USING A PANORAMICA ADVENTURE GAME AND MULTIMEDIA AS
LEARNING TOOLS IN DEAF EDUCATION
A Dissertation
Presented to
The Faculty of the College of Graduate Studies Lamar University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Education
in
Deaf Studies/Deaf Education
by
Scott Whitney
May 2002
USING A PANORAMIC ADVENTURE GAME AND MULTIMEDIA AS LEARNING
TOOLS IN DEAF EDUCATION
SCOTT WHITNEY
Approved:
_________________________Gabriel A. Martin
Supervising Professor
_________________________Jean F. Andrews
Committee Member
_________________________
Mary Anne GentryCommittee Member
_________________________Paula Nichols
Committee Member
_________________________James K. Esser
Committee Member_________________________Gabriel A. MartinChair, Dept. CommunicationDisorders and Deaf Education
_________________________Russ A. SchultzDean, College of Fine ArtsAnd Communication
_________________________
Jerry BradleyAssociate Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies
2002 Scott Whitney
No part of this work can be reproduced without permission except as indicated by the
“Fair Use” clause of the copyright law. Passages, images, or ideas taken from this work
must be properly credited in any written or published materials.
Abstract
The qualitative study examined the development and use of a computer-based
adventure game developed specifically for deaf students. The investigator created and
developed a computer-based adventure as well as a multimedia dictionary. Using action
research methods. Ten high school students in one regional day school program for the deaf
located in Texas were observed and tested as they used the computer adventure game and
traditional multimedia presentation. Two of the ten students provided only partial testing
information that was used in field note data. Students were administered a pre and posttest
to measure the acquisition of both facts and vocabulary. Opinions about the presentations
were also collected with two questionnaires. The results were as follows: 1) the adventure
game treatment appeared beneficial to most, but not all students as evidenced by gains in
vocabulary following the posttest treatments; 2) the multimedia treatment appeared to
provide vocabulary acquisition gains; 3) neither presentation promoted facts acquisition; 4)
students liked the adventure game treatment as well as the multimedia presentation. The
findings are presented to provide information for software designers for deaf students.
Dedication
To
God the Father of Jesus Christ and Creator of all things.
May He find some good use for my work. This dissertation came together in a
miraculous way.
iii
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the dedication and support of his committee, Drs. Gabriel
A. Martin, Jean Andrews, Maryanne Gentry, James Esser, and Paula Nichols. Special
thanks to the committee chair, Dr. Gabriel Martin, for taking over in a time of minor
crisis and providing stability as well as sound advice for keeping the research on track.
For their ASL expertise and video interpretation, I am deeply indebted to Linda
Lugo and Adonia Smith. For moral support within the faculty, I couldn’t name a better
person than Zanthia Smith. Craig Pember provided valuable technical expertise as well
as friendship.
To my family, thanks for putting up with the stressful times and the sacrifices we
had to make to get me through the dissertation.
Thanks to the secretarial staff who provided moral support as well as untold trips to
unlock my office when I lost my key. The administrative assistants also were
instrumental in choosing the best artwork where I came to a crossroads. I also appreciate
all the paperwork they completed on my behalf. I hope to plant a few trees to make up
for it.
To my mother and father, I cannot tell you how much I depended on your lessons
of hard work and quality. Thanks also for having faith in me.
This dissertation was funded by a Department of Education Student Initiated
Research grant (award number H324B980063).
iv
Table of Contents
List of Tables......................................................................................................................ix
List of Figures......................................................................................................................x
Introduction..........................................................................................................................1
The Problem.....................................................................................................................1Background of the Problem..............................................................................................2
Reading Achievement & Deaf Education.....................................................................3Factors Contributing to Reading Levels.......................................................................4
Inadequate reading materials....................................................................................4Lack of language models..........................................................................................4
Potential of Deaf Students................................................................................................6Purpose of the Study.........................................................................................................7Research Questions..........................................................................................................7Added Benefits of the Study.............................................................................................9Definitions........................................................................................................................9Limitations.....................................................................................................................12
Literature Review...............................................................................................................14
The Call for Educational Reform....................................................................................14Reform in Deaf Education..............................................................................................17Effectiveness of CAI with Deaf Learners.......................................................................17Recent Research on CAI with Deaf Children.................................................................20
Multimedia with Deaf Adults.....................................................................................20Multimedia with Deaf Children..................................................................................22An Effective Use of Multimedia with Deaf Children.................................................23Summary of Multimedia with Deaf Learners.............................................................25
Effectiveness of Computers as Teaching Tools with Hearing Students..........................25CAI and Applications for Higher Order Thinking Skills............................................25Games as Teaching Tools...........................................................................................27
Meta-analysis: games and hearing students............................................................27Sparse game research in deaf education.................................................................28Motivation..............................................................................................................29
Theoretical Foundation...................................................................................................31Cognitive Theories and Computers............................................................................31Description of the Theories........................................................................................32
Computer supported intentional learning environments.........................................32Situated Cognition..................................................................................................33Constructivist Theory.............................................................................................33Cognitive Apprenticeship.......................................................................................34
v
Cognitive Flexibility...............................................................................................34Case-Based Learning..............................................................................................35Anchored Instruction..............................................................................................35
Adventure Games as Anchored Instruction Components...........................................36An Example of Anchored Instruction Studies............................................................38
Experimental Design Considerations: Action Research..................................................40Action Research Described........................................................................................40Credibility and Validity of Action Research...............................................................43
Method...............................................................................................................................45
Outline of the Study.......................................................................................................45Experimental Design – Action Research........................................................................48Development of the Treatments......................................................................................49
Game Development....................................................................................................503d modeling............................................................................................................51Character animation...............................................................................................52Videography...........................................................................................................53Programming..........................................................................................................54Graphical user interface..........................................................................................54Panoramic navigation.............................................................................................55Tracking user responses.........................................................................................56
Multimedia Dictionary Development.........................................................................57Background Data Collection..........................................................................................58Experimental Phase........................................................................................................59
Results................................................................................................................................61
Overview of Results.......................................................................................................61Background Data............................................................................................................61
Teacher Interviews.....................................................................................................61Computer Use.............................................................................................................64
Research Question #1: Was the Game or Multimedia Treatment Successful in Teaching Students Vocabulary, Recognition of Faces and the Acquisition of Facts?....................71Acquisition of Facts, Vocabulary, and Face Identification.............................................71
General Vocabulary Acquisition................................................................................71Medical Scene Vocabulary Acquisition......................................................................76
Medical scene field notes and interpretation...........................................................79Blacksmith Scene Vocabulary Acquisition.................................................................81
Blacksmith scene field notes and interpretation......................................................83Blacksmith scene multimedia notes and interpretation...........................................84
Texaco Scene Vocabulary Acquisition.......................................................................85Oil and Gas Company Scene Facts Acquisition.........................................................90Face Recognition........................................................................................................98
Research Question #2: To What Degree was Each Treatment Motivating?....................98vi
Motivation Impact on Game Posttest Scores..............................................................98Motivation Impact on Multimedia Posttest Scores...................................................100
Discussion and Conclusion...............................................................................................102
Overview of the Study..................................................................................................102Conclusions..................................................................................................................103
Experimental Design Modifications.........................................................................103Controlling student progress.................................................................................104Staggered treatments............................................................................................104Larger sample size................................................................................................104Consistency in participation and delivery.............................................................105Programming errors..............................................................................................105Removing editorial errors.....................................................................................105Delayed posttest...................................................................................................106Increasing the number of items.............................................................................106
Game Design Improvements....................................................................................106Exotic vocabulary.................................................................................................106Reading levels......................................................................................................106Removing guess and memorize strategies............................................................107Decreasing similarities.........................................................................................107Increasing distinctive features..............................................................................108Balancing distractors............................................................................................108Measuring impact on higher levels of learning.....................................................109
Research Question #3: Does the data indicate continued efforts in the direction of developing adventure games as educational tools? What modifications on the design would be necessary to better answer this question?......................................................109Summary......................................................................................................................111
References........................................................................................................................112
Appendices.......................................................................................................................120
A...................................................................................................................................120B...................................................................................................................................121C...................................................................................................................................126D...................................................................................................................................127E...................................................................................................................................128F...................................................................................................................................129G...................................................................................................................................130H...................................................................................................................................131I....................................................................................................................................132J....................................................................................................................................133K...................................................................................................................................134L...................................................................................................................................135
vii
M..................................................................................................................................136N...................................................................................................................................137O...................................................................................................................................138P...................................................................................................................................139Q...................................................................................................................................140R...................................................................................................................................141S...................................................................................................................................142T...................................................................................................................................143U...................................................................................................................................144V...................................................................................................................................145W..................................................................................................................................146X...................................................................................................................................148Y...................................................................................................................................149Z...................................................................................................................................152AA................................................................................................................................162BB................................................................................................................................164CC................................................................................................................................166DD................................................................................................................................177
viii
List of Tables
Table 1: Teacher Ratings of Student Language and Cognitive Skills.................................63
Table 2: Student Home Computer Use Frequency.............................................................65
Table 3: Classroom Computer Use in Teacher’s Lessons...................................................70
Table 4: Classroom Computer Use by Category................................................................70
Table 5: Medical Scene Pre and Posttest Responses..........................................................78
Table 6: Blacksmith Scene Responses to Pre and Posttest Questions.................................83
Table 7: Texaco Scene Responses to Pre and Posttest questions........................................86
Table 8: Game Motivation Questionnaire........................................................................100
Table 9: Lesson Motivation Questionnaire.......................................................................101
ix
List of Figures
Figure 1: Student Home Computer Use..............................................................................66
Figure 2: Student Computer Game Experience..................................................................67
Figure 3: Student Experience With Console Games...........................................................68
Figure 4: Growth by Words................................................................................................73
Figure 5: Overall Vocabulary Growth by Individuals........................................................75
Figure 6: Texaco Scene Facts Acquisition.........................................................................91
Figure 7: Texaco Scene Face Identification.......................................................................93
Figure 8: Factual Information Acquisition – Growth by Question.....................................97
x
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Using a Panoramic Adventure Game and Multimedia as Learning Tools in Deaf
Education
Chapter 1
Introduction
The Problem
Special Education teachers frequently experience frustration over a lack of
instructional materials (Billingsley, 1992). Deaf education is no exception. Johnson,
Lidell, and Erting (1989) stated that instructional materials often gave little or no linguistic
access to deaf children. The situation has remained unchanged even with the recent
introduction and growth of multimedia educational materials. One popular educational
multimedia company, The Learning Company, provides materials rich in interaction and
visuals, but with heavy dependence on audio (without captions) for reinforcement,
feedback, and directions – all critical elements in learning. Specialized catalogues for Deaf
children such as the Harris Communication Catalog (1999) offer CD-ROM based
instructional materials designed specifically for Deaf children. Several of the titles in the
Harris Communication Catalog are excellent examples of how multimedia can be
successfully applied to deaf education, but they only cover a very limited number of
lessons. Cost of the materials creates another drawback - usable materials available to deaf
educators often cost more than a teacher can afford to spend on a single item with limited
use in the classroom. The Sign Enhancers catalog (1999) offers a CD ROM with native
Deaf signers and English instruction for $65, whereas typical educational software costs
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between $10 and $45. The popular Reader Rabbit series, for example, costs only $19.95
per grade level.
The lack of materials to teach language, reading and content subjects contributes to
the shortcomings of Deaf Education in the United States and was reported by the Gallaudet
Research Institute (1997) also known as the Center for Assessment and Demographics
(CADS). The CADS reported that the average reading performance of deaf high school
graduates has remained between the 3rd and 4th grade level. In contrast to the dismal failures
of deaf education, however, researchers suggest that deaf students need not graduate high
school with minimal literacy (Bloom, 1984; and Stuckless, 1984). The poor performance
of deaf education (Gallaudet Research Institute 1997) can be attributed to other causes such
as a cycle of low expectations (Johnson, Lidell, & Erting 1989), and unrealistic demands on
teachers (Billingsley, 1992). But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Background of the Problem
In fact, studies have shown that deaf children’s problems with reading are due in
part to difficulty with words and meanings (LaSasso & Davey, 1987; Paul, 1998; Paul &
Gustason, 1991). Despite years of trials with different teaching and communication
methodologies, little progress has been made in raising the reading levels of Deaf high
school graduates relative to their hearing peers on the Stanford Achievement Test
(Gallaudet Research Institute, 1974, 1984, 1991, 1997). Tracing the problem through the
history of deaf education shows that the deaf high school graduates have lagged behind
hearing peers whether the predominant teaching method was oralism, manualism, or
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some variation of the two (simultaneous communication, for example). Deaf educators
have turned to many techniques in the hopes of overcoming the barriers to acquiring a
phonetic written language in the absence of sound. One such approach is the use of
computers to accelerate reading acquisition.
Some deaf educators have sought not only to use computers to accelerate reading,
but to take full advantage of the rapidly evolving multimedia capabilities in computers
(Andrews & Jordan, 1998; Gentry, 1998; Pollard, 1993; Shumaker 1996). Multimedia
combines text with graphics, animation and sign language movies to immerse students in
a context-rich environment. Multimedia has been tested with deaf learners fluent in sign
language based on the presumption that the students are visual learners. Sign language
glossaries incorporated in multimedia and other interactive media potentially allow the
meaning of words to be accessed through sign language, pictorial representations, or
basic English definitions immediately with the click of a button.
Reading Achievement & Deaf Education
The Center for Assessment and Demographics (CADS) has
conducted three large-scale studies on the academic achievement
levels of deaf students in 1974, 1982, and 1997 using the Stanford
Achievement Test - 9Th edition (SAT-9) – all have shown similarly low
achievement in reading among deaf high school graduates (Gallaudet
Research Institute, 1997). IDEA and state laws have forced schools to
emphasize appropriate placement of all students, including deaf
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students. The results of national testing, however, indicated that the
reality deviates sharply from the ideals outlined in Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)– reading levels of deaf high school
graduates have, on average, remained comparable to the scores of 3rd
and 4th grade hearing peers. Moores (1987) points to the lack of access
to a phonemic code as a primary reason for the failure of deaf students
on reading tests. There are, however, other factors involved, including:
inadequate materials (Billingsley, 1992), lack of sign language models,
high rates of teacher attrition (Billingsley, 1992) and low expectations
(Johnson, Lidell, & Erting, 1989).
Factors Contributing to Reading Levels
Inadequate reading materials.
Frustration of teachers because of lack of resources may be one cause of teacher
attrition. Billingsley (1992) studied migration of special education teachers to regular
education. Three of the most frequently cited reasons for transferring were the lack of
adequate resources, the diversity of student needs, and a sense of little progress for the
amount of time invested. Paul (1998) indicates that the lack of materials may contribute
not only to the high attrition of teachers in special education but also to the low reading
levels of deaf high school graduates. To Johnson, Lidell, and Erting (1989) Paul’s
speculations are familiar as they suggested that teaching practices up to 1989 focused
primarily on an auditory/English system to which Deaf students had little access. Without
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adequate materials teachers must either choose to invest an inordinate amount of time
producing their own, or learn to live with the sense of not sufficiently addressing the needs
of the student. The end result, in either case, is a student taught “just enough” to satisfy
Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals, but rarely enough to keep up with hearing
peers.
Lack of language models.
In addition to the critical lack of materials written at appropriate reading levels, deaf
students may not get quality language models. While deaf students have limited access to
auditory information, the vast majority of their educational materials are written texts that
depend on decoding phonetic codes. Accordingly, deaf students rely on supplemental
visual communication of the ideas contained in the texts they read. Unfortunately, few
teachers of the deaf are competent users of sign language (Andrews & Franklin, 1997) and
many teacher training programs only require one to two sign language classes (Maxwell,
1984). Further, since only 15% of teachers of deaf children are deaf, many deaf children
do not have access to fluent, adult sign language users (Andrews & Jordan, 1993).
The home environment is not much different. The CADS at Gallaudet University
does an annual survey to determine the characteristics of deaf students in the United States.
The 1999-2000 survey results indicated that, of the known families with deaf children, only
69.2% regularly use manual communication at home. The survey did not distinguish
between the types of manual communication (Seeing Essential English (SEE I), Signing
Exact English (SEE II), American Sign Language (ASL), Pidgin Signed English (PSE
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currently referred to as Contact Communication), and others), nor did the survey make an
attempt to evaluate the quality of the manual communication in those homes. The CADS
1987 survey results showed that 83.9% of the students had two hearing parents. Of the
remainder, only 3.6% had two deaf parents. (Gallaudet Research Institute (1999). The
3.6% of students who have deaf parents do not necessarily receive an adequate ASL model.
Jensema and Trybus (1978) surveyed families with one deaf adult. In those homes, the
primary mode of communication is largely auditory/aural. While the Jensema and Trybus
findings lend support to the evidence of poor ASL models for deaf children, researchers
should use caution in applying them liberally – developments within the Deaf community
since 1978 may have changed the balance of ASL in homes with one Deaf parent.
Taking all the research into account shows that the vast majority (97%, probably
more) of parents are not natural users of ASL. Of the students accounted for by the 1999-
2000 Regional and National Survey (Gallaudet Research Institute, 1999) only 49% of
students enrolled in Deaf education programs received instruction with combined speech
and sign language while 5.8% received instruction in sign language only. Inadequate
language input deprives deaf students of a strong language and knowledge base.
Consequently, there is a need to develop materials that provide sign language modeling for
deaf students. A number of researchers have found support for the importance of ASL. Of
the various signed systems, children who had deaf parents were most proficient in ASL
(Bornstein, 1990). Other researchers found, moreover, that deaf students who have deaf
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parents (and superior ASL exposure) outperform deaf children with hearing parents on tests
of both ASL skills and English skills (Geers &Schick, 1988; Strong & Prinz, 1997).
Potential of Deaf Students
Despite all the problems related to the education of deaf children, Bloom (1984),
asserts that all children can perform with high levels of academic success given ideal
conditions. According to Bloom’s meta-analysis of effective teaching variables, the ideal
situation is one-on-one tutoring. The ideal is not realizable in public education, but Bloom
found 19 variables that teachers can easily manipulate in the classroom to closely
approximate the results obtained through one-on-one tutoring. The variables included, but
were not limited to: tutorial instruction, reinforcement, feedback-corrective instruction,
cues and explanations, student class participation, and student time on task. Interestingly,
all of the top six variables mentioned can be addressed to some degree through computer -
based instruction.
More specific to Deaf education, Stuckless (1984) saw computers as a potential ally
in the struggle to improve Deaf education. After discussing the history of computer-based
instruction, he calculated that a mere 2.5% increase in reading levels would result in raising
children’s reading from an average grade equivalent of 4.5 to 5.7 (compounded from 1st
grade through high school graduation). A still modest 5% increase in reading levels would
give even more dramatic results.
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Purpose of the Study
Considering Bloom’s (1984) conclusions regarding learning potential of all
students and Stuckless’ (1984) emphasis on computers to improve reading scores, more
research needs to be done in this area. One way to do this would be to investigate the
effects of multimedia and adventure games on vocabulary acquisition and retention in Deaf
students.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate three research questions. From these
research questions, a determination as to the feasibility of using a panoramic adventure
game and multimedia as learning tools for children who are deaf was established.
Research Questions
In order to evaluate the potential of adventure games as teaching tools with deaf
children, the following questions were addressed:
1. Was the game or multimedia treatment successful in teaching students vocabulary,
recognition of faces and the acquisition of facts?
a. To what degree was each treatment successful?
b. With whom was each treatment successful or not successful?
c. Which parts of each treatment added to or detracted from the achievement
of learning vocabulary, recognition of faces and the acquisition of facts?
d. What variables influenced the degree of success?
e. What modifications would enhance achievement of the learning vocabulary,
recognition of faces, and acquisition of facts?
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2. To what degree was each treatment motivating?
a. With whom was each treatment motivating?
b. Which parts of each treatment proved most motivating and least
motivating?
c. What variables influenced the motivating value of each treatment?
d. What modifications would enhance motivating value of each treatment?
3. Does the data indicate continued efforts in the direction of developing adventure
games as educational tools? What modifications on the design would be necessary
to better answer this question?
Added Benefits of the Study
1. The results of the adventure game/multimedia study primarily benefit deaf
students through improved educational materials using adventure game formats.
They will experience the benefits almost immediately as a product will be ready
for distribution upon completing the research. It will also impact classroom
teachers by enhancing their knowledge on material development, providing them
greater resources for completing their job, and decreasing stress as materials
become more available. Finally, curriculum designers and material developers
can incorporate the results into their products.
2. An increased understanding of the role of adventure games in teaching
vocabulary to Deaf students.
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3. An increased understanding of effects of two computer-based formats –
Adventure Game and Multimedia.
4. Development of materials to train other teachers.
5. A contribution to the research on methods of teaching deaf students reading
vocabulary.
6. A contribution to software developers for deaf students.
Definitions
ASL - American Sign Language, the natural language of the Deaf with its own
unique grammar. It is a visual language with concepts represented by facial expression,
hand shapes, hand motions, hand orientations and spatial relationship of the signs to each
other (Baker & Cokely, 1980)
Authoring tools - Authoring tools are a class of programs designed to simplify the
task of creating programs such as multimedia lessons. In the past, creation of multimedia
has been the job of expert programmers. Authoring Tools allow computer users with little
programming knowledge or skill to create programs. Examples include ToolBook,
Director, and JAVA authoring tools (Nataša Hoić-Božić, 1997).
Deaf - When the word “Deaf” is written in uppercase, it refers to a group of people
with hearing loss who prefer socializing with other Deaf people and use ASL as their
preferred means of communication. The word “deaf” written in lower case refers simply to
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a person with a hearing loss. Among the Deaf community “deaf” means a person who has
a hearing loss, but is not necessarily a part of the Deaf culture.
Hearing - individuals who have no hearing loss. The Deaf community refers to the
non-Deaf community as the “hearing world.”
MCE - A class of signed systems created to represent English signed in an English
syntactic pattern with the intent of making English accessible to Deaf students. Each
English word has an equivalent MCE sign (Lou, 1988).
Multimedia- Alternatively known as Integrated Media (IM). Multimedia refers to
the use of multiple media for presenting a lesson. When referring to computers it typically
includes audio, visual, video, text, and animation forms of information. Multimedia also
has a means of allowing the user to control which parts of the lesson to view and when to
view the parts (Hasselbring, 1994)
Panoramic Viewer/Panorama - From a computer user’s point of view a typical
panoramic image (often called a "pano") is a photograph that appears in a window or on a
web page. In typical Internet and computer-based applications, the user can put the cursor
on the image moving the cursor causes the image to move also similar to the effect of
actually standing at the location from which the image was created and turning the head.
Placing a camera on a tripod and taking several photographs by rotating the camera
between shots most likely produced the image. The resulting collection of images are
"stitched" together to create a single seamless 360-degree panoramic photo.
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Some panoramic imaging systems let software developers map the images onto a
cylinder and some to a sphere. Computer users viewing the images don't have the freedom
to travel anywhere they want - users may only scenes recorded with different tripod
locations. The panorama designer may record, for example, many locations in a real estate
holding that is up for sale, and include "hot spots" in the images to jump from one room to
another with mouse clicks (Ressler, 1999).
Motivation - The desire to perform a task. In the context of the investigation it is
the desire to play the game or complete the multimedia unit.
Total Communication - A philosophy of Deaf Education that ideally provides a
child with whatever communication mode the child needs to succeed, it specifically
employs speechreading, auditory training, fingerspelling and ASL. In practice, Total
Communication is more accurately described as simultaneous speech and signing, the
teacher speaks English and attempts to sign at the same time (Baker, 2002).
Action Research - “Action research combines a substantive act with a research
procedure; it is action disciplined with enquiry, a personal attempt at understanding while
engaged in a process of improvement and reform (Hopkins, 1993).”
Limitations
This study did not lend itself to tightly controlled experimental design. The number
of complete data sets (n=8) limited the ability to generalize results or achieve statistical
significance. The variability among the participants, including language background,
reading level, and academic level all compound the problems of attempting to extract
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statistically meaningful information. The results obtained from the research are useful only
for evaluating the researchers game and multimedia designs in order to suggest future
improvements and establish improved research protocols. The data collected by this action
research project was not intended to support either multimedia or adventure games as
superior learning tools.
The actual delivery of the treatments also precluded statistical significance and
prevented generalizations. The schedules of the participants caused inconsistency in time
between treatments and time within treatments. The investigator’s attention was not evenly
divided amongst the participants and some participants found programming errors that
allowed them to allowed them select items that gave false “correct” evaluations of the
selections.
The data were valuable, nonetheless, for continuing a cycle of improvement,
retesting, and fine-tuning the treatments.
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Chapter 2
Literature Review
Evaluating the best means of designing and implementing computer-based
instruction with deaf children requires the convergence of effectiveness research with both
deaf and hearing students. Although there is research on computer-based instruction with
deaf children, it is sparse. A search of the literature related to computer-based education
turned out a large number of articles – the vast majority of which used hearing children
only. Moores (1987) points out that the means by which deaf children receive their
information requires a different approach to teaching deaf children. Based on the different
means by which deaf children receive their instruction, it would be reasonable to challenge
the validity of results obtained from hearing children when researching computers with
deaf children. The literature does, however, indicate some parallel between the abundant
results obtained from hearing children and the sparse results obtained from deaf children –
studies with both hearing children and deaf children generally yield more positive results
with computer-based education than traditional education.
The Call for Educational Reform
The interest in computers as educational tools has been fueled in part by an ongoing
drive for educational reform in the United States. Educators have focused on educational
reform since the report, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in
Education, 1983). The report, from the beginning takes a strongly critical stance in regard
to the educational system in the United States.
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The report, often cited as the driving force behind the current educational reform
efforts, lambasted the mass production mentality of schools in the United States.
According to the National Commission on Excellence in Education, the failing of United
States schools was not so much a failure on standardized tests as it was a failure to produce
capable, thinking individuals. The mass production mentality evolved from an educational
system created during the early industrialization of the United States. Thinking skills were
not as critical as basic knowledge of math and reading. Teaching to the masses took
precedence over producing capable thinkers.
Goals 2000, the Educate America Act, put the reform movement into law (1994).
Included in the goals 2000 Act under Title II are provisions for improving educational
technology. The act states that section 231 has the purpose: “to infuse technology and
technology planning into all educational programs and training functions carried out within
school systems at the State local level“ (Section 231). Other parts of the act state clearly
that special educational populations are to benefit equally from all provisions of the act,
including technology. If computers are to play a crucial role, then it becomes necessary to
decide how to best use them.
The Act is not mere rhetoric. Market Data Retrieval (2000) publishes an annual
report on the status of technology in the classroom. The year 2000 showed the following
trends:
More than 75% of schools report that teachers use computers daily compared to
69% just a year earlier. 60% of teachers use the Internet for daily instruction.
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Between the 1995-96 school year and the 1999-2000 school year the student-to-
computer ratio improved from 9.1 to 4.9.
In just a three-year period from 1997 to 2000 the student-to-multimedia computer
ratio improved from 21.2 to 7.9.
To support the burgeoning growth, the Clinton administration helped pass
legislation that promises financial support. Funding from four grant programs promise
continued growth in technology access to schools with over $800 million in grants:
National Challenge Grants For Technology in Education totaling $136 million
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/challenge/index.html
Technology Literacy Challenge Funds Grant totaling $125 million (up from $75
million)
http://www.ed.gov/teachtech/
Star Schools grants totaling $450 million (up from $425 million)
http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/StarSchools/
Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers To Use Technology grants totaling $125 million
(up from $75 million)
With a national initiative underway to improve technology in education, there is
no doubt that computers and other media technology will have a lasting impact on
education. Most importantly, access to technology is critical to the success of students
enrolled in Deaf Education programs.
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Reform in Deaf Education
Deaf Education has experienced cycles of failure and attempted reforms, most of
which have resulted in little or no decrease in the gap between deaf students and their
hearing peers. The gap in reading levels persists to date despite innovations such as
Manually Coded English systems, Total Communication, and other attempts to improve the
English language development of deaf students. A landmark and controversial position
paper, Unlocking the Curriculum set the community of deaf educators in a furor with a
strongly voiced view as to the causes of the persistent gap, including a lack of linguistic
access to the curriculum and a cycle of low expectations (Johnson, Liddel & Erting, 1989).
The position taken in Unlocking the Curriculum has good cause: the critical
academic need of deaf students that has persisted through the years (Gallaudet Research
Institute, 1997). Although reports of lagging performance for deaf and hard of hearing
students have been reported at least since 1965 (Babbidge), deaf educators have made little
progress in improving reading performance regardless of the teacher’s preferred means of
presenting English to the students.
Effectiveness of CAI with Deaf Learners
Computers have been utilized as an instructional tool to aid in the development of
reading skills since the 1970’s. The earliest computers used in classrooms required a
tremendous investment in money, upkeep, and time for programming. Nonetheless,
educators eager to test computers as educational tools began to employ them in computer
assisted instruction (CAI). Despite the excitement over their potential, the promised results
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of CAI did not materialize by the end of the 1980’s prompting a slew of critics to write
computers off as an expensive toy with little educational value (Stuckless, 1983)
Deaf educators such as E. Ross Stuckless (1983) have also challenged the blind use
of computers in Deaf Education. Stuckless titled one article “The microcomputer in the
instruction of Hearing-Impaired students: tool or distraction?” Although Stuckless
communicated optimism in his evaluation of computers as teaching tools, the title of the
article accurately reflects an ongoing strain of pessimism as to the feasibility and
desirability of computers in public classrooms.
An article written by Jeffrey Braden and Steven Shaw (1987) raises similar
questions to those posed by Stuckless (1983). In the spirit of the Stuckless (1983) article,
Shaw and Braden opened their discussion with the title, “Computer assisted instruction
with deaf children: Panacea, placebo or poison?” Their article reviewed 387 references
describing computer applications with deaf children. They found only 16 articles that
reported on the efficacy of the computers. The majority of the literature of the time found
positive outcomes with CAI, but the success was inversely related to methodological rigor
– the better the control, the less dramatic the gains attributed to CAI.
The lack of positive effects found by Braden and Shaw (1987), however, is suspect.
Their study used a 5-point system to assign values of methodological rigor to research
related to the efficacy of computers in Deaf Education classrooms. A careful analysis of
the article reveals that at least one of the criteria for methodological rigor may not apply to
studies of the efficacy of computers as teaching tools. One of the criteria, for example,
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included the use of control groups. Using a control group to evaluate 2 distinct educational
approaches does not guarantee validity. If the control represents an excellent example of
“traditional” education whereas the experimental group represents a mediocre example of
computer-based education, the control is worthless.
Randel (1992) indicated that the variable of game quality needs more attention.
While some research exists to help identify features that make games attractive, little
research identifies the most useful characteristics of the games. Some studies on
effectiveness may show no significant results due to poor quality of game design or use
of ineffective features. Research showing significant gains in favor of games, on the
other hand, may have actually used traditional methods with ineffective features.
Separating the effect of using a computer from the influence of the quality of two
different treatments needs more study.
Control groups with deaf children pose additional problems: since the population of
deaf children is already a very small portion of the general population, finding a suitable
control becomes a daunting task. If, for example, a researcher limits the experimental
group to all deaf fifth graders reading at a second grade level, the total number of subjects
in a given region drops dramatically, possibly to the point where statistical significance
cannot be reached. The variability within the deaf population, including primary language,
home language, onset of deafness, additional special educational needs, and educational
background also renders the quest for control groups one of the most perplexing problems
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in Deaf Education. Braden and Shaw’s process of eliminating some studies may have
prevented the true picture of computer efficacy from surfacing.
Recent Research on CAI with Deaf Children
Braden and Shaw’s (1987) studies were not able to account for some recent studies
done with deaf children using computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Two dissertations,
which focused on the use of Interactive Multimedia Instruction (IMI), generally support
Shaws’s conclusions that computer-based instruction was equal to, but not superior to
traditional methods.
Despite the dismal results from national reading scores, Deaf Educators have reason
to anticipate improvements through the use of computers. Stuckless’ (1983) estimations of
dramatic gains - with a 2% annual improvement - means that computers need only provide
a small amount of additional instruction. If, for example, the computers keep students on-
task while the teacher addresses individual needs, some gains are to be expected according
to literature indicating time on task as a major factor in the academic performance of
students (Bloom, 1984). Several recent studies not included in the Shaw (1987) article
illustrate the potential of CAI or, more accurately, multimedia.
Multimedia with Deaf Adults
Shumaker (1996) developed a multimedia course to teach work literacy to deaf
seniors at the Alabama School for the Deaf. The students were divided into two groups,
one received work literacy training through the multimedia program, and the other received
the same training from a live teacher. Her results showed that the students who received
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multimedia treatment scored higher than the control on scores of knowledge acquisition
and retention, but not on scores of knowledge application. The Shumaker study implies
that teachers may find computers superior for instruction at the level of knowledge
acquisition whereas live instruction may be necessary for higher-level thinking. Using
computers for lower level academic learning, then, may free the instructor to focus more
heavily on individuals needing higher levels of assistance and then spend more time on
higher level thinking with all students.
Shumaker’s study, however, re-iterates the problems discussed with regards to
Shaw’s meta-analytical study. The students liked the teacher, one student even dropped out
of the study because she could not switch to the control group. The students also rated the
teacher high for her American Sign Language skills – a highly valued characteristic among
deaf signers. Although the multimedia also scored high for ASL use, the Deaf community
highly prizes social interaction with skilled signers – true human interaction is not possible
with a computer.
Braden and Shaw (1983) hold the absence or presence of control groups as the
primary factor for rejecting or accepting a study. In the case of the Shumaker study, the
control was much better than the multimedia. A true comparison of the presentation modes
would have to control for the quality of both the instructor and the multimedia. A mediocre
multimedia presentation could conceivably have less impact on learning than an excellent
traditional teaching approach. Most studies comparing two different modes of teaching are
better interpreted as indicating the skill of the instructor in delivering one type of lesson as
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compared to the other. They may not necessarily measure the superiority of one method
over the other. Although Shumaker’s (1996) study may have satisfied the Braden and
Shaw criteria, it probably would not be wise to cite the results an example of research
supporting either traditional methods or multimedia with deaf students.
Multimedia with Deaf Children
Gentry (1998) conducted another study in which deaf students received one of four
treatments to learn factual information. In treatment 1, students were provided with only
printed versions of the information. In treatment 2, students had access to both the printed
material and supplemental pictorial. In treatment 3, students had access to printed
information and sign language information. In treatment 4, the students were exposed to
print, pictures, and sign language. In each treatment, the information was contained within
a story. Students received 4 different stories through each of the four treatments, and then
were asked to retell the story. The results indicated that the deaf children who participated
in the study scored lowest when retelling the story from print only. Presentation of the
stories with print, pictures and sign language videos (multimedia format) yielded higher
retelling scores than either print only or print with sign language. Stories presented in print
with supplemental pictures also resulted in higher story re-telling scores than print only or
print with sign language.
Gentry noted, with some surprise, that adding sign language to the text had less
influence than adding pictures to the text. She noted that the children in the study were
unaccustomed to using sign language as a means of comprehending text, at least not in
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computer-based instruction. They often became fascinated with the videos, possibly to the
point that the novelty overrode the motivation to extract information.
The Gentry study is not as prone to the problems found in the Shoemaker study.
Gentry did not compare computer-based education to traditional methods, but rather
different ways of supplementing text within a computer-based environment. Clearly, the
computer-based treatments were more effective than printed text only.
The surprising lack of impact from sign language videos does not conclusively
indicate that sign language should not be included in materials developed for deaf students.
Rather, it indicates that we have possibly not yet found the best means of implementing
sign language into the latest technology–based teaching techniques. Multimedia
developers may need, for example, to scaffold the sign language so that students may only
use it as a last resort. Media developers might also want to consider requiring that students
use the signed videos to extract information and apply it to a specific task, thus reinforcing
the need to attend to the information.
An Effective Use of Multimedia with Deaf Children
Another study, done by Voltera (1996) gave a fair idea of how computers might be
used effectively with deaf children. The Voltera Study used a multimedia application
created specifically with deaf children in mind. It incorporated text, Italian Sign Language
(LIS – as translated into Italian), and graphical information. The application provided the
children with access to information about animals in a savannah. The students used the
application for about 9 months in weekly sessions. The software was carefully designed
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for uniformity of graphics, icons, space, and dimensions. The graphics were selected for an
intermediate level of symbolization between written Italian and LIS. Students used a
notebook to store information about the animals and then created cards that were used in
games that tested the students understanding, and their development of syntactic
knowledge.
In both knowledge and syntax, all students achieved high scores during the game.
Some students answered more questions than others, but the overall results were positive.
Interestingly, the students varied widely in their use of text, sign language, and images.
Some preferred text whereas others preferred sign language. Still other students used all
the informational modes equally. More surprisingly, the preference seemed to have little to
do with the student’s exposure to and use of sign language. Some students who relied
primarily on sign language preferred to use text whereas others preferred sign language.
Unfortunately the Voltera study gives no data on the literacy level of students upon
initiating the treatments.
The Voltera study is an excellent example of action research: the study of an
ongoing learning activity within a real-life classroom. It did not use controls, but clearly
documented the effects of the multimedia intervention. It would have failed the Shaw
criteria, but gives excellent information on how a long-term multimedia intervention might
affect deaf students. The length of the experience may have overcome some of the
problems that Gentry (1998) discussed, namely the novelty of seeing sign language in a
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multimedia application, but without comparing the multimedia to some other form, it is
impossible to say how the two studies would compare.
Summary of Multimedia with Deaf Learners
The studies by Shumaker (1996), Voltera (1996), and Gentry (1998), give
compelling evidence that multimedia applications hold some promise for deaf education.
On the side of caution, however, it is not yet possible to determine how that promise
compares to teaching methods that do not involve computers. If the potential of computer-
based instruction also applies to computer games, then investing the time to develop
educational games for deaf students may prove a fruitful undertaking. Unfortunately,
repeated searches of the literature uncovered no references to computer games used as
teaching tools with deaf children.
Effectiveness of Computers as Teaching Tools with Hearing Students
CAI and Applications for Higher Order Thinking Skills
No research has been done on the effectiveness of computer games as teaching
tools with deaf students, but the results obtained from studies of deaf children using CAI
and multimedia closely parallel those obtained with hearing students. Kulik (1987)
analyzed 199 comparative studies with hearing students exposed to computer-based
instruction (CBI). He found that students generally learned more in classes where CBI was
used, learned their lessons in less time, liked the classes with CBI, and had more favorable
attitudes toward computers. Kulik obtained similar results in more recent studies (1994) in
which he analyzed over 500 empirical studies. On average, he found that students scored
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in the 64th percentile on achievement tests compared to scores in the 50th percentile for
students who did not use CBI. It is important to note that Kulik’s studies focused on
tutorials, drill-and-practice, and Integrated Learning Systems, as opposed to other software
that requires higher-order thinking.
Studies of applications requiring higher-order thinking also yield positive results in
favor of computer applications. Harold Wenglinsky (1998) evaluated the effectiveness of
simulations and technologies that supported higher-order thinking skills. His population
included 6,227 fourth graders and 7,146 eighth graders. All results were controlled for
socioeconomic status, class size, and teacher characteristics. Eighth graders who used
primarily simulation games scored up to 15 weeks above grade level on standardized math
tests. Fourth grade students whose teachers received training on computers scored up to 13
weeks above grade level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Students who used drill and practice technology, in contrast, scored worse than students
who did not use drill and practice technology.
The results from meta-analytical studies with both hearing and deaf students yields
generally positive results in favor of computer use, despite the differences in learning
requirements for the two populations. It is hoped that, despite the lack of research with
deaf students, a similar parallel will be found for the use of computer games as teaching
tools.
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Games as Teaching Tools
Meta-analysis: games and hearing students.
Computer-based educational games are one example of successful instructional
methods using computers, but the only evidence comes from hearing students. Meta-
analytical studies of the effectiveness of computer games with hearing students show
positive results. Randel (1992) evaluated the results of research on games in education
over 2 time periods. The first time period (1964-1984) consisted of an indirect analysis of
7 reviews of literature related to games as educational tools. The second time period
(1984-1991) employed direct analysis of literature. After eliminating literature that failed
to use some empirical methods, Randel and his team of researchers found a total of 68
usable references. The overall results showed that (1) 38 of the studies showed no
difference between games and traditional methods of teaching, (2) 22 of the studies favored
games (c) five favored games, but the controls were questionable and (3) three studies
favored conventional methods of teaching. The overall balance suggests that games at least
equal the potential of conventional approaches to education.
Most importantly for the purpose of studying adventure games with deaf students,
Randel et al. (1992) reported a balance in favor of games for language arts upon breaking
down the results into academic subject. Five out of six studies found positive results for
games. One study found no benefits for a gaming approach. Two other studies with
positive results failed to adequately control for time spent on learning. Other content areas,
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including social studies, math, biology and physics showed generally positive results or no
significant differences.
Randel (1992), however, makes an important point in discussing the results.
Several of the studies measuring effectiveness of games included delayed posttest to
measure retention over time. Delays ranged from ten days to eight weeks. Ten of the 14
studies measuring retention showed significant results in favor of games. Four of the
studies found no significant differences between game groups and conventional groups.
Without a delayed posttest, in contrast, the results looked much less positive for
game enthusiasts. Seven of the ten studies showing results in favor of games with delayed
posttests found no significant differences between conventional and game groups at the
immediate posttest. The overall balance in studies of retention is no significant difference
on immediate posttest but a clearly significant difference when using a delayed posttest.
The difference between delayed posttests and immediate posttests cast additional doubt on
the mediocre results in favor of computers found by Braden and Shaw (1987). The reality
of the potential of computers for deaf students may be much more favorable than previous
research has indicated.
Sparse game research in deaf education.
Although there is not enough literature to conduct a meta-analysis, one instance of
computer games in deaf education yielded positive results. Passig (2000) found that
children who played a 3D virtual reality version of Tetris for 15 minutes once weekly over
a period of 3 months improved their flexible thinking scores significantly compared to a
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control group. No other computer-game studies showed up in an ERIC search using the
terms “Deaf” and “Games”. The paucity of research on computer games in Deaf Education
lends additional impetus to developing suitable tools and researching their impact on
learning and thinking skills for deaf children.
Motivation.
In addition to measures of effectiveness, games offer motivating benefits to
students, a critical factor for deaf students who may have experienced frustration in
accessing and learning written language based on an auditory code. Brown (1987)
indicated that negative attitudes about foreign language learning could negatively affect
success in learning the target language. Gardner (1985) found two attitudinal variables that
affect language learning. Integrativeness describes the positive affect toward the
community from which the target language originates. The second variable - attitude
toward the learning situation - strongly influences the acquisition of the language.
If affective variables play such an important role, then it may be that the most
important considerations have more to do with what students consider worthwhile than
what educators deem valuable in a computer program. To educators, flexibility,
individualized education and self-directed learning are all valuable aspects of computer-
based learning. To the student, in contrast, the attraction of computers may be nothing
more than pure and simple fun. Without those elements, which make a game enjoyable,
computer-based materials would probably fail to hold the interest of the students long
enough to master the skills and knowledge which educators desire them to acquire.
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Psychologists have studied characteristics that make video games attractive to
students. They point to characteristics such as control over the computer environment and
competition (Malone, 1981) or violence. In the final analysis most researchers will agree
with one thing: students voluntarily play the games. They need no encouragement from
their teachers, they need no bribes or external reinforces, they ask only for the time, the
equipment and the games.
Funk (1993) supported the observations of motivation to play video games when
his investigations showed children averaged 4.2 hours per week. Even the small group of
15 students that exhibited potentially addictive play patterns gives strength to the idea of
using video games as an educational tool. Video games appear to possess inherent
motivating features that drive sales into the billions, draw youth into voluntary play and
even, in extreme cases, hold their attention so powerfully that they become addicted.
Randel (1992) mentions the interest or motivating characteristics of games. In 12
of 14 studies reporting on student interest, subjects reported more interest in simulation and
game activities than in traditional learning environments. Randel reviewed a dated, but
pertinent article written by Cohen (1969). Cohen specifically measured the effects of
games for junior high students who either showed no interest in or did not benefit from
traditional classrooms. The students attended a special summer program using games as
the teaching tool. Eighty-seven percent of the students indicated higher interest in the
games than traditional teaching methods. Especially in relation to reading and writing,
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motivation alone provides a great deal of justification for using games with deaf and hard
of hearing students.
The ability of video games to hold a student’s attention, even to the point of
addiction, provides considerable incentive for including such games in educational
software. Motivation along with evidence of efficacy of games justifies a study to test the
effect of games in the Deaf Education classroom.
Theoretical Foundation
Cognitive Theories and Computers
The studies done by Randel (1992), focus primarily on drill and practice type
games. The main exception to the emphasis on drill and practice has been the use of
simulation games in the social sciences. Simulation games proved at least moderately
successful in creating stimulating learning environments. Thirty-three of forty-six studies
involving simulation games showed no differences for simulation games over traditional
instruction. Ten studies showed a significant difference in favor of simulation games, 3
studies showed a significant difference in favor of traditional teaching. Simulation games
require a considerably higher level of thinking than drill and practice and, therefore, satisfy
most of the current thought on learning theories.
Cognitive theorists propose, in contrast to drill and practice lessons, which real
learning occurs in an environment that contains more immersion. The learning
environment, they suggest, must require students to use knowledge in constructive ways to
achieve a specific goal. Examples of approaches involving a more cognitive approach
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include project-oriented teaching, case-based learning, and adventure games. Adventure
games, by their nature, require students to extract information from the game in order to
apply the new knowledge and achieve a series of goals, usually increments in abilities or
wealth.
Several current learning theories lend themselves to the study of computers as
educational tools. Chiou (1995) lists 9 theories:
1. Constructionism (Papert, 1993);
2. Situated cognition (Clancey, 1994);
3. Situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991)
4. Case-based reasoning and learning (Kolodner, 1992)
5. . Cognitive apprenticeship (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989)
6. Computer-supported intentional learning environments (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1993)
7. Problem-based learning (Barrow, 1984)
8. Cognitive flexibility theory (Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1991).
9. Anchored Instruction (Cognition and Technology Group, 1993).
Description of the Theories
Computer supported intentional learning environments.
Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) function as
collaborative learning environments in which students share information and discuss ideas
using both text and images. Much like concept mapping, CSILE allows students to work
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together to create “nodes” containing concepts and information related to a given topic
(Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1993). CSILE does not really address adventure games unless
the games are intentionally designed to engage students in group discussion and
information sharing. The game designed for the present study does not require
collaborative work. Any collaboration would be incidental – students may decide to
discuss the game and its solutions.
Situated Cognition.
Situated cognition attempts to explain cognition in terms of the relationship
between the learner and the environment. Separation of learning and the situation in which
it occurs, according to Situated Cognition, gives little useful information (Lave & Wenger,
1991). Thus, teaching about an anvil without providing some background experience
would give a different quality of learning compared to teaching about an anvil in a
blacksmith’s shop. Adventure games can provide a richer context within which a student
can learn concepts, facts, and vocabulary – thus providing the “situation” called for by
Situated Cognition.
Constructivist Theory.
Constructivist Theory, on the other hand, fits more closely to the study of adventure
games. Constructivists envision learning as a process by which the learner constructs a
perception of reality through interpreting personal experiences in the world (Duffy &
Jonassen, 1992). Vygotsky, one psychologist often identified as a constructivist,
conceived of a zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development
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describes a gap between a student’s developmental or independent level and potential level,
or guided learning level. From Vygotsky’s concept, the idea of scaffolding has grown.
When a teacher applies scaffolding, the child initially does little work and much
observation after which the teacher’s support is gradually withdrawn until the student can
work independently. Scaffolding may also work in a complementary way: students are
challenged with a problem. Depending on the type of mistake the student makes, the
teacher provides the lowest level of assistance possible and gradually increases assistance
until finding a level at which the student is able to function independently.
Cognitive Apprenticeship.
In addition to constructivism and situated instruction, Anchored Instruction borrows
most heavily from the idea of Cognitive Apprenticeship (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989).
Cognitive Apprenticeship uses authentic practices to mimic craft apprenticeships. An
adventure game, if exceptionally well designed, can guide a student through a simulated
environment that approaches the characteristics of a craft apprenticeship.
Cognitive Flexibility.
Spiro, Jacobsen, Feltovich, and Coulton (1991) strive to address the complexity of
learning, partially discussed in Situated Cognition. They note for example, that the same
content must be revisited multiple times and through multiple approaches in order for a
concept to become powerful enough that it may be applied in novel or diverse situations.
Knowledge that will have to be used in a large number of ways has to be organized,
taught, and mentally represented in many different ways. Adventure games typically
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require students to solve a problem by trying multiple approaches, thus the information
they acquire will be applied repeatedly until a solution is found. The games also
introduce novel situations in which the player must use the same resources in new ways.
Case-Based Learning.
Though useful theories, Case-Based Learning and Problem Based learning lend
themselves poorly to the study of the adventure game designed for the current study.
Problem solving case-based reasoning is primarily the use of cases to propose solutions to
problems.
Anchored Instruction.
Anchored Instruction, the most suitable theory for the purpose of researching
adventure games in deaf education, builds on several other theories. The basic foundation
of Anchored Instruction includes Constructionism and Constructivism. Papert (1993)
invented the theory of Constructionism to describe the idea that “knowledge is built by the
learner, not supplied by the teacher” and that it happens when the learner is engaged in
constructing something external and sharable. In the case of adventure games, the student
must gain the knowledge through interacting with the environment in order to gain health,
wealth, or solve a puzzle. The external product could be seen as the increase in the ranking
of the character, but the analogy is questionable.
Anchored Instruction borrows most heavily from Constructivist Theory, Situated
Cognition, and Cognitive Apprenticeship. Anchored environments give students a context-
rich knowledge base as well as realistic applications in which to use the knowledge.
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Ideally students would learn in the one-on-one relationship of apprentice and mentor.
Realistically, an apprenticeship is not feasible in modern educational settings.
Instead, the Vanderbilt Group (Hasselbring, 1994) proposes anchoring the
instruction in integrated media. Integrated media essentially refers to multimedia, but
uses the word integrated to emphasize the point that the goal is to present an integrated
orchestration of media that facilitates learning, not just to multiply the amount of media
available to the students.
As an illustration, Hasselbring (1994) used “The Right Stuff” Integrated Media
Project. In the project the movie “The Right Stuff” accompanied narratives in sign
language and captioning. Hasselbring refers to the videos as “Macrocontexts” intended to
stimulate inquiries over extended periods and through various media, including text.
The Vanderbilt group selected video over text based on evidence that appropriately
designed video can help students form a better mental model of the information than they
might otherwise form if using text only. Source material containing only text poses greater
difficulties for students attempting to build mental anchors on subject matter with which
they have little familiarity. Videos, in addition, gave poor and strong readers alike the
opportunity to develop a common knowledge base.
Adventure Games as Anchored Instruction Components
Adventure games generally have several aspects that make them amenable to the
formation of mental models. The games originated as text only versions-which immersed
students in a fantasy environment conveyed through words describing fictional
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surroundings. Students then must decipher the descriptions, usually drawing a map,
analyze the information and decide on a move. Moves can include a limited set of verbs
such as: “go, get, use, jump, eat.” The fictional environment contains a limited number of
items the students may manipulate such as a rope, a window, a torch, or a key. Through
such games, students experience new vocabulary. The students must then assimilate the
vocabulary to the degree that they can use it appropriately to achieve an interesting goal
such as defeating a dragon or discovering riches.
In a rather elegant study of two text-only games (Werewolf Howls at Dawn and
CIA adventure) Sheriff (1987) analyzed the problem solving strategies of 13 adolescents.
Sheriff used a text-based adventure game. Text-based adventure games require players to
interact exclusively through text. Players must read text to extract scene details, determine
the problem, find clues and make a decision as to what action will solve the problem. The
player then types in a command and observes the results displayed on the computer screen
as text (Gardner, 1999)
Sheriff categorized 18 problem-solving strategies and observed the students
playing the games. Sheriff modified the game to automatically track student progress and
found that, of a total of 2263 moves, 1313 (58%) resulted from use of the various problem-
solving strategies. 262 (11.6%) resulted from previous learning and 688 (30.4%) resulted
in inconsequential moves. The most commonly used strategy was guess and check. It is
not possible from the dissertation to determine if the problem solving strategies were the
“best” ones for a given situation. It is possible, nonetheless, to determine that students did
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use a variety of problem solving strategies. At least the two games involved showed an
ability to stimulate problem-solving activities in accordance with Hasselbring’s (1994)
requirements for an effective mental anchor.
Most adventure games, in contrast to the Sheriff study, currently include a rich store
of visual information, the rough equivalent of the video “The Right Stuff” used in the
Vanderbilt study (Hasselbring, 1994). A recent demonstration of adventure games in the
magazine Computer Gaming World (Demonstration CD, 1997) showed five games with
highly developed 3-D graphics. The graphics, combined with captions or signs could
possibly provide the type of environment Hasselbring (1994) recommended for students to
explore and develop their language then use their knowledge to explore other media.
Before investing vast amounts of time, money, and effort to develop such games,
however, educators prefer to know what aspects of the materials are most important,
motivating and effective. The Anchored Instruction model (Hasselbring, 1994) appeals
greatly to designers of educational adventure games, but little hard evidence shows which
parts of educational adventure games have the greatest impact on learning.
An Example of Anchored Instruction Studies
Gildea, Miller, and Wurtenberg (1990) conducted a study that fits well in the
definition of Anchored Instruction. They made note of the problems with a common
practice in elementary education. When students ask for the meaning of a word teachers
often respond, “Look it up in the dictionary.” Teachers assume that by using the
dictionary students will first of all learn independence and secondly, use the dictionary to
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form a concept of how to use a vast number of words. A pilot study, in contrast, showed
that even though the dictionary supplied examples, students often came up with
interesting, but incorrect examples of a word they had to look up. One example shows
how the dictionary definition of chaste (pure) lead to a logical but incorrect sentence:
“The milk is chaste.”
Gildea, Miller, and Wurtenberg (1991) found that using dictionary definitions
alone often resulted in substitution errors. The investigators then set out to test a
contextualized (anchored) learning situation. They first used examples from the New
York Times to see if text-based context yielded any improvement. Interestingly, the
students still demonstrated a high error rate, even if the number of contexts increased to 3
sentences. Finally, the investigators sought to maximally enrich the students’
environment.
The experiment consisted of giving students a pretest to assess which target words
they already knew. Following the pretest, students viewed computerized episodes of the
movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Students then read sequential paragraphs with the target
words highlighted. The students could select the highlighted words for clarification.
Clarification included reviewing specific scenes from the “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Students could also request additional sample sentences or definitions.
With freedom to choose as they pleased, students preferred definitions first (54%),
pictures much less frequently (21% of the time) and sentences only 12% of the time. With
a second round of experiments that restricted the choices, the investigators found that
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students who read only the text scored 58% on tests of vocabulary comprehension.
Students who used text plus sentences scored a mean of 73% correct.
Likewise, use of definitions and sentences yielded identical scores to sentence
examples only (73%). Sentences combined with pictures resulted in 65% correct whereas
definitions plus sentences plus pictures gave a mean of 63% correct. Retesting the students
1 week later showed that the text plus sentence group scored the highest on 3 measures of
vocabulary comprehension (for the target words). Students having access to example
sentences plus pictures also scored reasonably well, but not as well as the sentence-only
group.
The interesting results show that, contrary to common-sense practices, increasing
the number of options for explaining a target word did not produce an additive effect.
Without seeing the actual target words and programs used, it is impossible to determine if
the pictures had confusing information or if the additional media actually interfered with
learning through some type of sensory overload or distraction effect.
The study does, nonetheless demonstrate a means of testing some of the Vanderbilt
group’s (Cognition and Technology group at Vanderbilt, 1991) theoretical premises. The
enriched context of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” provided the mental anchors described by
Hasselbring. The multiple methods of illustrating and explaining the target words represent
various levels of support scaffolding. The question arises as to whether deaf students
would produce the same types of results, especially considering their supposed visual
orientation to learning.
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Experimental Design Considerations: Action Research
Action Research Described
Hopkins (1993) outlines the experimental design used to evaluate the Gladys City
Adventure Game. According to Hopkins, Action Research developed as a response to the
frustration educators experience with traditional research approaches. Academic
institutions traditionally carry out educational research in the psycho-statistical approach of
tightly controlled experiments with subjects randomly assigned to different treatments in
order to assess the effectiveness of the treatments. The psycho-statistical paradigm, also
known as the Fisher paradigm, does not always yield valuable data in the classroom due to
the difficulties of obtaining random samples, controlling contextual variables and
establishing criteria for performance. The fundamental emphasis of the Fisher paradigm,
moreover conflicts with the ideal emphasis of education: maximizing student learning in
order to enhance individual potential. The Fisher paradigm, in contrast, was developed to
improve gross agricultural yield not to evaluate the potential benefits for individuals.
Hopkins (1993) defines Action Research, “Action research combines a substantive act with
a research procedure; it is action disciplined with enquiry, a personal attempt at
understanding while engaged in a process of improvement and reform.”
Action research consists of four major steps outlined by Glanz (1999).
1. Select a focus.
This step involves knowing what to investigate, developing questions, and
establishing a plan to answer the questions.
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2. Collect data.
Data needs to be well organized in order to communicate the answers to the
questions to an audience.
3. Analyze the data.
The purpose of data analysis is threefold:
a. Describe and summarize the data clearly.
b. Search for consistent patterns or themes among the data.
c. Answer the research questions.
Analysis involves comparing the results to pre-specified standards and
noting to what degree the standards were met.
4. Take action.
Based on the data analysis the researcher decides whether the treatment had
the hoped-for effects. The researcher may also have discovered additional
avenues of research.
According to Glanz (1999), action research consists simply of applying traditional
research approaches to real problems. The traditional research approaches include, among
other approaches, ethnographic, descriptive, and quasi-experimental.
Johnson (1995), considers diaries, logs, portfolios, questionnaires, interviews,
audio- and videotapes, photographs, and slides all as viable sources of data. She notes,
furthermore, that most definitions of action research include a cycle of addressing some
question, seeking answers, and reflecting on the research. Action research, as she
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conceptualizes it, allows an educator to respond to a rapid onslaught of changes in order to
improve the educational environment. In the case of the present study, action research
allowed the investigator to take advantage of rapidly developing technology and attempt to
put into a form that is accessible and beneficial to deaf students.
The benefits of action research include:
1. Promoting personal and professional growth.
2. Improving practice to enhance student learning.
3. Constructing new learning and meaning.
4. Advancing the teaching profession.
5. Contributing to the professional literature.
6. Promoting collaboration.
7. Breaking barriers of isolation (Johnson, 1995).
Greenwood and Levin (1998), note that action research generally takes on much
more complex problems than those addressed by traditional research paradigms. Action
research focuses on specific contexts, with their inherent wealth of experience, history,
dynamism and rich interactions.
Credibility and Validity of Action Research
Greenwood and Levin (1998) note that the validity and credibility of action
research is not measured by traditional means. It is measured, instead based on how the
research gives rise to action and enables the participants’ (sometimes the researcher can be
viewed as the participant) control over their situation.
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Greenwood and Levin (1998) extend the definition of credibility for action research
to include internal credibility, external credibility, workability and making sense. Internal
credibility, for action research consists of knowledge that results in altered patterns of
social action. External credibility consists of convincing someone who did not participate
in the research that the results are believable. External credibility is sometimes dismissed
in action research due to the tendency of action research to focus on a limited number of
cases. Even a single case that challenges a theory, nevertheless, can invalidate a theory.
The “workability” measure of credibility consists of measuring whether the actions
taken during the AR process will lead to a solution to the problem. The “making sense”
criteria for credibility consists of asking how the results can be integrated into a process of
constructing new knowledge.
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Chapter 3
Method
Outline of the Study
In the development stage, the investigator created a panoramic game titled “Gladys
City Adventure Game”. The Gladys City Adventure Game and the companion multimedia
dictionary both evolved from the Gladys City Museum, also known as the Spindletop
museum that is affiliated with Lamar University located in Beaumont, Texas. The museum
preserves the history of the Lucas gusher, the first true oil gusher in the United States. Both
the multimedia dictionary and the game expose students to identical target vocabulary and
other key concepts.
The term “Panorama”, used to describe the navigation interface in the game, refers
to such means of presenting images as are found in QuickTime Virtual Reality,
SmoothMoves, and other similar panoramic viewers. All provide a means of
overlapping and joining images (usually sequential images taken ten to twenty degree
intervals) to create a 360-degree panorama. The panorama is then presented as a scrollable
image with hotspots. The scrollable image appears on the computer screen and the
hotspots typically draw attention by means of outlining the area or changing the cursor
when the cursor passes over a specific portion of the panoramic image. Real Estate offices
use panorama viewers, for example, to allow prospective buyers to see a room as if
standing in the center. The customer uses the mouse to control the scrolling of the
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panoramic image then uses the mouse to select a “hotspot” thereby navigating to another
room.
In the game, students start with an introduction (Appendix A). The introduction
lays out the background for the game: A ruthless energy company has decided to change
history in order to gain control of the oil industry. They did so by traveling in time to the
Gladys City boomtown shortly after the discovery of the Lucas Gusher. In the game
students must interact with characters via text with ASL support. All text was written at
the 2nd grade reading level (Appendix B). The students used the text to gain information
about the city and history of Spindletop and, eventually, prevent the energy company from
disrupting history.
Participants had to progress through a sequence of events. First they viewed the
introduction consisting of short video clips and English captions with optional ASL
interpreting. ASL interpreting was limited to ten times. After viewing the introduction,
students proceeded to the main panoramic navigation scene: the center of the Gladys City
Museum 3d model. The main navigation scene has “hotspots” over the doors of each
building. Some of the buildings have not yet been activated for the entire game. If the
cursor passed over an inactive building, blue text appeared over the door with the words,
“There is nothing here yet” (Appendix C).
Dragging the cursor over any spot that is an active hotspot at any point during the
game results in a change in cursor shape from the default arrow cursor to a pointing finger.
Passing over the hotspot also triggers the appearance of a sign, which identifies each
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building (Appendix D). The participants can click on any of the active hotspots. Some of
the hotspots are active for the game, but dormant until participants find certain clues or
items. Clicking on the dormant hotspots resulted in an alert box (Appendix E). The alert
box (commonly used in software applications to report errors) contains text and an “OK”
button. The text informed students that the particular building was not open yet, and why.
Clicking over an active hotspot that is not dormant results in entering into a new
building. The available hotspots include an ice-cream parlor panorama (Appendix F), a
blacksmith shop panorama (Appendix G), a general store panorama (Appendix H), a video
in an apartment (Appendix I), the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company video introduction
(Appendix J), and a dialogue with the boss of the Texaco Oil rig (Appendix K).
Four of the panoramic scenes contain hotspots, which activate dialogues. The ice
cream parlor leads to a dialogue with Doc Thomas (Appendix L). The Blacksmith scene
leads to a dialogue with George Schuldt (Appendix M). The Gladys City Oil and Gas
Company lead to a dialogue with George Washington Carroll, George Washington
O’Brien, and B.F. Lanier (Appendix N). The Texaco rig panorama (Appendix O) appears
only after completing the dialogue with the rig boss.
Each dialogue contains background information that participants can use to solve
challenge scenes. Four of the dialogues lead to challenges. The medical scene, blacksmith
scene, Oil and Gas Company, and Texaco scene all lead to challenges. The medical
challenge (Appendix P) consists of reading text with directions for performing surgery on
the main character (injured in a rig accident). Students must select the correct surgical
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item. Too many mistakes result in the death of the main character - Jimmy (Appendix Q).
The Blacksmith challenge strongly resembles the medical challenge, but more closely
complies with the precepts of Anchored Instruction – the tools are arranged in an actual
image of the blacksmith shop (Appendix R). The Oil and Gas Company challenge requests
students to select which of three characters matches a text clue (Appendix S). Working too
slowly results in a bomb destroying an oilrig.
The multimedia dictionary consisted of a menu (Appendix T) that led to each of the
four scenes covered in the game. The four scenes contain a dropdown list with the target
vocabulary. The vocabulary shows the English definition by Default (Appendix U).
Clicking on a button labeled “ASL” toggles the definition to ASL mode that pulls up a
movie of a Deaf ASL user explaining the meaning of the vocabulary word (Appendix V).
Experimental Design – Action Research
The research undertaken in the current study attempted to evaluate the potential of a
computer-based game as a teaching tool. The game, according to predetermined standards,
would be considered effective if it increased knowledge of vocabulary and facts and/or
motivated the students to engage in learning. Any degree of vocabulary acquisition would
indicate some effectiveness. Any degree or indications of motivation would also indicate
effectiveness. The research should, moreover, begin the process of determining which
portions of the treatments yielded the greatest increases in knowledge and for whom the
treatments were most beneficial. Since this is the first round of development, any
information that leads to improvement was considered valuable data. Whether the
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treatments proved effective or not, the data would help the investigator in future efforts at
developing computer-based learning tools to be used in Deaf Education classrooms.
The goal was not just to see how many students the game benefited, but which
students and to what degree it provided benefits. The research conditions also prevented
uniform treatments and tight controls. Two computers for 12 students with variable
schedules and widely diverse linguistic backgrounds presented insurmountable challenges
to the traditional experimental design. As a result of the insurmountable challenges, Action
Research provided a more valid data collection paradigm.
Background information, game performance and field notes combine to give an
overall picture of what happened. For additional information, the multimedia treatment
helped clarify to what degree the game maximized learning, but it did not allow for a
tightly controlled comparison.
Development of the Treatments
The game development process involved five major activities commonly
recognized by game development and multimedia firms. They included script-writing,
videography, 3d artwork, animation, and programming. Although the Department of
Education grant supported paying a 3d artist/animator, the student hired to do the artwork
proved unreliable, forcing the investigator to learn both 3d modeling and animation as well
as the other aspects of game development. Each part of the game development and
multimedia development will be discussed in detail.
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Game Development
The game posed the greatest challenge to the investigator. The investigator sought
to create an immersive game with panoramas as the main user interface. The first efforts at
creating panoramas involved photographing the Gladys City Boomtown Museum located
in Beaumont Texas. Using a tripod with a ratcheting head, the investigator went into each
room of each building in the museum to take the sequential images necessary to create a
360° panorama.
The ratcheting head had detent discs, which limit the rotation to 20° for each shot.
The individual images were then stitched (joined by matching overlapping portions of the
photographs and blending them into one image) together using QuickTime VR Authoring
Studio™. The results proved unsatisfactory for the purposes of the investigation. Sunlight
coming in through the windows caused uneven lighting for each of the sequential images
and proved exceedingly difficult to correct. The number of items in the rooms also reduced
the control the investigator had over the scenes created by stitching the images together.
After experimenting with actual images for approximately one month, the
investigator decided to experiment with creating a 3d model of the Gladys City Museum.
A 3d model has the advantages of superior lighting control, unlimited control over the
contents of each scene, and the potential of creating multiple formats, including Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML), various panoramic formats, and various video
animations.
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3d modeling.
The investigator used 3d Studio Max™ R2. 3d Studio Max R4 is now sold by
Discreet (Discreet, 2002) to create the bulk of the models, assemble the final 3d model of
the city, and create several of the animations. 3d Studio Max™ is a combined 3d modeling
and animation package that uses frame-based animation. 3d Studio Viz™ R2, a similar
product also produced by Kinetix, specializes in creating architectural models. It proved
instrumental in creating the buildings that made up the bulk of the scenery in the Gladys
City Adventure game.
Although the investigator created most of the models found in the various scenes of
the game, many other models were downloaded as free models distributed at various
Internet sites. Distribution of the game is pending documentation of who created the
various models and until permission to distribute the game has been secured. Character
models were provided either by Poser™ 3.0 or downloaded from the Renderosity
(Renderosity, 1999) web page.
Creating the panorama followed completion of all building other models
incorporated in the city scenery. After all the models were correctly positioned and the
correct textures were placed on them (to allow the program to render or paint them as
desired) the investigator placed “cameras” within each of the rooms that would become an
interactive scene of the game. The investigator located cameras in the city center, ice
cream parlor, doctor’s office, apartment, General Store, blacksmith shop, Oil and Gas
Company, and Texaco oilrig. The cameras were then each set to take sequential “shots” at
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each of the sites at 20-degree intervals. The resultant images were then ready for stitching
into a single panoramic image using QuickTime™ VR Authoring Studio (check this!). The
resulting panoramic image was then ready for importing into Director™ not as a panorama
ready for a viewer such as the QuickTime viewer, but as a jpeg image ready for use in
Director without any external viewers.
Character animation.
The character animations were created in the Poser™ human animation software.
This allows easy manipulation of a human or animal 3d model based on joint rotation with
either manual manipulation of the joints or easily accessed dials to set the exact rotation
angle at a given moment in time. Two of the character animations that show sign language
were provided in part by House of Moves (House of Moves, 2000) motion capture service.
The investigator flew out to California with a native sign language user who performed the
entire script of the game. Eight infrared motion capture cameras recorded the motion of
reflective balls located on the Deaf actors joints. The cameras fed the data to a computer,
which converted the motion into text format. The data was then cleaned by the House of
Moves and delivered to the investigator as a charitable donation. The motion capture came
in BVH format, which drove animations on 3d characters created in Poser™.
Animations created in Poser™ did not easily merge with the models created in 3d
Studio Max. Moving city models into Poser caused problems with rendering the images.
Moving characters into 3d Studio Max™ often caused problems with rendering the
characters properly. In 2001, however, Maximum Pose II (Fielder, 2001) became available
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at Renderosity and provided an easy translation of Poser animations into 3d Studio Max™
files.
Unfortunately, the motion capture animations lacked facial expression and hand
shape features. The investigator had to work the animations extensively to incorporate
both proper ASL handshapes and the proper facial expressions. The results did not
accurately reflect the original performance of the actor. The sign language animations,
therefore, seemed a little odd. They were understandable, but with considerably more
effort than watching a video of a live performer. As a result, the investigator decided to use
video clips for the interpreter portions of the game.
Videography.
The ASL interpreters required extensive use of video clips created by working with
two native ASL users. Both of the native ASL users had been Deaf since birth and
immersed in ASL from childhood. The investigator worked with them extensively
explaining the nuances and meanings of the English text used during the game. The
interpreter and the investigator then arrived at satisfactory interpretations. A digital video
camera recorded the interpretations, with the “stop” button pushed between each line, or
definition. The “stop” button set up the videos for automatic clip creation within Imovie™
on a MacIntosh™ G4.
The videos were transferred to the G4 through IEEE 1394 (firewire) cable. Each
line automatically became a clip, which the investigator then edited to reduce file size as
much as possible without sacrificing too much quality using Imovie™. The movies were
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cropped and compressed using Sorenson™ compression/decompression (codec). Video
clips were exported to QuickTime™ with Expert format settings at a 320 x 240 image
setting. The compression settings were set to 15 frames per second, medium quality, and
key framed every 12 frames. Adobe ™ Premiere then processed the videos to correct
contrast and lighting errors (due mostly to the investigator’s lack of videography
experience). The game originally had approximately 150 video clips, roughly 90 of them
made it into the game used for the study.
Programming.
Completion of the videography, character animations, and 3d models allowed the
investigator to begin the final stage: putting all the elements together into a usable game,
which would respond to user interactions through the mouse or keyboard. The investigator
chose Director™ 8.5 produced by Macromedia (Macromedia, 2002). Director is known as
an authoring tool, a tool that allows media designers to easily put together the various parts
of multimedia applications, web pages, or games. It allows the designer to incorporate and,
to varying degrees, edit text, video, images, audio, and user interactions among other
aspects of multimedia applications.
Graphical user interface.
One aspect of the game development required the creation of a graphical user
interface (GUI). The graphical user interface allows a game player to interact with the
game by clicking on images instead of typing commands. Aspects of the GUI include the
background images, buttons, and framing of the images. The principle navigation buttons
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for the interpreter and for jumping between non-panoramic sections of the game were
created in 3d Studio Max™ with variations on marble textures. The “exit” button was
created using two still images of a hand in Poser™ then importing them into Director™.
The images were linked to a button with “rollover” behaviors that caused the hand to
appear to move in an imitation of the sign for “leave”.
The blacksmith, Texaco, and medical challenge scenes contained items, which the
students could click in response to directions in a text box. The items were still images,
which the student could scroll over with the mouse. As the mouse passed over each image,
the image became a larger, rotating image that showed the item from various angles in
order to give the game player a clearer picture of what each item looked like. The items
were buttons with rollover scripts (included with the Director™ software), which swapped
a sequence of images back and forth in a cyclical fashion, then returned to normal size with
no motion when the mouse left the button area.
Panoramic navigation.
The initial attempts to use QuickTime™ VR as the main navigation interface
caused multiple crashes in the computer, probably due to the complexity. The game had a
large number of “nodes” or spots the user could click on to jump into a new panoramic
scene. It also used several hotspots for jumping to non-panoramic scenes within director
for different kinds of interaction, including videos and text. The size of the QuickTime™
VR files and the complexity and number of links appeared too much for Director to
adequately accommodate. After extensive searching for a solution, the investigator found a
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site explaining a technique used by Director programmers long before QuickTime™ VR
entered the market. Collins (1998) explained a technique that could use Director’s
programming language (Lingo) to scroll the panorama jpeg image created in 3d Studio
Max™ in a fashion almost identical to the QuickTime™ VR viewer. The technique
involves copying a section of the panorama that is equal to the width of the Director viewer
the game players will see. The copied section of the image is then pasted onto the opposite
end of the image. The Lingo commands then cause the image to scroll in response to
mouse movements and jump back to the beginning when the scrolling brings the user to the
end of the image.
At Mediamacros (Mediamacros, 2001), the investigator found Ling scripts that
allowed incorporation of unique “hotspot” alerting techniques directly into the scrolling
panorama. Loren Mork, a contributor to the Mediamacros site, created a behavior titled
“Scroll Sprite by MouseLoc Behavior”. The script could be used to cause a button to
scroll in response to the mouse movements, similar to the panorama behavior. The
investigator took the behaviors created by Collins (1998) and Loren Mork, modified both,
and combined them to suit the game better. With the combined Ling scripts (called
“behaviors” in director) the investigator could use progressively larger images of signs
from the Gladys City Museum to create clear indicators of what building the users where
passing over and which buildings would allow interaction at some point in the game.
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Tracking user responses.
The game required tracking user responses in order to allow users to stop and return
to the same place as where they left off. Each scene sent information to variables that
allowed the game to record the scene entered, the level, and certain items that the player
may or may not have acquired during game play. The level determined whether or not
each building was accessible and what interactions would be supported. The variables
were recorded into and retrieved from pref files – two obscure Lingo commands (setpref
and getpref) allow easy writing to and reading from files. Most director programmers seem
to focus on more complex techniques that may have more power but proved overly
complicated for the purpose of the game. Initially the investigator intended to record how
much time the students spent in each scene and what buttons or items the student clicked
on. Such interaction tracking would allow an analysis of problems solving strategies and,
to some degree frustration or motivation. In the interest of time, however, this option was
not exercised, but recommended for future studies.
Multimedia Dictionary Development
The investigator followed the same basic procedure for the multimedia dictionary
development as outlined in the game with one major exception: the images taken from 3d
models had already been created. In all other respects, the procedure remained the same:
create the images, create the ASL videos, import them into the authoring tool (Director™),
arrange them into a usable interface, and attach scripts to control the interaction.
Experience from developing the game, simpler interaction and interface of the dictionary,
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and re-using game images resulted in a much faster multimedia development than game
development (approximately on quarter of the time). The experience also led to some
improved design features.
The game, the first major Director project attempted by the investigator used a
simple technique for navigating to the interpreter videos. The videos were simply placed
sequentially on the director score. The first video would take up the first ten frames of the
video portion of the score; the second video would take up the second ten frames of the
video portion and so on. The game then employed a simple means of extracting the “scene
entered” data and using that to determine which video to jump to. The organization of the
game became burdensome with nearly 100 videos causing the score to grow to barely
manageable proportions. The investigator determined to find a more effective means of
organizing and navigating to large numbers of videos. The solution lay in creating a list of
videos, a matching list of text, and another matching list of images. The dictionary then
used a scroll bar with a list of vocabulary words. Selecting the vocabulary words sends a
message to Director™ to display the correct text and its corresponding image with a
matching video ready for display. Instead of placing nearly 100 videos on a score (similar
to a timeline), the investigator only needed to create few well-organized sections with
efficient Lingo scripts controlling the display of the various media.
Background Data Collection
The background data collection consisted of giving students questionnaires on prior
computer and adventure game experience (Appendix W). Teachers of the participants
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completed another questionnaire on classroom computer use (Appendix X). Additionally,
the investigator collected information on each participant’s reading level, gender, language
preferences and other possible influences on the results of the treatments (Appendix Y).
Participant’s reading level, language preferences and other possible influences (i.e.
student’s problem solving skills) were obtained through teacher interview. All students
participating in the game evaluation returned parent permission forms – those over 18 years
of age signed on their own recognition (Appendix Z).
Experimental Phase
The actual experiment consisted of exposing a group of students to both
multimedia and game presentations. By exposing students to both treatments, the
investigator hoped to study the degree to which the game lead students to their maximal
learning potential via computer assisted learning for the chosen target words. The
multimedia approach is easier to create, but possibly less engaging. The adventure game
approach required considerably more time and effort, which would have to be justified by
markedly increased performance on vocabulary acquisition and retention and some
approximation of maximizing the learning potential via computer assisted instruction.
There was only one site that was able to participate within the allotted time frame.
Eight high school students completed the study with one additional student providing
partial data on the pretest and posttests and one additional student providing feedback only
on motivation (due to data loss from programming errors). Student grade levels ranged
from 9th grade through 12th grade. Two female students and 6 male students provided
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enough data to analyze. Preferred languages and communication modes included ASL,
Signed English, and spoken English. First languages included Tagalog, spoken English,
Signed English, Spoken Spanish, and ASL. The students ranged in reading level from 3rd
grade through an estimated 9th grade or higher reading level. The names of all students
reported have been changed to protect their privacy.
Students took pretests (Appendix AA) of the vocabulary and facts before playing
the game followed by a posttest to determine vocabulary and fact acquisition from the
game. The pretests and posttests all took the form of a computer-based test in which the
image of the item would appear, along with a question and choices for answers. The
answers were selected by clicking on a button. The pretest and posttests all had identical
questions, but the order of presentation was randomized.
The first posttest was followed by an opportunity to study the multimedia
dictionary and a second posttest. During the experiment, hand written observations
provided some data on how the students interacted with both the multimedia and game
treatments. Due to the limited resources and the number of students, the investigator was
not able to tightly control the time frame during which students participated. Some
students took the pretest, played the game through the first challenge, and then did not start
again until two days later. Other students worked all the way through the pretest, the game,
and the first posttest before stopping. There was no gap between game and Posttest for
them. In the spirit of action research, the investigator made no attempt to stifle discussions
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among the students except during the “challenge” scenes. When students needed to solve a
part of the game, the investigator asked the other students not to give the answers away.
Two brief Likert-scale questionnaires measured motivation. One questionnaire
assessed the game’s motivating value (Appendix BB) and the other assessed the
multimedia presentation’s motivating value (Appendix CC). Finally, the investigator kept
field notes (Appendix DD) to document any problems that occurred and any observations
that might shed light on the results obtained during the game evaluation (the experiment).
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Chapter 4
Results
Overview of Results
Because of the chosen methodology and the nature of the questions under
investigation, the results cannot be generalized. The results are useful only as a descriptive
study of an attempted educational technique. The description may be used to improve
future studies using action research supplemented by more traditional research to give the
clearest possible picture of the value of the Gladys City Adventure game. The results also
guide the investigator in efforts to improve the game and the experimental design. Data
extracted from action research studies do not always determine “success” or “failure” of an
experiment so much as it contributes to the process of developing a treatment, studying the
interaction between the treatment and the classroom, and improving the treatment for new
rounds of observations.
Background Data
Teacher Interviews
Though not a research question in itself, the background variables were important
for partially answering research questions #1 and #2. Both sought to determine for whom
the game was effective. Information about participant problem solving skills, language
background and reading levels were initially considered the most likely variables to
influence the results. Other variables included computer experience. During interviews
with the teacher the investigator collected data on the language background, cognitive
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abilities and other factors that may have affected the outcome of the experiment. All data
were based only on teacher ratings or student responses – no testing instruments were
consulted.
Table 1displays the results of teacher ratings of the participants’, reading levels,
memory and “cognitive skills” (described as problems solving abilities during the
interview). Teacher ratings of reading levels ranged from 3rd grade to”9+”. Teachers rated
the participants’ problem solving skills from 5 to 10 (maximum = 10) with only one
participant (Kristi) rated below 7. The student rated with problem solving skills of 5 only
provided motivation data – all her other data was lost. Similarly, teachers rated the
participants’ memory skills between 6 and “9+” (maximum = 10). Only Kristi was rated
below 7. Again, her pretest/posttest data was lost.
The language background data resulted from teacher interviews and participant
interviews. First languages included oral English, oral Spanish, Signed English, ASL,
unspecified manual communication, and Tagalog. Participants’ preferred languages
included ASL, oral English, oral Spanish, Signed English, Contact Communication (PSE),
and combinations of two languages.
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Table 1
Teacher Ratings of Student Language and Cognitive Skills
Student L1 L2 L3 LP Read level
Memory(max. = 10)
Cog. Skills(max. = 10)
Ariel Engl/MC SL/PSE 4 9 8Sue SE Eng ASL ASL 7 to 8 8 10Daniel Spanish Eng MC Oral Eng 5 8 to 9 9 to 5Frank Eng ASL ASL 9+ 9+ 8Julio Spanish Eng ASL Spanish 4 to 5 8 to 9 8Juan MC Eng ASL 7 to 8 9 10Kristi Tagalog SE SE 4 6 to 7 5Mark Uncertain MC ASL ASL 3 7 to 8 7 to 8Anthony Eng ASL Eng/ASL 5+ 9 10
Note.
MC = Manual communication - unspecified
SE = Signed English
ASL = American Sign Language
Sp = Spanish
Eng = English
PSE = Pidgin Signed English
L1 = Primary language, first language
L2 = Second language
L3 = Third language
Lp = Preferred language
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Computer Use
The surveys of computer use showed generally strong computer experience with a
few exceptions. The data are divided into two charts; one for amount of type spend in
various computer-related activities, and the other for naming types of games with which
students are most familiar (table 2).
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Table 2
Student Home Computer Use Frequency
Computer Experience Questionnaire 1 = 0 to 1; 2 = 1 to 2; 3 = 2 to 3, 4 = 3 to 4; 5 = 4 or more 6 = no response
QU EST ION SAriel Sue Dan Frank Julio Juan Bob Kristi Mark
How many hours per week do you use a computer at home?
5 1 2 5 2 5 1 2 5
How long have you been using computers at home? (years)
1 1 1 5 1 5 No Response
2 3
How many hours do you play games on the computer?
3 6 2 3 2 2 2 2 5
How many hours do you play console games (Sony, Genesis, Sega)?
4 4 3 5 5 No Response
4 2 No Response
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The Computer Use Survey reveals the patterns of computer use by students in their
homes. Most, but not all had access to computers at home (Figure 1).
Ariel Daniel Frank Julio Juan Bob Kristi Mark
I don't use one at home
Uses at friend's house
I use the Internet X X XI use it for e-mail X X XI use it to play games X X X X XI do home work on the computer X X
Other X
Figure 1: Student Home Computer Use
Under the response option of “Other”, Daniel responded that he used the computer
for downloading music and Frank responded that he used it for online chatting.
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Students responded to the question: “Please write the names of your favorite 3
games you play on the computer or circle “None” if you don’t play computer games” as
shown in Figure 2.
Ariel Golf Cards Tetris
DanielJedi Knight: Dark Force II No Response No Response
Frank Baseball - any Fast and Furious
Who wants to be a Millionaire - 2nd sports edition
Julio Star Wars No Response No ResponseJuan Star Craft Red Alert No Response
Bob Oregon trail Doom No ResponseKristi Solitaire Minefield No Response
Mark Counter Strike Cards Pool
Figure 2: Student Computer Game Experience
Students responded to the a similar question, “Please write the names of your
favorite 3 console games. Circle “None” if you don’t play Nintendo type games” as shown
Figure 3.
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Ariel
Plays, no titles
given No Response No Response
Daniel Tomb Raider Soccer FICA 2001 Batman (Original Nintendo)
Frank Parasite - Eve II Resident Evil III Nemesis Silence Hill
Julio
WWF
Smackdown 3 NFL 2k1 NFL 2k
Juan
Silence Hill
(Adventure game) Tomb Raider
Bloody Roar (fighting
game)
Bob None No Response No Response
Kristi Golden Eye Taken II Alone in the Dark
Mark Mario Kart No Response No Response
Figure 3: Student Experience With Console Games
Teachers responded to the Classroom Computer Use survey as shown in table 3 and
in table 4.
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Table 3
Classroom Computer Use in Teacher’s Lessons
Lloyd Galloway
How many hours per week do you use a computer in class? 2 2
How long have you been using computers in class? (years) 5 5
Table 4
Classroom Computer Use by Category
Please rank the top 5 activities in order of highest use to lowest use among your students in school. I is the most common computer activity while 5 is the least. Lloyd GallowayThey don’t use one in school.They use the internet. 2 1They use it for e-mail.They use it to play games.They use presentation software. 3 3They use Word Processing software. 1 2They use educational software. 4 4
They use Spreadsheets and databases.
One student
only
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Research Question #1: Was the Game or Multimedia Treatment Successful in Teaching
Students Vocabulary, Recognition of Faces and the Acquisition of Facts?
The data show some growth in knowledge acquisition for three categories: faces,
facts, and vocabulary. Background data and field notes help explain the results. The faces
data shows how the students matched the faces of people involved in the Gladys City
history to their names. The facts data shows how well the game and dictionary treatments
influenced acquisition of facts related to the people who influenced Gladys City history.
Overall, there appears to be some fact acquisition for a few students, but this appears to be
the weakest part of the game and dictionary treatments. The vocabulary data shows how
well the game and dictionary treatments succeeded in influencing the ability of students to
match pictures of items to their names and (in a few cases) their functions. Both the game
and multimedia dictionary treatments appear to have influenced vocabulary acquisition for
many, but not all students.
The background data measured the potential influencing factors of each student’s
language environment, cognitive variables and other factors that may have contributed to
the student-game interaction.
Acquisition of Facts, Vocabulary, and Face Identification
General Vocabulary Acquisition
The data appears to show a somewhat consistent but not perfect trend to acquire
vocabulary during the entire game phase and additional amounts of vocabulary acquisition
during the multimedia dictionary phase (figure 4). The data for growth by word shows no
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immediately apparent pattern. Figure 1 shows the words in order of presentation, grouped
by game section. “Stock” shows little recognition from the beginning and little growth
throughout the experimental phase. “Bullet Probe”, “Suture”, “Hardie”, “Piston” and
“Casing” show apparently consistent increases in recognition. Other words show
apparently high recognition at the pretest with little decay during the tests and some show
unpredictable patterns of growth and decline in student acquisition. There is no
immediately obvious pattern of growth by order of presentation.
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Analysis of vocabulary gains by student (figure 5) shows a general pattern of more
correct responses on the game posttest and multimedia posttest when compared to the
pretest results. The investigator lost Kristi’s pretest and posttest data due to programming
errors that caused confusion. Bob did not complete the multimedia dictionary posttest.
Sue and Mark show no apparent increases in vocabulary. Julio’s posttest scores indicate no
benefit from the game, but some possible benefit from the multimedia treatment.
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Medical Scene Vocabulary Acquisition.
Figures 4 and 5 show the growth in knowledge by word and by individual. One
additional chart (Table 5) helps bring the patterns of learning into clearer focus. Four of the
seven participants demonstrated positive growth in the number of correct responses.
Daniel and Julio answered two items correctly only after the multimedia treatment.
Frank Anthony, and Juan both answered more items correctly following their
posttests, but their growth patterns were mixed. Some of the items they answered correctly
were correct following the game treatment and stayed correct following the multimedia
treatment. Some of their correct responses were not correct until completing the
multimedia posttest.
The other participants did not show any consistent indications of increased
knowledge of vocabulary as evidenced by either zero increase in correct response or
“reversal” increases – correct responses on the game posttest followed by incorrect
responses on the multimedia posttest (for a total of five “reversal” responses). The over all
balance seems to indicate more learning attributed to the multimedia treatment than to the
game, but the evidence is not conclusive due to the small sample size. The best
interpretation would be that some of the information seemed learnable via the two
treatments, but was not learned following the game treatment. Among all the students, five
responses were correct by the game posttest and stayed stable through the multimedia
posttest. Seven responses were not correct until the multimedia posttest. “Suture” had the
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highest number of correct responses (three) that showed up only following the multimedia
treatment.
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Table 5
Medical Scene Pre and Posttest Responses
1 = correct, 0 = incorrect
Words AntisepticArtery Clamp
Bullet Probe Forceps Suture
Sphygmomano-meter Total
Ariel
Pretest 1 0 1 0 0 1 3Game 0 0 1 1 0 1 3
Multimedia 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
Sue
Pretest 1 1 0 1 0 1 4Game 1 0 0 0 0 1 2
Multimedia 1 1 0 1 0 1 4
Daniel
Pretest 1 1 0 1 0 1 4Game 1 1 0 0 0 1 3
Multimedia 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Frank
Pretest 0 0 0 1 0 0 1Game 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
Multimedia 1 1 0 0 1 0 3
Julio
Pretest 1 1 0 0 0 1 3Game 0 1 0 0 0 1 2
Multimedia 0 1 1 0 1 1 4
Juan
Pretest 1 1 0 0 0 1 3Game 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Multimedia 1 1 1 1 1 1 6
Mark
Pretest 1 1 0 0 1 1 4Game 1 1 0 1 1 0 4
Multimedia 1 0 0 0 0 1 2
Anthony
Pretest 1 1 0 0 0 1 3Game 1 1 1 0 0 1 4
Multimedia 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Note: the color-coding and font in tables of responses to test items represents
different patterns of learning. Italicized red represents a “reversal”. Reversals indicate a
correct response on an item followed by in incorrect response on the same item in
subsequent posttests. Reversals may indicate random guessing artifacts. Green
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represents items that were not answered correctly until the multimedia posttest. Bold,
italicized, underlined green may represent learning attributed only to the multimedia (or
practice). Green may also represent random guessing since there is no means of
confirming the stability of the correct responses – the study included no tests following
the multimedia posttest. Bold blue represents items that the participant answered
correctly from pretest through the final posttest. Black represents items that the
participant never answered correctly. Underlined mauve represents items that
participants first answered correctly on the game posttest and continued to answer
correctly in the multimedia posttest. Though not conclusive, the consistent responses
may indicate that the answers were not random guessing artifacts.
Medical scene field notes and interpretation.
The two female participants (Ariel and Sue) either answered fewer items correctly
or showed inconsistent growth. Without a larger sample, it is not possible to make
generalizations, but fewer correct answers and inconsistent growth for the females may be
related to a gender bias in the game. Sadly, the results from two other female participants
could not be used due to either incomplete or lost data.
The one male participant who scored lower on the posttests was the lowest reader.
Although the reading level was adjusted to a second grade reading level, the original script
was closer to a 5th grade reading level. Literature indicates that rewritten texts with lower
reading levels than the original do not support increased comprehension. It may be that
Mark simply did not understand the text. Interestingly, Ariel – one of the other participants
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who did not benefit from the medical scene, also had a low reading level as judged by her
teachers.
The computer use questionnaires do not support any trends based on computer use
at home. Both the females and the male who benefited the least from the medical scene
indicated computer usage patterns consistent with the other participants. The computer use
questionnaires, however are highly suspect. Some of the questions were highly ambiguous.
“How many hours do you play games on the computer?” for example, lacks a time frame.
One student may have answered based on daily usage whereas another may have answered
based on weekly usage.
Field notes indicate possible further explanations fewer correct multimedia posttest
answers for the three participants (Ariel, Sue, and Mark). Mark did not really attend to the
multimedia version. He visited only the blacksmith scene. Mark’s failure to use the
multimedia dictionary to its fullness does not explain the lack of benefit from playing the
game, but it may explain the actual decrease in correct responses following the multimedia
treatment.
The field notes indicated, furthermore, that the investigator paid sparse attention to
the three participants who scored lower on the posttests. Lower posttest scores or lack of
progress could easily have resulted from the participants playing without understanding
what was going on. Notes with other participants indicated a need for explanation and
clarification of various parts of the game.
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Multimedia notes. The general trend in table 5shows gains following the game
treatment with additional gains following the multimedia dictionary treatment. The
consistent but smaller gains following the multimedia treatment may be due to either
learning being nearly maximized during the game or by participant inattention to the
multimedia treatment that had no method of controlling which sections the students visited.
At least one student skipped the majority of the multimedia treatment before proceeding to
the final posttest.
Blacksmith Scene Vocabulary Acquisition
Formed only of complete data sets for vocabulary acquisition, Table 6 gives a
focused picture of the results from the blacksmith scene. It is interesting to note that Juan,
Julio, Ariel, and Mark did not score correctly on some of the items until the multimedia
posttest. The items Daniel, Frank, and Anthony answered correctly, in contrast, were all
correct following the game treatment. The investigator could detect no correlation with
language preferences, teacher ratings of reading levels, or teacher ratings of problem
solving skills. The overall balance of correct responses answered by game to correct
responses answered only following multimedia is 5 to 10. It is important to take into
account that correct responses on the multimedia test may be random – there is no
additional that allows determination of the stability of items answered correctly on the
multimedia posttest. The participants accumulated a total of 5 “reversal” responses in the
blacksmith scene.
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Table 6
Blacksmith Scene Responses to Pre and Posttest Questions
1 = correct, 0 = incorrect
Words Stock Anvil Pliers Hardie Tongs Borax Cure Totals
Ariel
Pretest0 0 1 0 1 0 0
2
Game 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2Multimedia 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Sue
Pretest 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 4Game 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 4
Multimedia 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3
Daniel
Pretest 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 3Game 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Multimedia 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Frank
Pretest 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 4Game 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 5
Multimedia 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 5
Julio
Pretest 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 3Game 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 2
Multimedia 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 5
Juan
Pretest 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 5Game 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 5
Multimedia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
Mark
Pretest 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1Game 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Multimedia 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2
Anthony
Pretest 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 4Game 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Multimedia 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5
Blacksmith scene field notes and interpretation.
The participants in the Gladys City Adventure Game research generally scored
higher in the game posttests than they did in the pretest for the blacksmith scene. Two
students showed an increase of one vocabulary item from pretest to game treatment. One
participant had an increase of two correct responses. Four students showed neither a gain
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nor a decrease in correct responses from pretest to game posttest. Only one showed a
decrease in knowledge – a possible random guessing error. The students with no gain
between pretest and game posttest scored consistently correct on the same items –
indicating a possible foreknowledge of the items. It is highly important to note that the
small sample size may appear to show gains that are really random guessing artifacts.
Blacksmith scene multimedia notes and interpretation.
Four students showed a gain from the game posttest (posttest 1) to the Multimedia
Dictionary posttest (posttest 2). One student showed a loss from posttest 1 to posttest 2.
Both the gains and the losses may be due to random guessing effects. Gains may also be
due to an actual success with the treatments, especially the multimedia treatment.
Overall, from pretest to posttest 2 the results were generally more positive than in
the medical scene with only one participant answering fewer items correct than in the
pretest. While it may be due to random guessing effects, it may also be due to more
familiar items or superior design. The blacksmith scene was more “embedded” than the
medical scene. The tools and items were placed in a picture in which they would naturally
occur whereas the medical instruments had no context – they were placed over a colored
background.
An interesting variable to pursue in future experiments is the “distinctiveness” of
the items. The image of the “stock” item was a simple metal rod with no distinctive
characteristics. It was the item that showed the least increase in learning from pretest to
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posttest 2. “Stock” also had the lowest overall scores in each test. Another feature to
investigate would be familiarity of items.
Texaco Scene Vocabulary Acquisition
The test results for the Texaco Scene of the game and multimedia treatments
become easier to understand in light of Table 7. The students accumulated a total of 5
correct responses that were not correct until the multimedia treatment. Students who
answered items correctly only following the multimedia treatment did so for only one test
item. Ariel, Daniel, Frank, and Anthony all showed patterns of growth that included
correct responses following the game treatment that stayed stable through the multimedia
posttest. Of the four showing stable gains following the game treatment, all had two stable
responses except for Daniel who had one. The word “piston” had the highest number of
stable responses (three). The students accumulated only two reversals.
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Table 7
Texaco Scene Responses to Pre and Posttest questions
1 = correct, 0 = incorrect
WORDS Traveling block Bolt Piston Sprocket Casing Totals
Ariel
Pretest 1 0 0 0 0 1Game 1 0 1 0 1 3Multimedia 1 1 1 0 1 4
Sue
Pretest 0 0 0 1 0 1Game 0 1 0 1 0 2Multimedia 0 0 1 1 0 2
Daniel
Pretest 1 1 0 1 1 4Game 1 1 1 1 1 5Multimedia 1 1 1 1 1 5
Frank
Pretest 0 1 0 0 0 1Game 0 1 0 1 1 3Multimedia 0 1 0 1 1 3
Julio
Pretest 0 1 1 1 1 4Game 0 1 1 0 1 3Multimedia 1 0 1 0 1 3
Juan
Pretest 0 1 0 1 0 2Game 0 1 0 1 0 2Multimedia 0 1 1 1 1 4
Mark
Pretest 0 1 0 0 0 1Game 0 0 0 0 0 0Multimedia 0 0 0 1 0 1
Anthony
Pretest 0 1 0 1 1 3Game 1 1 1 1 1 5Multimedia 1 1 1 1 1 5
Of the eight participants with complete pre and posttest data, six appear to have
made gains in knowledge of the target words following the game version of the Texaco
scene. Two of the positive-gain participants scored 100% following the game treatment
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and one made a gain of only one word – possible due to a random fluctuation from
guessing.
Two participants scored one lower correct response following the game when
compared to the pretest results. One participant scored the same number correct during the
pretest. The participant who scored only one higher following the game treatment (Sue)
answered fewer items correct following the medical scene game treatment than they did on
the corresponding items of the pretest. Mark answered fewer correct in both the medical
and Texaco scenes following the game treatment. Julio, however, had positive gains
during the medical scene but fewer correct items from the Texaco scene. Ariel, in direct
contrast to Julio, had fewer correct items from the medical scene but positive gains in the
Texaco scene.
Sue and Mark may both have scored similarly on the two sections due to a common
motivation factor: teachers commented that the performance of both students in the
classroom was heavily dependant on their desire to perform – it could fluctuate sharply
based on their mood. It may also be that the two sections failed to address their learning
styles. Both the Texaco and Medical scenes required students to read text, attempt to guess
which item matched the request in the text, and then choose the correct item based on
context and feedback.
The reversal for Ariel may be due to the embedded nature of the Texaco scene.
Much as Hasselbring suggested for Anchored Instruction, the Texaco scene occurs more
“on-site” than the medical scene, but less so than the blacksmith scene. The additional
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environmental cues may have been enough to elicit a higher degree of vocabulary
acquisition from Ariel. It may also be attributed to either the practice effect (prior scenes
may have helped Ariel to understand the game play) or random guessing. Ariel may also
have gotten more attention from the investigator in the Texaco scene when compared to the
medical scene.
The reversal for Julio may be due to frustration over bugs in the game or a dislike
for the panoramic navigation – both items he scored low on the Game Motivation
Questionnaire.
It may also be that Julio did not get sufficient attention from the investigator. While
the field notes reflect considerable observation of Julio’s activities during the other scenes,
only one sentence records that Julio was reading the background information for the
Texaco scene.
The Texaco section may also not have matched Julio’s learning style. The Texaco
scene differed from the medical and blacksmith scenes in that the participants had an
inventory of three items. They were then required figure out which character they needed
to give the item to. In the other scenes the participants read the hint, then clicked on the
item that could perform the action described in the hint. The organization of the hints may
have been disjointed from Julio’s perspective.
In addition, the Texaco scene did not have any risk of “termination” of the
participant’s main character. In the Oil and Gas Company scene, as well as the Medical
and blacksmith scenes, there was some risk of the main character’s dying with a resultant
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need to restart the game in the failed section. The notes from his Oil and Gas Company
efforts show that Julio’s character did die during his first attempt, and then he searched the
background information of the scene more carefully and repeated the challenge scene with
high accuracy. It may be that Julio’s style of learning is most compatible with an
introduction (the first pass through the background information), practice (the first effort on
the challenge scene), rereading (the second exposure to the background information after
re-starting), and correction (his second effort in the challenge portion of the Oil and Gas
company scene). Although there was some capability of repeating a question in the Texaco
scene, it was not as clearly delimited as in the Oil and Gas Company scene. The medical
and blacksmith scenes also allowed repetition of the challenge section in a much more
delimited fashion than the Texaco scene.
Julio ranked the Texaco scene third out of four in informal interviews, indicating
that it was not his favorite. Interestingly, however, he ranked the Oil and Gas Company
Scene fourth, after Texaco. He commented that the Oil and Gas Company scene required
too much reading. His scores for items related to the Oil and Gas Company scene appear
higher at first glance, but may be due to random fluctuations. His score on posttest 1
(game) was 6 correct while his score on posttest 2 was only 2 correct. If there was any real
learning following the game treatment of the Oil and Gas Company scene, Julio did not
retain it through the multimedia treatment. This may well explain why he ranked Texaco
higher than the Oil and Gas Company scene despite the higher scores on posttest 1 in the
Oil and Gas Company scene.
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Oil and Gas Company Scene Facts Acquisition
Only Daniel appears to have demonstrated real acquisition of the factual
information following the game treatment (figure 6). Bob may have acquired the greatest
amount of factual information, but his missing multimedia posttest makes it difficult to
judge how much acquisition may have been due to random guessing. The results of all the
other students’ responses show what appear to be random fluctuations: where there may
have been gains in posttest 1 (game treatment) the next posttest (multimedia) showed
apparent decreases in knowledge. Anthony may have learned some of the facts from the
multimedia presentation, but his apparent gains are no higher than some of the other pretest
results.
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The initial hypothesis as to the apparent lack of effectiveness of the Oil and Gas
Company scene was the similarity of the items. The names two of the historical figures
were very similar to one another. The investigator felt that George Washington O’Brien
and George Washington Carroll may have been easily confused based on their names. The
high degree of accuracy on matching names to faces, however, indicates otherwise. Five of
the participants scored 100% on matching the names to faces after the game treatment.
One participant missed one of the items after the game treatment (figure 7). An additional
two participants scored 100% following the multimedia treatment. If the similarity of
items was a factor, it does not show up when only the similarity of names is considered.
Bob did not complete the multimedia posttest. All other zeros in figure 7 represent true
zeros. The students answered no face identification items correctly on those tests.
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Another possibility is that multiple levels of similarity may have caused problems
where only one level did not. The similarity of the names compounded with the similarity
of the questions may be the factor that caused lower scores. Field notes indicate that at
least one student was confused by the questions, “Who was the president of the Gladys
City Oil and Gas Company” and “Who was the vice president of the Gladys City Oil and
Gas Company.” An additional question with a high degree of similarity was “Who was the
president of the Beaumont Lumber Company.”
Question-wise analysis of the test results (figure 8) shows, however, that the
number of correct responses to the three similar questions was at least as high as the
number of correct responses to non-similar questions. It is not possible to judge, however,
that the responses to similar questions were more accurate than responses to non-similar
questions – pretest responses to most of the questions was similar to the posttest responses,
some pretest responses even reached the highest degree of accuracy. In all likelihood, the
number of correct responses to each question was largely determined by random guessing.
Another factor that may have caused little progress was that a great deal of the
information was given by George Washington Carroll’s dialogue. Thus, students may have
attributed the information as belonging to him when it actually was about one of the other
two characters.
Additionally, the level processing required by the students may have influenced the
outcome. In the blacksmith and medical scenes information was gained in a fairly
straightforward fashion: students read directions which told them to find a specific item,
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then experimented by clicking on various items. Correlations between the hint and the
correct item were straightforward. The Oil and Gas Company scene, in contrast, required
the students to make deductions in order to answer two of the challenge questions. B.F.
Lanier said he was from out of town; the question in the challenge scene was “Who did not
live near Spindletop?” George Washington Carroll also let the participants know that
others laughed at Patillo Higgins’ idea that Spindletop had oil, but that Carroll believed
Higgins. The question in the challenge section was “Who was the first to believe Patillo
Higgins’ idea that there was oil on Spindletop?”
Two of the facts had errors. The answer to the question “Who founded a Methodist
Church?” was inadvertently deleted. The game also stated that B.F. Lanier had 273 acres
of land on Spindletop whereas the challenge section asked who had 275 acres. The two
errors could have easily contributed to the lower overall scores for the Oil and Gas
Company tests.
A possible influencing variable may have been the scaffolding employed in other
scenes was absent from the Oil and Gas Company scene. If a student chose an incorrect
item in the blacksmith or medical scene, the game sent them an alert with an additional hint
such as “Are you trying to find little bits of metal with that?” If students missed a second
time, the target word in the directions was underlined. In the Oil and Gas Company
challenge, the only additional support was the removal of incorrect items when they were
selected.
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A final issue to consider is the way students could solve the Oil and Gas Company
challenge. Incorrect responses resulted in the item being removed, but there was no limit
on the number of incorrect responses. Instead, the challenge was timed. Students could
solve the entire challenge simply by rapidly clicking until they got the correct choice.
There was ample time to solve the scene by guessing alone.
When presented by question, only 3 of the questions showed an apparent increase
in knowledge among all the students (figure 8). The questions used in the game and in
figure 8 are as follows:
Questions:
1. Who was the president of the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company?
2. Who was the president of the Beaumont Lumber Company?
3. Who had the most land on Spindletop?
4. Who was the first to believe Patillo Higgin's idea that there was oil on Spindletop?
5. Who was the secretary of the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company?
6. Who had only 275 acres on Spindletop?
7. Who did not live near Spindletop?
8. Who was the Vice President of the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company?
9. Who founded a Methodist church?
10. Who had 2750 acres on Spindletop?
11. Who shared land with a widow?
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Face Recognition
Although it was not initially included in the research questions, studying the data
from questions that required students to match faces of characters to their names helps
sort out the causes of low scores on the Oil and Gas Company portions of the treatments.
The data from matching faces to names shows nearly complete recognition following the
game treatment. If the students had troubles with similar information, it does not appear
to influence the identification of two of the characters who had the same first and second
name, but different last names. The ability to match faces to names does not rule out,
however, the possibility that additional levels of similarity could cause lower scores. It
also may not accurately reflect the influence of similar information as recognizing faces
may have a powerful biological basis.
Research Question #2: To What Degree was Each Treatment Motivating?
Motivation Impact on Game Posttest Scores
The motivation of participants who did not score higher on the game posttest than
they did on the pretest did not appear to differ from the responses of other participants
according to the Game Motivation Questionnaire (table 8). There may be a trend toward
being bored with the lesson, but the sample size is too small and the response range too
narrow to clearly indicate any trends. In informal interviews, four of the participants
indicated that they liked the medical scene best, including some of those who scored lower
on the game posttest than on the pretest.. Motivation does not appear to be a major factor
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in the growth or non-growth of vocabulary acquisition for the medical scene. Similar
patterns are seen for other scenes. The Texaco scene was rated lower than the blacksmith
and medical scenes, but yielded high scores on the posttests.
Students not only rated the individual parts and entire game highly, but they also
indicated that they wished the could play more, had fun, wished they had more games like
the Gladys City Adventure Game, and were not bored. The consistent answers from
different kinds of questions all point in the direction of enjoying the game. Lack of
motivation did not likely influence scores in any of the game sections.
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Table 8
Game Motivation Questionnaire
Game Motivation Questionnaire 1 = Lousy; 2 = Bad; 3 = So-so, 4 = Good; 5 = GreatQuestion Ariel Sue Daniel Julio Juan Kristi MarkThe whole game 4 3 4 4 5 4 4
Looking around the city with a mouse 5 4 5 2 4 4 3The pictures 4 5 4 5 5 4 4
The story 3 3 4 3 4 3 1The interpreter 3 5 1 5 5 1 5Movies (not interpreter movies) 4 4 5 4 3 3
1 = False; 2 = Not sure; 3 = True
I wish I had more lessons like this in my class 3 2 3 3 3 3 2I had fun using the lesson 3 2 3 2 2 3 3I wanted to use the lesson more time 3 1 3 3 1 3 3
I was bored with the lesson 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
I got mad because the lesson didn’t work right 2 1 2 3 3 2 2I was tired of the lesson 2 1 1 1 2 2 2
Motivation Impact on Multimedia Posttest Scores
Participants responded to the two questionnaires of motivation in highly similar
fashion. Participants rated the multimedia dictionary highly, expressed a desire for more
products of the same time and more time to use the multimedia dictionary (table 9)
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Chapter 5
Discussion and Conclusion
Overview of the Study
The overall purpose of the experiment was to determine the potential of adventure
games as teaching tools with deaf children by comparing a multimedia dictionary treatment
to an adventure game format. In reality, the design, method, and data most clearly
determines how well the investigator designed the game and whether continued endeavors
of a similar nature would prove worth the investment of time and resources.
With the exception of promoting collaboration and breaking barriers of isolation in
Johnson’s (1995) discussion of action research, the present study demonstrated most of the
benefits expected from action research. The development and use of the treatments gave
the investigator skills for creating a series of educational materials tailored to the needs of
deaf students. The experimental stage caused a re-evaluation of the various tools and
methods used and shed light on how to better conduct future studies. The research
conducted created new learning since no other investigator has attempted a similar study
with deaf children. The insights gained as to why certain treatments did not succeed may
improve teaching practice and will eventually become a published article as per the
requirements of the student initiated research grant. Future studies would definitely
promote collaboration by employing experienced teachers in the development and testing
of materials, thus reducing the separation of academia and teachers.
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The present study clearly required action research due to the complex interaction of
participants, treatments, and background variables, namely language preferences, reading
skills, computer skills, and motivation to play computer games. Countless other variables
determined the outcome of the experiment, including student schedules (speech class and
mainstreamed classes often interrupted treatments. All of the variables represent the real
situation under which any proposed educational materials would operate.
The game itself was a complex treatment, with four distinct sections, each boasting
unique features. The test items, or target knowledge also had a great deal of variability in
word length, accompanying image, and type of item. All of these variables also represent
real variables that could occur in future educational materials.
Conclusions
The overall results indicate some benefit from game and multimedia treatments, but
the degree of benefit is difficult to determine and the causes of failure need additional
research before completely eliminating a particular design. In order to investigate the role
of various factors in the success and failure of the game, a departure from the current action
research study would incorporate more controls to bring it more in alignment with a true
experimental design.
Experimental Design Modifications
In order to distinguish which treatment lead to the greatest gain of vocabulary,
facts, and facial recognition, an enhanced experimental design would include the following
changes:
Whitney 104
Controlling student progress.
At least two of the students failed to visit all of the multimedia dictionary items.
The lack of consistency casts a shadow on attempts to analyze the impact of the multimedia
treatment. Code could be inserted into the game requiring students to visit all sections
before proceeding to the final posttest. Unfortunately such an insertion creates an artificial
multimedia dictionary that departs seriously from the software currently on the market. A
better approach may be to document the number items visited, the amount of time spent on
each, and then determine the impact of visiting those items on the outcome of the posttest.
Simple feedback could be included to provide motivation to visit all sites (including
“passports” or “diplomas”) without forcing the students to visit all sections. It would still
be free choice. Both forced and elective visits could be incorporated into a study with large
numbers of students.
Staggered treatments.
Half of the students would experience the multimedia dictionary first followed by
the game. The other half of the students would receive the treatments in the reverse order.
With the present design, there was no way to compare the two treatments.
Larger sample size.
The participants demonstrated a great deal of diversity with respect to language
background, reading levels, and cognitive abilities. In order to determine background
variables that influenced the results more students would provide the ability to match
variables and analyze the degree to which each influenced the outcome. The design
Whitney 105
especially needs a larger number of female participants who complete the entire evaluation
of both treatments.
Consistency in participation and delivery.
Due to equipment failures and scheduling difficulties the participants did not
experience the treatments in a consistent manner. Some had gaps between sessions at the
computer as long as 2 days. Others worked through both treatments with no gaps.
The investigator failed to attend to all participants equally. Including an automated
tutorial and a single walk-through would decrease the variability of treatment delivery.
Improving the interface to make it more intuitive would also decrease problems. A training
session with a mini-game would allow all students to achieve roughly equivalent skill at the
start of the game. A “cheat” manual could be provided to supply hints for each scene.
Programming errors.
Several bugs caused unexpected delays, interrupted the flow of the treatment, and
caused frustration with the players. The bugs include an inadequate game saving routine,
some flaw that caused one computer to repeatedly crash. Another dialogue scene had one
exchange that flashed by too quickly to read. The most damaging error in the
programming domain, however, was a spot in the blacksmith scene which students could
click at any time and get a false “correct” item selection. Most students only used the spot
for a single item, but even that was unacceptable.
Whitney 106
Removing editorial errors.
Several errors clearly affected the results, including missing information in the
treatments followed by including the information on the test, typographical errors, and
inaccurate information. During the game, the Oil and Gas Company dialogue reads that
B.F. Lanier had only 273 acres. The test asks who held 275 acres. Again, in Oil and Gas
Company scene, the word “are” (at one point) should have read “area”
Delayed posttest.
A delayed posttest would help determine the overall effectiveness of both
multimedia and game treatments. The literature indicates that where computer based
instruction and traditional methods often seem equal, computer based instruction often
yields superior retention evidenced by higher delayed Posttest results (Funk, 1994).
Increasing the number of items.
In order to compare each of the sections, more items may be needed. With a
maximum of 8 items and 2 distractors, random variability and unforeseen variables can
skew the results. An improved design would incorporate approximately 30 items divided
into 3 sections, 7 target items and 3 distractors per section. Each section within the scene
would use identical procedures. Initial plans included a much higher number of items,
many discarded due to time limitations.
Whitney 107
Game Design Improvements
Exotic vocabulary.
For actual teaching materials, the game should focus on less exotic and more useful
vocabulary. Knowledge of sphygmomanometer may only prove useful if a student elects
to go into the medical field, otherwise it is simply a “trivia” fact. For experimental
purposes, however, the exotic vocabulary should continue to play a prominent role in game
design in order to decrease the influence of prior knowledge.
Reading levels.
The re-written dialogues and background information may be replaced with a better
interpreter that allows students to analyze sentences by chunks. Color-Cued Reading,
innovative approach being used with deaf readers by a handful of teachers, encourages
students to attack English in a fashion that looks at whole and embedded meanings. Some
English phrases need one ASL sign. Some English words need several ASL signs. Some
English words require fingerspelling – spelling the word using the American Sign
Language manual alphabet. Other differences between ASL and English require proficient
readers to depart from word-for-word decoding. In color Cued reading each type of
English-to-ASL interpretation takes on a unique color, which the students learn to
recognize as needing a specific strategy (Appendix DD). Incorporating a similar approach
into the game may allow low readers to access higher-level paragraphs without destroying
the integrity of the original English.
Whitney 108
Removing guess and memorize strategies.
At least two of the participants with incomplete data appeared to use a strategy of
guessing which item to click on and memorizing the correct sequence of items. A student
could click the wrong items, die, try again, find the right one, then proceed to the next item
and repeat the procedure. The guess-and-memorize strategy requires memory, not
extracting cues from the text. A simple randomization of the presentation of the items
would prevent success from guess-and-memorize. If a student’s character dies from wrong
guesses, the student could start again, but the items would appear in a different order.
Decreasing similarities.
Too many of the target items were highly similar, especially in the Oil and Gas
Company scene. In addition to the similar names of the characters, the high degree of
similarity in the factual information makes it difficult to compare the Oil and Gas Company
scene to other scenes. The blacksmith scene also had similar items: the tongs and pliers,
which were also similar to the forceps and artery clamp in the medical scene. The
similarities in items were natural and it may be artificial to eliminate all items with a high
degree of similarity, but the number of items within each scene that resemble other items
should be balanced. Alternatively, several reading and language experts could rate each
item for similarity.
Increasing distinctive features.
At least one item had almost no distinctive features. The “stock” item in the
blacksmith scene was a bar of metal. Nothing about it stood out. It may be worthwhile to
Whitney 109
investigate this variable by creating many similar items and comparing them to items such
as the sphygmomanometer, which was highly distinctive. A panel of graphics artists could
rate the items according to the number of distinctive features.
Balancing distractors.
The number of distractors within each scene was not controlled. The blacksmith
scene and medical scene each had 2 distractors, while the Oil and Gas Company scene had
abundant non-relevant information presented in the dialogues, which also contained the
relevant information. The Texaco scene had distractors, but it was the same two distractors
with each of the key items. It was not difficult to figure that the middle item was always
the desired item. The Texaco scene did not lend itself to distractors in the same manner as
the other scenes. The ratio of distractors to target information was 2:7 for the medical
scene and 2:6 for the blacksmith scene. It may prove revealing to adjust the distractor to
target ratio to equivalent levels in all scenes. Even the dialogues with the Oil and Gas
Company could be adjusted to provide similar ratios of relevant and non-relevant
information. The Texaco scene could be redesigned so that the participants collect all the
items first during other scenes of the game, and then must choose the correct one to place in
each part of the Oilrig. Unfortunately, such a design change would destroy the
characteristics that make the Texaco scene most like an adventure game.
Measuring impact on higher levels of learning.
Sheriff (1987) focused on learning strategies employed during the play of a text-
based adventure game titled “Werewolf Howls at Dawn”. Although the game he studied
Whitney 110
differs significantly from the Gladys City Adventure Game, Sheriff’s study raises the point
that games may offer not just benefits for acquiring knowledge, but also higher level
thinking skills. An earlier version of the Gladys City Adventure Game included features to
track student activity. Quantifying the amount of time spent at each scene as well as the
types of decisions students make would help track learning strategies.
Research Question #3: Does the data indicate continued efforts in the direction of
developing adventure games as educational tools? What modifications on the design
would be necessary to better answer this question?
The determination of the benefit of a fully developed Gladys City Adventure Game
and the multimedia dictionary awaits further development and more experimentation with
tighter controls. It appears, however, that both the game and the dictionary can stimulate
acquisition of target vocabulary, face recognition, and possibly fact acquisition. Neither
treatment appeared to benefit all students. Both appeared to motivate the students, the
game more than the multimedia dictionary. Developing both the game and the multimedia
dictionary required an intensive investment of time and effort on the part of the
investigator. The development phase required two years, approximately half of that for the
artwork and half for the programming. The programming for the multimedia dictionary
involved much less time and effort than for the game, though the time required may have
been affected by the knowledge, skills, and experience gained in developing the game first.
Nevertheless, once the images have been created, a game would require at least twice as
much time to develop and considerably more skill.
Whitney 111
Continued development of the present game and more tightly controlled
experimentation would help determine the benefits of both treatments. The present results
indicate sufficient benefit and potential benefit to continue analyzing the game and
multimedia dictionary with some modifications. If the results indicate that the game
provided significantly more learning, or significantly more motivation, or significantly
greater retention than the multimedia, the investigator will continue developing similar
games with less exotic vocabulary (more in line with current curricula). It may be that the
combination of game plus multimedia dictionary is superior to either alone, in which case
the investigator will develop a line of materials with both a multimedia dictionary and a
game component. At any rate, the investigator strongly recommends similar projects to
utilize a game development team with at least the following members: a 3d artist, a
programmer, a project coordinator/game designer, an animator, and a sign language expert.
Summary
The investigator created a game rife with errors and the experimental design caused
problems with data collection and interpretation. Despite the problems, each of the three
research questions may be answered in part. The data indicates that both the multimedia
and the game treatments benefited some, but not all the students. Low readers and females
may be the participants who benefited the least, but more research is needed to determine
to what degree those variables influenced the outcome. More research will also shed light
on how the two treatments compare. The present design and results do not allow
separating the two treatments effectively. Questionnaires indicate that students liked both
Whitney 112
treatments but disagreed as to which part of the game was best. The Texaco scene rated
lowest. Apparent benefits, including knowledge acquisition and motivation weigh in favor
of continued development and research with the Gladys City Adventure Game.
Developing additional games and multimedia dictionaries would depend on the outcome of
improved game design and more controlled experimentation.
Whitney 113
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Appendix
B
Script and
Microsoft Word Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level Analysis
Keyword plus line number Reading Level
With
Keyword
Substitions
(dog)
Words Not able to delete, but gave
lower reading levels when susbstituted
Antiseptic 015 4.9 1 Antiseptic
Anvil 052 1 0 Anvil
Anvil 058 2.3 1 Anvil
BmbLumber 081 4.4 0.8
Beaumont Lumber Company, Patillo
Higgins
Bolt 163 0
Borax 057 1
Boring 006 1.8
Bud 095 5.2 0.7 Patillo
Bud 0
Can'tSee 1.4
Captain 0.6
CarollLand 2.4
CarrollOther 3.9 0.6 Patillo, Spindletop
CarollProfession 7.5 2.3 Beaumont Lumber Company
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Casing 160 0.5
clamp 021 3.7 0.6 artery
comeAround 033 0.5
Consider 004 0
Curator 008 3.7
Cure 069 0.7
DescribeProblem 147 2.8
DontFeelBad 073 2.4
Don'tRemember 035 2.2
Exactly 150 1.5
ExplodeRumor 040 3.3
Explosion Question 3.6
feelBad 071 3
Fix 050 0
ForceOrFix 047 0.8
Forceps 023 2.4
FormerJob 087 3.6
GetOnIt 154 0.5
GuessSo 009 0
GuffeyNGalley 2.8
Gulf 077 2.7
Hardie 053 2.3
HeldKey 042 0.8
HelpAbe 2.7
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HelpSolve 146 2.7
HigginsQuestion 6.6 Patillo Higgins
Hinge 159 0
Homework 4
HowInvolved 089 2.8
Hurry 0
Introduction 001 2.3
InvolvedHow 3.9
It's Time 003 0
JobForGeorge 043 1
JoinCrew 152 3.5
JustTwisted 046 2.5
KeyBroken 045 0.5
Lanier 096 2.3
MoreProblems 145 3.9
NeverHeardIt 079 3.8
News Flash 3.6
OBJob 2.4
OBrien 093 5.3
Obrien Land 0.6
Obrien Disgust 072 4.4
Of course 151 0
Patillo 083 3.6
Piston 164 0.5
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Pliers 0
President 085 4.5
Probe 022 2.4
Question Key 0
Question RigNbr1 0
Question 2.3
Sabotage 149 5.2
Rig Number1 041 1.4
SameProblem 148 1.4
Scan 005 0
Schuldt 044 4.5
ScrambledBrain 039 2.8
Sphyg 026 9
Sprocket 161 0.5
Stock 059 1.2 0.6 sphygmomanometer
StopBomb 070 3.3
stopDisruption 097 3.6
Storm 007 0.7
Suture 025 1.3
TellBoutHiggins 7.1
ThomasFuss 011 0.1
Tongs 056 0.1 0.5 Patillo Higgins
TravellingBlock 162 2.4
WhatHappened 034 2.8
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Where Texaco 2.3
Widow 2.8
WildCatters 075 4.3
You Important 4
You interesting 3.2
Average 2.378
Whitney 147
Appendix
W
Computer Experience Questionnaire
Name:_______________
1. How many hours per week do you use a computer at home?
0 to 1 hours 1 to 2 hours 2 to 3 hours 3 to 4 hours 4 or more hours
2. How long have you been using computers at home?
0 to 1 hours 1 to 2 hours 2 to 3 hours 3 to 4 hours 4 or more hours
3. Please circle the ways you use the computer at home:
a. I don’t use one at home
b. I use the Internet
c. I use it for e-mail
d. I use it to play games
e. I do home work on the computer
f. Other _____________________
4. How many hours do you play games on the computer?
0 to 1 hours 1 to 2 hours 2 to 3 hours 3 to 4 hours 4 or more hours
5. Please write the names of your favorite 3 games you play on the computer or circle
“None” if you don’t play computer games.
a. None
b. __________________________________________________
Whitney 148
c. __________________________________________________
d. __________________________________________________
6. How many hours do you play Nintendo or other console games (Sony Genesis, Sega)
0 to 1 hours 1 to 2 hours 2 to 3 hours 3 to 4 hours 4 or more hours
7. Please write the names of your top 3 favorite console Games or circle “None” if you
don’t play Nintendo type games.
a. None
b. __________________________________________________
c. __________________________________________________
d. __________________________________________________
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Appendix
X
Classroom Computer Use Questionnaire
Name______________________
1. How many hours per week do your students use the computer in class?
0 to 1 hours 1 to 2 hours 2 to 3 hours 3 to 4 hours 4 or more hours
2. How long have your students been using computers at school?
Less than 1 year 1 to 2 years 2 to 3years 3 to 4years 4 or more years
3. Please rank the top 5 activities in order of highest use to lowest use among your
students at school. 1 is the most common computer activity while 5 is the least.
_____ They don’t use one at School
_____ They use the Internet
_____ They use it for e-mail
_____ They use it to play games
_____ They use presentation software on the computer
_____ They use Word Processing software
_____ They use educational software
_____ They use Spreadsheets and Databases
_____ Other _____________________
4. Please note any students who are exceptions to the rules and briefly explain:
Eg: Joeseph Jones – recently moved from Florida. His computer use history is unknown.
Whitney 150
Eg: Ashley Ashton – does not receive computer time due to conflicts with speech class.
She only gets 1 hour per week.
Appendix
Y
Parent Permission Forms
Dear parent,
Your child has been invited to participate in research. The research will aid in
creating better educational materials for Deaf students. The investigator, Scott Whitney,
is doing the research in partial fulfillment of his doctoral studies at Lamar University in
Beaumont, Texas. The research will evaluate a game he developed with Deaf Students in
mind. The game uses both ASL and English text in an adventure game format set in the
Gladys City Museum. There are about 20 target words which were included in the hopes
that students would not have already learned the words. The game also teaches about 15
facts. For comparison, the students who participate will also test a multimedia
"dictionary" type lesson. Data will be collected in the following manner:
1. Students will take a pretest on the vocabulary and facts to see how many
words and facts are new to them.
Whitney 151
2. Students will then test both the game and the multimedia version. After
both, students will again take the test of vocabulary and facts. The
purpose is to see how well the game and multimedia were designed.
3. Students will fill out interest surveys after both multimedia and game
versions.
4. Students will be videotaped in order to double check signs of motivation
(or boredom). Only the investigator and 2 to 3 experts will view the
videotapes to document signs of enthusiasm or boredom.
The results of the research will lead to at least one usable game and will help
guide future design of educational materials for Deaf children. All data gathered through
the experiment will remain anonymous. All information that can identify a student will be
removed when the results are reported. It is also the hope of the investigator that the
game will develop an interest in computer-related fields among the participating students.
The only expected risks are those normally seen in playing games and using computers –
frustration with technical problems and confusion over how to play the game.
Please check one of the following and return the form with your signature and
date:
____ I agree to allow my child to participate in the research described above.
____ I prefer that my child not participate in the research described above
____ I agree to allow my child to participate, but without videotaping
Whitney 152
Child's name _____________________
______________________________ _________
Signature Date
Whitney 154
All test items:
Circle the item that matches the picture
This item is
a) Pistonb) Bullet probec) Artery ClampC) Stock
This item is
a) Bullet Probeb) Suturec) Sprocketd) Tongs
Whitney 155
This item is
a) Cureb) Travelling blockc) Sphygmomanometerd) Forceps
This item is
a) Forcepsb) Bullet probec) Boltd) Tongs
This item can be used to:a) Apply blowsb) suturec) cure metald) drill oil
Whitney 156
This item isa) sutureb) hardiec) antisepticd) sphygmomanometer
This item is a:a) Pistonb) Antisepticc) Pliersd) Sphygmomanometer
This item is:a) Tongsb) hardiec) Forcepsd) Sprocket
Whitney 157
This item isa) Anvilb) Pistonc) Artery clampd) Stock
This item isa) hardieb) bullet probec) sutured) casing
This item isa) boraxb) antisepticc) sprocketd) bolt
Whitney 158
This item isa) cureb) anvilc) stockd) forceps
With this item you can:a) heat metalb) cut metalc) shape metald) cure metal
This item isa) Anvilb) Forcepsc) Casingd) Sprocket
Whitney 159
This item isa) Sutureb) Pistonc) Hardied) Sprocket
This item isa) Travelling blockb) Casingc) Artery Clampd) Stock
This item is a) Casingb) Bullet probec) Cured) Bolt
Whitney 160
This is a picture ofa) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
This is a picture ofa) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Whitney 161
This is a picture ofa) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
This item is a) Tongsb) antisepticc) Travelling blockd) Piston
Who was the president of the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who was the secretary of the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who was the secretary of the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington Carroll
Whitney 162
C) B.F. Lanier
Who was the first to believe Patillo Higgin's idea that there was oil on Spindletop?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who did not live near Spindletop?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who shared land with a widow?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who founded a Methodist church?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who was the president of the Beaumont Lumber Company?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who had 2750 acres on Spindletop?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who had only 273 acres on Spindletop?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Who had the most land on Spindletop?a) George Washington O'Brienb) George Washington CarrollC) B.F. Lanier
Whitney 163
Appendix
AA
Game Motivation Questionnaire
Please circle the answer that best describes how you felt about the parts of the
game.
1. The whole game
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
2. Looking around the city and buildings with the mouse:
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
3. The pictures:
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
4. The story:
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
5. The interpreter
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
6. Movies (not interpreter movies)
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
Decide if the following is true, Not True, or not sure
1. I wish I had more games like this in my class
Not True Not sure True
Whitney 164
2. I had fun playing the game.
Not True Not sure True
3. I wanted to play for more time
Not True Not sure True
4. I was bored with the game
Not True Not sure True
5. I got mad because the game didn’t work right
Not True Not sure True
6. I was tired of the game
Not True Not sure True
Whitney 165
Appendix
BB
Lesson Motivation Questionnaire
Please circle the answer that best describes how you felt about the parts of the
lesson.
1. The whole lesson
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
2. Moving to different parts of the lesson
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
3. The pictures:
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
4. The definitions:
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
5. The interpreter
Lousy Bad So-so Good Great
Decide if the following is true, Not True, or not sure
1. I wish I had more lessons like this in my class
Not True Not sure True
2. I had fun using the lesson.
Not True Not sure True
Whitney 166
3. I wanted to use the lesson more time
Not TrueNot sure True
4. I was bored with the lesson
Not True Not sure True
5. I got mad because the lesson didn’t work right
Not True Not sure True
6. I was tired of the lesson
Not True Not sure True
Whitney 167
Appendix
CC
Field Notes
2/5/2002
1st period
Sue (signed in as Angelic)
Appears engaged during introduction: Her eyes were focussed on the screen, not
wandering.
Not sure what to do with the lamp.
Anthony
Appears engaged, eyes focussed on monitor, not wandering. Computer crashed 3 times.
We had to transfer his files to a different computer. Will continue tomorrow.
Kristi
Appears engaged: Her eyes stayed on the monitor, not wandering. Kristi worked quickly
through the pretest and other parts.
2nd period
Ariel
Whitney 168
After finishing the med scene, not sure what to do next. Had difficulty finding apartment,
needed hints from the investigator.
After buying match, kerosene, lamp - not sure what to do. I answered, what did the guy
you were talking to talk about? She guessed she needed to find the chest. I encouraged
her to try different things.
Lilian
Pretest - worked slowly, reading all questions and slowly picking an answer.
Accidentally hit "exit" icon twice. Explored all areas of panorama, vertical, not just
horizontal (other students only tried horizontal until I told them to look up and down too).
Died in medical scene. When starting again, it became apparent that she did not
understand what she was supposed to do. After I explained, she worked quickly. Lilian
would sometimes ask for interpreter again after her guess failed.
In discussion after playing, Lilian commented that she is more familiar with signed
English than ASL
Bob
Reads pretest slowly. Teachers informed me that he knows very little ASL or any sign
systems.
4th Period
Whitney 169
Jorge
Medical scene: died repeatedlly in rapid succession before figuring out antiseptic. Used
up terps, investigator had to adjust pref files to give him more terps.
Mark watched Jorge play, discussed game with him. Investigator did not intercede.
After buying matches, lamp, kerosene, explored the store for more items.
After finding the apartment with lamp, etc., did not know what to do.
Jorge found a bug: hot spot on second barrel worked instead of pliers.
It seems that the fuel level needs to be higher when restarting in BlackSmith Scene.
Jorge would restart and die quickly.
Personal impression: Jorge solved the game by guess and memorize rather than reading
Julio
Got to Dr.'s office, but not sure what to do in there. Found the surgery entrance,
but did not click on it (perhaps due to the incosistency between signs and blue-
words.
Personal impressions: Julio did not use the terps much, but I could see his mouth
moving while reading. He seemed to attend to the text most strongly, then apply
the information (his guesses were higher accuracy than for some of the other
students).
Julio had difficulty finding the apartment. I basically had to tell him where it was.
Whitney 170
Julio was stumped by the lamp/kerosene/match section. He didn't get the matches
until I guided him.
Daniel
I noticed an error: Lanier dialogue reads 273 acres
Typo in Oilgasco: are should read area
During the pretest Daniel had difficulty selecting answers due to the problem with
the text field (button labels) lying over the button. Needs replacing.
Daniel read the pretest slowly and chose answers slowly. He asked if the names in
the pretest were the names of real people.
He thought the question about the President of Oil and Gas Company repeated due
to similarity with question about the Vice President.
He appeared to have some prior knowledge. On the question of forceps, he moved
the cursor back and forth between forceps and tongs.
During navigation, Daniel did not attempt to enter the Dr.'s office. The reason
seems to have been due to the blue lettering (similar to the sections that say
"There is nothing here yet"
Daniel misunderstood the "exit" icon and ended up exiting the game.
Daniel laughed about some of the error messages when trying to enter buildings
that were not yet open or were no longer open.
Whitney 171
Daniel read the hints from Dustin about getting lamp and kerosene, looked up
toward ceiling, rubbed his chin, then went directly to the store.
He was stumped on the second visit to the apartment. Asked the investigator "What
am I supposed to do now?' Investigator gave a hint ("look around, try different
things in the picture.") He then experimented, moving the cursor over different
parts of the pic, then found the chest.
He laughed at the scene with Jimmy saying "I just gave it a little twist...".
On second error with "Stock" message "Grasp stock with tongs." Shows up.
Daniel was stumped over the tongs. He thought the Tongs and the Pliers items
were the same.
On the second Anvil challenge he overlooked anvil repeatedly. When asked why,
he said "I guess because it was at the end of the sentence.
Bug: the section about "Many comapnies are changing names" flashes by quickly
(missing a hold).
2/6/2002
Kristi
Matching - really attends to reading.
error - went into Gladys City Oil and Gas Co. again and scene repeated. It should
have been blocked.
Whitney 172
Sue
Reads matching section carefully, but appears to be guessing.
At Texaco, Sue exited to city, I had to fix it
Multimedia - did not understand the "sprocket" explanation.
Frank
Read pretest carefully
Frank didn't want to use the strategy of saving, then viewing ASL, then going back
and playing the section again. He said that was cheating.
The Jimmy character reminded Frank of someone he knew.
Kristi tried helping Frank.
Frank showed signs of exasperation/frustration, but couldn't tell if it was real or
mock when he was looking for the apartment.
Juan
Seemed to be guessing at the Blacksmith scene, not using text cues.
Lilian
Commented that she thought the interpreter was lousy - too ASL, Lilian says she
prefers more English signing.
Whitney 173
Struggled to find apartment after medical scene. The apartment needs more
separation from the General Store.
Wanted interpreter for Dustin. Lilian didn't realize that she needed to read all 4 of
the questions in the Jimmy/Dustin choice scene.
After the choices with Dustin, she went straight to the General Store.
Lilian explored all the parts of the General store, looking for more items.
Lilian needed hints from the investigator to figure out how to get to the Blacksmith
scene.
With the cue "Shape the ring with pliers." She couldn't find the pliers. I asked why,
she said she was looking for a ring.
Lilian did not recall previous efforts when playing again.
She ran out of interpreters, did not understand the strategy of saving, requesting
interpreter, then restarting at previous save. I reset the number of interpreter
requests she could use.
Seems to mix reading for cues and trial-and-error strategies
Personal notes
How can I design the came so students can't just gues, die, memorize the sequence
of items used and try again? Randomize the questions?
Whitney 174
This game definitely needs some kind of tutorial. It may be worth it to buy a
commercial product to develope tutorials.
Should I create an instructor's option to increase or decrease the number of
interpreter requests available?
On open saved game, encountered two problems.
Auto save is not replacing the last digit, but appending it. I got saves like Julio1,
Julio 12, Julio123, etc. The names become too large to fit in the name field of the
open saved game section (on the stub).
Some programming bug was causing some names to save as ScoobyDoo
Typo in Texaco scene? Boss says, here's a piston for mud pumps. Should be a
travelling block.
See about leaving the computers for one full academic year.
I could build in additional hints if the students are looking for something, but not
finding it after a certain numer of clicks. This would help find the apartment and
the surgery scene.
"Ready to Match" button needs some different arrangement.
Julio
Julio read slowly, lips moving while reading.
Julio appeared to do well on matching.
Time ran out on the matching.
Whitney 175
Second effort - really aced the matching, first he re-read all the information in the
dialogues with the Gladys City Oil and Gas Company board members.
After solving the matching section, he went immediately to the Rigs. He dismissed
other hotspots. He then read the background dialogue on Texaco carefully.
2/7/2002
Anthony
I moved the wrong file to the other computer yesterday, had to fix the problem.
Juan
Quickly progressed to Posttest 1. During test seemed decisive, fairly accurate.
Juan skipped parts of the Multimedia dictionary, then took the test before I could
intervene. I showed him what to do. His PostTest 2 is really an additional
exposure to the test.
Juan seemed to depend on both the ASL and the text in the Multimedia.
Lilian
Quickly took postTest. I can't find the data. Lilian also skipped the game
introduction (became apparent during the interview.
Whitney 176
Mark
Working on Oil and Gas Company scene. He did not work on the game yesterday.
Finished Oil and Gas co quickly and proceeded to Texaco. He did not understand
what to do until I explained it.
Mark worked slowly on the postTest 2. He only visited the blacksmith in the
multimedia treatment.
Julio
Julio asked what was going on with the ASL and English portions of the
multimedia dictionary. he commented that he didn't understand that both were
describing the same item.
He accidentally exited from the dictionary, I had to fix it.
2/8/2002
Janet
Quickly found way to Dr.'s office, but did not click on surgery.
Solved medical scene quickly.
I had to inform her that one building had two doors, one above the other when she
was looking for the apartment. She quickly found it after my hint.
Janet ran out of interpreters. She wanted one for the "cure" challenge.
Janet died about 5 times looking for cure.
Whitney 177
Lilian
Lilian was playing again, got to the Texaco scene. Mark came by and showed her
immediately what to do.