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University of Tennessee

About ITC

Newsletter: Fall 2006

Meeting Today's Academic Needs with Instructional Technology

by: Kathleen Bennett

Games, simulations, and online environments are playing an increasing role in major research universities. The interactivity and engage-ment that are the hallmarks of gaming are also major factors leading to deeper learning. The growth of digital libraries and collections, together with the services being built on top of those collections, will soon make “first-person learning” universally available.

Students can, for example, take digital information and model ecosystems, test business models, or practice medical techniques. Games help students develop the ability to think logically and work collaboratively, independent of their field of study. For many faculty and researchers, games are not only a tool for teaching, but also a subject for study in themselves.

The ITC and SunSITE are collaborating to bring to the university a series of videoconferences with noted experts as presenters. During the spring we launched a five-part series demonstrating how games were being used and studied in higher education that featured prestigious speakers from MIT, Carnegie-Mellon University, and the University of Southern California, among
others. Each video-conference examined a key aspect of the gaming culture and its relevance to higher education. This fall we will be scheduling a second series and looking for additional opportunities for face-to-face conversations about games and higher education within the campus community. Confirmed speakers include Ben Sawyer talking about the Games for Health Initiative, J. R. Parker from> the University of Calgary speaking about language-instruction games, and David Warner, Director of the Institute for Interventional Informatics.

Why should higher education look carefully at games, simulations, and the culture in which they are embedded?

Games can reach the millennial student by
  • Addressing various learning styles
  • Enhancing motivation to master difficult materials
  • Offering new ways to interact
    with information
  • Drawing on the power of learning’s social component
  • Utilizing active experience rather than passive listening.

Examples of games that instruct:

  • Civilization IV: manage and expand
    yor own historical civilization
  • SimEarth: study geological and biological evolution
  • Immune Attack: fight off a bacterium in colorful, three-dimensional images of cells and other biological systems
  • Discover Babylon: march through accurate recreations of archaeological sites, cities, and temples from ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).