computational thinking.
Computational thinking builds on the power and limits of computing processes, whether they are executed by
a human or by a machine. Computational methods and models give us the courage to solve problems and
design systems that no one of us would be capable of tackling alone. Computational thinking confronts the
riddle of machine intelligence: What can humans do better than computers, and What can computers do better
than humans? Most fundamentally it addresses the question: What is computable? Today, we know only parts
of the answer to such questions.
Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everybody, not just for computer scientists. To reading,
writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every childs analytical ability. (Wing,
2006)
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
Games provide an excellent environment to explore ideas of computational thinking. The fact
that many games are available both in a non-computerized form and in a computerized form
helps to create this excellent learning environment. A modern education prepares students to be
productive and responsible adult citizens in a world in which mind/brain and computer working
together is a common approach to solving problems and accomplishing tasks.
Puzzles
A puzzle is a type of game. To better under the purpose of this book, think about some
popular puzzles such as crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, and logic puzzles (often called brain
teasers). In every case, the puzzle-solvers goal is to solve a particular mentally challenging
problem or accomplish a particular mentally challenging task.
Many people are hooked on certain types of puzzles. For example, some people routinely
start the day by spending time on the crossword puzzle in their morning newspaper. In some
sense, they have a type of addiction to crossword puzzles. The fun is in meeting the challenge of
the puzzlemaking some or a lot of progress in completing the puzzle.
Crossword puzzles draw upon ones general knowledge, recall of words defined or suggested
by short definitions or pieces of information, and spelling ability. Through study and practice, a
person learns some useful strategies and can make considerable gains in crossword puzzle-
solving expertise. Doing a crossword puzzle is like doing a certain type of brain exercise. In
recent years, research has provided evidence that such brain exercises help stave of the dementia
and Alzheimers disease that are so common in old people.
From an educational point of view, it is clear that solving crossword puzzles helps to
maintain and improve ones vocabulary, spelling skills, and knowledge of many miscellaneous
tidbits of information. Solving crossword puzzles tends to contribute to ones self esteem. For
many people, their expertise in solving crossword puzzles plays a role in their social interaction
with other people.
Brief Overview of Contents
Each chapter ends with a set of activities for the reader of the book, and a set of activities that
might be useful with students of varying backgrounds and interests.
Chapter 1 illustrates the idea of thinking outside the box. This idea is important is solving
puzzle problems, but it is also essential in solving many real-world problems.
Chapter 2 provides some general educational background needed in the rest of the book.
Chapter 3 uses a puzzle called Sudoku to explore some aspects of puzzles and their roles in
education.
Chapter 4 explores some additional puzzles and sources of free puzzles on the Web.
Chapter 5 explores solitaire card games that can be played with ordinary decks of 52 playing
cards, or that can be played on a computer.
Chapter 6 explores competitive 2-person games such as checkers, chess, and backgammon.
Nowadays, many people play these games using a computer as an opponent.
Chapter 7 explores games that typically involve more than two players, but only a modest
number of players. Examples include Poker, Bridge, and Hearts.
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Chapter 1
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accommodate huge numbers of simultaneous players. Whether it is just a few people, or a few
thousand people playing a computer-based game, they are learning to communicate and interact
in a computer-supported environment. What can education learn from such games?
Think outside the box! Our children are growing up in a world in which it is common for
teams of people, with members located throughout the world, to work together on complex
problems and tasks. You have undoubtedly heard the African proverb, It takes a whole village
to raise a child. Combine this idea with that of global village and you can see that nowadays,
the whole world is involved in raising and educating our children. Our children need an
education that prepares them to be effective participants in this global village.
Puzzle Problems
This book will expose you to a variety of games. One type of game is called a puzzle. A
puzzle is a problem or enigma mainly designed for entertainment. Often one can solve a
puzzle without having to draw upon deep knowledge of any discipline. A jigsaw puzzle and a
Rubrics cube provide good examples of this.
A child doing a jigsaw puzzle is engaged in tasks that involve looking for patterns, using
spatial visualization skills. This puzzle playing may be done individually or in a small group. In
the latter case, there is a strong social education aspect of putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
Other types of puzzles require a broad and deep background. Contrast a jigsaw puzzle or a
Rubric cube with a crossword puzzle from the New York Times newspaper. The crossword
puzzle draws upon reading, spelling, word definitions, and word-suggestion clues.
In some cases, there will be a large number of variations on a particular type of puzzle. There are
lots of different interlocking jigsaw puzzles, and there are lots of different crossword puzzles.
In other cases, a puzzle will be one-of-a kind. Once you have figured out how to solve the
puzzle, it is no longer a challenge. Here is an example of a brain-teaser puzzle that you may have
seen before.
Problem: You are at a river that you want to cross with all of your goods. Your goods consist of a chicken, a bag
of grain, and your large dog named Wolf. You have to cross the river in your canoe but can only take one
passenger (chicken, dog, bag of grain) with you at a time. You can't leave the chicken alone with the grain, as the
chicken will eat the grain. You can't leave your dog Wolf alone with the chicken, as Wolf will eat the chicken.
However, you know that Wolf does not eat grain. How do you get everything across the river intact?
Solution: Take the chicken across the river first and leave it on the other side. Return to where you have left
Wolf and the grain.
Next, take Wolf across the river, and leave him there, but bring the chicken back with you.
Next, leave the chicken where you started. Take the bag of grain across the river and leave it with Wolf.
Finally, go back and get the chicken, and take it with you across the river.
This brain teaser requires you to think outside the box. Many people do not think about
the idea that in solving this puzzle you might bring something back on a return trip. They
never consider this possibility, and they are unable to solve the puzzle problem.
Here is another brain-teaser puzzle that requires thinking outside the box.
Problem: Using pencil and paper, arrange nine distinct dots into a three by three pattern as illustrated in Figure
1.1. The task is to draw four straight line segments with the beginning of the second starting at the end
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of the first, the beginning of the third starting at the end of the second, and the beginning of the fourth
starting at the end of the third, and so that the total sequence of line segments passes through each dot.
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Thinking outside the box is illustrated by the two puzzles illustrated above. However, these
two examples are useful in education mainly if the learner makes a connection between the
examples and real-world problems. Young students will seldom make such connections on their
own. Merely having students work to solve these two puzzles and then showing them solutions
will not help the typical young student to make such connections.
This is where a teacher enters the picture. A good teacher can help students to discover
personal examples of thinking outside the box. The teacher might be a parent, a schoolteacher, a
sibling, or a peer. The point is that the teacher does a valuable service for the student. With
proper instruction, most students can gain increased skill in making such connections by
themselves. Clearly, this is an important goal in education!
Here is another 9-dot challenge. See if you can use just three connected line segments to
draw through all of the dots. As before, think about this before going on. Think outside the box!
The chances are that you are like many other people, in that you have studied math for many
years, starting in preschool or elementary school. Thus, you can probably tell me the difference
between a dot and a mathematical point. A dot has size, while a point does not. The puzzle was
stated in terms of using nine distinct dots (not nine points) . A 3-line segment solution is
illustrated in Figure 1.4. To make the illustration easier to understand, I have enlarged the dots in
the puzzle.
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I suspect that as you thought about this puzzle problem, you forgot about the possibility of
the dot pattern being on a sphere. There was no explicit statement in the problem that the nine
dots are in a plane. Part of thinking outside the box is to think critically and carefully. What do
you actually know about the facts of the problem, and what do you make up in your mind? As
you work to understand and create meaning in a problem, you may well think yourself into a box
in which the problem cannot be solved.
Problems and Problem Solving
Puzzle problems are a type of problem. A great deal of this book is about problem solving
and what we can learn about problem solving through studying and using games.
Problem solving consists of moving from a given initial situation to a desired goal situation.
That is, problem solving is the process of designing and carrying out a set of steps to reach a
goal. Figure 1.5 graphically represents the concept of problem solving. Usually the term
problem is used to refer to a situation where it is not immediately obvious how to reach the goal.
The exact same situation can be a problem for one person and not a problem (perhaps just a
simple activity or routine exercise) for another person.
A B
Given initial
situation.
? Desired
goal
situation.
What can I do to
move from A to B?
Here is a formal definition of the term problem. You (personally) have a problem if the
following four conditions are satisfied:
1. You have a clearly defined given initial situation.
2. You have a clearly defined goal (a desired end situation). Some writers talk
about having multiple goals in a problem. However, such a multiple goal
situation can be broken down into a number of single goal problems.
3. You have a clearly defined set of resources that may be applicable in helping
you move from the given initial situation to the desired goal situation. There
may be specified limitations on resources, such as rules, regulations, and
guidelines for what you are allowed to do in attempting to solve a problem.
4. You have some ownershipyou are committed to using some of your own
resources, such as your knowledge, skills, and energies, to achieve the
desired final goal.
These four components of a well-defined (clearly-defined) problem are summarized by the four
words: givens, goal, resources, and ownership. If one or more of these components are missing, you
have an ill-defined problem situation (frequently called a problem situation or an ill-defined
problem) rather than a well-defined problem. An important aspect of problem solving
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is realizing when you are dealing with an ill-defined problem situation and working to
transform it into a well-defined problem.
Consider some problem situations such as global warming, globalization of business,
terrorism, homelessness, drugs, and the US scoring below some other countries in international
tests. These are all problem situations because the givens, guidelines, and resources are not
specified. You may or may not happen to care about specific problems that relate to these
problem situations.
There is nothing in the definition of problem that suggests how difficult or challenging a
particular problem might be for you. Perhaps you and a friend are faced by the same problem.
The problem might be very easy for you to solve and very difficult for your friend to solve, or
vice versa. Through education and experience, a problem that was difficult for you to solve may
become quite easy for you to solve. Indeed, it may become so easy and routine that you no
longer consider it to be a problem.
People are often confused by the resources (component 3) of the definition. Resources
merely tell you what you are allowed to do and/or use in solving the problem. Indeed, often the
specification of resources is implied rather than made explicit. Typically, you can draw on your
full range of knowledge and skills while working to solve a problem. However, you are not
allowed to cheat (for example, steal, copy others work, plagiarize). Some tests are open book,
and others are closed book. Thus, an open book is a resource in solving some test problems, but
is cheating (not allowed, a limitation on resources) in others.
People often have access to computers as they work to solve a problem. They draw upon
both the capabilities of their mind/brain and of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) systems. They routinely make use of computational thinking (see the Preface) as an aid to
problem solving.
Resources do not tell you how to solve a problem. For example, you want to create a
nationwide ad campaign to increase the sales by at least 20% of a set of products that your
company produces. The campaign is to be completed in three months, and it is not to exceed
$40,000 in cost. Three months is a time resource and $40,000 is a money resource. You can use
the resources in solving the problem, but the resources do not tell you how to solve the problem.
Indeed, the problem might not be solvable. (Imagine an automobile manufacturer trying to
produce a 20% increase in sales in three months, for $40,000!)
Problems do not exist in the abstract. They exist only when there is ownership. The owner
might be a person, a group of people such as the students in a class, or it might be an
organization or a country. A person may have ownership assigned by his/her supervisor in a
company. That is, the company or the supervisor has ownership, and assigns it to an employee or
group of employees.
The idea of ownership can be confusing. In this book, we are focusing on you, personally,
having a problemyou, personally, have ownership. That is quite a bit different than saying that
our educational system has a problem, our country has a problem, or each academic discipline
addresses a certain category of problems that helps to define the discipline.
The idea of ownership is particularly important in teaching. If a student creates or helps create
the problems to be solved, there is increased chance that the student will have ownership.
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Such ownership contributes to intrinsic motivationa willingness to commit one's time and
energies to solving the problem. All teachers know that intrinsic motivation is a powerful aid to
student learning and success.
The type of ownership that comes from a student developing or accepting a problem that
he/she really wants to solve is quite a bit different from the type of ownership that often occurs in
school settings. When faced by a problem presented or assigned by the teacher or the textbook, a
student may well translate this into, "My problem is to do the assignment and get a good grade. I
have little interest in the problem presented by the teacher or the textbook." A skilled teacher will
help students to encounter challenging problems that the students really care about.
Now, what does this formal definition of problem have to do with thinking outside the box?
Plenty! In a game setting, the rules and regulations are usually carefully stated. Even then,
however, there may be exceptions that allow thinking outside the box thinking. The 9-dots
puzzle certainly illustrates this. Thinking outside the box and expanding the size of the dots,
allowed us to see a 3-line solution. As you were working on the 2-line version of the puzzle, did
it occur to you that perhaps the dots could overlap or that the dots could be on a sphere?
You know that students often develop personal interest in (ownership of) the problem of
playing a game well. Now, if only such games had redeeming educational value Wouldnt it
be nice if students spent time in an intrinsically motivated state, working to learn to solve
problems that they have ownership of, but that also tie in well with the contents of the regular
school curriculum? I wonder what school would be like if students spent much of their time in
such an environment?
The steam engine existed a long time before the internal combustion engine was developed.
Imagine being an inventor studying a steam engine, and thinking about how to make a smaller
and more fuel-efficient engine. Perhaps the firebox could be made a little smaller and better
insulated? Perhaps one could find a fuel that is more concentrated than coal or wood? Thinking
outside the box led to using a fuel such as gasoline, and having the fire occur right next to
the piston, inside the cylinder that contained the piston. What a marvelous example of thinking
outside the box!
Problem Solving is Part of Every Discipline
In general terms, each discipline or domain of study can be defined by its unique
combination of:
1. The types of problems, tasks, and activities it addresses.
2. Its tools, methodologies, and types of evidence and arguments used in
solving problems, accomplishing tasks, and recording and sharing
accumulated results.
3. Its accumulated accomplishments such as results, achievements,
products, performances, scope, power, uses, impact on the societies of
the world, and so on.
4. Its history, culture, unifying principles and standards of rigor, language
(including notation and special vocabulary), and methods of teaching,
learning, and assessment.
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their levels of cognitive maturity. It is easy to see how an adult who has a higher level of
cognitive maturity than a student can serve as a teacher and mentor in helping a student increase
in cognitive maturity.
George Polyas General Problem-Solving Strategy
th
George Polya was a great mathematicians and teacher of the 20 century. He wrote
extensively about problem solving. Polya's six-step problem-solving strategy is useful in math
and in most other disciplines. The following version of this strategy has been modified to be
applicable in many different domains. All students can benefit from learning and understanding
this strategy and practicing its use over a wide range of problems.
1. Understand the problem. Among other things, this includes working toward
having a clearly defined problem. You need an initial understanding of the
Givens, Resources, and Goal. This requires knowledge of the domain(s) of the
problem, which could well be interdisciplinary.
2. Determine a plan of action. This is a thinking activity. What strategies will
you apply? What resources will you use, how will you use them, in what
order will you use them? Are the resources adequate to the task?
3. Think carefully about possible consequences of carrying out your plan of
action. Place major emphasis on trying to anticipate undesirable outcomes.
What new problems will be created? You may decide to stop working on the
problem or return to step 1 because of this thinking.
4. Carry out your plan of action in a reflective, thoughtful manner. This thinking
may lead you to the conclusion that you need to return to one of the earlier
steps. Note that this reflective thinking leads to increased expertise.
5. Check to see if the desired goal has been achieved by carrying out your plan
of action. Then do one of the following:
a. If the problem has been solved, go to step 6.
b. If the problem has not been solved and you are willing to devote more
time and energy to it, make use of the knowledge and experience you
have gained as you return to step 1 or step 2.
c. Make a decision to stop working on the problem. This might be a
temporary or a permanent decision. Keep in mind that the problem
you are working on may not be solvable, or it may be beyond your
current capabilities and resources.
6. Do a careful analysis of the steps you have carried out and the results you have
achieved to see if you have created new, additional problems that need to be
addressed. Reflect on what you have learned by solving the problem. Think
about how your increased knowledge and skills can be used in other problem-
solving situations. Work to increase your reflective intelligence!
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Many games have very long histories. Games that have survived over the years tend to have
characteristics that fit well with the needs and interests of children and adults. Well before the
advent of computers, many games had addictive-like qualities for some game players.
Computers have added new dimensions to games, and have provided more opportunities for
a person to develop an addictive- like dependency on games. At the same time, computers are
making possible games that have considerable educational value. The attention grabbing and
attention holding characteristics of many of todays computer -based games are a challenge to
our traditional formal educational system. At the same time, such games provide an opportunity
for some changes that have the opportunity to improve our educational systems.
I recently used the quoted expression thinking outside the box as a search term in
Google. I got nearly a million hits. It is clear that many people think about and write about
thinking outside the box. However, our educational system experiences only limited success in
developing this type of thinking in students. There is substantial room for improvement.
Activities for the Reader
This section contains some questions and activities for the person reading this book. Some
are designed for people who are taking a workshop or course using materials from this book. The
individual reader working alone may also find many of the questions and activities to be useful.
1. Think of some personal, real-world examples in which you thought outside
the box. This book is one of my personal examples. Since I was a young
child, I have played games for entertainment. Only recently, I have thought
outside the box and begun to explore possible educational values of the
games I played as a child.
2. Create a 16-dot (4 by 4 grid) puzzle problem akin to the 9-dot puzzle. Pose
various goals associated and see if you can achieve these problem-solving
goals. Many people enjoy creating puzzle problems and games. This is a
different type of intellectual challenge than merely solving puzzles and
playing games created by others. In the real world outside of games,
problem posing (that is creating or defining problems) is an important
component of each discipline of study.
3. Have you experienced flow, as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi? If so,
describe situations in which you have experienced flow and give your
personal opinions on how this topic might fit in with informal or formal
education. If you think that you have never experienced flow, then do some
reading about Runners High and discuss how it might relate to flow. See, for
example, http://www.lehigh.edu/~dmd1/sarah.html.
4. Consider the following quotation:
Comments from a student panel that my school district organized to investigate grading practices
further elucidated the problem. Students reported that they see their schoolwork as a game they
play for gradesa game that at best treats learning as an incidental, and at worst distracts
students from making meaning. One student referred to this grade game as academic bulimia:
Students stuff themselves with information only to regurgitate it for the test, with little opportunity for
any thoughtful engagement that would produce deep understanding and
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5. Talk with your students about cognitive maturity. Help them to develop
examples in which one makes use of their cognitive maturity. Do whole class
brain-storming on ways to increase ones level of cognitive maturity.
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Chapter 2:
Background Information
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of
them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing
ever happened. (Sir Winston Churchill)
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
(Winston Churchill)
This book is about some roles of games in informal and formal education. Many people
see Games-in-Education as an opportunity to help improve our educational system. Others see
the difficulties and downsides of using or increasing the use of games in education. (See the
two quotes from Winston Churchill at the beginning of this chapter.)
For many people, games are intrinsically motivating. Educational research tells us that
intrinsic motivation contributes substantially to learning. From an educational point of view, the
issues are what does one learn through playing games, how does this learning relate to helping
students achieve agreed upon goals of education, and what roles should teachers and other
mentors play?
This chapter provides some background that will help us explore some possible roles of
games in improving our informal and formal educational systems.
Types of Games Considered in this Book
In this book, the word game is taken to include both electronic and non-electronic games and
puzzles. Many games are playable both in a computer mode and a non-computer mode. For
example, many solitaire card games and Poker games require only a standard 52-card deck.
Many of these can also be played on a handheld electronic game device, a game machine, or on a
computer. In this book, the term computer game is taken to include all electronic games, whether
they are played on inexpensive battery powered handheld devices, game machines, computers, or
computer networks such as the Web.
The 84-page document The use of computer and video games for learning (Mitchell and
Savill-Smith, 2004) is a British government-funded review of the computer game literature. The
following quote from this document helps to define the words play and game.
First, play: something one chooses to do as a source of pleasure, which is intensely and utterly absorbing
and promotes the formation of social groupings (Prensky 2001, page 112). Fun, in the sense of enjoyment
and pleasure, puts us in a relaxed receptive frame of mind for learning. Play, in addition to providing
pleasure, increases our involvement, which also helps us learn (Prensky 2001, page 117).
Second, a game: seen as a subset of both play and fun (Prensky 2001, page 118). A game is recognised as
organised play that gives us enjoyment and pleasure (Prensky 2001). Dempsey et al. (1996, page 2) define a
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
game as: a set of activities involving one or more players. It has goals, constraints, payoffs and
consequences. A game is rule-guided and artificial in some respects.
The Mitchell and Savill-Smith document draws upon the work of Prensky (2001). Four
chapters of that book can be accessed free on the Web.
The Mitchell and Savill-Smith survey of the literature is oriented toward learning and
educational values of games. This may help explain the mention of learning that appears in the
definition of play. As I think about this, I am reminded of a statement I have heard many times
that the job of young children is to play.
Here is another definition:
Garris et al. (2002) define game play as voluntary, nonproductive, and separate from the real world (p.459).
On the other hand, Jones (1999) points out that for some people, computer and video games are real and
sometimes, they are more engaging than reality. Computer games can be categorized as adventure games,
simulation games, competition games, cooperation games, programming games, puzzle games, and business
management games (Hogle, 1996, citing from Dempsey et al., 1993; Jacobs & Dempsey, 1993) . During the
past 40 years, computer games have been played from a floppy disk, CD-ROM, with the use of email, or
online through the Internet. Computer games can be played individually, against the computer, or against
other people face-to-face or on-line. (Asgari & Kaufman, n.d.). [Bold added for emphasis.]
Notice the bolded statement in the above definition. For many people, games are attention
grabbing and attention holding. They are intrinsically motivating, and they may be addictive.
This is an important idea to keep in mind as you explore possible roles of Games-in-Education. I
am interested in how games can be used to improve education. At the same time, I am fully
aware that games can damage a persons education and other aspects of their life. For example, it
is well known that gambling games have seriously damaged or destroyed many lives!
Here is another quite useful way to think about games (Costikyan1994):
Games provide a set of rules; but the players use them to create their own consequences. It's something like
the music of John Cage: he wrote themes about which the musicians were expected to improvise. Games are
like that; the designer provides the theme, the players the music.
A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources
through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.
My doctorate is in mathematics. Thus, it is not surprising that I pay particular attention to
games that have been developed to help teach mathematics. For the most part, the examples that
I have studied tend to have both poor attention-grabbing characteristics and poor entertainment
value. They do not compete with games that children chose to play for entertainment. However,
a later part of this book will explore some math games.
Goals of Education
Education has many goals, and each person tends to have their own ideas as to what
constitutes a good education. David Perkins' 1992 book Smart schools: Better thinking and
learning for every child, contains an excellent overview of education and a wide variety of
attempts to improve our educational system. He analyzes these attempted improvements in terms
of how well they have contributed to accomplishing three basic and enduring goals of education.
The following list of educational goals is an extension of his work.
1. Acquisition and retention of basic, important, knowledge and skills. There
is considerable agreement that reading, writing, arithmetic, speaking,
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
listening, and information retrieval are basic and important for all students.
Even then, however, there is disagreement about ways to achieve these
goals in a cost effective manner that has a very high probability of success.
There is less agreement on what students should learn in the fine and
performing arts, health, science, social science, physical education, and
other commonly taught disciplines.
2. Understanding of one's acquired knowledge and skills. Understanding
tends to be difficult to define and measure. However, there is
considerable agreement nowadays that education must proceed far
beyond rote memorization.
3. Active use of one's acquired knowledge and skills. This includes being
able to transfer ones learning to new settings, and being able to analyze and
solve novel problems. We expect our educational system to:
a. Provide challenging and rigorous programs of study designed to help
each student become a literate, responsible, creative adult citizen.
b. Help each student learn to learn, learn to take responsibility for their
own learning, understand his or her capabilities and limitations as a
learner, and to develop persistence and other lifelong habits of learning.
c. Help each student learn to help others learn. In this, it is helpful to think
of each student as a teacher. For example, students often help each other
and their siblings to learn, and parents spend a lot of time working with
their children in teacher mode.
d. Help each student learn to cope with technological, social, and other
forms of change that will be occurring during his or her lifetime.
This book explores a variety of games in terms of how they contribute to achieving the
types of goals listed above. You will note that these goals are quite generalthey do not speak
to students gaining knowledge and skill in specific disciplines. In that sense, these goals fit in
well with a student gaining in cognitive development and cognitive maturity.
However, learning in specific disciplines is an important aspect of getting a good education.
There is quite general agreement that students should gain a substantial level of expertise in
reading, writing, math, science, and social science. Many people support the idea that all students
should acquire knowledge and skill in using calculators and computers as a general aid to
problem solving. Even within these disciplines, however, there are considerable differences of
opinion as to what students should learn and how they should demonstrate their knowledge and
skills.
Games-in-Education as a Discipline of Study
The field of education can be divided into many different disciplines. Similarly, the field of
games and gaming can be divided into many different disciplines. This book explores some of
the overlap between education and games. As illustrated in Figure 2.1, the overlap can be
thought of as a discipline called Games-in-Education.
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
Less than a Level to meets ones own Relatively fluent, Professional level
useful level minimal needs and/or an broad-based & higher- knowledge and
of knowledge employers minimal needs. order knowledge and skills
and skill. skills.
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Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
Many years ago I earned a doctorate in mathematics, and began to write papers that were
accepted for publication in refereed journals and to work with doctoral students. I had probably
put in 12,000 hours achieving my PhD level of mathematical research expertise. I was good, but
by no means world class.
After completing my doctorate, I became interested in writing books to support my teaching
interests. I have authored or co-authored about 40 such books. I estimate that I have spent more
than 20,000 hours writingdeveloping, honing, and using my writing skills.
Chess players ranked in the top 10 in the world are likely have put in 15,000 to 30,000 hours
or more gaining their chess skills. In 2006, the average age of the top 10 players in the world was
about 30 years. People who play chess at this level usually put in well over 2,000 hours a year
developing, honing, and maintaining their chess skills.
Benjamin Bloom (probably best known for Blooms Taxonomy) was the editor of a 1985
book Developing Talent in Young People. The authors of this book studied 120 people in six
different disciplines who rose to world-class levels. The time they had spent in their specialty
areas varied somewhat with the specialty. The pianists who were identified and studied had a
mean age of about 23 when they achieved world-class stature. On average, they had been begun
taking piano lessons at age 6.
I find it interesting to compare these numbers with the amount of formal schooling that
students receive in K-12 education. K-12 education in the United States is about 14,000 hours in
length. Estimates are that only about 1/2 to 2/3 of this time is actually used productively.
However, we can add to the total the time that is productively spent on homework and informal
educational activities. Thus, we might conclude that the focused, productive time students spend
in K-12 education is about the amount of time it takes for a person to develop a high level of
expertise in a narrow discipline such as chess, gymnastics, math, piano, or swimming.
Blooms analysis of young people achieving at a world-class level provides many examples
of students doing well in school while putting in a thousand or more hours per year in their
specialty area. This requires careful scheduling of time and a high level of sticking to the task.
The single mindedness of purpose and high standards that these young people deal with tend to
be very helpful in later careers.
K-12 formal schooling time is divided among a substantial number of different discipline
areas that are taught in various schools around the country. Many of these disciplines have
national standards that have been developed by professional societies and other groups. See, for
example, the lists provided by the Mid-continent research for Education and Learning at
http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/.
The research data on how long it takes a person to achieve their potential in a discipline can
be compared with data on how much time our K-12 schools are able to devote to teaching
various discipline areas. Suppose, for example, that a school system places a very strong
emphasis on reading and writing, with two hours per school day just in this area. This means that
a student would get about 4,600 hours of formal schooling in this area during K-12 education.
Suppose, at the same time, the school system devotes an hour a day to math. This amount to
about 2,300 hours in total.
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This sort of analysis suggests why college education is so helpful. It also suggests why
schools tend to focus so much attention on the core basics, and downplay or eliminate the
frills. I hear many people say:
How could we possible let a student who is struggling in math and reading spend any significant amount
of school time on art, music, sports, or games? At the current time, many people are saying, If it isnt on
the state or national tests, then we should not be wasting school time on it. We need to spend all of our
school time getting students to meet the state and national standards. We need to do a lot better in
international competitions in the areas of these standards.
Indeed, there are continuing demands to increase the length of the school day and the length of
the school year.
Two of the things missing from the above (in my opinion, quite short sighted) point of view
are each individual students intrinsic motivation, and striving to meet individual needs and
interests of individual students. Intrinsic motivation and striving to meet the individual needs of
different students are two of the most important ideas in education. The basics are important.
However, there are many other important educational goals that are not on the state and national
tests. A few examples include:
1. Learning to learn and to help others learn; learning about ones strengths and
weaknesses as a learner.
2. Learning to work both individually and collaboratively with a team on
a large, long, challenging project.
3. Learning for transfer of learning.
4. Learning to improve ones creativity.
5. Learning that helps increase ones level of cognitive development and
cognitive maturity.
6. Learning to make effective use of new aids to solving problems and
accomplishing tasks, such as computer modeling and other aspects
of Information and Communication Technology.
7. Learning to make use of all of the above in doing thingsdeveloping
products; doing performances and presentations; solving challenging,
complex problems; and accomplishing challenging, complex tasks.
There are many ways to approach these important educational goals. This book presents
ways in which Games-in Education can help.
Competition, Independence, Cooperation
Each game can be analyzed from a point of view of its:
Cooperation/collaboration .
Independence (not cooperative, not competitive) ,
Competition leading to the determination of winners and losers.
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Of course, a game may have components falling into each of the categories. Sometimes, it is
not easy to decide which categorization best describes a particular game.
Lets use a crossword puzzle from the morning newspaper as an example. Suppose I work
alone (independently) doing a crossword puzzle. I am not competing head-to-head with
anybody, and I am not cooperating with anybody.
Later in the day, I might talk to a friend who also does the crossword puzzle from the same
morning newspaper. We might talk about how hard or easy the puzzle seemed to be. We might
talk about how long it took us to complete the puzzle, or how many clues we were unable to
decipher. We might even discuss a particular clue, in a cooperative effort to figure it out.
Thus, we see how the independence of puzzle solving can be modified to being
somewhat competitive and/or somewhat cooperative. Moreover, a social interaction
dimension can be added to the overall activity. Often such social interaction can be
considered as being cooperative/collaborative in nature.
Some games have a strong social interaction characteristic. This can be seen in many board
and card games that children play. Many people play Bridge or Poker mainly for the social
interaction. However, Bridge and Poker can also be played as highly competitive games. Thus,
one might analyze a social Bridge-playing or Poker-playing event both in terms of its
cooperation (for social purposes) and its competition (who wins; who loses).
The idea of independence is worthy of further exploration. Suppose I am a recreational
bowler. I bowl alone, but I keep a careful record of my scores. Thus, I can tell if I am doing
better, about the same as, or worse than I have in the past. This can be thought of as me
competing with myself. However, in my opinion that is a poor use of the idea of competition.
Competition is a win-lose situation.
This is a very important idea in education. Suppose education is considered as a type of game
that is designed for independence, rather than for competition or cooperation. As a learner, my
goals might be to learn, to get better at learning, to learn to use my learning, to better myself, and
so on. I take satisfaction in the process of learning, in having learned, and in using what I have
learned.
However, it is very helpful to have measures (for my own personal use) of how well I am
doing. Am I a better reader than I was last month? Do I understand quadratic equations better
than I did a week ago? Can I sight read music and play it on a piano better than I could two years
ago?
Moreover, keep in mind that each person is different, and that there are quite large
differences in abilities, interests, drive, and so on. I may well want to have some information
about what others are doing and able to do, but my focus in upon myself as a learner. In some
sense, I want to be all I can be.
As an example, consider learning to keyboard for input to a computer. Personally, I can
keyboard much faster than I can handwrite or print, and my keyboarded materials are far more
legible than my handwriting or printing. Moreover, keyboarding in a word processing
environment is a great aid to my writing, as the spell checker and grammar checker find many of
my errors, and the word processor aids my in my revision efforts. From time to time, I feel a
certain amount of envy of people who can keyboard faster and more accurately than me, or who
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are better at spelling. In essence, however, keyboarding for me is neither competitive nor
cooperative. My (independent) expertise in keyboarding is at a sufficient level to be a great aid to
achieving my writing goals.
Contrast independence this with a competitive model of education. The competition can be
with other students, or it can be with norms that have been established for various state and
national tests. The learners goal becomes one of winning.
I got the top score in our class on this test!
I am the best speller in my school!
I am the fastest keyboarder at my grade level in our school!
Another type of competition is scoring high enough to meet some specified requirements.
I have passed both the reading and math tests required for graduation!
I scored high enough on my SATs to get into an Ivy League school!
Still another way to look at competition-independence-cooperation is to consider competition
versus cooperation. Competitiveness is a genetic characteristic, and all people are competitive.
However, people vary considerably in the nature of their competitiveness, and competitiveness is
strongly influenced by ones home environment, community environment, and culture.
Moreover, research suggests that males (on average) are more competitive than females. Put
another way, the research suggest that on average, females are more cooperative/collaborative
than males.
Knowing this, how should we design our educational systems? Research in education
supports the cooperative/collaborative approach over the competitive approach. This research
indicates that designing schooling along cooperative/collaborative approaches is more effective
than designing them along competitive lines. See the three quotes given below:
It takes Kohn an entire book to summarize the massive data indicating that competition in our society is
harmful. Yet, our culture proclaims (without adequate supporting data) just the opposite, that competition is
efficient, healthy, and fun. Actually, hard research data documents that people achieve more if they work
cooperatively with others (than if they work competitively). We are so brainwashed, we find that hard to
believe. (Think of it this way: trying to do your best is very different from trying to beat everyone else.) On
the other hand, we can readily accept that a competitive job, school, or social situation, where someone wins
by making others fail, causes dreadful stress, resentment of the winner, contempt for the losers, low self-
esteem, and major barriers to warm, caring, supportive relationships. What is the solution? Kohn
recommends replacing competition with cooperation, i.e. working together, assuming responsibility for
helping each other do our best, and uncritically valuing each other's contributions. We need lots of research to
help us to know when and how to reduce our competitiveness. To change our goals in life from competition
to cooperation, we need new values and a new philosophy of life (see chapter 3). Competition implies a
hierarchy; cooperation implies equality. (Tucker-Ladd, 2000)
Gorriz and Medina (2000) also examined children using computer games, finding that girls prefer
collaboration, non-closure and exploration, and games that require both thought and puzzle-solving
skills while boys prefer competition. (C.O.P.E.,n.d.)
Despite a recent surge of popular journalistic books (e.g., Fillion, 1997; Simmons, 2002; Tanenbaum, 2002),
academic interest in competition among women was almost nonexistent until the 1980s. Initial research
(Gilligan, 1982; Goodwin, 1980; Lever, 1976) found that girls tended to avoid competition in favour of
tactics that diffuse conflict and preserve interpersonal harmony. When competition is made inevitable, girls
used apologies and excuses to mitigate their behaviour (Hughes, 1988) or "double voicing" to promote their
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own cases while simultaneously taking into account the positions of their rivals, thereby preserving their
relationships (Sheldon, 1992). This attenuation of competition in favour of sustaining positive relationships
is thought to reflect socialisation into cultural norms against the overt expression of conflict among females
(Miner & Longino, 1987; Tracy, 1991) and the greater centrality of intimate friendships to girls than to boys
(Brown, 1998). (Campbell, 2004)
Here is a brief summary of this section:
1. With a little effort, a person can find games that meet his or her interests in
or orientation toward competition, independence, and cooperation. There are
lots of games in each category, and many games have overlapping
characteristics.
2. If we think about our overall educational system as a game, we can see
competitive, independence, and collaborative aspects of this game. In
many cases, we can see a mismatch between the characteristics that an
individual student desires and the characteristics that our educational
system forces on the student.
3. The field of Games-in-Education can contribute to creating a school
environment that better fits the individual competition-
independence-collaboration needs of students.
Learning to Learn
While some people learn faster and better than others, we are all quite good at learning. We
are all lifelong learners.
There has been quite a bit of research on how to help students learn faster and better.
Somewhat surprising to me is that this is an area in which our educational system has not done a
good job of translating theory into practice. You might test this out on yourself. Can you name
any research that educators have done in the past two decades that specifically focuses on how to
help students learn faster and better? Can you point to specific school wide and school district
wide curriculum designed to help students learn to make use of these research results?
For example, metacognition and other reflective practices are very important in learning.
Research indicates that even preschool age children can learn to do metacognition and can learn
to reflect on their problem-solving and other activities. Are such metacognitive and reflective
practices a routine part of the teaching/learning in schools that are familiar to you?
As another example, consider the fact that the Web is now the worlds largest library, and
that most students have access to the Web. Just because one has access to the Web does not
mean that one has gained the knowledge and skills to make effective use of this global library as
an aid to solving problems and accomplishing tasks. Moreover, this library is quite different than
a static, print material based library. It is dynamic, with a significant portion of its content
changing over the course of a day. This library is interactive, and a significant part of its content
is in the form of I, the computer, can do it for you. A search engine, for example, does a
tremendous amount of work for the person making a search. The Web provides access to many
computer programs that are designed to solve certain categories of problems. Relatively few
students are learning to learn and solve problems in this environment.
As a third example, consider computer-assisted learning and distance learning via the
Internet. While these modes of teaching and learning are growing in importance, few students are
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receiving explicit instruction on how best to make use of these aids to learning. Individual
students are not learning whether or how well such teaching/learning environments fit their
individual needs.
For a final example, consider the idea of self-assessment and of becoming an independent,
self-sufficient learner who takes responsibility for his or her own learning. If anything, our
current educational system seems to be moving away from this idea. Certainly, our schools could
be doing a much better job of empowering students.
Situated Learning and Transfer of Learning
Situated learn and transfer of learning are two important components of the discipline called
learning theory (OTEC, n.d.).
Situated Learning
Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) is a seminal article on situated learning. Quoting from
the introduction to this paper:
The breach between learning and use, which is captured by the folk categories "know what" and "know how,"
may well be a product of the structure and practices of our education system. Many methods of didactic
education assume a separation between knowing and doing, treating knowledge as an integral, self-sufficient
substance, theoretically independent of the situations in which it is learned and used. The primary concern of
schools often seems to be the transfer of this substance, which comprises abstract, decontextualized formal
concepts. The activity and context in which learning takes place are thus regarded as merely ancillary to
learning pedagogically useful, of course, but fundamentally distinct and even neutral with respect to what is
learned.
Recent investigations of learning, however, challenge this separating of what is learned from how it is
learned and used. The activity in which knowledge is developed and deployed, it is now argued, is not
separable from or ancillary to learning and cognition. Nor is it neutral. Rather, it is an integral part of
what is learned. Situations might be said to co-produce knowledge through activity. Learning and
cognition, it is now possible to argue, are fundamentally situated. [Bold added for emphasis.]
Situated learning is a learning theory focusing on the situation or environment in which a
particular learning activity occurs. For example, suppose that you are walking down a jungle
path and you hear a particular sound that your brain/mind does not immediately recognize. You
freeze, carefully look around, and see a large snake.
Your brain/mind recalls that a friend of yours was seriously injured several weeks ago by a
snake, and the description the friend gave seems to fit this snake. You immediately learn that the
sound you have heard in this jungle trail environment is associated with a dangerous snake.
Likely, this learning will last a lifetime. Moreover, the learning occurs very quicklythis is apt
to be an example of one-trial learning.
Contrast this with being a student sitting in a classroom that is in a large school located near
your home. You live in a large city, and there are few or no dangerous snakes within miles of
your home. You are viewing a video discussing dangerous snakes. You see and hear video of
approximately the same scene as the jungle walker. However, the room you are in is hot and
stuffy, you have just had lunch and you are sleepy, and the audio is turned up too high for your
ears. What do you learn, and how long does this learning stay with you?
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One of the reasons why a game can be a good learning environment is that the game player is
immersed in the environment (the situation) of the game. The attention grabbing and attention
holding characteristics tend to shut out distractions.
Low-Road/High-Road Transfer of Learning
The low-road/high-road theory of learning has proven quite useful in designing curriculum
and instruction (Perkins and Solomon, 1992). In low-road transfer, one learns something to
automaticity, somewhat in a stimulus/response manner. When a particular stimulus (a particular
situation) is presented, the prior learning is evoked and used. The human brain is very good at
this type of learning.
Low-road transfer is associated with a particular narrow situation, environment, or pattern.
The human brain functions by recognizing patterns and then acting upon these patterns.
Consider the situation of students learning the single digit multiplication facts. This might be
done via work sheets, flash cards, computer drill and practice, a game or competition, and so on.
For most students, one-trial learning does not occur. Rather, a lot of drill and practice over an
extended period, along with subsequent frequent use of the memorized facts, is necessary.
Moreover, many students find that they have difficulty transferring their arithmetic fact
knowledge and skills from the learning environment to the using environment. One of
the difficulties is recognizing when to make use of the memorized number facts. In school,
the computational tasks are clearly stated; outside of school, this is often not the case.
This helps to explain why rote memory is useful in problem solving, but critical thinking and
understanding are essential in dealing with novel and challenging problems. It also supports the need
for broad-based practice even in low-road transfer. We want students to recognize a wide range of
situations in which some particular low-road transfer knowledge and skills is applicable.
Math education in schools tries to achieve an appropriate balance between rote memory and
critical thinking by making extensive use of word problems or story problems. In word problems,
the computations to be performed are hidden within a written description of a particular
situation. The hope is that if a student gets better at reading and deciphering word problems
extracting the computations to be performed and the meaning of the resultsthat this will
transfer to non school problem-solving situations.
It turns out that it is quite difficult to learn to read well within the discipline of mathematics.
Many students have major difficulties with word problems and with learning math by reading
math textbooks. Their depth of understand of math and their ability to read math for
understanding stand in the way of their being able to deal with novel, challenging math problems
that they encounter.
High- road transfer for improving problem solving is based on learning some general- purpose
strategies and how to apply these strategies in a reflective manner. The build on previous work
strategy is an excellent candidate to use to begin (or, expand) your repertoire of high-road
transferable problem-solving strategies. To do this, think of a number of personal examples in which
you have used this strategy as an aid to problem solving. Mentally practice what you did in each
case. In the near future, each time you make use of this strategy, consciously think about its name
and the fact that you are using it. Also, in the future when you encounter a challenging problem,
consciously think through your repertoire of high-road transferable problem-solving
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strategies. Your goal is to increase your ability to draw upon this repertoire of aids to use when
faced by a challenging problem.
The break it into smaller pieces strategy is another example of a high-road transferable
strategy. This strategy is often called the divide and conquer strategy, and that is the name that
will be used in the remainder of this book. It is helpful to have short, catchy names for
strategies. A large and complex problem can often be broken into a number of smaller, more
tractable problems. It is likely that many of your students do not have a name for the strategy
and do not automatically contemplate its use when stumped by a challenging problem.
Here is a summary of some key ideas in problem solving. Suppose you are faced by a
problem. Then your approach might be:
1. If the problem fits a memorized pattern in which you can apply
stimulus/response, low-road transfer, your mind/body may react
automatically and the problem may be quickly solved.
2. If (1) is not successful, think about the domain or general discipline of the
problem and whether you have encountered the problem or a quite similar
problem in the past. If you have specific knowledge and skills relevant to
the problem or problem areas, draw upon this contextual, situational
knowledge and skill in a conscious and considered manner to attempt to
solve the problem.
3. If (2) is not successful, draw upon your general knowledge and skills in
how to attach a new, challenging problem. Here, a large repertoire of high-
road transferable problem-solving strategies is helpful.
Figure 1.3 illustrates these three approaches and provides an indication of how fast each
may be in a particular situation.
faster slower
response response
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In our exploration of strategies, we will emphasis teaching and learning for high-road transfer
within the games domain and to other domains. Here is a strategy for such teaching and learning:
1. Identify the generalizable strategy that is being illustrated and used in
a particular problem-solving situation.
2. Give the strategy a name that is both descriptive and easily remembered.
3. Working with your students, identify a number of different examples in other
disciplines and situations in which this named strategy is applicable.
4. Have students practice using the strategy in a variety of areas in which it
is useful, and where students have appropriate general and domain-
specific knowledge.
5. In your everyday teaching, you will frequently encounter situations in which
a particular problem-solving strategy is applicable, and you have previously
helped your students gain some initial expertise in using the strategy. Take
advantage of such situations by clearly naming the strategy (or, asking your
students to name the strategy) and working with your students to refresh their
memories on use of the strategy in a variety of situations.
Learning in a Game Environment
Think about your roles as a parent, teacher, or other adult figure facilitating a child learning
to play a game and then playing the game. What might you do to increase the childs cognitive,
social, emotional, and kinesthetic growth in a manner that will transfer to other games and to
non-game environments? As you think about this, you will realize that Games-in-Education is a
very challenging discipline!
You know that for a child, learning to play a game and them playing the game are closely
interconnected. Indeed, much of the learning occurs during the playing. This is a good example
of a learn-by-doing, hands on learning environment. The learning is in context (situated
learning). The learning is immediately useful, contributing to being able to play the game and/or
to play the game better.
This is sort of an immediate gratification situation. Contrast it with the delayed gratification
that is common in most formal schooling. Many students are not impressed by statements such
as: You need to learn this so that you can use it in your course next year or Your need to learn
this because it will be on the test next week.
Teachers understand the gratification issue. They recognize the value of having students
immersed in a combination of learning and doing. This ties in closely with discovery-based
learning. Thus, many teachers try to create learning environments in which students make
immediate use of their new learning. However, this is a challenging educational problem, and
often teachers do not succeed very well in meeting this challenge.
For example, suppose that students are learning how to solve a particular type of math
problem. Their use of this new knowledge and skill consists of doing a whole bunch of this type
of problem. Contrast this with a student learning a new type of chess opening (that is, sequence
of opening moves) and then immediately using it in a chess game against an appropriate
opponent. The new opening is used in the context of playing the overall game, and it adds to the
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fun of playing the game. It becomes part of the chess players repertoire of openings. The chess
literature contains detailed analyses of thousands of different chess openings. A good chess
player is apt to have memorized a large number of opening sequences.
Think for a minute about the opening move in competitive game such as chess or checkers,
and the opening sentence in a piece of writing. There are many different types of writing
situations. While rote memorization of a range of first sentences might be helpful, a much better
approach is to understand the various types of writing situations and what one is trying to
accomplish in an opening sentence in these different situations. Thus, you can see that the
writing challenge is much more complex than the opening move challenge.
Moreover, if you teach writing, you may see that we have raised an interesting topic you can
discuss with your students. Rote memorization is quite useful in improving ones skill as a chess
player. How useful is it in improving ones skill as a writer? When playing a game such as chess, one
gets relatively quick feedback on how well one is doing. Contrast this with the feedback situation in
writing. This line of thinking suggests to me that it is very important for writers to learn to provide
immediate feedback to themselves. As a writer, I also know that delayed feedback from others is also
essential to improving the quality of a document that I have written.
Precise Vocabulary and Notation
Figure 1.4 shows a chessboard. Notice that the columns (the files) of the 8 x 8 board are
lettered a, b, h, and the rows (the ranks) are numbered 1, 2, 8. In chess, the person playing
the White pieces always moves first. The lettering and numbering notation used to identify the
spaces on the board is convenient and natural from the point of view of the person playing the
White pieces.
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game. The listing indicates that Whites Bishop captures Blacks Knight on Whites fourth
move.
1. Pe4 Pe5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 Pa6
4. BxN
This, and other notational systems that are widely used in chess, allow players to precisely
record the moves in a game (Calvin, n.d.). Such a written record can be used in writing about,
talking about, and studying a game.
Keeping a detailed record of ones chess games and studying both ones own and other
peoples games is a strategy used to improve ones level of expertise in chess. Is this type of
strategy applicable to other games? Is it applicable to non-game learning and problem-solving
situations? Of course it is. So, lets give this strategy the name. Lets call it the record ones
moves strategy. This is what a researcher does when conducting research in any field. Details of
the research need to be precisely recorded so that the researcher and/or others can duplicate the
experiment. Thus, it should be part of the repertoire of high-road transferable problem-solving
strategies that you and your students routinely draw upon.
The record ones moves strategy helps to explain why each discipline tends to have some
special notation and definitions of terms that are unique to the discipline. It is absolutely essential
that people working in a discipline be able to accurately record the work they are doing so that it
can be precisely communicated to others and to themselves. A novice in a discipline needs to
learn the precise notation and vocabulary in order to take advantage of the accumulated
knowledge in the discipline. That is, part of learning a discipline is to learn to read (for
understanding) in the content area of the discipline.
Although our educational system places considerable emphasis on students learning to read
in the content areas, this is such a challenge to readers that our schools do not experience a high
level of success in the endeavor. Part of the process of learning to read in the content areas is to
develop an understanding of what it means to read for understanding, and to be able to self-
assess ones understanding. My analysis of research on reading in the content areas suggests that
if a person gets good at reading in one content area, there can be substantial transfer of the
reading in a content area skill to reading and learning to read in another content area.
A Few Important Research Findings
A Google search conducted 6/6/06 on
games OR gaming AND research AND education
produced about 167 million hits. Obviously, this search needs to be substantially narrowed!
However, it suggests that many people are involved in conducting or writing about Games-in-
Education.
Some parents and teachers feel that substantial and useful learning from games will occur
merely through providing a child the opportunity to play games. However, Conati and Klawe
(2000) indicate this is not sufficient:
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These results indicate that, although educational computer games can highly engage students in
activities involving the targeted educational skills, such engagement, by itself, is often not enough
to fulfill the learning and instructional needs of students. This could be due to several reasons.
One reason could be that even the most carefully designed game fails to make students reflect on the
underlying domain knowledge and constructively react to the learning stimuli provided by the game.
Insightful learning requires meta-cognitive skills that foster conscious reflection upon one's problem
solving and performance [2, 4, 24], but reflective cognition is hard work. [Bold added for emphasis.]
The Conati and Klawe research helps to make clear important roles of teachers when teaching in
a computer game environment. See also Kirschner et al. (2006). With the aid of teachers,
students can learn to be more reflective in such learning environments, and learning goals can be
made more explicit. Students can be taught to do metacognition (thinking abut their thinking)
and to use this reflective practice as an aid to their cognitive development.
Finally, to end this section, here is some quoted material about research on multiplayer, first
person shooter (FPS) games. It is representative of some of the research on social aspects of
multiplayer games.
We argue that the playing of FPS multiplayer games by participants can both reproduce and challenge
everyday rules of social interaction while also generating interesting and creative innovations in verbal
dialogue and non-verbal expressions. When you play a multiplayer FPS video game, like Counter-Strike, you
enter a complex social world, a subculture, bringing together all of the problems and possibilities of power
relationships dominant in the non-virtual world. (Wright et al, 2002)
Final Remarks
Games have long been an important component of the lives of many children and adults. The
advent of computer games means that on average, people spend much more time playing games
now than in the past. In recent years, children in the United States have been spending more time
playing electronic games than they have been spending watching television. It is generally
believed that the combination of television and electronic games is having a negative impact on
education because they compete for student attention and time. However, both television and
games have educational values, so research in this area is not definitive.
The discipline of Games-in-Education is of growing importance in both informal and formal
education. The research literature on the design and use of educational gamesespecially
electronic gamesis growing. We know that people learn from whatever situation or
environment they experience. By combining ideas from situated learning theory and transfer of
learning, we can learn how to make better educational use of games.
Activities for the Reader
This section contains some questions and activities for the person reading this book. Some
are designed for people who are taking a workshop or course using materials from this book. The
individual reader working alone may also find many of the questions and activities to be useful.
1. Think back to your own game playing experiences. Make a list of some
of the things that you learned through this game playing.
2. Give some examples of games that you have played that you considered
fun. Use these examples to explain what, for you, what makes a game fun.
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3. Are there any games that you have played in both computer and non-
computer mode? If so, select one and do a compare and contrast of
the playing experience and learning experience.
4. Spend some time observing children playing some games. Write a brief
report about what you observe going on. The report should include
some conjectures about the learning that you think is occurring.
5. This chapter contains a discussion of opening moves in chess versus
opening sentences in writing. This discussion illustrates a type of transfer of
learning from game playing to writing. Find and discuss another example of
transfer of learning from games to a core academic subject.
Activities for use with Students
This section contains some ideas for use with students. It is assumed that the teacher, parent,
or other person making use of these suggestions will adjust the activities to fit the needs of the
students.
1. What are some games that are fun to play? Engage an individual student or
a group of students in a brainstorming activity designed to make a long list
of games that they have played and enjoyed. As the list is being created,
divide its items into three categories:
a. Board games, card games, and other types of non-electronic games that
are not organized sports.
b. Electronic games.
c. Organized sports.
Use this activity to promote a discussion about whether a game can fit into more
than one category, what is a game, is a puzzle a game, what makes a game fun, can a
game be fun for one person and not for another, and so on.
2. Engage students in a discussion about what they have learned by playing a
particular game that they have found useful in playing some other game or
that they have found useful in a non-gaming situation. This might begin with
an oral discussion and then lead to a written activity in which each student
answers the question. During the oral discussion, introduce the terms
transfer of leaning and metacognition, and help the students add these
important concepts to their vocabulary. Transfer of learning is one of the
most important ideas in education, and metacognition (including reflection)
is a key aspect of learning.
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Chapter 3
Sudoku: A Puzzle
In this book, we consider a puzzle to be a type of game. A puzzle is problem designed to
challenge ones brain and to be entertaining. Many people spend part of almost every day
working on crossword puzzles, Bridge or chess puzzles, number or word puzzles, and the other
types of puzzles printed in daily newspapers and in a variety of magazines. They enjoy the
challenge and the feelings of success as they solve the problem or accomplish the task
presented by the puzzle. You can learn about a number of different puzzles at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle.
Note to Teachers: My belief is that every person is a teacher. Some do it as a profession, while others do it merely
as an everyday part of their lives. I am a teacher who writes books. One of my teaching strategies is to try to get
the reader to take an active part in their own learning. The previous paragraph provides an example of this. Why
should I spend my writing time and effort trying to duplicate the good work that someone has already done and
made available free in the Wikipedia? (Perhaps you are not familiar with the Wikipedia. It is a free encyclopedia
where all of the entries have been contributed for free use, and readers can edit the entries.) Moreover, suppose you
click on the link and begin to read about puzzles. There is a good chance you will find some information that
seems particularly interesting to you, and you will follow up on it. Your learning will be driven by intrinsic
motivation. You will be learning because you want to learn. Great!
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Why am I spending so much time playing with the puzzle, when I could be doing other,
more productive, work. Puzzles, like other types of games, can be addictive. Am I addicted?
Introduction to Sudoku
In the remainder of this chapter, the Sudoku puzzle is used to illustrate various aspects of
learning to solve a puzzle and increasing ones level of expertise in solving a puzzle. Figure 3.1
illustrates the playing board. The coordinate system is similar to that used in chess. It helps us to
communicate precisely about the location of each of the 81 spaces on the board. Notice that the
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The rules or goal of this puzzle are very simple. Solving the puzzle does not depend on
having knowledge of math or any other subject. Indeed, the puzzle might just as well make use
of nine different letters from the alphabet or nine different geometric shapes. Sudoku is not a
math or a word puzzle.
A 4x4 Example and a High-Road Transferable Strategy
In this chapter, we will explore the 9x9 Sudoku puzzle. However, there are 4x4, 16x16, and
other variations on this puzzle.
Just for fun, try solving the two 4x4 Sudoku puzzles given in Figure 3.3. These two puzzles
are the same, except that one uses digits and one uses letters. Notice that it is assumed that you
can make up a correct goal (an appropriate set of rules) for these puzzles. That is, without any
help from your author, you can transfer the rules of this game from a 9x9 board to a 4x4 board.
Figure 3.3. Two identical 4x4 Sudoku puzzles, one using digits, one using letters.
The chances are that you will decide that the 4x4 Sudoku puzzle is too simple to be much of
a challenge for you. However, it might well be a challenge for young children.
In addition, it illustrates a very important aspect in problem solving. If a particular problem
seems too difficult for you, try to create a simpler version of the problem or create a closely
related problem that is not as difficult. The process of creating and solving a simpler version or a
related problem may well give you insights that will help you to solve the more complex
problem.
Throughout this chapter we will be looking for general strategies for problem solving that are
applicable over a wide range of problems. The goal is to have you add each of these to your
repertoire of high-road transferable problem- solving strategies. By the time you finish reading
this chapter, you may well have significantly improved your general problem-solving skills.
Moreover, you may well have developed some teaching strategies that will be very valuable to
your students.
Lets name our newly discovered strategy the create a simpler problem strategy. The strategy
has several purposes. It may help you to better understand the original problem. Solving the
simpler problem may help you gain insights that will help you solve the more complex problem.
If your simpler problem is carefully chosen, solving it will contribute to solving your original
problem.
To add create a simpler problem to your repertoire of high-road transfer strategies, you must
identify and consciously explore a number of examples that are meaningful to you. High-road
transfer involves identifying a number of examples that are meaningful to you.
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This requires reflective thinking. Here is a personal example. When I write a booksuch as
this oneI am not able to just sit down and write the whole book in a linear fashion. Indeed, I
cannot even produce an outline that stands a decent chance of actually fitting the final product.
To get started, I set myself a much simpler problem. I use a word processor to record my ideas as
I brainstorm possible goals, audience, and content for the book.
I then set myself the problem of ordering my brainstormed set of ideas into a somewhat
logical, coherent order. During this process, I throw out some ideas and add some new ideas.
I then set myself another simple problemto develop a short summary and a set of
references for some of the topics that seem particularly important. I can solve this problem off
the top of my head and by use of the Web. In the process of solving it, I get some new ideas to
add to my original brainstormed list. I may well rearrange the order of the brainstormed list, and
I may well through out some of the items in the list.
Okay, now its up to you. As you explore your own examples, think carefully about how you
will help your students to learn this strategy. Make up some examples of the sorts that may be
particularly relevant to them. Think about how you will help them to find personal examples.
Think about how the sharing of such personal examples in class may help all members of the
class find additional personal examples.
Metacognition
The next two sections are diversions, seemingly leading us away from solving the 9 x 9
Sudoku puzzle of Figure 3.2. However, we will return to this puzzle after the diversions.
A puzzle provides a situated learning environment. While some puzzles require considerable
knowledge from outside the puzzle environment, others require very little outside knowledge. The
Sudoku puzzle requires the player to be able to recognize and distinguish between each of nine
different symbols. However, it does not depend on being able to read or to do math.
Even before we begin studying the Sudoku puzzle in some detail, you can do some
introspection or metacognition (thinking about your thinking) as you are first faced by this
problem-solving puzzle situation. Here are some questions that might help you learn more about
yourself:
1. What are your personal feelings and thoughts as you first encounter a puzzle
especially, a puzzle of a type that you have not previously attempted to
solve?
2. For you, personally, do you think digits, letters, or geometric shapes would
be easiest for you in a Sudoku puzzle? Why?
3. Think about some non-Sudoku puzzle that you have solved or attempted to
solve in the past. Was this an enjoyable experience? Did you develop a
reasonable level of expertise with this puzzle? How much time and effort did
it take you to develop your current level of expertise with this puzzle? Do
you feel you are close to your upper limit in how good you can get in
solving this type of puzzle?
The metacognitive questions given above are all stated in the context or situation of learning
to solve a type of puzzle. However, they are applicable to learning how to solve problems in any
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discipline. That is, the questions represent a set of ideas that are applicable as one studies
problem solving in any new discipline.
This is a very important idea. For many people, recreational puzzles represent a relatively
non-threatening learning environment. Within this environment, you can learn about yourself as
a learner. You can see yourself making learning gains, moving from an absolute novice to a
person with an appreciable level of skill. In many puzzle-solving situations, you can see
appreciable gains in expertise over a relatively short time.
Metacognition is an important aid to learning to solve problems in any discipline. It can be
called the metacognition strategy for learning to solve problems. Think about the idea of high-
road transfer of metacognition to the study of other types of problems. What is unique about
puzzle problems that does not readily transfer to other types of problems? What is there about
puzzle problems that transfers to other types of problems?
As you struggle with proving answers to these types of questions, think about your students
being faced by the same issues and struggles. What can you do, as a teacher, to help your
students learn to routinely use the metacognition strategy?
Is the Puzzle Problem Solvable?
Suppose you are now thinking about how to get started in solving the puzzle in Figure 3.2.
Perhaps you spend some time looking at the puzzle, checking to see if the givens in any region,
row, or column already violate the solution requirement that each row, column, and region must
contain the digits 1 to 9. If the givens in a row, column, or region already contains two copies of
a digit, then these givens cannot be part of a solution to the puzzle. That is, the puzzle that has
these givens has no solution.
This is an important observation (a Big Idea!). For many people, the term problem means a
math problem that has exactly one solution. However, a problem may have no solution, one
solution, or more than one solution. Moreover, every academic discipline contains problems.
Solvability is an important issue in problem solving, and it is usually poorly taught in our
precollege educational system. To help illustrate this, it may well be that you believe that every
math problem has exactly one solution. Your goal, when faced by a math problem, is to get the
right answer.
Think about each of the following simple math problem examples:
1. Find a positive integer that, when multiplied by itself, gives the integer
16. This problem has exactly one solution.
2. Here is a slight modification of the problem. Find an integer that, when
multiplied by itself, gives the integer 16. This problem has exactly two
solutions
3. Next, consider the similar problem: Find an integer that, when multiplied
by itself, gives the integer 15. This problem does not have a solution.
4. Here is a slight change in the unsolvable problem. Find a number that, when
multiplied by itself, gives the integer 15. This problem has two solutions,
and they are both irrational numbers.
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9 5 3 7 9 5 3 7
8 8
6 1 9 5 6 1 1 9 5
7 9 8 6 7 9 8 6
6 6
8 6 3 8 6 3
5 5
4 8 3 1 4 8 3 1
4 4
7 2 6 7 2 6
3 3
6 2 8 6 2 8
2 2
4 1 9 5 4 1 9 5
1 1
8 7 9 8 7 9
a b c d e f g h I a b c d e f g h I
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much easier to say, I cant do it. than it is to persist, continue to learn, and continue to make
incremental progress.
Persistence and self-confidence are two important characteristics of good problem solvers.
Think about your own levels of persistence and self-confidence as a learner and as a problem
solver. What might you do to improve your levels of these two characteristics? What might you do
as a teacher to help your students increase their levels of persistence and self-confidence?
Games provide one possible piece of an answer to the question. As a teacher, parent, older
sibling, and so on, you can use games to create challenging learning and problem-solving
environments in which a learner gets an opportunity to gain in persistence and in self-confidence.
With proper help from you, the learner can transfer these gains in persistence and self-confidence
to other learning and problem-solving situations.
The Elimination Strategy
I will not give up! I am ready to select another region to explore in the Sudoku puzzle shown
in Figure 3.2. As I explore the board, this time my eye catches on Region 5, and the empty space
in the exact center of the board. The combination of Region 5, Row 5, and Column E has a lot of
givens. Indeed, mentally or with the aid of pencil and paper I quickly discover that each of the
digits 1-9 except the digit 5 is in the set of givens for the combination of Region 5, Row 5, and
Column E. Thus, e5 has to be a 5. My first success! See Figure 3.7.
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books in my personal library that I have read. I also quickly eliminate all of the books and
journals in the physical library on my campus, since I am at home and I want a quick solution to
my problem.
This line of elimination and thinking leads me to doing a Google search on the Web.
Unfortunately, my search produces about a million hits. That is, Google tells me that it may have
found as many as a million sources of the information that I seek.
I definitely need to do some more elimination. I can narrow my searchfor example, I can
increase the number of terms in my search strategy. However, I thought carefully in developing
my original search terms, and so it is not easy to narrow the search.
An alternative approach, one that I most often use, is to explore the brief descriptions of the
first half dozen hits. This uses a guess and check strategy. If one catches my eye as possibly
being relevant (a good guess), I go to the Website and browse it.
If this Website does not meet my needs, I will browse a couple more of the top numbered
hits. In this guess and check process, I will be gaining information that will help me to narrow or
reformulate my search. If none of the hits I browse meet my needs, I may decide to eliminate all
million of the hits found by Google, and formulate a new search.
Finally, lets go back to our Sudoku puzzle. Notice that there are now only two blank spaces
in Column E. Using the elimination strategy, you see that these must contain the digits 3 and 4.
By a mental guess and check you easily arrive at Figure 3.8
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Using a discover-based approach, we discovered some very important things that apply to
problem solving in all disciplines. These include some high-road transferable general problem-
solving strategies:
Create a simpler problem
Explore solvability
Guess and check (also named look before you leap)
Elimination
Researchers have found that the typical student has a quite small repertoire of general-
purpose strategies that may be applicable when faced by a new, novel problem. In just a few
minutes, we discovered four such strategies while exploring the Sudoku puzzle. Through
appropriate teaching, students can add these to their repertoire of high-road transfer problem-
solving strategies.
Strategies and strategic thinking are part of the more general topic, computational thinking.
All of the strategies listed above can be carried out by a thinking human being. Two of them are
well suited to implementation in computer programs. Thus, both the human and the computer
aspects of computational thinking are represented. In subsequent chapters, we will explore
computational thinking in more detail.
Many people enjoy learning new puzzles precisely because it provides them an opportunity
to discover strategies that are particularly powerful in the puzzle. However, educational
researchers tell us that relatively few people automatically transfer such strategies to use in other
puzzles and to solving real world problems. Explicit teaching (by a teacher, or by the learner) is a
major help in overcoming this difficulty.
Activities for the Reader
1. Many popular puzzles and games are available in handheld, battery
powered, electronic format. Use the Web to see the features of competing
models for generating and playing Sudoku puzzles, and how much they cost.
2. Go to the Web and find a puzzle that you have not previously played or
tried to solve. Explore the puzzle using techniques somewhat like those
illustrated in this chapters exploration of Sudoku. Do metacognition and
reflect on the learning experience. If this is a written assignment, keep
detailed notes on the overall activity and then use them to support doing
the written assignment.
3. Think about how you, personally, deal with novel, challenging problems that
you encounter. Do you have any strategies that you tend to use frequently,
and that are often effective? (Have you thought about the possibility of
sharing this strategy with your students?) Do you have any strategies that
you tend to use frequently, and that are seldom or almost never effective?
(Have you thought about the possibility of helping your students to discover
some of their personal ineffective strategies?
4. Suppose that you have a textbook that you have used before, and you want to
look up something in it that you are fairly sure is in the book. What strategies
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Chapter 4
More Puzzles
This chapter broadens our exploration of educational puzzles. It includes:
1. Discussion of some educational goals of puzzles.
2. Some good sources and examples of free puzzles.
3. Exploration of some additional high-road transferable, general-purpose aids
to problem solving.
Goals for Using Puzzles in Education
Historical, culturalLearning abut oneself [Bold added for emphasis.]
There are many reasons why puzzles are used in informal and formal education. Here are
eight somewhat general goals that one might have in mind while introducing a student to a
particular puzzle. As you read through this list, pause from time to time to reflect on whether the
ideas being presented are supportive of the general educational goals of your school and school
district.
1. Historical, cultural. The puzzle may have historical and cultural significance.
For example, parents and grandparents may want their children and
grandchildren to learn some of the puzzles that they played during their own
childhoods. Teachers may want to share some the puzzles from their
childhood with their students. Particular puzzles may be common in a town
or larger region; for this reason, they might commonly be included in a
schools curriculum. In a school setting, students might study the history of a
puzzle or set of puzzles; this can include the history and cultural environment
in which a puzzle was invented.
It is easy to see how Historical, cultural goal fits in with general goals of
education. Indeed, puzzles and games can provide a historical thread that
has meaning to children and adults of all ages.
2. Logical thinking and problem solving. Most puzzle solving requires use
of logical thinking and ones problem-solving skills. Solving puzzles often
requires strategic and creative thinking. Especially with some mentoring
help, students can transfer their increasing puzzle-based logic and
problem solving to other situations.
3. Discipline or domain specificity. Many puzzles are discipline specific, and
may well require knowledge and skills in a specific domain within a
discipline. A word puzzle may be particularly good at exercising a
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students spelling and vocabulary skills, while a math puzzle may be good
for practicing mental arithmetic, and a spatial puzzle may be useful for
improving ones ability to visualize the spatial placement and movement of
objects.
4. Persistence and self-sufficiency. Many puzzles require a concentrated and
persistent effort. The puzzle solver is driven by intrinsic motivation and
develops confidence in his or her abilities to face and solve challenging
problems. Improving persistence and self-sufficiency are important
educational goals.
5. Learning about oneself as a learner. A puzzle environment allows one to
explore ones learning characteristics. Many games and puzzles allow the
learner to get started and experience some success after just a little learning,
and then to continue to experience much more success through additional
learning. Students learn how concentrated effort and practice over a period
of time leads to increased expertise.
6. Peer instruction. Children learn many puzzles and games from other
children. Learning to learn from ones peers and learning to help ones peers
to learn are both quite important educational goals.
7. Individualization of instruction. Puzzles and games can be used to help create
differentiated instruction, where the focus might be independent, cooperative,
or competitive activity.
8. Busy work or pure entertainment. Puzzles are often used at school and
home to keep students occupied or entertained. The teacher or parent has no
particular educational goal such as those listed above, but merely wants to
keep the student occupied and out of mischief. Teachers and parents make
such uses of puzzles and games as aids to classroom and home child
management. Use of ideas from this book can help improve the educational
value of such activities.
Teachers thinking of making increased use of puzzles in their classrooms should think
carefully about the list of possible goals given above. They might well want to add to the list. For
example, none of the goals mention the idea of individualization of the curriculum. Many
puzzles come in a range of difficulties. Thus, the same general type of puzzle (such as Sudoku)
comes in very easy versions and in versions that will challenge the brightest students.
Teachers should also think about the importance of novelty versus allowing students to use
the same puzzle repeatedly. A puzzle may well provide a good environment for a student to learn
some of his or her capabilities and limitations as a learner. This is a good goal. However,
typically it is not appropriate to allow a student to use school time to play/solve the same puzzle
or type of puzzle repeatedly, moving toward a very high level of expertise in the puzzle.
Typically, it is better to involve students in the use of many different puzzles and to target
learning goals such as the above list, rather than to have a goal of students achieving a very high
level of expertise in a particular puzzle.
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Free Puzzles
Many people generate and/or accumulate puzzles that they make available free on the Web.
Some of the Web-based puzzles can be played on a computer, while others can be printed out
and used in a paper and pencil mode. A recent Google search of free puzzle produced nearly a
million hits. Many of these sites also offer free access to some games.
Here are four examples that attracted my attention:
1. Puzzle Choice: http://www.puzzlechoice.com/pc/Puzzle_Choicex.html.
Provides free access to crossword, word search, number, logic puzzles, and
Soduko.
2. AIMS Puzzle Corner: http://www.aimsedu.org/Puzzle/. Quoting from this
site:
The AIMS Puzzle Corner provides over 100 interesting puzzles that can help students learn to enjoy
puzzles and the mathematics behind them. The puzzles are categorized by type, and within each
category are listed in order of increasing difficulty. The puzzles have not been assigned a grade level
appropriateness because we have discovered that the ability to do a puzzle varies by individual not grade
level.
3. Free Puzzles: http://www.freepuzzles.com/. Provides access to a large and
growing collection of puzzles. Categories include: puzzle games,
puzzle links, geometry, logic, math, miscellaneous, weight, and moves.
4. http://perplexus.info/tree.php. This Website uses the following
categorization terms for puzzles: logic, probability, shapes, general (includes
tricks, word problems, cryptography), numbers, games, paradoxes, riddles,
just math, science, and algorithms.
A Puzzle a Day
If you are a teacher who believes in use of puzzles in your classroom, then you might think
about accumulating enough puzzles so you can provide your students with a different one each
day. A good starting point is the collection of puzzles at http://perplexus.info/tree.php listed
above. During and/or right after you use a puzzle with your students, spend a couple of minutes
writing notes to yourself about how well the puzzle was received by the students, what the
students learned, and how to make use of the puzzle a better learning experience. Do this for a
year and you will have written a book that you can share with your colleagues and that will be
useful to you for years to come.
This suggestion is a good illustration of the divide and conquer strategy. For most people,
writing a book seems like an insurmountable task. However, finding and using one puzzle, and
then writing a few thoughts about the results, is an easy task. Do this 180 times and you are
well along to writing a lengthy book. The http://perplexus.info/tree.php Website provides one
way to categorize puzzlesthat is, a way to organize the puzzles in your collection into
coherent chapters in a book.
Free Does Not Necessarily Mean Free
Typically, Web sites that provide free puzzles and games make income to sustain themselves
by:
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1. Selling ads.
2. Selling games and puzzles.
3. Selling game and/or puzzle subscriptions or memberships.
Thus, as you browse Websites offering free puzzles or free games, use some care to avoid
purchasing services or subscriptions that you really dont want to buy. In addition, many sites
providing free games and puzzles want to add your email address to their email list and to sent
you ads. You might decide to avoid all such sitesor perhaps paying in this manner does not
bother you.
As you browse, looking for sources of free puzzles and other types of games, from time to
time you will encounter excellent Websites that offer no strings attached free materials. Please
share these with your friends. A steadily growing number of people are producing excellent
Web-based materials that are made available free. This is a significant trend, and eventually it
will have a major impact on our educational system. Imagine the impact on the educational
systems of the world if high quality computer-assisted instruction materials were available free
in many different languages and at all grade levels, to all people of the world!
The Websites that offer free puzzles vary tremendously in quality and quantity. I have spent
quite a bit of time browsing some of these Websites, and the ones I specifically mention in this
chapter are ones that caught my eye for some particular reason. Most of the sites I examined did
not pass my informal catch my eye requirement. There are various reasons for this. Some are
too commercial. In some, it is hard to find the free puzzles. In some, the free puzzles do not work
correctly. In some, the amount of free materials is very limited. Some of the sites are limited in
that the puzzles run only on a PC or only on a Mac.
Jigsaw Puzzles
Jigsaw puzzles come in many different levels of difficulty. A typical jigsaw puzzle has only
one solution, but one can arrive at the solution in many different ways.
Incremental Improvement
The incremental improvement strategy is very useful in certain situation, such as in putting a
jigsaw puzzle together. However, it often is a poor approach to problem solving, as will be
illustrated later in this section.
Each piece that you correctly add to the completed part of the puzzle represents an
incremental gain, an incremental improvement. If a jigsaw has only one solution, then the
incremental improvement strategy will always succeed in solving the puzzle. Correctly joining
any two pieces together is also an incremental step toward completing the puzzle.
If it is easy to tell an edge piece from a non-edge piece, then the divide and conquer strategy
may be a good approach. Separate off all of the edge pieces. Than the original puzzle now
consists of an edge puzzle and an interior puzzle. The edge puzzle contains less pieces than
the whole puzzle and is likely a simpler challenge than the whole puzzle. After the edge has been
completed, one then begins to assemble the interior, often by directly attaching interior pieces to
the completed edge.
However, some jigsaw puzzles have some pieces that are exactly the same size and shape.
The coloring and patterns in a puzzle may make it difficult or nearly impossible to decide if two
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pieces that seem to fit together actually belong together. This may lead to putting together a
number of pieces that dont actually belong together. Backtracking (undoing pieces) may well
prove to be an essential strategy in solving this puzzle. As with other strategies that we have
discovered in this book, consider the backtracking strategy as a possible addition to your
repertoire of high-road transfer problem-solving strategies.
Backtracking is a great topic to explore with your students. In writing, for example, revise,
revise, revise is one of the key ideas to producing a good product. Revision is a form of
backtracking. Similar statements hold for any project-based learning activity that leads to a
product, performance, or presentation.
As another example, consider the situation in which you have said something that you did not
really mean to say, or have taken an action that you did not really mean to take. In both cases,
you want to backtrackyou want to make a revision of what you have done. While an apology
or other attempts to undo your actions sometimes works, this is clearly not as easy or effective as
making revisions to a paper you are writing.
There are many problem-solving situations in which incremental improvement is not a
successful strategy. Take a look at the two dimensional hills in Figure 4.1. Starting at A, the goal
is to climb to the peak at C. Incremental improvement, by moving in small steps steadily uphill
starting at A, will not lead you to C. Instead, you will reach B, the top of a peak that is not as
high as C.
C
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strategies are apt to be successful. Another characteristic is having good insight into when to quit
trying a particular strategy and switch to another strategy. These types of expertise tend to
require many years of learning and experience.
Figure 4.2 given below is the same as Figure 3.8 from the Sudoku chapter. The three moves
a7: 2; b8: 7; and c9: 4 can each be considered as an incremental improvement. Each increases
the total number of spaces that have been filled in, and none produces a region, row, or column
with a duplicate digit entry. Unfortunately, this sequence of moves is a dead end. The only
remaining possible move into region 7 is c8: 1. This means that Row 8 would then have two 1s.
We must backtrack in order to move forward.
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child may enjoy working with a six- piece version of the puzzle, while an older child may
enjoy the challenge of a puzzle containing hundreds of pieces.
A disadvantage of online jigsaw puzzles is that many people like to work together with
others when doing a jigsaw puzzle. One of my lifes pleasures is working together with my wife
as we do a jigsaw puzzle and listen to an audio book
Complexity of a Puzzle or Other Problem
Complexity is an interesting topic. What makes one puzzle more complex or more
challenging than another? More generally, what makes one problem more complex or
challenging than another? This is a good topic for discussion in any discipline that you teach.
What makes one poem harder to understand than another? What makes one idea in science
harder to understand than another? What makes one math problem harder than another?
Unfortunately, this topic is usually not covered very well in most courses. Have you discussed it
with the students you teach?
Before considering problem complexity in general, lets look at the simpler issue of jigsaw
puzzle complexity. In doing this, we are using the strategy create a simpler problem.
What can we learn by studying the problem of what makes one jigsaw puzzle more complex
than another? In discussing this problem, we will surely come up with ideas such as having more
pieces tends to make a puzzle more difficult. If a puzzle has a very small number of pieces, the
guess and check strategy can be quite effective.
We might well come up with the idea that if the pieces are easy to orient correctly (so that,
after orientation, then can be placed into position without rotation) the puzzle is much easier than
one where the proper rotation of each piece is a challenge. That is, we can think of orienting each
individual piece as solving a number of smaller problems (the problem of orienting a piece); this
contributes to solving the larger problem.
After further discussion, we might decide that the coloring or pattern of a puzzle makes a lot
of difference. In some puzzles, the colors or patterns make it quite easy to sort pieces into groups
that must fit near each other. This makes the puzzle much easier (because now one can solve
smaller, simpler problems) than if such sorting is difficult or impossible.
If we are mathematically oriented, we might gather data on how long it takes a typical
person to solve jigsaw puzzles of various sizes. For example, does it take four time as long to do
a typical 200 piece puzzle as a typical 100 piece puzzle, and four times as long to do a typical
400 piece puzzle as a typical 200 piece puzzle? Or, perhaps the difficulty level triples for each
doubling in size? The point is, one can do empirical research on this question.
Okay, we have now made good progress on studying the complexity of jigsaw puzzles. Next,
the mental challenge is to take information about solving jigsaw puzzles, and apply it to studying
the complexity of other types of problems. One problem is harder than another if it cannot
readily be broken into smaller sub-problems. One problem is harder than another if it has many
more choicesmany more possibilities to try if one is using a guess and check approach. One
problem is simpler than another if it can be solved by incremental improvement, while the other
cannot.
Here is a quote that I thoroughly enjoy. In essence, it says that it is easier to write a long
document than to write a short document.
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I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter." (Blaise
Pascal, almost 400 years ago.)
Abraham Lincolns Gettysburg Address provides an excellent example of where short was much
better than long.
Water-Measuring Puzzles
Here is an example of a water-measuring puzzle:
Given a 5-liter jug, a 3-liter jug, and an unlimited supply of water, how do you measure out exactly 4 liters?
Notice that the same problem can be stated using a different unit of measure.
Given a 5-gallon jug, a 3-gallon jug, and an unlimited supply of water, how do you measure out exactly 4
gallons?
My Google search of puzzle problem water measuring produced nearly a million hits. There
are many different water-measuring problems. According to Ivars Peterson, such problems date
back to the 13th century (Peterson, 2003). Petersons article gives additional examples and
discusses some of the underlying mathematics of how to solve this type of problem.
Many problems can be solved by starting at a solution and working backward. Lets try this
idea with the water- measuring problem given at the beginning of this section, where the goal
is to measure out four liters. What are some ways to make the integer 4 that might be relevant
to this problem?
a. 4 = 2 + 2
b. 4=1+3
c. 4=51
From a working backward point of view, 4 = 2 + 2 tells me that if I manage to get two liters into
each jug, the problem is solved. The representation 4 = 1 + 3 tells me that if I can get one liter
into one of the jugs and three liters into the other, the problem is solved.
Suddenly, and aha strikes me. One of the jugs holds exactly three liters. So, if I can just
figure out how to get one liter into the other jug, the problem is solved.
However, before thinking about how to do that, lets think about 4 = 5 1. I know how to get
five liters, but how do I get minus one liter? (Maybe I need to think outside the box? My mind
gets confused as I try to think of a jug containing -1 liter of water. However, I can understand
pouring one liter out of a jug, thus decreasing its contents by a liter. Pouring is like subtraction.
Aha! If the 3-liter jug has two liters in it, then I could fill the 5-liter jug and pour from it until the
3-liter jug (that contains two liters) is full, thus leaving four liters in the 5-liter jug.
My two aha moments give me two approaches to solving the puzzle. In the first, I strive for
getting one liter into the 5-liter jug. In the other, I strive for getting two liters in the 3-liter jug.
Thus, by working backward using some simple arithmetic and keeping my brain in gear, I have
formulated two new problems. If I can solve either one of them, I can then solve the original
problem.
How do I measure out exactly one liter or exactly two liters? Using simple arithmetic skills, I
see that 5 3 = 2. With a flash of insight, I see that if I fill the 5-liter jug and pour into the empty
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3-liter jug, I will end up with two liters in the 5-liter jug. I have now found a pathway to solving
the problem.
The working backwards strategy is a powerful aid to solving many different kinds of
problems. You will want to add it to your repertoire and your students repertoires of high-road
transferable problem-solving strategies. You and your students may at first find it challenging to
find problems that are often solved by working backwards. Here is a hint of one source of such
problems. You need to be at work at 7:30 in the morning. What time should you set your alarm
for?
Spatial Intelligence
Almost all teachers are aware of Howard Gardners work on Multiple Intelligences. His first
book on this topic was published in 1983. Nowadays, many teachers pay attention to Gardners
work as they design and present instruction. The eight types of intelligences that Gardner has
identified are (Gardner, 2003):
Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
When I was graduating from high school, I took a variety of vocational aptitude tests. My
spatial intelligence tested well below 100 on an IQ-type scale with a mean of 100. I want to share
two parts of this story. First, I was advised that I should not attempt to major in math, as many
people believe that math requires having good spatial sense. It turns out, however, that I had little
trouble in undergraduate and graduate work in mathematics, making a straight A average in math
courses as a earned a doctorate in this area. In my math studies, my strong logical/mathematical
intelligence more than overcame my weak spatial intelligence
Second, I am terrible at finding my way when walking or driving around a city. Indeed, I can
easily get lost in a large building! Even though I pay careful attention to this situation, I havent
improved. I partially overcome this difficulty by making careful maps and/or by carefully
planning and using maps. I have a younger sister with a doctorate in physical chemistry, and she
suffers the same spatial intelligence challenge.
Third, a few years ago, my wife and I began doing jigsaw puzzles together as we listen to
audio books. At first, I was very poor at putting jigsaw puzzles together, and I was embarrassed
by my ineptitude. Eventually, however, I got a lot better. I developed some jigsaw puzzle-solving
strategies that fit well with some of my strengths, and my spatial abilities in the jigsaw domain
improved with practice.
The third piece of the story is particularly relevant. Ones expertise in an area can be
increased by study and practice. If you have a researcher-oriented mind, perhaps your first
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question would now be: Did my improvement in jigsaw puzzle spatial expertise transfer to other
spatially oriented problem-solving domains?
I dont know, as I did not gather data before beginning the jigsaw puzzle experiment. My
guess, however, is that I am as bad as ever at finding my way around in a city or large building.
What I do know, however, is that there has been considerable research on this general topic.
Indeed, one of my doctoral students worked on this topic about 20 years ago. She was interested
in whether playing spatially oriented computer games would help improve girls general spatial
abilities more than it improved boys general spatial abilities. In her particular study, both girls
and boys improved, but the girls did not improve more than the boys. A general discussion about
spatial intelligence is available at http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/navspace-
hippocampus.
Many video games require use of spatial memory. The following is quoted from Ranpura
(n.d.):
A tiny, pixilated soldier dodges past burning embers and ruined walls. His guide, a young boy watching
through a computer monitor, knows that just ahead, beyond a darkened doorway and a hairpin left turn, the
soldier will find a floating white medical kit to nourish and soothe his battered body. He will recharge, then
navigate his way through an extensive labyrinth of corridors to the next level of the maze.
The boy playing the video game nudges his joystick, guiding the soldier efficiently through countless
rooms. He knows this virtual world well, and has an intimate understanding of its topography. In his mind's
eye the bitmapped patterns and flashing lights become three-dimensional hallways, staircases, and doors.
Figure 4.3 illustrates a spatial puzzle named Assemble the Square that is suitable for use by
students of all ages. The puzzle provides you with a number of pieces that can be dragged
without rotation onto a 4x4 square, to exactly cover the square. The puzzle is available at
http://www.vemix.com/GlFlashGm.php. The Website can generate a large number of different
sets of pieces that can be assembled into a square.
Figure 4.3. Five pieces to be dragged without rotation to form a 4x4 square.
Tower of Hanoi
The Tower of Hanoi puzzle consists of three pegs and a number of disks of different sizes
that slide onto the pegs. The puzzle starts with the discs neatly stacked in order of size on one
peg, smallest at the top, thus making a conical shape. See Figure 4.4.
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Figure 4.8. A possible intermediate goal in solving the 5-disk Tower of Hanoi puzzle.
http://chemeng.p.lodz.pl/zylla/games/hanoi5e.html
Bridge Crossing Puzzle Problems
My Google search of bridge crossing puzzle problems produced about 733,000 hits. Here is a
typical bridge crossing puzzle:
Four people have to cross a bridge at night. The bridge is old and dilapidated and can hold at most two
people at a time. There are no railings, and the men have only one flashlight. In any party of one or two
people cross, one must carry the flashlight. The flashlight must be walked back and forth; it cannot be
thrown, etc. Each person walks at a different speed. One takes 1 minute to cross, another 2 minutes, another
5, and the last 10 minutes. If two people cross together, they must walk at the slower person's pace. There are
no tricksthe people all start on the same side, the flashlight cannot shine a long distance, no one can be
carried, etc. What is the fastest they can all get across the bridge?
The story (perhaps apocryphal) is often told that many years ago such a puzzle was given
during interviews of programmers applying to work at Microsoft. Many people like to play with
this type of puzzle and make up variations. For example:
a. Suppose that in the 4-person puzzle, the 5-minute person is changed into an
8-minute person. Does that change the total time needed to get all four
across the bridge?
b. Suppose that there are only three people needing to cross the bridge: the 1-
minute person, the 5-minute person, and the 10-minute person. What is
the fasted the three can get across?
c. Suppose that in the three-person puzzle (b), the 5-minute person is changed
into an 8-minute person. What is the fasted the three can get across? How is
it possible that the answer to (a) is smaller than the answer to (c)?
This type of puzzle can be approached by using the bottleneck strategy. The bottleneck
strategy is applicable in analyzing lots of different kinds of problems in which a number of
different activities need to be accomplished in a timely fashion. A team of people may be able to
accomplish such a task faster than one person, provided one can identify situations in which
more than one person can be working at a time in a productive manner.
The bottleneck in the bridge example is the two slower walkers. In the original version of the
puzzle, if each walks accompanied by a faster walkers, then it takes 18 minutes just to get these
two across. If they walk together, it takes only 10 minutes for the two to cross. These two
constitute the bottleneck. Figure out how to have them walk together, and you (may) have made
a good step toward solving the puzzle.
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You will want to add the bottleneck strategy to your repertoire and your students repertoires
of high-road transferable problem-solving strategies. You might be interested in reading about
multitasking. In multitasking, a person does two or more tasks simultaneously. A Google search
of multitasking produces more than 6 million hits. Many of these hits provide evidence of
inefficiencies of multitasking.
Brain Teasers
Many people like brain teasers. My Google search on free online brain teaser produced more
than two million hits. The Website http://www.puzz.com/iqteasers.html contains a number of
what it calls IQ Brain Teasers. IQ Brain Teaser # 102 is:
At Parkview High School, the science club has 11 members, the computer club has 14 members,
and the puzzle club has 25 members. If a total of 15 students belong to only one of the three
clubs, and 10 belong to only two of them, how many students belong to all three clubs?
Notice that this is a type of logic puzzle that requires significant reading skill. Many brain
teaser puzzles require good reading skills and good use of logic. In addition, math skills are often
helpful. Math people can solve this particular math puzzle mentally, using only elementary
school arithmetic. If you are not able to figure out a direct way to solve the puzzle, think about
using trial and error.
Symmetrical Word Box Puzzles
The Website http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/ contains a large number of different
types of brain teasers. For example, there are a number of different Symmetrical Word Box
puzzles. Quoting from the Website:
Word Boxes are like miniature crossword puzzles, except that each word is filled in across and down the
grid. That is, the answer to 1 across is the same word as the answer to 1 down; 2 across is the same as 2
down; etc. Can you solve these Word Boxes?
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and (2) none of the variables are equal to each other. For example, if there are six variables, each will equal a
number from 1 to 6. Since no variable equals another, all six values will be used.
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Can E = 6? I see that 6 = 1 + 5 and that 6 = 2 + 4. Thus, I cannot immediately rule out the
possibility that E =6.
This elimination approach does not seem to be going very well. By elimination, I conclude
that E = 5 or E = 6, but I cant tell which is correct. I have made some progress with this
approach, but it may be that it is not a good way to go. For a moment, I feel stuck.
Then I see that I can make use of a combination of the first and third equations and conclude
that A + B + C = E. Aha. I have used some algebra. Why didnt I try that earlier? It must be that
E = 6, since that is the smallest possible sum of three different integers in the range of 1 to 6.
My initial elimination efforts to determine a value for E were not too fruitful. I did gain some
information through this guess and check approach. Now, however, I feel a small sense of
satisfaction because I am making some progress. It has taken quite a bit of messing around,
exploring, making trials, and getting a feel for the problem.
During my elimination approach, I found that there are exactly two possible (legal, following
the rules of this puzzle) ways that E could be 6: 1 + 5 = 6; 2 + 4 = 6. From this, using
elimination, I conclude that A = 3. This is because the values for B, C, D, and F must come from
(and use up all of) the four integers 1, 2, 4, and 5, and I know F = 6.
From the first equation, it is now evident that B = 2. Why? Because I know that B cannot be
either 1 or 3, and the first equation tells me the B cannot be larger than 3. From this point, it is
quite easy to complete the puzzle.
Here are five educational values that I see in this type of puzzle:
1. The puzzle makes use of algebraic notation and some simple algebra
ideas that are taught before students take an algebra course.
2. The puzzle requires use of numbers and simple arithmetic that can be
done mentally.
3. The puzzle illustrates use of the elimination strategy and requires persistence.
4. The logical arguments used in doing the puzzle are much like one uses in
solving other math problems and in doing math proofs. It looks to me like
there is the possibility of quite a bit of transfer of learning to these aspects
of doing math.
5. Writing, and explaining ones math/logic thinking and processes, can be built
into use of this activity in a school setting. Such writing and explaining are
important components of learning math. From a math book authoring point
of view, my discussion of how I solved the puzzle problem allowed me to
leave some gaps to be filled in by the reader. That is a standard technique
used in writing math books.
Cryptograms
The Website also contains Cryptogram puzzles and a Cryptogram puzzle maker. As an
example of using the puzzle maker, I provided the sentence:
DAVID MOURSUND HAS WRITTEN MANY DIFFERENT BOOKS
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Directions:
Try to fill in the missing numbers. Use the numbers 1 through 9 to complete the equations.
Each number is only used once. Each row is a math equation. Each column is a math equation.
Remember that multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction.
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b. Then have each student select a puzzle that he or she is familiar with,
and analyze it from an educational point of view. The results are to be
written into a report to hand in to the teacher.
3. Have individual students or teams of students explore mechanical puzzles. A
good starting point is the Wikipedia Website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_puzzle. The following examples are
from that Website.
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Chapter 5
One-Player Games
Probably you are familiar with one or more versions of the type of card game called
solitaire. Most often solitaire games are played by a person playing alone, using one or more
standards decks of playing cards, or playing electronically. However, some solitaire games have
been adapted to involve more than a single player.
This chapter discusses some one-person solitaire games that can be played with physical
cards or electronically. It also contains a brief discussion of Tetris, a one-player computer game
that does not make use of a deck of cards.
There are many Websites that allow a person to play a variety of solitaire games for free.
Some sites provide free software downloads, and many sites sell collections of solitaire
programs that can be purchased (McLeod, n.d.). In addition, there are many books that describe
a variety of solitaire games and contain the rules for playing these games.
Learning to Play a Game
The process of learning any game consists of:
1. Learning some vocabulary so that you can communicate about the game. It
is useful to think of a particular game as a self-contained sub discipline of
the overall discipline of games. Thus, each game has its own vocabulary,
notation, history, culture, and so on. Precise vocabulary is important in order
to understand the rules and to facilitate communication among people
playing the game.
Note how this same idea applies to solving real world problems. Suppose your
computer is not working right. Do you know precise vocabulary to describe the
problem? If not, you will have difficulty using information retrieval to find help, or
talking to a person to get help. Getting help from stored information and from
people is a very important strategy in problem solving. It requires effective
communication between you and the information source.
More generally, consider reading across the content areas. To read with
understanding within a discipline content area, you need to know how to read,
you need to have an understanding of the special vocabulary and notation used in
the discipline, and you need to have some understanding of the discipline
2. Learning the legal moves (plays). Each game has a set of legal moves. Notice
that this is consistent with the formal definition of the term problem. One
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stacks are called the foundation. There are no actual cards in the foundation at the beginning. The
game is won by getting all 52 cards onto the foundation.
Below the foundation are seven piles of cards, containing 1, 2, 7 cards, respectively. The
top card of each pile is exposed, while the remaining cards are face down. Finally, the remaining
cards in the deck (shown in the lower left corner) are face down and are called the reserve or the
stock. To their right of the reserve is an empty space for the waste pile.
Figures 5.2 shows the results after the game player has taken the top three cards from the
reserve, turned this set of three cards over in a manner that does not display the first and second
cards, and placed the three cards on top of the waste pile. The player has also moved the 9 of
spades onto the 10 of hearts, and then turned up the card that was beneath the 9 of spades.
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measure of how well you have played in a particular game. You have no idea of how many cards
a good player will have added to the foundations when playing the exact same deal.
I find it interesting to think about the intrinsic motivation that drives so many people to play
Klondike repeatedly. The possibility of winning is somewhat motivational. However, winning
perhaps 10% of the time or less is not very encouragingrather, I finds this to be discouraging.
Still, I feel somewhat good when I an able to play a large number of cards onto the foundation
stacks.
What holds my attention and keeps me motivated, however, seems to be the overall process.
My mind/brain seems to interpret the process as one in which I am accomplishing something that
it deems worthwhile.
As I play the game, I am continually involved in doing something. I am turning up cards
from the reserve and remembering the location of some of these cards. I am thinking about
possible moves, trying to figure out good moves. I am following the rules as I make moves. New
cards are displayed because of my moves. In summary, my mind and body are engaged, small
rewards are occurring all of the time, and occasionally I win. Perhaps I am in a mild flow state.
The previous paragraph reminds me of the P. T. Barnum statement, You can fool most of
the people most of the time. A mind/brain is a complex thing. However, in a mind/brain,
pleasure can come from quite simple things. Playing Klondike stimulates my mind/brain in a
manner that brings me pleasure. The same holds true for many other games. Over the years, I
have come to understand this. I have also come to understand that from time to time I fall into
an addictive-like behavior of playing games rather than doing other things that have greater
redeeming values.
I have talked to a number of people about this type of game-playing experience. They tell me
about how they have learned to carefully restrict (ration) their game playing. Their level of
addiction is not so strong that it overwhelms their determination to use their time for other more
productive activities.
Applications to Other Games and General Problem Solving
In Klondike, as well as in many other games and problem-solving situation, there are
possible moves, plays, or actions. While you would like to make a good move, you often fail to
do so. As you play, you can learn more about problem solving by reflecting on your play. For
example:
You do not see (discover, recognize) a possible move, so that it receives no
consideration. This can be through carelessness and oversight, or it can be caused by
just not spending enough time in careful thinking and searching for possible moves.
While some real world problem-solving situations require very quick decision
making, the majority allow time for reflection and for consideration of
consequences of moves.
You find a possible play or move, give it consideration, but make a relatively obvious
mistake in this consideration. Immediately upon making the move you recognize the
mistake and want to take the move back. The message is clearlook before you leap,
think before you act.
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You find two or more possible legal moves and do a compare/contrast consideration
of the moves. If one is clearly better than the others, you make it. However, quite
likely you will not know for sure which is clearly the best move. It may turn out that
the one you think is best isnt, because you lack information on what will happen
because of your move. (In Klondike, for example, you may not know what card will
turn up. In negotiating a business deal, you do not know for sure how a person will
react to your proposal.) This type of uncertainty literally petrifies some people. They
just seem unable to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. Practicing in a game-
playing environment, where it is easy to take back moves, may help such a person get
better at making decisions under uncertainty.
The Solitaire Game Eight Off
Eight Off is my favorite one deck solitaire game. It is mentally challenging, but I can win
most of the time if I think and play carefully enough. I find this game to be far more mentally
challenging than Klondike. Moreover, it better illustrates the value of thinking many moves
ahead when making a decision of what move to make.
Eight Off is available in many commercially available bundles of computer solitaire games.
It can be played free at a number of Websites. All but one of the screen shots used in this section
are from the Eight Off game # 31853 from Acescardgames.com (available free) at
http://www.acecardgames.com/en/. As you cycle through the choices to bring up an Eight Off
game, you will eventually come to a dealt out game and some small symbols in the upper right
cornet. Click on the # symbol and you can key in the number 31853 to be playing the exact deal
discussed in this section.
Figure 5.4 shows the layout for the specific example of Eight Off that will be used to
illustrate the rules and playing the game.
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into four of the eight Free Cells. Some players like to have half of these Free Cells on each side
of the Main Stacks, while others like to place all of them below the Main Stacks. The choice
does not affect the playing of the game.
Figure 5.4A shows an alternative layout from a version of Erics Ultimate Solitaire computer
software.
Figure 5.4A. A nice computer display of an Eight Off layout. One card has been
played to the Club Object Stack.
Above the Main Stacks is space to build four Object Stacks. An Object Stack is built up in a
suit, starting with the Ace and continuing with 2, 3, 4 Jack, Queen, and King of the suit. The
object of the game is to build all four Object Stacks until they contain the entire 52-card deck.
The rules for playing are as follows:
1. Cards are played one card at a time.
2. The last card in each Main Stack (in the example of Figure 4.4, these include the 5 of
spades, the 3 of spades, the 6 of clubs, and so on) and each card in the Free Cells is
available to play.
3. Cards that are available to play may be played as follows:
If the card is an Ace, it is played in an empty Object Stack.
The card may be added to an Object Stack, provided that it is the next card in rank
of that suit and Object Stack.
The card may be played to any empty Free Cell or to any empty Main Stack.
The card may be played by adding it to any Main Stack whose top card is of the
same suit and is the card immediately above it in rank. In Figure 5.4, for example,
the 2 of spades can be played on the 3 of spades. However, the 5 of spades cannot
be played on the 6 of clubs.
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The set of rules is relatively simple. Some people can read and memorize such a set of rules
quite quickly, while others will find they need to refer back to the rules from time to time until
all become familiar. This situation gives us some important insights into schooling. Often,
schools expect students to memorize information in advance of when they will need to use it.
The students are tested over the memorized information outside of the context in which they
might eventually use the memorized information.
However, most people learn best when they are immediately find use of what they are
memorizing. The memorization is interspersed with the using. The learner eventually memorizes
what needs to be memorized through frequently looking it up and using it.
This can be summarized in a problem-solving strategy memorize through use. A different
name for the strategy in the only memorize if quite useful strategy.
For convenience is discussing the game, I have lettered the eight Main Stacks a through h.
See Figure 5.5.
a b c d e f g h
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a b c d e f g h
a b c d e f g h
Figure 5.7. Two more cards have been added to the spade Object Stack.
Strategies Used So Far in Our Eight Off Game
Okay, that was a good start. We started out by designing a sequence of moves. This is an
important strategy that we will call the sequence of moves strategy. The idea is to think in terms
of multi-step sequences of moves or actions when attacking a complex problem. These steps may
be done sequentially, they may be done in parallel (all at the same time), or they may be done in
a combination of sequential and parallel steps. Large problems that are being worked on by a
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team of people are attacked using the sequence of moves strategy. Thus, this strategy should be
part of your repertoire and your students repertoires of high-road transferable problem-solving
strategies.
The first sequence of moves that was used was designed to get an Ace into the Object Stacks.
Just for the fun of it, lets call this the getting an Ace into the Object Stacks strategy. This strategy
is useful in playing Eight Off. Indeed, it is a strategy useful in many different solitaire card
games.
However, it is not a general-purpose problem-solving strategy that we will want to add to our
repertoire of high-road transferable problem-solving strategies. Most real world problems do not
involve getting a card called an Ace onto a space called an Object Stack.
Score, and Then Work to Improve Your Score
But wait! Perhaps there is something akin to this. Consider events such as the long jump,
discuss, and the shot put in a track meet. A contestant gets three tries, with only the best one
counting. A foul in a try counts as a distance of zero. Many contests will focus heavily on not
fouling on their first trial, not trying to get as great a distance as they are capable of. That is, the
athletic has two goals: get a relatively good distance, and get as long a distance as possible. The
athlete decides to focus on the first goal in the first try. If the athlete does not foul in this try, than
the second and third tries are all out efforts to achieve the greatest distance possible.
So, we have another general-purpose strategy that is suitable for adding to ones repertoire of
high-road transfer problem-solving strategies. Lets call it the score, then improve your score
strategy.
For example, suppose that the problem a person faces is a short answer or objective test. The
score and improve strategy might lead the student to browsing through the test, answering the
questions that he or she is confident about an answer. Then go back and spend time on the other
questions.
For another example, consider being faced by a complex problem, but one that can readily be
broken into a number of smaller or somewhat easier subproblems. After using the strategy of
breaking the original problem into subproblems, one might use the strategy of first solving some
of the easier subproblems. This assumes, of course, that the subproblems are independent of each
other, so can be done in any order. Progress on the easier subproblems is somewhat like first
answering the easier questions on a test. However, it also has the advantage that solving the
easier subproblems may provide one with insights that will help in solving the more difficult
subproblems.
For another example, consider writing an essay. One can write a few paragraphs and edit
them over and over again, polishing them so they are perfect. This may take all of the available
time. A different approach would be to do a quick rough draft of the whole document, and then
begin polishing it.
Returning to the Eight Off Solitaire Game
The moves that we have made so far can all be viewed as contributing to an incremental
improvement toward the goal of having all 52 cards in the Objects Stacks. However, it may well
be that this particular Eight Off solitaire game cannot be solved by just any old collection of
incremental improvement sequences. For example, look back at the start of the game given in
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Figure 5.4. Consider the sequence of moving the 2 of spades onto the 3 of spades, moving the
King of diamonds into an empty Free cell, and moving the Ace of diamonds into an empty
Object Stack.
This sequence of three moves results in an incremental improvement, just as did the sequence
of moves that we actually made. Which of these two sequences of moves is better? Might one be
a good start on winning the game, while the other be a start on losing the game? Remember the
incremental improvement picture in Figure 4.1, where the choice of starting point determines
whether incremental improvement moves you to the highest peak.
Mobility: An Important New Strategy
Probably you have heard the adage, Dont paint yourself into a corner. It is applicable in
many game-playing and non-game situations.
I have played Eight Off many times, winning more often than I lose. I tend to lose when I fill
up my Free Cells, thereby cutting down in my freedom to make sequences of moves that involve
use of empty Free Cells. Having quite a few empty Free Cells gives me lots of options that can
be carried out in a sequence of moves.
In games such as chess and checkers, the word mobility is used to describe having options. A
high level of mobility of ones collection of pieces means that one has many possible moves; a
low level of mobility means that ones possible moves are severely restricted.
Lets use the same term in discussing Eight Off. Having lots of empty Free Cells and empty
Main Stacks gives one a high level of mobility in developing a sequence of moves. In many
games and in many real world problem-solving situations, it is desirable to keep ones options
opento maintain or increase ones mobility. Lets call this the mobility strategy. Another name
for this strategy is dont box yourself into a corner. This is an important strategy to add to your
repertoire and your students repertoires of high-road transferable problem-solving strategies.
The mobility strategy helps me to decide between the opening sequence of moves that I
actually made, and the sequence that would have led to getting the Ace of diamonds into the
Object Stacks. This latter choice would have decreased my mobility.
Returning to the Eight Off Game
Now, finally, back to our Eight Off game. I examine the current situation given in Figure 4.7.
I think in terms of incremental improvement, but I hold in mind the mobility strategy. An
obvious incremental improvement would be to use the sequence of 2 moves that ends with the
Ace of diamonds being played in the Object Stacks. However, this sequence of moves decreases
my mobility. Therefore, I spend some more time analyzing the current situation. Soon I see that a
three-move sequence will add the 4 and 5 of spades to the spade Object Stack. This sequence
does not decrease my mobility, so I make it, producing the position shown in Figure 5.8.
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a b c d e f g h
Figure 5.8. Two more cards added to the spade Object Stack.
After long and careful thought about the situation shown in Figure 5.8, I see how I can get
the Ace of hearts into the Object Stacks in a complex (8-move) sequence that results in only one
card being added to the Free Cells, and the 10, 9, 8, and 7 of hearts being in Main Stack a. (See if
you can figure out how to do this.)
However, I decide on the 2-move sequence focusing on the Ace of diamonds, as this is a
more likely choice for a beginner. The result is shown if Figure 5.9.
a b c d e f g h
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longer sequence. I will begin by playing the 6 of clubs on the 7 of clubs, they by making the Jack
of hearts a playable card. I will then move the top three cards in Main Stack a to the three empty
Free Cells. I will continue by playing the Ace of hearts to an Object Stack, and the Jack, 10, 9, 8,
and 7 of hearts to Main Stack a. (Note that moving the 8 and 7 of hearts to Main Stake a requires
first moving the 7 of hearts to an empty Free Cell). The result is shown in Figure 5.10.
a b c d e f g h
Figure 5.10. The game situation after a very long sequence of moves.
I am now down to having just two empty Free Cells. However, I have created a Main Stack with
a long ordered sequence of hearts. Experience in playing the game has taught me that this is
desirable to create Main Stacks that contain long sequences of a suit. In this particular example,
suppose that I eventually manage to get the 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of hearts to the Object Stack. Then I will
be able to add my long sequence of hearts in Main Stack to the heart Object Stack.
Undaunted, I plunge ahead, planning another sequence of moves. I notice that by moving
the 5 of clubs onto the 6 of clubs, and then the 5 of diamonds to an empty Free Cell, I can move
the Ace of clubs to the Object Stacks. If I then move the 4 of clubs onto the 5 of clubs, I will be
able to add the s, 7, and 8 of spades to the space Object Stack. The result of this 7-move
sequence is shown in Figure 5.11.
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a b c d e f g h
a b c d e f g h
Figure 5.12. A 5-move sequence increases mobility and adds to the Object Stacks.
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It now becomes evident that if I move the Queen of hearts onto the King of hearts, I can play
a sequence of clubs onto the club Object Stack. The result is shown if Figure 5.13.
a b c d e f g h
a b c d e f g h
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Playing this game requires hand-eye coordination, as well as quick recognition of figures in
two dimensional space and quick decision-making. I am relatively poor in all of the abilities that
it takes to become good at this game. Thus, it is not surprising that I do not enjoy playing Tetris.
However, I find it interesting to introspect as I play the game, and I find it interesting to see
how practice makes me better at the game. At a beginners level, the game can be set so that the
pieces fall very slowly and one can experience success. Ones mind/brain/body adjusts to the
demands of the game (learns).
I find it interesting to see/sense this learning occurring, and that with practice I get better.
Through playing this game, I have gained increased appreciation for the learning capabilities of
my mind/brain/body.
Final Remarks
I suppose that meditation and one-player games have certain things in common. For me,
when I am playing a game such as Klondike, I shut out the outside world. The cares of the
outside world go way.
I also feel that this shutting out of the outside world and being deeply involved in an activity
provides an example of what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi call flow.
Activities for the Reader
1. If you have had experience with meditation, think about some of the
similarities and differences between meditation and playing one-player
games.
2. Select a solitaire game that you have not previously played. Introspect, and
then write notes to yourself about these introspections, as you learn to play
the game. For example, you might think about the challenge of learning the
rules, and how this challenge compares with learning the rules of appropriate
social behavior in a particular situation, or learning the rules for carrying
out some job or task. You might think about how you get better at playing the
game as the rules become internalizedsort of automatic, governing your
behavior with little conscious thought. You might think about how the game
is similar to and different from other solitaire games you have played.
3. Suppose that you are playing a game of solitaire, and you take back a move
or peek at a hidden card, in violation of the rules of the game. Is cheating
an appropriate word to describe this situation? Compare and contrast this
activity with that of cheating on a test or cheating on ones income tax return.
Can you think of a more appropriate term to use in a one-player game-
playing situation?
Activities for use with Students
1. Playing cards and card games have a very long history. Select some aspect of
this history that interests you, study it, and write a report on your findings. To
the extent possible, tie your findings in with other historical events and
people. For example, it is speculated that Napoleon Bonaparte developed the
solitaire games Napoleon at St. Helena and Napoleon's Square.
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2. Find a game of solitaire that you have not played before. Learn to play it.
Then do a personal compare and contrast with a solitaire game that you
already know how to play. Which game is more fun, more challenging, more
attention-holding, and so on. Which game would you recommend to a
friend, and why?
3. In your own words, explain the difference between a puzzle and a one-player
game. Which do you like better, and why?
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Chapter 6
Two-Player Games
There are many different kinds of two-person games. You may have played a variety of these
games such as such as chess, checkers, backgammon, and cribbage. While all of these games are
competitive, many people play them mainly for social purposes. A two-person game
environment is a situation that facilitates communication and companionship.
Two major ideas illustrated in this chapter:
1. Look ahead: learning to consider what your opponent will do as a response
to a move that you are planning.
2. Computer as opponent. In essence, this makes a two-player game into a one-
player game.
In addition, we will continue to explore general-purpose, high-road transferable, problem-solving
strategies.
Tic-Tac-Toe
To begin, we will look at the game of tic-tac-toe (TTT). TTT is a two-player game, with
players taking turns. One player is designated as X and the other as O. A turn consists of marking
an unused square of a 3x3 grid with ones mark (an X or an O). The goal is to get three of ones
mark in a file (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal). Traditionally, X is the first player. A sample
game is given below.
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X X X
O X O
Before X's O's X's
game first first second
begins move move move
X X X X O X X O X
O O O X O
X O X O X O
X O
X's O's
O's X wins on
third third X's fourth
second
move move move
move
Figure 6.1. Example of a Tic-Tac-Toe game.
TTT provides a good environment in which to explore how a computer can play a game. You
are familiar with the idea of random numbers. For example, if you designate one side of a true
coin as a 0, and the other side as a 1, then repeating flipping this coin generates a random
sequence of 0s and 1s. If you repeatedly toss a true six-sided die, you will generate a random
sequence of integers in the range [1, 6]. In many games, a spinner is used to generate random
moves. The process of shuffling a deck of cards is a process of randomizing the locations of the
cards in a deck.
Randomness is a complex area of study. For example, suppose you throw a pair of true
dice, and add up the total. You will get an integer in the range [2,12]. However, a sequence of
such throws will not produce a random sequence of integers in this range. Some numbers,
such as 2 and 12, will occur much less frequency than others. The number 7 will occur far
more frequently than 2 or 12. The study of this and related types of situations is part of the
field of probability.
It turns out that random numbers are quite important in many non-game settings. For
example, an educational researcher is conducting an experiment in which one set of students
receives a certain treatment, and a different set receives a different treatment. To decide which
student gets a particular treatment, all of the student names are written on identical small pieces
of cardboard and placed in a box. The box is then thoroughly shaken and the contents thoroughly
stirred. Then names are drawn out one at a time, alternately placing the name into the group to
receive the first treatment or the group to receive the second treatment.
Computer programs have been developed that generate pseudorandom numbers. (See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudorandomness.) Quoting from the Wikipedia:
A pseudo-random variable is a variable which is created by a deterministic procedure (often a computer
program or subroutine) which (generally) takes random bits as input.
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Pseudo- random number generators are widely used in such applications as computer modeling (e.g.,
Markov chains), statistics, experimental design, etc. Some of them are sufficiently random to be useful in
these applications. Many are not, and considerable sophistication is required to correctly determine the
difference for any particular purpose.
You know that computers can play some games quite well. Perhaps you believe that is a
computer has been programmed to play a game, the computer will never lose. However, that is
not the case. Lets use TTT for an example. Suppose that a computer has been programmed to
make random moves when playing against a human opponent. When it is the computers turn to
make a move, it selects one of the legal available moves at random, and makes that move. As
you might expect, a human player can often beat such a computer program.
Your students may enjoy creating a by hand simulation of this situation. Prepare nine
small pieces of paper that are numbered 1, 2, 9, respectively, and place them in a small box.
Number the spaces of a TTT board with the nine digits as follows:
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
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7 1 8
4 9 5
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Use of the look-ahead strategy is a key feature in writing a program that plays a good game
of chess, checkers, or other somewhat similar games. On a more general note, look ahead is a
process of considering the consequences of possible actionsbefore taking an action. In essence,
in look ahead allows one to study possible outcomes of an action. This is important in computer
game playing, but it is also an important and routine aspect of functioning as a responsible
human being. A game-playing environment (various types of games and computer simulations)
can be used as an aid to helping students learn to look ahead and gain increased responsibility for
their own actions.
The 3 x3 TTT game is not much of an intellectual challenge. There are a variety of games
that can be considered as modifications of TTT (Boulter, 1995). At Boulters Website, you can
play on boards of size 3 x 3 up to 7 x 7, and the boards need not be square. You can set your own
rules for how many squares in a row are needed for winning. Games that are somewhat similar to
TTT in that one wins by getting n-in-a-row include connect four, gobblet, nine mens morris,
pente, three mens morris, gomoku, and quarto. There are also 3-dimensional variations of TTT.
Gomoku
Quoting from http://www.springfrog.com/games/gomoku/:
Considered by many to be one of the worlds greatest strategy games, Gomoku was introduced to Japan by
the Chinese in 270BC. The full name of Gomoku is actually Gomoku Narabe, which is Japanese for "five
points in a row." Japanese chronicles show that at the time of the late 17th and early 18th Century Gomoku
Narabe was at its height of popularity, being played by young and old alike. By 1880 the game had reached
Europe where it is also known as Gobang.
Gomoku can be thought of as a much more challenging version of Tic-Tac-Toe. The goal is
to get exactly five markers in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal file. Many people enjoy playing
this game. It is also a game that can be used as a programming challenge in an Artificial
Intelligence course. See, for example,
http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~ruiz/Courses/cs4341_A97/project.html. This illustrates a somewhat
common and very valuable use of games in education.
I downloaded a free version of Gomoku for my Macintosh computer from
http://www.macgamesandmore.com/best_freeware.html . Notice that a number of free games
for the Macintosh are available at this site. The free version had six levels of difficulty, and the
board could be set for various sizes. (See the Preferences available under the Gomoku pull down
menu.) Figure 6.4 illustrates the end of a game in which I played black, and won.
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Gomoku is a strategy game that most people find quite challenging. Many computer
implementations of this game allow the human play to select the level of his or her (computer)
opponent. When first learning to play the game, you can select a very weak computer opponent.
In that environment, you can experiment with strategies and perhaps develop a winning
strategy against the weak opponent.
Notice the two dimensionality of the game play. To play well, you must consider threats and
opportunities throughout the 2-dimensional board. You must do careful look-ahead to thwart
threats and develop possible winning positions.
Connection Games
There are many variations of 2-player games in which a player attempts to form a connection
between two borders. Figure 6.5 shows an empty 11x11 cell Hex game board and a completed
game in which blue has won by completing a connection between the two blue borders. The
screen shots are from http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~javhar/hex/.
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other games as vehicles in which to explore how to develop intelligent-like computer programs.
Games were a popular choice of such researchers both because they were an appropriately
difficult challenge and because the results could easily be communicated to non- computer
people. I am impressed to learn that computer programs have beaten the worlds best players of
checkers, backgammon, chess, and so on.
There are significant educational implications to such accomplishments. There are many jobs
(professions) in which people work with relatively clearly defined sets of rules to solve relatively
difficult problems. Over the years, more and more of these jobs are being handled directly by
computers or by a combination of people and computers working together. Our educational
system needs to understand this situation and to educate accordingly.
The computerization of games and the uses made of artificial intelligence will help you to
understanding computational thinking. When you think about solving problems and
accomplishing tasks outside the world of games, consider the following two facts:
1. Computer programs have been developed to facilitate the play of each of the
games considered in this book. The programs know and understand the
rules sufficiently well to check that a players moves (be they a human player
or a computer) are legal. The computer system knows and understands the
rules for scoring and winning.
2. For many of the games considered in this book, computer programs have
been written that can play the game. These programs can serve as an
opponent in two-person games, and as a player in games involving larger
numbers of players. In some cases, computer programs have been
developed so that they can defeat the best human players in the world.
I have used quote marks around knows and understands because the compute does not
know and understand in the way a human does. However, a computer can follow and enforce the
rules. Similarly, most computer programs that play games do not do this by imitation of how a
human knows, understands, and plays a game. However, computers can be programmed to make
effective use of their high speed and large storage capacity to play quite well. As you think about
facilitating the education of todays children, consider how these computer capabilities and
limitationsnot knowing and understanding the way that a brain/mind knows and understands
can compete with and can augment humans as they solve problems and accomplish tasks. If a
problem situation requires human understanding and working with the complexities of human-
to-human interaction, humans far exceed the capabilities of computers. If a problem situation
requires knowing and precisely following a fixed set of rules, making use of large amounts of
memorized information, and functioning very rapidly, then computers are apt to be able to far
exceed the capabilities of humans.
Moreover, keep in mind that computer capabilities are going to continue to rapidly increase.
Not only will the computers of the future be faster and have large storage capacity, they will also
be smarter. It may take a large team of human computer programmers several years to develop
a computer program that has some useful, new, intelligent-like capabilities. Nevertheless, once
this programming task is completed, the program can be installed on millions of computers. This
rapid and accurate dissemination is not at all like our educational system trying to integrate a
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new idea into teaching. Part of computational thinking is understanding the computer-based
accumulation and rapid dissemination of capabilities.
Checkers
Checkers is a board game played on the same board as chess, but it is a much simpler game.
Some of the early research with computerization of checkers involved studying rote learning. In
a very simple game such as TTT, it is easy to have a computer memorize every possible
sequence of moves that can occur in a game. The computer can then be programmed to use this
information in a manner to never lose a game and in a manner to plan sequences of good moves.
Suppose you are a researcher interested in learning the value of memorizing a hundred
different opening sequences of moves in checkers. Develop a game playing program and gather
baseline data by having the computer play against itself by using the program. Then make a copy
of the program and add 100 memorized openings to it of these programs, and then have the two
programs play against each other a number of times. You will perhaps learn that this makes little
difference in which computer wins, or you may see that the computer with the memorized
openings has a distinct advantage.
You can then continue your research, adding to the number of memorized openings, adding
memorized sequences to use near the end of the game, and so on. You can experiment with what
happens when one computer has only a modest number of memorized openings and end games,
while the other has many more. You can test out various board evaluation procedures.
In checkers, as in chess, the number of possible opening sequences is immense. It turns
out that brute force memorization of all possible games is impossible with current computers.
Indeed, checkers and chess games move relatively quickly into the middle game in which
memorization of sequences of moves is no longer of value. As the play proceeds and many
pieces are lost, then in chess and checkers one moves into the end game. There, the number of
pieces on the board becomes small enough so that memorized sequences of moves are again
valuable.
Many real world problems can be thought of in terms of opening, middle game, and end
game. Rote memory (perhaps aided by looking up information in a book, referring to ones
notes, or use of a computer) can be very valuable in the opening and end game. Thus, a good
education focuses on preparing students to handle the middle game of the types of problems
they will encounter when using their education. Over emphasis on rote memory is a very poor
approach to education.
Machine Learning
Suppose that you have two identical computer programs that can play checkers. Call these
programs P1 and P2. Each uses the same combination of measures to determining how good a
particular board position is. You then add to P1 a set of directions that makes some changes to
the board evaluation procedure. These might be random changes or some specific pattern of
changes you want to explore in the formula one of the programs is using, perhaps counting
mobility more strongly, and advancement of pieces less strongly.
You then have the two programs play against each other a number of times. If P1 is now
significantly better than P2, then make a new P2 that has the same board evaluation function as
P1 and repeat the whole process. If the two programs remain approximately equal in playing
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strength, then P1 makes another set of changes to its board evaluation process and a new
round of game play occurs.
Voila! You have written a computer program that learns, all by itself, how to play a better
game. There are many types of computer-based problem-solving situations in which variations of
this technique can be used. Examples include developing a better program to handle voice input
to a computer, developing a better program to make money buying and selling stocks, and
developing better medical diagnostic programs.
This type of machine learning, and the underlying research and programming, all fits into
the general field of Artificial Intelligence. It involves and is an example of computational
thinking. Often people and computers work together on this type of machine learning. The best
of the improvement ideas developed by humans are combined with the ideas that the
computer comes up with. The results may well be better than either the humans of the computer
can do alone.
Hangman
Many children learn to play the 2-person game named Hangman. One playerthe Game
Masterthinks of a word, indicates the length of the word, and perhaps provides a clue, such as
whether the word is a noun or a verb. The other playerthe Word Guesserattempts to guess
the letters in the word. As illustrated in Figure 6.6, correct guesses are entered into their correct
location in Target Word. Incorrect letters are added to the Bad Guess list, and each incorrect
letter leads to adding one piece to the gallows and the person being hung.
http://www.freepuzzles.com/PuzzleGames/Hangman/Hangman.asp
Figure 6.6. Completed example of a game. The initial clues were eight letter verb.
http://www.freepuzzles.com/PuzzleGames/Hangman/Hangman.asp
Nowadays, some people consider the name of this game and its gallows to be
inappropriate for children. It is a simple matter to rename the game (for example, to Guess my
word) and to establish a rule such as 10 incorrect guesses and the Word Guesser loses.
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In the traditional version of the game, the hangman diagram grows with each incorrect guess.
A large number of incorrect guesses leads to the gallows and hung person being completely
drawn; the Game Master wins, and the Word Guesser loses.
In a teacher-led setting, the teacher may want to write a large number of suitable words and
their clues on pieces of paper, and places them in a box. The Game Master draws one of these
pieces of paper from the box, reads the clues to the Word Guesser, and draws the boxes for
recording correct and incorrect guesses.
Note that a certain type of intelligence is needed by each player. It is relatively easy to
understand how the Game Master can be a computer. The role of the Word Guesser can also be
played by a computer. The computer makes use of a large dictionary, information about the
frequency of letter usage in words, placement of vowels in words, and so on. Thus, the game of
Hangman can help us to learn a little bit about artificial intelligence.
Relative Frequencies of Letters Use
If you want to improve your level of expertise in Hangman and many other games that
involve forming or guessing words, then a good strategy is to memorize information such as the
relative frequency of letter use in written English. Lets call this the letter frequency strategy.
There are other lists that can be memorized and are useful in similar games. The Wikipedia site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequencies contains letter use frequencies, top ten
beginnings of words, top 10 end of words, most common bigrams, and most common trigrams.
An earlier part of this book introduced the strategy: only memorize if quite useful. Word
games constitute a large situation in which memorization is very useful. In addition to the ideas
mentioned in the previous paragraph, it can be helpful to have memorized the spelling,
definitions, and crossword puzzle definitions/clues for tens of thousands of words. With a good
memory and quick recall, this memorized information may help you to do very well in certain
television quiz or game programs, and in many games that people play.
Even a small amount of this memorization will increase your expertise in Hangman and
similar word guessing games. For example, it is not too hard to memorize the two nonsense
words ETAOIN SHRDLU. As the frequency table given below indicates, this gives you the 12
most frequently used letter, in their order of use.
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Letter Frequency
E 0.12702
T 0.09056
A 0.08167
O 0.07507
I 0.06966
N 0.06749
S 0.06327
H 0.06094
R 0.05987
D 0.04253
L 0.04025
U 0.02758
Figure 6.7. Frequency estimate for the 12 most used letters in written English.
Such memorization and quick recall is useful in most (if not all) problem-solving domains. In
essence, one memorizes solutions to frequently occurring problems or subproblems, and to
frequently used aids to solving problems or subproblems.
Othello (Reversi)
The title Othello is a registered trademark of Anjar Corporation. The game Reversi was
developed well over a hundred years ago, and is essentially the same as Othello. See
http://home.nc.rr.com/othello/history/.
This is a two-person game. I have played it many times, but I dont recall ever playing
against a human opponent. It is a game that lends itself to playing against a computer or against
another person, with both playing on a computer. Some of the advantages of playing it on a
computer include:
There is no need to have the special playing board and pieces.
Computer catches all illegal moves.
Computer keeps track of score.
Computer does all of the physical movement of the playing pieces.
If playing against a computer, one can set the skill level of the computer.
A free version of the game can be played on the Web at
http://www.freegames.ws/games/boardgames/othello/othello.htm. The figures shown in this
section are from that Website. Figure 6.8 shows the setup at the beginning of the game. The 8x8
board is shown with two black pieces and two white places placed on the board. The flip side of
a black piece is white, and the flip side of a white piece is black. Computer versions of the
game allow one to set the level at which the compute is to play.
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8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
a b c d e f g h
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8
7
6 x
5 x
4 x
3 x
2
1
a b c d e f g h
Figure 6.9. The four possible legal first moves of black.
Figure 6.10 shows the results of black playing in d3 and then white playing in c5.
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
a b c d e f g h a b c d e f g h
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8
7
6 X X X X X
5
4
3
2
1
a b c d e f g h
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
a b c d e f g h a b c d e f g h
Figure 6.12. Black moves into f6 and white responds with e3.
Othello is a two-person game with simple rules, but with a high level of complexity. If you
dont believe this, try playing against the computer when it is set at a relatively high level of
expertise.
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Many other board games have some of the same characteristics. Players deal with a set of
rules, with money, dice, making decisions, and striving to win the game. A substantial amount of
learning occurs in such environments.
For example, a young child learning to play Monopoly rolls the dice and laboriously counts
the dots. A more proficient player or mentor helps the child learn to recognize without counting
the number of dots corresponding to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The young child might then learn to
count on (count upward) from the recognized number on one die, to add in the value of the
second die. With still more instruction and practice, the child learns to mentally add the values of
the two dice.
Somewhat similarly, the young child laboriously counts out each space of a move.
Eventually a childs number skills advance to a level where a dice total of 10 leads to moving 10
spaces (one fourth of the length of the board) without counting. A dice throw of 12 might be
moved as 10 and two more, while a move of 9 might be made as a 10 and one less. Gradually
the child develops a mental model of numbers used in moving around the board.
The money to be counted, paid out, and received provides a good environment for learning to
deal with integer amount of moneyup to $2,000 for the rent on the Boardwalk property with a
hotel and the wealth that the player has accumulated.
The game involves some reading, such as following a simple instruction Go to jail. And
following more complex instructions on the Chance and Community Chest cards.
Finally, the game involves following rules, taking turns, and interacting in a civil manner
with other players.
When all of these learning and socialization opportunities are combined, the result is a very
good learning opportunity. Learning how to play Monopoly has an added value of learning a
game that your parents and perhaps your grandparents played. In some sense, Monopoly is
part of the culture in many families and communities.
Hearts
Many multi-player card games involve each player playing a card, and one play winning this
round of play. Rules for what cards can be played and who winds the trick vary with the card
game. Hearts is a good card game for learning about this type of card playing and trick taking.
Quoting from http://www.pagat.com/reverse/hearts.html:
Hearts is a trick taking game in which the object is to avoid winning tricks containing hearts; the queen of
spades is even more to be avoided. The game first appeared at the end of the nineteenth century and is now
popular in various forms in many countries. This page describes the American version first. Some remarks on
other variations will be found at the end.
Hearts is usually a four-person game, although it can be played with fewer or more players. It
is played with a standard 52-card deck, with the deuces being the lowest ranked cards and Aces
the highest ranked cards. Lowest to highest within a rank are club, diamond, heart, and spade.
Note that these rules tend to hold in many different card games, such as in pinochle, Bridge and
many versions of Poker.
The dealer deals one card facedown per person in a clockwise direction, until each of the four
players has 13 cards. Most players will sort their cards by suit and within suit by rank. This is not
required, but most people find that it reduces the cognitive load as they proceed in playing the
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game. Note that cognitive load is an important consideration in learning and in human
problem solving.
In many games, the goal is to get as high a score as possible. There are some exceptions,
such as in Hearts and golf. There, the goal is to get as low a score as possible. In Hearts, if you
win a trick, then each heart in the trick adds one point to your score. If the trick contains the
queen of spades, it adds 13 points to your score. Since your goal is to get as low a score as
possible, the usual strategy is to avoid taking tricks that contain hearts or the queen of spades.
However, there is one rule that helps make the game interesting and provides a way to have
your opponents score a large number of points. If you manage to take tricks containing all 13
hearts and the queen of spades, than you get a score of zero and each of your opponents gets a
score of 26. This is called shooting the moon. Remember, your goal is to get as low a score as
possible. Thus, shooting the moon, which gives a score of zero for you and 26 points for each of
your opponents, is a highly desirable accomplishment!
After the cards have been dealt, each player selects three cards from his or her hand to give to
one of the other players. On the first hand, each player passes the three cards facedown to the
player to their left. When passing cards, you must first select the cards to be passed and place
them facedown, ready to be picked up by the receiving player; only then may you pick up the
cards passed to you, look at them and add them to your hand.
On the second hand, each player passes three cards to the player to their right. On the third
hand, each player passes three cards to the player sitting opposite. On the fourth hand, no
cards are passed at all. The cycle is repeated until the end of the game. The game ends
according to some agreed upon rule, such as one player achieving a score of 100 or above.
There are a variety of strategies players following in making a decision of which three cards
to pass. The strategies are designed to help you achieve as low a score as possible. For example,
suppose your hand contains the queen of spades, and your analysis of your overall set of cards
leads you to believe that you will not try to shoot the moon. The question is, do you pass the
queen of spades, or do you keep it. If you keep it, can you avoid winning a trick with it? This
thinking suggests two strategies:
1. I will keep the queen of spades, so I have some control over when it is
played and who gets it. For example, if I can achieve a void (no cards) in one
suit and have a couple of smaller spades, I will pass cards to achieve the void
and I will keep the queen of spades. I will then be able to play the queen of
spades when my void suit is led by an opponent. Of course, this planning
might get messed up if the three cards I receive contain cards in the suit I am
trying to void.
2. I will pass the queen of spades, and try to make sure that I do not win a
trick that contains it. Thus, for example, in this case I probably do not want
to keep the ace or king of spades in my hand. This strategy may be helped
by having lots of low cards in my hand, and thus by also passing high cards
from other suits.
The person who holds the 2 of clubs must lead it to start the play on first trick. In each trick,
the other players, in clockwise order, must play a card of the suit that was led if possible. If they
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do not have a card of that suit, they may play any card. The person who played the highest card
of the suit led wins the trick and leads to start play on the next trick.
It is illegal to lead a heart until after a heart has been played (as a discard) to another trick,
unless your hand contains nothing but hearts. Discarding a heart, thus allowing hearts to be led
in future, is called breaking hearts. Suppose that you are in the lead (that is, get to play the first
card in a trick) after hearts have been broken, and you are not trying to shoot the moon. A good
strategy might be to lead a low heart with the expectation that one of your opponents will have to
play a higher heart and win the trick.
The rules of Hearts are simple enough so that it doesnt take very long to learn to make legal
moves and thus to participate in playing the game. However, the strategies in selecting three
cards to pass to an opponent and in playing the tricks are many and varied. Implementation of
some strategies takes careful planning ahead, remembering the cards that have been played,
remembering the cards you have received from an opponent (which might help you to know
what your opponents plan is), and so on. Through study and practice, one can develop a high
level of expertise in playing Hearts.
In Hearts, as in may other competitive games, there are a number of strategies that are
specific to the game. Often several strategies are applicable in a particular situation as you do the
thinking required to make a good decision. Over time, as you gain experience in playing the
game, you will gradually develop insights into when a particular strategy is apt to prove fruitful.
Your mind/brain, working at a subconscious level, will begin to learn patterns and then recognize
the patterns in a manner that helps make good moves. This general occurrence is part of
increasing your level of card sense expertise.
Card Sense
My 1/29/07 Google search on the quoted phrase card sense produced about 15,100 hits.
Some aspects of card sense readily transfer from one card game to another. For example, a
person learns some of the probabilities of occurrence of various combinations of cards, and these
are applicable in many different card games. Other aspects of card sense are relatively specific to
a particular card game. The two terms card sense and intuition, when applied to playing a card
game, are closely related. Card sense, or intuition within a card game, comes from long hours of
careful thinking (reflective analysis) while playing and studying a game. Other related terms
include horse sense and playing a hunch.
The game of Hearts, like other relatively challenging games discussed in this book, helps to
illustrate the overall process of learning and developing an increasing level of expertise within a
particular domain. There is the initial challenge of learning some of the rules, enough of the rules
so that one can participate in a game. There is the challenge of dealing with playing poorly
relatively to ones opponents who have had much more experience and have achieved a higher
level of expertise. There is the rapid growth in expertise level that comes through the first few
hours of playing the game. This growth is helped by having helpful mentors (friendly opponents)
who help you by sharing their insights and by teaching you some initial strategies.
Many games are complex enough so that a player will continue to gain in expertise even after
hundreds or thousands of hours of playing and studying the game. Here is a personal example. By
the time I began college, I had lots of experience playing many different card games. My dad
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taught me how to play Poker, and I played a lot of Poker with my siblings and friends. I thought I
was a good Poker player.
In college, I became friends with a fellow student through a sequence of physics and math
courses that we took together. He told me that he sometimes played Poker for real money, at a
gambling place where this was legal. With my usual self-confidence in academic things (being a
math and physics major), I challenged him to a game of Poker. It was fortunate that we were not
playing for real money. He massacred me! Although I was at least as smart as him in physics ad
math, he had a far higher level of expertise in Poker playing. There is much more to being a good
Poker player than just knowing the rules and being good at math. If you are interested in one
persons pathway to becoming a successful professional Poker player, see
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/98/08/06/CARD_SHARK.html.
Oh Heck: A Trick-Taking Card Game
Hearts is an example of a trick-taking card game. There are a large number of card games
that involve trick taking. The Wikipedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Trick-
taking_card_games lists 42 different games, including Hearts, Oh Heck, and Bridge. Oh Heck
goes by a variety of names and is quite easy to learn to play.
Playing Oh Heck involves bidding (trying to make a good estimate of how many tricks you
will take) and playing to take or not take tricks. The taking or not taking of tricks is done exactly
as in Hearts.
Bidding is an important and challenging dimension in trick-taking games that have
bidding. It takes considerable knowledge and experience to become accurate at bidding. This
topic is discussed more in the section on Bridge.
There are many different variations of the rules. The following common set of rules is
adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Hell.
The Deal and Play
Oh Heck can be played with almost any number of players, although 4-7 is considered optimal. The game
is played using a standard 52-card deck, with ace being the highest rank, two the lowest.
The first hand is played with one card dealt to each player. On each succeeding deal, one more card is dealt
out to each player, until there aren't enough cards for another round. After this, the number of cards per player
decreases by one every round. The game is complete when the last round (with one card per player) has been
played. For example, a four-player match of Oh Heck consists of twenty-five deals, from hand size 1 up to 13
and back down to 1.
The dealer deals out the cards one by one, starting with the player to the left, in a clockwise direction, until
the required number of cards has been dealt. After the dealing is complete, the next card is turned face up,
and the suit of this card determines the trump suit for the deal. (If there are no unused cards, the hand is
played without a trump suit.)
Each player is now obliged to bid for the number of tricks he believes he can win. The player to the left of
the dealer bids first. Bidding is unrestricted except that the total number of tricks bid cannot equal the
number available. That is, the last bidder (the dealer) must make a bid so that the total number of bids is
different from the number of cards each player has received. For example, if five cards are dealt to each
player, and the first three bids are two, zero, and one, then the dealer may not bid two. However, if five cards
are dealt, and the first three bids are three, one, and two, then the dealer is free to make any bid.
When every player has made a bid, the player to the left of the dealer places the opening lead. Play then proceeds
as usual in a trick-taking game, with each player in turn playing one card. Players must follow suit,
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unless they have no cards of the lead suit, in which case they may play any card. The highest card of the
lead suit wins the trick unless ruffed (trumped), when the highest trump card wins. The player who wins the
trick leads for the next trick.
Scoring
There are a variety of ways to score the game of Oh Heck. A simple way to score the game is
by use of a single scoring rule, such as:
Each player scores the number of tricks he or she takes. A player that wins the exact number of tricks bid
receives an additional 10 points for making the contract.
A variation on this is:
A player who makes the exact number of tricks bid scores 10 plus the amount bid. Players who overbid or
underbid score nothing.
It turns out that on average the easiest bid to make is a bid of zero. Thus, sometimes the
following scoring rule is added to which ever of the two rules given above is being used:
Making a zero contract scores only five points.
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player with no card of the suit led may play any card from his or her hand. The trick is won by
the highest card of the suit led, except if a trump is played. In that case, the highest trump wins.
The winner of the trick leads to the next trick.
After all 13 tricks have been played, the side that has won the most tricks scores one point for
each trick in excess of six. Thus, only one team scores for the play of a hand, and the most points
a team can score is seven.
All of the skill in Whist is shown in the play of the cards, attempting to take as many tricks as
possible. Since there is no bidding, the only information available to players before the play of
the first card is the trump suit and one trump card that the dealer has. The dealer has the
advantage of having at least one trump card (some players may have none), and the other three
players gain a slight advantage by knowing one of the cards in the dealers hand.
As the play proceeds, the players gain information from each card played. A good Whist
player will remember every card played and the order in which each card is played. If a player is
talented in this task, then the memorization occurs with little or no conscious effort. This
information will be combined with card sense to help make good decisions during the play.
Many competitive games, including Whist and poker, involve learning to read opponents.
A 1/29/07 Google search of the quoted phase reading your opponent produced about 875 hits.
There are a number of books on this topic, covering topics as diverse as poker, marital arts, and
basketball. Learning to read a human opponent is, of course, quite different from learning to read
a computer opponent. However, there are likely to be some characteristics built into a computer
program (some patterns of playing behavior) that can be learned by careful analysis of the play.
Bridge: A Trick-Taking Card Game
Bridge is a four-person card game in which a team of two players competes against another
team of two players. Bridge was derived from Whist and uses a standard 52-card deck of playing
cards. While the taking of tricks is the same as in Whist, bridge includes a sophisticated system
of bidding that occurs before the play.
The bidding process begins with the dealer. It leads to the determination of the trump suit (or,
that there will not be a trump suit) and a goal of meeting or exceeding the number of tricks
specified in the highest bid. In brief summary, quoting from
http://www.bartleby.com/65/br/bridge-crd.html:
After all cards are dealt, so that each player holds 13 cards, the dealer begins the auction, which proceeds in
rotation to the left. Each player must bid, pass, double (increase the value of the previously stated contract), or
redouble (only after a double, further increasing the point value of the contract). A bid is an offer to win a
stated number (over six) of tricks with a named suit as trump or with no trump. The lowest bid is one, the
highest seven. Each bid, i.e., one diamond, one no-trump, four hearts, must be higher than the
preceding bid, with no-trump ranking above spades. Artificial bids are those that convey certain information
to a partner and are not meant to be taken literally. The highest bid of the auction becomes the contract after
three consecutive passes end the bidding. The player who first named the suit (or no-trump) specified in the
winning bid becomes the declarer. The player to the left of the declarer leads any card face up, and the next
hand, that of the declarers partner, is placed face up on the table, grouped in suits. This is known as the
dummy, and the declarer selects the cards to be played from this hand. The object of the game for both
partnerships is to win as many tricks as possible, a trick being the three cards played in rotation after the lead.
Suits must be followed, but a player who has no cards in the suit led may play any card. Highest trump or, if
no trump card is played, highest card of the suit led wins.
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Each bid conveys some information to your partner and to your opponents. Over the years, a
number of quite sophisticate bidding conventions (sets of agreed upon meanings for bids) have
been developed. A specific bid in two different bidding systems may convey different
information. For example, in one bidding system an opening bid of one club may mean: I
have a reasonably good hand and clubs is my best suit. In a different bidding system, the same
first bid might mean: I have a very strong hand and later in the bidding I will indicate my strong
suit or suits.
The general rules of Bridge require a team to explain their bidding system to their opponents.
If a team is using a widely used bidding system, they can convey this information by merely
naming the system. If they have developed a variation of a widely used system, or if they have
developed an entirely new system, then they must provide the details to their opponents.
Needless to say, a good memory and the ability to quickly learn the meaning of ones opponents
bidding system are essential to playing Bridge well.
The scoring in Bridge is more complex than in Whist. In Whist, each trick won in excess of
six tricks counts one point. In Bridge, each trick won in excess of six may count 20 points or 30
pointswith the exception of a no-trump contract in which the first trick above six counts as
40 points and each subsequent trick counts as 30 points. Scoring is also affected by whether a
contract has been doubled, or doubled and redoubled, and by a number of other considerations.
In total, learning to score in Bridge is a significant challenge.
Bridge is far more complex and challenging than Whist because of the bidding and because
of differences in scoring. The game is played competitively as local, regional, national, and
international levels. A ranking system has been developed so that a player can achieve a
competitive rank through the accrual of points in certain sanctioned Bridge-playing events. For
some details on this, read about American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) master points at the
http://www.acbl.org/about/masterpoints.html.
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG)
My older daughter, Beth Moursund, spends a great deal of time playing various Massively
Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). One of my reasons for writing this book was her
continually pointing out to me some of the educational values of games and the educational
implications of MMOGs.
If you own and use a credit card, you are a participant in a massively multi-user online
financial system. If you use email, you are a participant in a massively multi-user online
communication system. If you use the Web, you are a participant in a massively multi-user
online virtual library system. If you make online purchases from Amazon or other large online
businesses, you are a participant in a massively multi-user business.
Nowadays, it is no big deal for many thousands of people to be making simultaneous use of a
computer system that processes business transactions, communication transactions, or game
moves. In such a game, a player controls one or more virtual characters. Some of the games that
have been developed can have tens of thousands of simultaneous players.
In many online games, players organize themselves into teams. A team, consisting of
cooperating humans each running an individual character within the game, carries out activities
that may include fighting or in some other way competing against other teams being run by
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human players, against teams being run by a computer, or perhaps just in overcoming major
challenges being generated by the computer system.
It is easy to draw parallels between this and a team of workers in a company competing
against workers from other companies and participating in the overall world of business to
develop products that capture market share and make profit for the company. It is now common
for a team of researchers, located throughout the world, to work together on a project. Indeed, it
is now common for certain types of jobs to be filled by telecommuters located thousands of miles
from their employers and customers.
The following quoted paragraph from Young et al. (2006) provides insight into MMOGs in
education:
Yes, video games are mainly for play and fun. But video games are educative as well as interesting and
engagingsomething that we all hope that more classrooms could be. Many of today's students spend more
time playing video games than they do watching television, reading books, or watching films. Massively
multiplayer online games (MMOGs)long and surprisingly complex gaming environments that
normally require over forty hours to get beyond novice levels (Squire 2004)represent the latest
development in the history of video game technology (Exhibit 1). Success in a MMOG requires
developing new literacies, understanding intricate and intersecting rule sets, thinking creatively within
constraints, collaborating with other participants towards shared goals, and perhaps most importantly, taking
on new identities as players (via their avatars) inhabit game spaces (Gee 2003). Such properties offer
significant potential for educational contexts, as indicated by the emergence of MMOGs specifically
designed to enable student interactions and centered on instructional topics (e.g., Quest Atlantis, AquaMoose
3D, and RiverCity). [Bold added for emphasis.]
Notice the forty hours in the bolded part of the quoted material. Research suggests that
many game players enjoy the challenge, the many hours of learning, and the resulting level of
expertise that results from such dedication. Players of such games become thoroughly
immersed in the game. They talk about characters in the game (such as their characters) in the
same way they talk about other people in their lives.
I enjoyed reading the following newspaper article:
Regan, Tom (June 14, 2006). What if civics class were an online game? The Christian Science Monitor.
Retrieved 6/14/06: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0614/p17s01-cogn.html.
Quoting from the article:
My 10-year-old son belongs to an online community called Runescape, a world that resembles something you
might find in "Lord of the Rings." Runescape is an MMORPGa massively multiplayer online role-playing
game. He and his friends often race home after school to "meet" one another online, in the guise of the
characters they have created. Unlike single-player games, MMORPGs create a "persistent world," one in
which the online community continues to evolve and grow even when your character (or my son's, in this
case) is not online.
I checked out the community before allowing my son to join it. Bad language is forbidden, as is abusive
conduct and a slew of other obnoxious or dangerous behaviors. There is a method for reporting those who
break the rules, if they are not noticed by the game's operators first.
In other words, if you are going to be a citizen of this online world, you must follow certain rules. True, this
online society is not one you'd find in the "real" world, but the code of citizenship in Runescape is similar to
traditional ideas of what it means to be a good citizen (along with all the dragon and goblin fighting, of
course).
As suggested above, a virtual reality learning-environment can be effective even it is not quite
close to the real reality. However, there are many virtual reality learning-environments that
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are essentially indistinguishable from real reality. Good examples are provided by the simulators
used to help train astronauts, airplane pilots, military tank crews, and a surgeon learning to
perform complex laparoscope surgery, perhaps working in cooperation with a sophisticated
robot, There are a steadily growing number of such educational simulations.
As might be expected, as more jobs require working through and with a computer-based
game-like interface, there is some incidental transfer of learning from game playing into such
jobs. A good example is provided by laparoscopic surgery.
All those years on the couch playing Nintendo and PlayStation appear to be paying off for surgeons.
Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about
37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their
counterparts who did not play video games. (Dobnik, 2004)
There is a growing body of research on the value of learning communities. The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation has been making major financial contributions designed to divide
large schools into smaller, community-like schools. The teams in a MMOG have some of the
characteristics of a small learning community. More generally, it is now common in distance
learning to have groups of students working together via the Internet. In some sense, a group of
students working together in a distance-learning course become a community.
Small learning communities tend to place considerable emphasis on the social dimensions of
education. Some game researchers are taking a similar approach. Quoting from Terdiman (2006):
The PARC team--Bob Moore, Nicolas Ducheneaut and Eric Nickell, plus Stanford's Nick Yee--have spent
the better part of three years studying the social dimensions of so-called massively multiplayer online
games (MMOs) to better understand the design challenges behind creating satisfying face-to-face avatar and
other interactions in such environments.
But along the way, the group says, it has encountered one substantial hurdle: conventional wisdom in the games
industry that development resources should be spent on content, since content is what players want.
"When faced with the decision, 'Do I put in another dungeon or do I improve the experience for (groups
of players)?'" said Ducheneaut, publishers often say "'I'll put in another dungeon.' I think that's incredibly
shortsighted."
Star Treks Holodeck
I have been a Star Trek fan since its early days. I am particularly enamored by the Holodeck,
because it provides an interesting vision of the future of education. In the Star Trek science
fiction, a Holodeck creates a virtual reality in which one can interact with virtual people, places,
and things. For example, a student could talk with Albert Einstein, take piano lessons from
Ludwig van Beethoven, be a player on a sports team made up of great figures from the past, and
so on.
Some aspects of a Holodeck now exist. Quoting from the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality:
Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment.
Most virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or
through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as
sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced and experimental systems have included limited
tactile information, known as force feedback. Users can interact with a virtual environment either through the
use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired
glove, the Polhemus boom arm, and/or omnidirectional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar
to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from
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reality, as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult to create a high-fidelity virtual reality
experience, due largely to technical limitations on processing power, image resolution and communication
bandwidth. However, those limitations are expected to eventually be overcome as processor, imaging and data
communication technologies become more powerful and cost-effective over time.
I find it interesting to try to separate the digital graphics effects in films from the rest of a
film. Is it real water in a real storm, or is it computer -generated water in a computer-generated
storm? Nowadays, real humans in a video may have both a (human) stunt double and a computer
graphic double. The DVD videos that I buy or rent often contain a behind the scenes section
that provides detail on how the computer graphics used in a film have been generated.
As the compute power available in computer games continues to grow rapidly, the characters
and actions that must be generated in real time get better and better. However, the field of
artificial intelligence has a very long way to go before a human participant will be able to
physically participate in a game and carry on oral conversations with computer-generated
characters in the game, as is common on a Holodeck.
Final Remarks: Moursunds 7-Step Advice
Some of the ideas from game playing carry over to general problem solving and decision-
making. In many situations, there is the learning that can occur in advance of being faced by the
problem, and the learning or data gathering that occurs immediately at the time of the problem
or during the process of attempting to solve the problem. In summary, here is Moursunds 7-step
problem-solving advice. A good problem solver:
1. in problem-solving situations involving working with or in competition with
other people, draws upon and cultivates the ability to read people, to
collaborate, and to compete.
2. knows his or her problem-solving strengths and weaknesses. Draws upon
the strengths and circumvents the weaknesses.
3. brings to bear general knowledge as well as general problem
solving strategies and experience.
4. brings to bear domain-specific knowledge as well as domain-specific
solving strategies and experience.
5. draws upon and develops an ability to quickly assess the problem
situation and begin gathering relevant information.
6. draws upon and develops an ability to acquire new information during the
problem-solving activity and integrate it with all of the above.
7. recognizes the need for and value of experience in all phases of problem
solving and in many different problem-solving situations and environments.
This experience, along with reflective thinking, helps to build intuition
(card sense, horse sense, hunch sense, etc.)
This is a high-road transferable strategy or set of advice that is applicable in a wide range of
problem -solving situations. As a teacher, you will want to help your students acquire this
strategy and incorporate it into their general approach to learning and using their learning.
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Chapter 8
One of the focuses in this book is on developing and learning to use a repertoire of general-
purpose problem-solving strategies. A strategy is a plan of action. Effective use of strategies
requires understanding of the strategies and careful thinking while implementing the strategies.
A lesson plan is a strategy designed to help solve a teaching and learning problem. This
chapter presents some ideas on developing and implementing game-based lesson plans. Such
lesson plans will likely have several different goals. For example, a lesson may be designed to
teach some general problem-solving strategies, to teach a specific game, and to help students
experience the process of gaining an increased level of expertise in an area. Whatever the goals
in such a lesson, they should be made explicit both in the lesson plan and to the students.
Roles of a Teacher
With the background you have gained by reading the previous chapters, you can now better
understand roles of a teacher in helping students get better at problem solving. Students can
discover strategies on their own, read about them in a book or from the Web, or be told them by
a fellow a fellow student, parent, or teacher. However, without explicit instruction, few students
will attempt to generalize such strategies for possible inclusion in their repertoire of high-road
transfer strategies
For an informal environment to be fully effective as a learning activity, it often must be augmented by tutorial
guidance that recognizes and explains weaknesses in the student's decisions or suggests ideas when the
student appears to have none. This is a significant challenge requiring many of the skills analogous to those
of a coach or laboratory instructor. The tutor or coach must be perceptive enough to make relevant comments
but not so intrusive as to destroy the fun inherent in the game. (Burton and Brown, 1982)
The teaching technique emphasized in this book is a combination of seizing the teachable
moment and teaching for high- road transfer. Whatever you are helping students to learn,
keep problem solving in mind. Each teaching/learning situation is an opportunity for students
to get better at problem solving:
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Thus, as you work to educate yourself and others, you need to think carefully about what to
learn and how to use learning time and effort efficiently and effectively. Lets use science as an
example. Science encompasses many different disciplines, such as biology, chemistry, geology,
physics, and so on. In any of these disciplines, it is possible to earn a doctorate, specializing in
a small part of the discipline.
Science is all around us. Thus, each of us learns a lot of science at a subconscious level, just
by functioning in the world and processing the steady stream of input to our senses. One of the
interesting things that educational researchers have found is that each person constructs their
own mental models and theories of various aspects of science. Some of these models are correct
enough so that they require little change over time, as we learn more and more about the science
aspects of the world we are growing up in. Others do not fit well with what we observe as we
grow older and with what is being taught to us in school.
Piaget used the terms assimilation and accommodation to describe how some new information
can be assimilated into the models and theories we have already developed, while other information
and ideas requires developing new mental models. Thus, one important aspect of learning science is
to develop general mental models that are robust enough to assimilate the science we will encounter
in our future experiences and more formal learning opportunities.
As a very young child, you certainly did not have an inherent understanding that a key
aspect of science is developing very accurate descriptions (for example, of things that one sees
in nature) and predictive/descriptive theories (for example, that the moon rotates around the
earth and reflects light from the sun). Our informal and formal educational system has helped
you to develop an internal (constructed collection of mental models) that you bring into play as
you think about the meaning of science, what scientists do, and so on.
Our educational system faces the challenge of helping each student develop a general
understanding of science, learn some specific science, and learn to learn science. In the past, our
educational system has tended to place considerable emphasis on the first two challenges, and
less emphasis on the third. Even as our understanding of the theory and practice of learning has
grown, we have tended to expect that students will figure out on their own how to learn a
particular discipline. After all, each person is unique; each brain/mind is unique. Each brain/mind
knows how to learn and can assimilate new learning challenges into its repertoire of learning
skills.
While each student will indeed learn to learn whatever we attempt to teach in school, many
students will develop quite ineffective and inefficient methods for learning. Moreover, they will
not even be aware that they are developing ineffective and inefficient methods. Here is a two-
part approach to solving this teaching/learning problem:
1. Incorporate the best of our learning to learn theory and practice into
teaching in each discipline area. Explicitly teach this to students.
2. Actively engage all students in the study of their own learning styles,
capabilities, and limitations. Over the years of formal schooling, help each
student to gain a steadily increasing understanding of themselves as a
learner and how to become a more effective and efficient learner.
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There is a lot or research and practice literature on learning to learn. A Google search using
the term learning to learn will give you hundreds if thousands of hits.
Games provide a good environment in which to help students learn about learning and learn
about themselves as learners. This one of the justifications for making use of games in education.
As you help students learn a game, you can make it clear that a game has rules that must be
learned. You can make it clear that there are a number of learning and playing strategies that are
useful both in lots of different game settings and in lots of different non-game settings. You can
make it clear that each game tends to have some specific strategies that make a significant
contribution toward increased expertise in playing the game. You can make it clear that the same
specific strategies situation holds for developing an increased level of expertise in each
discipline.
One of the advantages of a game environment is the relatively short period of time required
to move from a being a person first being exposed to a game to a person with a reasonable of
expertise in playing the gamea person who can play for enjoyment and for learning while
playing. This is in marked contrast to much of traditional learning in school.
Lesson Plan Ideas
Each of the preceding chapters includes some activities for teachers and others who are using
this book in a course or for independent study. In addition, each contains activities to be used
with students. Thus, by browsing these chapter materials, you may come up with a number of
ideas for lesson plans.
Another starting point is to browse a modest length list of goals of education, looking for big
ideas that you feel need increased emphasis in your curriculum.
The research on use of games in education strongly supports the value of having clear
learning goals in mind and of specifically teaching to these goals. Here is a short list of possible
goals for making educational uses of games in a classroom setting.
1. To help students learn more about themselves in areas such as:
a. Learning to learn and understanding how concentrated, reflective effort
over time leads to an increasing level of expertise.
b. Learning about ones cooperative versus independence versus
competitive inclinations both in learning and in demonstration or use of
ones learning.
c. Learning about oneself as a giver of feedback to others, and as a receiver
of feedback from others. This includes learning to do and make use of
both self-assessment and peer-assessment.
2. To help students better understand problem-solving strategies and to increase
their repertoire of and use of problem-solving strategies.
a. Learning about low-road and high-road transfer of learning,
especially as they apply to problem solving.
b. Learning how to recognize/identify a problem-solving strategy and
explore its possible use across many different problem domains.
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observed, and suggest that observers may want to think about and write down strategies that they
see being used and their suggestions of other strategies that hey feel would be useful.
Note that the same set of ideas can be used in any problem solving activity. That is, the
problem need not be a puzzle problem. The activity could be based on a science problem, a
social science problem, a math problem, and so on. (Note to teachers: Probably you have
already thought of this. If not, here is a good chance to practice high-road transfer of learning.
The teaching/learning strategy illustrated can be called the think out loud strategy. It is useful in
group problem-solving settings, and it is a useful component of many lesson plans.
More Specific Educational
The table in Figure 8.1 lists some of the possible specific learning goals that might be
applicable to a student engaging in playing a game. As you explore learning goals, keep in mind
one of the overriding principles of good educational practices: Lessons should be challenging
and rigorous. Thus, as you think about a specific goal, think about how your lesson will approach
this goal in a challenging and rigorous manner. The next section of this chapter provides
additional ideas on challenge and rigor.
Goals: Students will learn: Points
1. Declarative knowledge about the gamerules, vocabulary, objectives, history.
2. Procedural knowledge about the gameusing procedural thinking in making good moves.
Knowledge and understanding of algorithmic and heuristic procedures relevant to making good
moves.
3. How to learn a game. How expertise increases through gaining improved declarative and
procedural knowledge, through practice, through metacognition, and through reflective analysis.
4. How to obtain and use feedback from oneself, the computer (if playing in a computer
environment), and ones fellow players (if playing with and/or against others). Often this requires
careful record keeping and then reflective analysis of moves made in a game.
5. To practice the high-road transfer of learning heuristics of developing an overall long-range
strategy and making use of look ahead.
6. How to appropriately interact with fellow players and opponents. This includes learning the
culture and social skills of game playing in general, as well as for the particular game being
played.
7. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat (if it is a competitive game).
8 How to help others learn to play the game; how to be a teach/mentor in a game learning and game
playing environment.
9. Self assessment and peer assessment. Receiving and giving feedback from oneself and others that
can be used to improve the level of ones expertise.
10. Etc.
The total of the points must add up to 100
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points of view? If you dont provide your students with information about the relative
importance of various goals, how will the students self-assess or do peer assessment?
It is useful to analyze some of the possible goals and to think about the nature of learning
that might occur in a gaming environment.
1 and 2. A gaming environment tends to have less clutter and complexity than the
school environment typically available as one studies a traditional school
discipline. Thus, a gaming environment may be well suited to helping a
student learn about declarative and procedural knowledge, and procedural
thinking. A procedure can be classified as an algorithm (proven to solve a
specific type of problem or accomplish a specific type of task), or heuristic
(such as a rule of thumb that is designed to solve or help solve a problem,
but is not guaranteed to be successful). Learn more about procedures and
procedural thinking in Chapter 4 of Moursund (2005).
3 If you are a person who is apt to be learning many different games during a
lifetime, it is beneficial to learn to learn games. In addition, many non-
game problems have much in common with game problems. Thus, there
can be considerable transfer of learning from the process of learning a
game to the process of dealing with such real world problems.
4. Feedback is important in any learning and problem-solving situation. Part
of the learning process is to develop skill in obtaining and using feedback
from self, others, the problem-solving situation, and so on. This is the basis
for an important high-road transfer of learning heuristic. When attempting
to solve a problem, make a list of possible sources of feedback that can
provide information on the progress you are making in solving the problem.
5. Game playing often lends itself to developing and using a long-range
strategy. Long-range strategic planning is such a widely useful heuristic that
it should be part of the problem-solving repertoire of all students. A similar
statement holds for the look-ahead strategy. Such strategies can be learned in
a widely applicable manner through appropriate teaching for high-road
transfer. (Note also that a person can learn to recognize opportunities for
high-road transfer and then do the steps needed to help increase high-road
transfera teacher may be helpful, but certainly is not a necessary
requirement. TAG students tend to be good at this.)
6 There are many different learning theories. Lev Vygotskys learning theory
(http://chd.gse.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/theorists/constructivism/v
ygotsky.htm) is called social constructivism. It is a social development theory,
quite a bit different than Piagets cognitive development theory. The social
aspects of a learning situation are a key aspect of social constructivism. Many
people play games because they enjoy being in the social setting that the
environment provides. In an educational setting, metacognition might help game
players learn some things about their social skills, likes, and dislikes.
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7. Some games are competitive, some are collaborative, some are both (a team
working together, competing with another team), and so on. Many games
provide an opportunity to experience the thrill of victory and the agony of
defeatand to learn about how one deals with winning and losing.
8. I believe that all people are naturally both learners and teachers. Through
informal and formal education, we all get better at learning and teaching.
Game-playing environments tend to provide a good opportunity to help
others learn. For example, a game player might be engaged in both teaching
and learning why asking another player a question such as, Can you
explain to me what you had in mind when you (question asker describes a
particular move or action by the other player)?
9. Learning to self assess is an important goal in education. Games provide an
environment in which one can practice self-assessment, peer assessment,
and giving and receiving feedback based on such assessments.
The types of learning goals listed in Figure 8.1 are not automatically achieved by students
who play games. Quoting from Conati and Klawe (2000):
These results indicate that, although educational computer games can highly engage students in activities
involving the targeted educational skills, such engagement, by itself, is often not enough to fulfill the learning
and instructional needs of students. This could be due to several reasons.
One reason could be that even the most carefully designed game fails to make students reflect on the
underlying domain knowledge and constructively react to the learning stimuli provided by the game.
Insightful learning requires meta-cognitive skills that foster conscious reflection upon one's problem
solving and performance [2, 4, 24], but reflective cognition is hard work.
Goals of Education: Rigor on Trial
As a teacher, I often have trouble thinking about my lessons from a student point of view.
Thus, I was impressed by the work being done by Tony Wagner and others as they explored
lesson plans from a student point of view (Wagner, 2006). The emphasis in this work was on
exploring the rigor of classroom instruction and learning. Quoting from Wagners article:
We began to realize that rigor has less to do with how demanding the material the teacher covers is than with
what competencies students have mastered as a result of a lesson. We were able to agree on this because, in
our journey, we had gone from creating a series of teacher-centered observations to reaching consensus on a
set of questions we would ask students. The seven questions that emerged from this work are the
following:
1. What is the purpose of this lesson?
2. Why is this important to learn?
3. In what ways am I challenged to think in this lesson?
4. How will I apply, assess, or communicate what Ive learned?
5. How will I know how good my work is and how I can improve it?
6. Do I feel respected by other students in this class?
7. Do I feel respected by the teacher in this class?
One of the most important goals in education is to help students learn to take a steadily
increasing level of personal responsibility for their own education. The list of seven questions
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given above is a piece of an overalls strategy for doing this. When you (as a teacher) develop and
use a lesson plan, do a whole class debriefing at the end of the lesson. Engage your students in
questions such as those given in the list. Help them to learn that these are good questions to use
any timeat the beginning of a lesson, during a lesson, or at the end of a lesson. Use this activity
to learn to become a better teacher!
Rubrics
Almost all teachers make use of rubrics as they assess student work and provide feedback to
students. Typically, a rubric is aligned with goals in a unit of study, a lesson, or a specific
assignment. Sometimes a rubric is designed just for the use of the teacher. At other times, a
rubric is designed for use both by the teacher and by the teachers students.
In the latter case, it is essential that the students be able to understand the rubric and to self-
assess. There is considerable literature on the value of involving students in the development of
rubrics. Such involvement may increase student motivation and serves as a good approach to
helping students understand a rubric.
Teachers know that students vary widely in their backgrounds and interests. In teacher-
centered education, the teacher and higher-level components of the school system are apt to
specify rubrics and relative weights to be given to the assessment of various components of a
graded activity.
Contrast this with assessment in student-centered education. There, one might facilitate
students in developing their own rubrics. Within a range of goals decided upon by the teacher
(or, teacher and students working together), each individual student might develop their own
specific rubric or a part of a rubric to fit their own individual interests and needs.
Activities for the Reader
1. Do some quick brainstorming, either individually or in a small group.
Brainstorm goals of education that you feel might be approached through use
of games.
2. Do some quick brainstorming, either individually or in a small group.
Compile a list of games, each accompanied by an appropriate
educational goal that might fit well in a lesson based on the game.
3. In a small group, share your thoughts on allowing students to help develop
rubrics and perhaps even individualizing a teacher-developed or whole class-
developed rubric to better fit his or her interests and needs.
Activities for use with Students
1. Reread the section Goals of Education: Rigor on Trial given earlier in this
chapter. Then try out the ideas of this section with your students.
2. Experiment with the idea of involving your students in developing rubrics,
and with the idea of individualization or rubrics to fit the interests and
needs of individual students.
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Chapter 9
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We know that as many children enjoy playing games according to given rules, they are also constantly
modifying rules and inventing their own. Piaget (1951) claimed that these modifications reflected childrens
growing understanding of the world. The process of game construction represented for Piaget the ultimate
effort by children to master their environment in creating their representations of the world. Turkle (1984)
pointed out an interesting parallel between the attractions of playing games and of programming computers.
She saw programming as a way for children to build their own worlds. Within this context, children could
determine the rules and boundaries governing the game world and become the makers and players of their
own games. In contrast, when children play a video game, they are always playing a game programmed by
someone else; they are always exploring someone elses world and deciphering someone elses mystery.
Turkle saw that what she called the holding power of playing purchased video games could be applied to the
making or programming of video games.
It is possible to create an interactive computer game in any general-purpose computer
programming language designed to facilitate interactivity. BASIC and Logo are programming
languages that millions of students have learned and that are quite suitable for game
development. Both commercial and free versions of each of these programming languages are
available. The Website http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/miscellaneous.shtml is a useful
starting point for finding free versions of these and other programming languages.
Squeak is a more recently developed computer programming language that is designed for
students. It provides an excellent environment for creating games. It is available free at
http://www.squeak.org/Features/ for both Mac and Windows platforms.
An alternative approach is to make use of software that has been specifically designed for
game development. Game Maker is available free on the Web and provides a good example of
such software (Overmars, n.d.). Quoting from Mark Ovemars Website:
Did you always want to design computer games? But you don't want to spend a lot of time learning how to
become a programmer? Then you came to the right place. Game Maker is a program that allows you to make
exciting computer games without the need to write a single line of code. Making games with Game Maker is
great fun. Using easy to learn drag-and-drop actions you can create professional looking games in little time.
You can make games with backgrounds, animated graphics, music and sound effects. And once you get more
experienced there is a built-in programming language that gives you full flexibility. What is best, Game
Maker can be used free of charge. And you can use the games you produced in any way you like. You can
even sell them!
There are many other game-creation resources available. See for example:
http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html. The Website provides many examples of free
software available for creating computer games.
Games and the Aging Brain
During the past five years, I have become quite interested in brain science and how it relates
to education. Also, as I have continued to grow older, I have developed an interest in capabilities
of the aging brain.
During the past two decades, there has been substantial progress in brain research. Largely,
this has occurred using non-invasive brain scanning equipment. This equipment depends heavily
on computer hardware and software. The steady increase in the speed and the cost effectiveness
of computer systems has been a major factor in improvement of brain imaging equipment.
It has long been understood that use it or lose it applies to ones physical body. Now, it is
also understood that this applies to ones mind and brain. Gene Cohen is the Director of the
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Center on Aging, Health, and Humanities at George Washing University. Quoting from Cohen
(2006):
An important 2003 study identified five leisure activities that were associated with a lower risk of dementia
and cognitive decline. In order of impact (from highest to lowest), the winners were dancing, playing board
games, playing musical instruments, doing crossword puzzles, and reading. Risk reduction was related to
the frequency of participation. For example, older persons who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a
risk of dementia 47 percent lower than subjects who did puzzles only once a week. [Bold added for
emphasis.]
The Fall 2005 article at
http://www.gwu.edu/~magazine/2005_research_fall/features/feat_aging.htm discusses Cohens
work:
They have found that sleep and mood disorders can be alleviated by stimulating the brain; that vocabulary
expands well into the 80s among people who continually challenge themselves through reading, writing, and
word games; and that an active lifestyle can boost the immune system. [Bold added for emphasis.]
Gene Cohen is now involved in developing games designed to exercise the aging brain.
Research in this area seems somewhat limited. The commercial Website Acuity Games
http://www.acuitygames.com/research.html includes links to various research studies. (As of
1/29/07 all of the references were 2004 and older.)
If you are into physical exercises, then you probably know quite a bit about how often to
work out, how long to work out, how hard to work out, and so on. That is, the science of physical
workouts is quite well developed. This is not the case for mental workouts.
Artificial Intelligence
Throughout my professional career, I have been interested in artificial intelligence. The
following is quoted from my 2005 book Brief Introduction to Educational Implications of
Artificial Intelligence. The entire book is available free at
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~moursund/Books/AIBook/index.htm.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of the field of computer and information science. It focuses on
developing hardware and software systems that solve problems and accomplish tasks thatif accomplished
by humanswould be considered a display of intelligence. The field of AI includes studying and developing
machines such as robots, automatic pilots for airplanes and space ships, and smart military weapons.
Europeans tend to use the term machine intelligence (MI) instead of the term AI.
The theory and practice of AI is leading to the development of a wide range of artificially intelligent tools.
These tools, sometimes working under the guidance of a human and sometimes without external guidance,
are able to solve or help solve a steadily increasing range of problems. Over the past 60 years, AI has
produced a number of results that are important to students, teachers, our overall educational system, and to
our society.
Each computer game makes use of some aspects of AI. For example, when you are playing a
computer game, you decide on a move and communicate this to the computer. You might do this
by use of a keyboard, mouse, joystick, or verbal command. In some sense, the computer
understands your specification of a move and checks to see if it is a legal move. If it is not a
legal move, the computer tells you so. If it is a legal move, the computer makes the move. It
takes a certain amount of intelligence to receive a specified move, decide if is a legal move, and
then take appropriate action.
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Many computer games make use of considerably more AI. For example, in computer games
that require two or more players, the computer may serve as some (or all) of these players. If you
like to play games such as checkers and chess, you can play them against a computer opponent.
The chances are that this computer opponent has enough checker-playing or chess-playing
intelligence to defeat you.
You may have noticed that the definitions of AI do not talk about the computers possible
sources of knowledge. Two common sources of an AI systems knowledge are:
Human knowledge that has been converted into a format suitable for use by an AI system.
Knowledge generated by an AI system, perhaps by gathering data and information, and by
analyzing data, information, and knowledge at its disposal.
While most people seem to accept the first point as being rather obvious, many view the
second point only as a product of science fiction. Many people find it scary to think of a
machine that in some sense thinks and thereby gains increased knowledge and capabilities. To
learn more about this topic see Chapter 7 of Moursund (2005).
Many real world problems or problem situations are very large, complex, and
interdisciplinary. The translation of speech from one natural language to another provides a good
example. While some progress is being made in this area, bilingual humans are far better at such
translation than are artificially intelligent computer systems.
There are other more limited and less challenging problem areas in which AI systems are
quite successful. Examples include processing loan applications, certain types of medical
diagnostic work, and in some Highly Interactive Intelligent Computer-Assisted Learning
systems. Computer systems that handle voice input (for example, receiving voice input and
producing text as output) are now accurate enough so that many people use them.
The point is, AI is an increasingly important use of computers that affects everyday life in
our society. Thus, it is important that students learn some of the characteristics, capabilities, and
limitations of AI systems. Games can be a useful part of an environment to study and experiment
with AI. A Google search of games and artificial intelligence produces millions of hits.
Browsing a few of these hits will give you increased insight into AI and roles of AI in computer
games.
Dangers of Too Much Game Playing
It is clear that computers, cell phones, digital cameras, video games, and other aspects of ICT
are here to stay. Moreover, it is clear that children growing up in this environment tend to be
more comfortable with it than many of todays adults. ICT has already substantially changed the
day-to-day life patterns of many people. For example, as I watch college students moving from
class to class, I am beginning to wonder if having a cell phone or a music player is now an
integral component of walking!
Video games are steadily moving in the direction of having the video and story line quality of
broadcast television, along with steadily improving interactivity that allows the viewer to be an
active participant in the story. In that sense, a video game can be thought of as video plus
interactive participation. It is not surprising that large numbers of children spend more time
playing video games than they do watching (non interactive) television.
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There is a substantial and growing literature on actual and possible harms of children and
adults spending so much time playing video games and making other uses of ICT. My personal
collection of such materials can be accessed at http://otec.uoregon.edu/arguments_against.htm .
Such arguments against use or over use of ICT tends to fall into two major categories:
1. Arguments that use or overuse of ICT causes physical and/or mental damage.
For example, huge numbers of people develop carpel tunnel syndrome.
There is growing evidence of increasing obesity in children due to not
getting enough physical exercise. There are continuing concerns that cell
phones may cause brain damage; there is strong evidence of loud audio
devices causing hearing damage.
2. Arguments that video games and other ICT are addictive and take time
away from other activities that are important parts of becoming a well
rounded, responsible adult, and productive adult.
Schools are struggling with how to make appropriate use of ICT as an aid to learning and, at
the same time, restrict or prohibit use of ICT that draws student attention away from learning the
content being taught in schools, is disruptive in classrooms, is used to cheat on tests, is used to
harass students, is used by stalkers, and so on.
Douglass Gentile (n.d.) discusses some of the standard arguments against young children
spending too much time playing video games. His brief article concludes with the statement:
It's important to remember, however, that video and computer games aren't all bad. Quality games give
children the opportunity to practice problem solving and logic skills. They increase fine motor and
coordination skills and foster an interest in information technology. And, if you are playing the games with
your child something I highly recommend they provide an occasion for you to do something together.
Your best bet is to limit video game playing now while your child is still young. In addition, be a smart
consumer and choose video games for your child that are age appropriate and that aren't sending the wrong
message.
Knowledge-Building Communities
A number of people are doing research in the field of games in education. Scardamalia and
Bereiter (1994) provides a good foundation for some of this research. Their article includes a
focus on three important aspects of education that are also important aspects of using games in
education;
1. Intentional learning. Quoting from their article:
Although a great deal of learning is unintentional, important kinds of school learning appear not to take
place unless the student is actively trying to achieve a cognitive objectiveas distinct from simply
trying to do well on school tasks or activities (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1989; Chan, Burtis, Scardamalia,
& Bereiter, 1992; Ng & Bereiter, 1991).
As pointed out elsewhere in this book, effective use of games in education
requires that they be used in an intentional learning environment.
2. Expertise is a process. Quoting from Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994):
Although expertise is usually gauged by performance, there is a process aspect to expertise, which we
hypothesize to consist of reinvestment of mental resources that become available as a result of pattern
learning and automaticity, and more particularly their reinvestment in progressive problem solving
addressing the problems of one's domain at increasing levels of complexity (Bereiter & Scardamalia,
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1993; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991b). Progressive problem solving characterizes not only people on
their way to becoming experts, but it also characterizes experts when they are working at the edges of
their competence. Among students, the process of expertise manifests itself as intentional learning.
We want students to develop their levels of expertise in many different areas. Research
indicates that students should understand this educational goal, understand the meaning
of expertise, and be actively engaged in developing their own expertise.
3. Schools as knowledge-building communities. Quoting from Scardamalia and
Bereiter (1994):
The process of expertise is effortful and typically requires social support. By implication, the same is true
of intentional learning. Most social environments do not provide such support. They are what we call
first-order environments. Adaptation to the environment involves learning, but the learning is asymptotic.
One becomes an old timer, comfortably integrated into a relatively stable system of routines (Lave &
Wenger, 1991). As we explain further in later sections, there is good reason to characterize schools of both
didactic and child-centered orientations as first-order environments. In second-order environments,
learning is not asymptotic because what one person does in adapting changes the environment so that
others must readapt. Competitive sports and businesses are examples of second-order environments, in
which the accomplishments of participants keep raising the standard that the others strive for. More
relevant examples in education are the sciences and other learned disciplines in which adaptation involves
making contributions to collective knowledge. Because this very activity increases the collective
knowledge, continued adaptation requires contributions beyond what is already known, thus producing
non-asymptotic learning. The idea of schools as knowledge-building communities is the idea of making
them into second-order environments on this model.
One of the key ideas here is that of a steadily rising bar. The totality of human
knowledge is steadily growing. Many people talk about the idea of an information
overloadthat there is too much information that we need to deal with. Our
schools should be helping students learn to deal with this information overload.
In some sense, the world we live in is growing more complex. The problems an
ordinary person faces in day to day living are growing more complex. I like to
think of this as a problem overload. I am continually bombarded by problem
situations, in a manner suggesting I should take ownership and accept the problem
situations as personal problems. A couple of hours of watching commercial
television and news, and I am overwhelmed. Some of the worlds best marketing
people are doing their best in feeding me problem situations (be it bad breath,
heartburn, starving children through the world, crime in my own city, and so on)
that I must do something about immediately.
In some sense, the difficulty is not an information overload. It is a lack of easily
accessible information to deal with the problem overload. I lack the information
to quickly and easily deal with all of these problem situations that are being
forced upon me!
Static and Virtual Math Manipulatives
Math educators often make use of math manipulatives in helping their students to better
understand mathematics. Many of these manipulatives have game-like characteristics. A brief
discussion of computer-based math manipulatives (virtual manipulatives) and links to a number
of virtual manipulative Websites are available at
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Two researchers at Brunel University recently reported on their three-year study of gaming
(Brunel University, 2006). Quoting from the press release:
Brunel academics today unveil the results of a three-year study into online gaming communities, which defies
the traditional educationalists' negative perception of gaming. The academics believe that computer games
have a central role to play in the education and development of young people, contributing to the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's strategy of work related learning, which helps children make an
effective transition from school to work.
The study, which took the form of qualitative research into a community of players of the online game
Runescape shows that gaming is far from being a frivolous diversion from homework. The research shows
how the online worlds created by the gamers mirror many aspects of material society helping teenage
gamers to make the transition from school to work. For example, gamers are invited to join 'Klans' - highly
disciplined co-operatives in which they share a common set of goals, they adopt identities such as merchant
or warrior and they divide their time online between work and leisure. Most importantly, skills are learnt
which are highly valued, with experienced players tailoring their 'training' to acquire the 'desirable' skillsa
clear example of 'work related learning'.
Many of todays popular computer games are multiplayer, first person shooter (FPS) games.
In such games, a game player controls a person or avatar that is a member of a team, playing
against the computer and/or against other teams (Wright et al., 2002). The referenced article
includes an emphasis on the social interaction that goes on in such a game. Quoting from this
research article:
Play is not just "playing the game," but "playing with the rules of the game" and is best shown in the diversity
of talk, the creative uses of such talk and player behavior within the game, plus the modifications of game
technical features. Of course, the playing of the game also produces changes in one's own subjectivity
making it a pleasurable experience if one is accomplished (Myers 1992). In essence, the game is a platform
for showing off human performances in a mock combat setting. But, all is not combat or simply shooting a
virtual enemy. And, as in any human performance, creativity of execution is the norm.
From our text files we identified 39 possible coded talk categories which fit into the following five general
categories: 1) creative game talk, 2) game conflict talk, 3) insult/distancing talk, 4), performance talk and 5)
game technical/external talk. These were the categories that appeared to exhibit the greatest frequency of
use among players.
A number of people and groups are now engaged in research and development of educational
computer games. Kurt Squire at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a leading researcher in
this field. Quoting from Massachusetts Institute of Technologies Games-to Teach Website
(Squires, n.d.)
The most under-examined potential of games may be their impact as an educational medium. Playing games,
I can relive historical eras (as in Pirates!), investigate complex systems like the Earth's chemical & life cycles
(SimEarth), govern island nations (Tropico), manage complex industrial empires (Railroad Tycoon), or,
indeed, run an entire civilization (Civilization series). Did I forget to mention travel in time to Ancient Greece
(Caesar I,II, & III), Rome (Age of Empires I, and II), relive European colonization of the Americas
(Colonization), or manage an ant colony, farm, hospital, skyscraper, theme park, zoo, airport, or fast food
chain? As my opening anecdote suggests, the impact of games on millions of gamers who grew up playing
best-selling games such as SimCity, Pirates!, or Civilization is starting to be felt.
Squires paper contains an extensive bibliography and provides good evidence of the
growing research literature in this discipline.
Serious Games
The term serious games is now used to describe games that are designed for
educational purposes. Quoting from Katrin Becker (n.d.):
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The use of computer and video games for learning is an emerging area of research, and interest is growing
rapidly. As a sub-field of Serious Games, digital game-based learning poses some unique problems and
challenges. As more and more young people grow up with digital games as one of their primary forms of
entertainment, it behooves us to become familiar with this genre, how it affects people, and how we might use
it for educational goals. Computer technology has advanced to the point where it is feasible (we now have the
horse-power to accomplish this) to use games in a classroom setting. "Computer pioneer Alan Kay (DARPA
in the '60s, PARC in the '70s, now HP Labs) declares 'The sad truth is that 20 years or so of
commercialization have almost completely missed the point of what personal computing is about.' He
believes that PCs should be tools for creativity and learning, and they are falling short."
If you are interested in some of the current Serious Games ideas and research, you might
enjoy reading the notes published by an attendee at the two-day Serious Games Summit held
October 31 and November 1, 2005. The notes are available at
http://www.mcmains.net/ruminations/2005/11/01. The posting starts with Day 2, but contains
Day 1 later in the posting.
Marc Prenskys Website is an excellent resource on serious games. Quoting from
http://www.socialimpactgames.com/:
Welcome to our revised site, which now boasts an index (see left). All the content on this site (except
comments) is available without logging in. We have now identified over 500 serious games, which we are in
the process of adding to this list."
Additional resources from Prensky are available at
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp, http://www.gamesparentsteachers.com/, and
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Game-Based%20Learning-
Ch5.pdf. The first Website contains chapters 1-3 and the third reference contains chapter 5 of
Prenskys 2001 book Digital Game-Based Learning. Quoting from chapter 5 of his 2001 book:
1. Games are a form of fun. That gives us enjoyment and pleasure.
2. Games are form of play. That gives us intense and passionate involvement.
3. Games have rules. That gives us structure.
4. Games have goals. That gives us motivation.
5. Games are interactive. That gives us doing.
6. Games are adaptive. That gives us flow.
7. Games have outcomes and feedback. That gives us learning.
8. Games have win states. That gives us ego gratification.
9. Games have conflict/competition/challenge/opposition. That gives us adrenaline.
10. Games have problem solving. That sparks our creativity.
11. Games have interaction. That gives us social groups.
12. Games have representation and story. That gives us emotion.
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Appendix 1
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collect data. Think of playing a game or attempting to solve a problem as a research process.
Think of yourself as a scientific researcher, carefully gathering data about the moves you
are making or thinking about making and the strategies you are using, and then analyzing
the results that are obtained from a particular move. You can see that this is essentially the
same process as the scientific method that researchers use. Thus, this is an excellent
opportunity for high-road transfer of learning.
create a simpler problem. When faced by a problem that you cannot solve, create a somewhat
similar or related problem that is challenging, but perhaps not as difficult. Working to solve
the new problem may give you insights that will help you to solve the original problem.
divide and conquer. Divide a large problem into smaller sub-problems that are more
manageable. Do this in a manner such that once the sub-problems are solved, it is relatively
easy to put the pieces together to solve the original problem. Note the value of having a
large repertoire of sub- problems that one can readily solve. Often, some of the sub-
problems can be solved by a computer or other machine.
domain-specific. Most of the strategies listed in this appendix are applicable in many different
game and non-game problem-solving situations. Within any problem-solving or game
domain, there are strategies that are quite specific to the domain. These are called domain-
specific problem-solving strategies For example, play in the center square if you are the
first player in a TTT game. This is a good TTT strategy because if your opponent responds
by playing in the center of any of the four edges, you can then force a win. If your
opponent plays in a corner, you can easily avoid losing.
dont box yourself into a corner. See mobility.
elimination. In many problems, it is possible to relatively quickly and easily eliminate certain
categories of potential solutions or approaches. This narrows the things that one needs to
think about or try out in an attempt to solve the problem.
exhaustive search. Many problems can be solved by trying out all possible (allowable,
applicable) moves or sequences of moves. If the number of possibilities is relatively small,
a person or team of people might be able to carry out such an exhaustive search in a timely
fashion. If the search process can be carried out by a computer, it may be possible to
explore many millions of possible solutions or sequences of moves.
explore solvability. Many of the situations that people call problems are actually not clearly
defined and understandable problems. Rather, they are problem situations. One of the first
steps to take when faced by a problem situation is to explore whether it is actually a clearly
defined problem (given initial situation, clear goal, resources, ownership). One does not
solve a problem situation, one solves a problem. Next, spend some time exploring whether
you actually understand the problem. If you dont understand the given initial situation, the
goal, and the resources, you are not in a good situation to attempt to solve the problem. One
way to increase your understanding of a problem is to consider whether the problem might
not have a solution. Think to yourself: how would I recognize a solution if I happened to
find one?
good start. Quoting Aristotle, Well begun is half done. Quoting Lao Tzu , A journey of a
thousand miles must begin with a single step. In problem solving, a good start or a good
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first step is one that is likely to make a significant contribution to solving the problem. In
competitive two-player games such chess, many thousands of person hours of effort have
gone into analyzing opening sequence of moves. Knowledge of and use of good
openings can give a player a substantial advantage over an opponent who is less familiar
with this form of accumulated knowledge.
guess and check. See guess and learn.
guess and learn. Many problems can be approached by making a guess (sometimes called an
educated guess) at a solution or a possible approach to obtaining a solution. If the guess
provides a correct solution or a correct pathway to obtaining a solution, that is well and
good. If it doesnt, then one still gains useful information about the problem. For example,
if one makes a guess of a solution and the guess is incorrect, one learns that the guess is
incorrect. However, in many problem-solving situations, one gains additional information
that helps in making a better guess or helps in developing a better plan. Generally
speaking, increasing ones expertise in problem solving in a particular domain includes
getting better at making educated guesses and making guesses that are useful aids to
learning more about how to solve a problem in the domain.
hill climbing. See incremental improvement.
incremental improvement. Some problems can be solved through a sequence of incremental
improvements. This is somewhat akin to walking to the top of a mountain by making sure
each step moves you uphill. However, many problems cannot be solved by incremental
improvement (think of climbing a mountain and having to move down hill from time to
time). Thus, incremental improvement is often a poor strategy, wasting time and other
resources, and contributing little to actually solving the problem.
information retrieval. See reinvent the wheel.
learn to fill in the details. A powerful alternative to rote memory is to learn/understand general
approaches to solving certain types of problems, accomplishing certain types of tasks, and
making certain proofs. With the general understanding, one can then fill in the details. This
is a common teaching technique in math and is applicable to any problem solving
instruction.
letter frequency. Data has been collected on the frequency of use of each letter of the English
alphabet in typical writing. Also, data has been collected on most frequent beginnings of
words and end of words, most common bigrams, most common trigrams, and so on. A
person can memorize such detailed data, and it can be incorporated in computer programs.
The data is useful in cryptography, working to identify the author of a manuscript, and in a
variety of games. Use of letter frequency is a good example of building on the previous
work of others.
long-range planning. This is often called long-range strategic planning. It refers to developing
a broad, strategic plan that provides a good sense of direction of where one is heading in
trying to solve a particular problem. Often a long-range strategic plan is accompanied by
shorter-range plans and strategies, and by detailed tactics that are designed to accomplish
the short range plans.
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look ahead. Typically, solving a problem involves a sequence of steps or moves. In there is an
opponent involved, then moves are followed by responses that might well affect ones next
move. In attempting to solve real-world problems, each step or action makes a change in
the problem situation. Failure to anticipate major changes often leads to failure to solve a
problem.
look before you leap. See: think before you act; look ahead; good start.
memorize when personally effort-effective. This is a strategy applicable to a wide variety of
problem-solving situations. Memorized information can be thought of as solutions to
specific sub-problems or problems. People vary considerably in terms of how quickly and
accurately they can memorize a particular set of materials, and how long and accurately
they retain the memorized information. A rule of thumb is to memorize information that
one needs to use frequently enough, and in a time-dependent manner, to make the
memorization effort worthwhile. Keep in mind the capabilities of a computer system to
store the full contents of millions of books, and the abilities of search engines to aid in
retrieval of information stored in a computer.
mental aids. Reading, writing, arithmetic, books, and computers are all examples of mental
aids. They help to overcome limitations of ones brain. They are resources that can be
applied to problems in every domain. See modeling and simulation.
metacognition. Metacognition is thinking aboutanalyzing, reflecting onones thinking. It is
a highly effective strategy in improving ones problem-solving and learning skills.
metaphor. See modeling and simulation. A metaphor is the application of a word or phrase to
somebody or something that is not meant literally but to make a comparison, for example,
saying that somebody is a snake (Encarta World English Dictionary 1999 Microsoft
Corporation). In some sense, most written and oral language is metaphorical. It is an
attempt to provide a written or oral representation of something, where the words and
sounds are not the actual thing being represented. When describing and thinking about a
problem, metaphors can be a powerful aid to understanding or constructing understanding,
thinking, and thinking outside the box.
mobility. As you work to solve a challenging problem, dont close off options that may later
prove to be fruitful. Dont box yourself into a corner where you have very few or no
options.
modeling and simulation. The development of models and then the use of these models (for
example, develop a model of an airplane and test it in a wind tunnel) has long been a
powerful tool in problem solving. Computer modeling and simulation is such a powerful
aid to problem solving that it has added a new dimension to how science is done.
Nowadays, science is done experimentally (designing and carrying out experiments),
theoretically (developing theories, such as Einsteins theory of relativity), and
computationally (developing and using computer models). Spreadsheet software is a
powerful aid to modeling many business problems and then answering What if? types of
questions.
Moursunds 7-step strategy. This is a seven-part set of advice that can be used to get better at
solving a wide range of problems. It summarizes ideas such as learning general knowledge
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and strategies, learning domain-specific knowledge and strategies, and learning during
the process of solving a problem.
patterns. This is a short name for strategies such as look for patterns and make use of patterns. I
find it helpful to think of randomness as being the absence of patterns. The human brain
can be thought of as an organ for the input, storage, processing, and use of patterns. (That
statement is quite similar to the statement that an electronic digital computer is a machine
for the input, storage, processing, and output of data and information.) The identification
and use of patterns is a key aspect of problem solving in every discipline.
problem situation. Many of the things that people describe as problems are actually problem
situations. They lack one or more of the characteristics (givens, goal, resources, ownership)
to be clearly defined problem of personal interest. Polyas six- step strategy begins with
understanding the problemdetermining if one actually has a clearly defined problem that
he or she is interested in solving.
random. See patterns. Somewhat surprisingly, the use of random moves or random activity can
be a useful approach in many different problem-solving situations. Of course, many games
make use of randomness. For example, one shuffles the cards in card-based games of
solitaire and in many other card games. One makes use of a spinner or dice into generate
moves in many different games. At a deeper level, randomness can be used in modeling
and simulation as an aid to solving a wide range of problems in science and other areas. For
a more mundane example, imaging a person playing a game such as Tic-Tac-Toe by
making completely random moves. The results can be used to establish baseline data on
how well a person plays the game before developing or learning any strategies that lead to
an improved level of play.
record one's moves. See collect data. See mental aids.
reinvent the wheel. This strategy takes two forms: 1) dont reinvent the wheel; 2) do reinvent
the wheel. In the first instance, the idea is to build upon work that you and others have done
in the past. Use Web and other resources of stored informationdo library researchto
find out what is already known about how to solve a particular problem. In the second
instance, the idea is to not be boxed in by conventional approaches to the problem. This
approach is also a key in learning how to solve problems. There, the goal is to improve
ones level of expertise in solving novel, challenging problems.
score and then improve your score. See good start. There are many real-world problem-
solving situations in which a score of zero is explicitly or implicitly given for not making a
reasonable attempt, or completely failing in ones attempts. In many tests, one can get
partial credit for a good start, even if one fails to actually solve the problem.
sequence of moves. See look ahead. In many card and board games and in many puzzles it is
important to think in terms of sequences of moves. Through training and experience, one
can become quite skilled at mentally (in ones minds eye) examining a sequence of
possible moves.
simpler problem. See create a simpler problem. When faced by a challenging, complex
problem, create a simpler but closely related problem and attempt to solve it. The goal is to
gain insight into the original problem. For example, instead of thinking about how to
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reduce hunger in the United States, think about reducing hunger in your state, or in your
city, or in one small area in your city, or the hunger that you know exists for one student in
a class you are teaching. For another example, consider the problem of learning the rules of
a complex game. Set yourself the simpler problem of learning the rules for making your
first move.
strategize. The list of high-road transferable problem-solving strategies illustrated in this book
is deigned to help you get better at developing and using problem-solving strategies. A
strategy can be thought of as a plan of action to be used in attempting to achieve a goal.
Some strategies are general purpose, useful over a wide range of problems. However,
typically it takes considerable domain-specific knowledge and skills to solve a challenging
problem within a specific domain. As one develops such domain-specific knowledge and
skills, one develops specific strategies (or, fine tunes general strategies) to better fit the
problem-solving requirements of the domain.
think before you act. This is sometimes called look before you leap, or engage brain before
opening mouth. Some problem-solving situations require immediate (stimulus-response;
intuitive) actions be taken. There is no time to think. The strategy that is emphasized in
such situations might be called act before you think. Of course, the actions you take may be
based on a huge amount of training and practice. Many problem-solving situations do not
require immediate, split second responses and actions. In these situations, there is time to
mull over possible actions, to think before taking an action.
think out loud. When a team of two or more people are working on a problem, it is often helpful
to have one member of the teach think out loud about the problem, while the other team
members merely listen and perhaps take notes. A different approach is to have two or more
members of the team thinking out loud, interchanging possible strategies and ideas, as they
explore and work on the problem.
think outside the box. When faced by a problem, most people have a strong tendency to use the
approaches and take the types of problem-solving steps that are familiar and comfortable to
them. If this does not work, a standard next step is seek help from others, perhaps directly
from other people or through library research. There are many problems where these
approaches do not work. Solving the problems requires developing new ideas, new ways of
thinking, new inventions. It may involve deliberately ignoring ideas and approaches that
first come to mind, or that others have developed. Individual and group brainstorming can
sometimes be an effective aid to thinking outside the box.
work backward. Start at a solution and move back one or more steps in a manner such that it is
easy to see how to move forward to a solution. In essence, the strategy is to create a new
problem to solve, with the new problem having the characteristic that once it is solved, it is
easy to solve the original problem. See simpler problem.
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Index
accommodation, 128 discovery-based learning, 38
adages, 60 divide and conquer strategy, 36, 57
addiction to games, 6 domain-specific problem-solving strategies, 110
addictive, 26 dont box yourself into a corner strategy, 87
addictive-like behavior, 81 Eight Off, 82
algorithm, 132 elimination strategy, 51
Alzheimers disease, 8 engage brain before opening mouth strategy, 49
assimilation, 128 Erics Ultimate Solitaire, 78
attention, 26 expertise, 8, 142
backtracking strategy, 59 explore a simpler case strategy, 65
Barnum, P.T., 81 explore solvability strategy, 48
Bloom, Benjamin, 29 first person shooter game, 144
Blooms Taxonomy, 29 flow, 21
bottleneck strategy, 68 Flow Theory, 21
brain teasers, 68 Forester, C.S., 119
break it into smaller pieces strategy, 36 Formal problem, 14
Bridge, 9, 114, 120 free materials, 58
build on previous work strategy, 17 free programming languages, 138
card sense, 117 free puzzles, 57
card shuffling, 125 free puzzles and games, 58
challenging and rigorous, 131 game
Churchill, Winston, 25 competition, 31
clearly defined problem, 15 cooperation, 31
cognitive development, 27 defined, 6, 25
cognitive load, 116 independence, 31
cognitive maturity, 18, 27 Game Maker, 138
community, 123 games
competition, 31 Baseball, 6
complexity, 60 Basketball, 6
computational thinking, 7, 15, 19, 53, 143 Bridge, 9, 114, 120
computer modeling strategy, 21 Football, 6
computer-assisted instruction, 58 Hearts, 9, 114
constructivist teaching, 127 Monopoly, 20, 114
cooperation, 31 Pinochle, 114
Costikyan, Greg, 26 Poker, 9
create a simpler problem strategy, 45, 61 Soccer, 6
cribbage, 111 Games-in-Education, 25
critical thinking, 35 game-world problems, 13
Crossword puzzle maker, 73 Gardner, Howard, 61
Crossword puzzles, 72 Gee, James Paul, 144
Cryptogram puzzle maker, 71 global village, 11
Cryptogram puzzles, 71 Goals in a game-playing lesson, 132
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 21 goals of education, 26
decision making under uncertainty, 125 Gomoku, 99
decision situations, 17 gratification
declarative knowledge, 132 delayed, 38
delayed gratification, 38 immediate, 38
dementia, 8 guess and check strategy, 49
discipline or domain of study, 17 Hearts, 9, 115
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