Game Design and Homemade Powerpoint Games: An Examination of the Justifications and a Review of the Research

Research on educational games often focuses on the benefits that playing games has on student achievement. however, there is a growing body of research examining the benefits of having students design games rather than play them. Problems with game design as an instructional tool include the additional instruction on the programming language itself as well as the potential costs associated with new software. One way to mitigate these problems is to use Microsoft PowerPoint as game design software. While not intended for this purpose, MS PowerPoint is ubiquitous in schools and requires little additional instruction before students can design games. In this literature review, we introduce homemade PowerPoint games, examine the three pedagogical justifications for their use (i.e., constructionism, narrative writing, and question writing), and review research studies involving homemade PowerPoint games. When we compared the recommendations from the literature for the justifications with how the homemade PowerPoint games were implemented, we found that the recommendations were not followed. Future research examining the use of homemade PowerPoint games should look to better align the implementation of a game design project with recommendations based on the research examining the individual justifications

Game Design as Authentic Science: Creating Low-Tech Games that Do Science

Many students love everything about video games, so teaching them to use technology to design their own games around content is an assignment that can offer built-in engagement. The problem, however, is that teachers often don’t have the time or expertise to teach computer programming, let alone content and process skills. On top of that, installing game design software can create friction between the teaching staff and technology department. That’s where Microsoft PowerPoint comes in. Did you know you can help your students create—from scratch or from a template—a video game using PowerPoint

Design Research Using Game Design as an Instructional Strategy

Game design as an instructional tool can be expensive and time-consuming, as new software requires not only capital outlay but also training for teachers and students. Therefore, researchers have looked at low-tech design platforms to accomplish the same educational goals. One such way is to use Microsoft PowerPoint as a game design tool. In the second iteration of a design study, we have changed the way a homemade PowerPoint game project is implemented in an environmental chemistry classroom by providing more structure and more opportunities for instruction and feedback on the elements of the game design. We compared the performance of between groups who created games and groups who did not on tests for two separate units. Both test results showed statistically significant differences: in favor of the control group on the first unit and in favor of the group creating games for the second unit. Further research needs to examine which factors led to the significant findings in both instances

Pictures from an Exhibition… of Online Learning: A Creative Representation of Qualitative Data

K-12 online learning at the K-12 level has been around for approximately two decades and is continuing to grow. While researchers have researched a variety of issues related to K-12 online learning, there has been little published on the student experience in web-based learning environments. In this article, two doctoral students were tasked with analyzing existing data, then representing and situating their findings in a format other than the traditional results and discussion sections found in a typical six-section journal manuscript. One student created an image that focused upon the tools used by the K-12 student in her online learning. The other student created a slideshow to illustrate the challenges faced by a second K-12 student in her online learning. While more research into the K-12 student experience in online learning is required, this article represents one creative attempt to address this need

Pictures from an Exhibition… of Online Learning: A Creative Representation of Qualitative Data

K-12 online learning at the K-12 level has been around for approximately two decades and is continuing to grow. While researchers have researched a variety of issues related to K-12 online learning, there has been little published on the student experience in web-based learning environments. In this article, two doctoral students were tasked with analyzing existing data, then representing and situating their findings in a format other than the traditional results and discussion sections found in a typical six-section journal manuscript. One student created an image that focused upon the tools used by the K-12 student in her online learning. The other student created a slideshow to illustrate the challenges faced by a second K-12 student in her online learning. While more research into the K-12 student experience in online learning is required, this article represents one creative attempt to address this need

阿拉伯之春:外国投资者何时回归?

阿拉伯之春事件使得外国投资者的风险意识显著增加。调查结果显示，绝大多数投资者偏好希望这种稳定是在民主政权治下的稳定。因此从长期看前景还是乐观的，如果在该地区的政权更迭是民主的且政治稳定，阿拉伯之春事件会增加FDI 且为该地区的经济发展做出贡献

The Arab Spring: How soon will foreign investors return?

The Arab Spring dramatically increased investors' perceptions of political risk in MENA. An examination of these perceptions indicates long-run optimism that political transitions in the region -- if democratic and coupled with political stability -- could increase FDI and contribute to MENA's economic development