Digital gaming as a vehicle for learning

1. Summary During the past two years there has been a resurgence of interest in how to use digital games (e.g. video games, computer games and simulations) to support instruction in a variety of fields[3,9]. The focus is on how to exploit the rich interactivity of 3-D, multiplayer virtual worlds. Computer science education has, for the most part, taken a different approach: rather than having our students play video games to learn concepts we ask them to build games to learn concepts [2,5,6,7,8]. In the process of building games, students become immersed in gaming. Yet neither the IEEE/ACM CC2001 [1] curricular recommendations, nor the ABET/CAC [4] criteria mention the notion of gaming. This panel addresses the still controversial question of whether gaming is a legitimate component of computing, and if so, where does it fit within the curriculum. Regardless of where or how gaming falls within the curriculum, it is touted as an approach that will be attractive to a diverse audience, thus increasing potential enrollment into more traditional computer science courses. However, implementing a fully robust, modern, visually compelling, multi-player game from scratch as a semester-long project is problematic. The members of this panel will share a range of experiences in how to exploit a game format to meet particular pedagogic goals. The holy grail of modern commercial game design remains the “First Person Shooter,” (FPS) a game in which a character views a 3-D world from a first person, rather than map or textbased perspective, and with weapon (gun) in hand, moves through an interactive story to attain some goal. Typically there is a lot of shooting and consequent blood and guts. The genre, despite its violent roots, supports some of the most sophisticated techniques of computer graphics, animation and visualization. FPS open source game engines also provide compelling vehicles through which to teach good software design including design approaches for agent-based artificial intelligence and peer-to-peer networks. As a group we will each present our views on this controversy and suggest ways in which FPS can leave its violent roots in a manner similar to how the “kill text” button in early text editors became a more benign “cut” or “copy.” There appear to be four approaches to incorporating digital gaming into CS curriculum: (1) to support foundations courses, e.g. CS 1, (2) to provide specialized content at the upper level to prepare students for the gaming and animation industry, (3) to provide a curriculum encompassing thematic approach to CS in order to make CS and game development accessible to a more diverse population, (4) to provide trans-disciplinary experiences for CS students where they learn to interact with experts from other disciplines. A unique aspect of this panel is that all of us have had experience of some sort with all of these approaches. Consequently, the names attached to the sections below reflect a somewhat arbitrary assignment by the moderator. Like any good game, each of us will assume a role and run with it, supporting our assigned character. The format of the session will consists of a brief overview, a short presentation of each approach, a set of challenges to the audience, and hopefully, a lively interactive discussion of the place of gaming in the curriculum.