December 29th, 2008 by Learning Systems

In 2002 John Chambers, then CEO of Cisco, stated his enormous hopes for online learning systems. “Education over the internet is going to be so big,” he said, “it’s going to make email look like a rounding error.” According to a Radicati Group study from August 2008, there are about 1.3 billion email users world wide. That makes a little more than one in every five people on earth. 

But despite the overly optimistic predictions of online learning system pioneers, it’s still exciting to muse about the educational possibilities of games like Spore and Second Life. It reminds me of IGN Australia’s comment about Spore, an early proof of fun online learning system potential: “It [Spore] will make you acknowledge just how far we’ve come, and just how far we have to go…”

December 29th, 2008 by Learning Systems

How can video game developers whose goal is to create learning system games hope to make profits in a world of pirating? One strategy is to require that learners have an active subscription, rather than a legitimate copy of the learning system game, to play.

According to the TorrentFreak weblog, Spore was the most pirated game of 2008–even though it was only released in September. TorrentFreak compiled a list of the ten most downloaded PC games in 2008, using data provided by BitTorrent.

Spore came at the top of the list, with 1.7 million illegal downloads since its release (compared to its two million sales, according to Electronic Arts). On the other hand, MMORPGs that require active subscriptions like World of Warcraft, a game whose subscribers number 11 million worldwide, are exempt from pirating.

December 29th, 2008 by Learning Systems

The use of an entertainment medium as an instructional learning system is increasingly under consideration and construction. From Second Life to Spore, virtual worlds and online video games are prime examples of learning systems whose primary purpose is entertainment. Although these two systems will need to overcome many problems in terms of both content and functionality, they seem to offer us a shiny glimpse of a promising future in which learning can be made enjoyable and interactive. 

However, it’s not the best of times for many kinds of video games. Coupled with financially uncertain times, many people believe that pirating has contributed to low sales for games like Spore, which was released in September.

Is it possible that pirating and low sales will slow the development of online games as training, collaboration and pedagogical tools? Developers of interactive learning systems might learn a few lessons from the mistakes of game developers.

December 16th, 2008 by Learning Systems

Is Spore truly effective for piquing kids’ interest in real-world scientific learning systems? This is just one part of the debate regarding Spore’s role as a learning system for kids. PC Gamer awarded the game a 91%, saying “Spore’s triumph is painfully ironic. By setting out to instill a sense of wonderment at creation and the majesty of the universe, it’s shown us that it’s actually a lot more interesting to sit here at our computers and explore the contents of each other’s brains.” 

But GameSpy praised, “Spore is a technological triumph that introduces a whole new way of tapping into a bottomless well of content,” and gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. What’s exciting about Spore may not be the educational content that it offers, but the potential that it reflects for video games to serve as interactive learning systems. 

December 16th, 2008 by Learning Systems

But just how accurate is Spore, and is it a legitimate learning system for kids? In October 2008, Science magazine organized a team to review the game’s treatment of evolution and other scientific concepts. The results helped teachers develop an idea of whether or not they should include Spore in their learning systems, and whether or not Spore has any educational value.

The team included evolutionary biologist T. Ryan Gregory and Niles Elredge, who reviewed “Cell and Creature”; sociologist William Sims Bainbridge, who reviewed “Tribe and Civilization”; and NASA’s Miles Smith reviewed “Space.” The Science team evaluated Spore on twenty-two learning system topics. 

Spore’s marks ranged from a single A in galactic structure and a B+ in sociology to Fs in mutation, sexual selection, natural selection, genetics, and genetic drift. 

December 16th, 2008 by Learning Systems

How would you like to create your own microscopic organism and develop into a complex, unique creature? Spore, a single-player game by Maxis, allows you to do just that. Spore has been called a “god game” by its creators and several journalists, and hailed by some educators as an innovative learning system. 

Spore allows a player to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through its development as an intelligent and social being, to its mastery of the planet and finally to its interstellar exploration, where it encounters alien species across the galaxy.

For many educators, it sounds like an ideal learning system for concepts like evolution, survival, city development, migration, trade, and biology. But for both kids and adults, it isn’t an overt learning system–it’s just fun to play.