From: Jakob Schulze
Email: jakob@cats.ucsc.edu
Course: PSYC 100K, Development of Thought and Language
College: UC Santa Cruz
Instructor: Eugene Matusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/psych100K
ChildrenObservations: Yes
Date: 19 Mar 1997
Time: 18:55:22
Remote Name: octal-lab-mac19.ucsc.edu
The 'Carmen SanDiego' game software proved to be popular with the older elementary school kids in our after school activity. The observation that most of the kids do not pay much attention to the geographical facts that are presented in the game triggered the question what kids learn from these games. This paper uses the fieldnotes of my fellow students to try and answer this question. I will point out that while the amount of facts learned depends on the way each particular kid uses the program, there is evidence showing that the kids learn more basic concepts without noticing.
Methods:
For ten weeks, 19 undergraduate students at UC Santa Cruz and about 30 kids (grades 2-6, mostly lower income, of Mexican descent, and ESL.), enrolled by their own choosing in an afternoon project called Tele Araña Mágica, in downtown Santa Cruz. The goal of the project was to teach kids computer skills (PC computers using Windows software and various CDs) through informal interaction with different basic programs (word processing, paintshops, etc.) and games, both specifically educational in purpose, and games intended for just having fun. The University students were placed in the program as mostly computer illiterate, and untrained mentors and roll models, although some of them had worked in the project the previous quarter. The students informally guided, played with, and watched the kids (sometimes one on one, and sometimes in groups) 2 hours a day, two times a week, for ten weeks, and wrote field notes and held discussions about their experiences. Many kids did not show up each week for various reasons, so the usual number of kids each day was between 5 and 15, which made flexibility in the students a necessity.
The method for field note writing was to take a situation where some type of learning took place, and describe the event that happened, some reflections on the event, and some further inquiries. All the notes, and discussions and responses were posted on the classes’ private World Wide Web page (http://www.ematusov.com/psych100K or http://www.ematusov.com/psych101 (last quarter). Persons not in the class can access the demo version, just add “.demo” to the URL address). For this paper, we cited off the page from both our own entries, and those of our fellow students. Names have been changed for confidentiality. [some credit to Jesse Thyne for this Methods part]
The Game:
'Carmen SanDiego' is game software, designed for ages 9 and up to "learn about Cities, States, and Regions." The player takes the role of a detective, who is trying to catch a thief within a time limit. To do so, the players must use clues they get from passers-by to find out what the suspect looks like and where he/she went. A clue regarding the height of the suspect could for example be: "I felt tempted to ask 'how is the weather up there?'", while places can be identified by geographical names, e.g. "he went to take a trip on the Nile." After chasing the suspect through a couple of places and filling out a warrant that contains five different features of the suspect, the detective has to find the person that matches all the features and arrest him/her. This process is repeated, until the detective finally chases Carmen SanDiego, the top criminal, herself.
The software offers a couple of resources. The clues regarding the appearance of the suspect can be gathered in a 'wanted' poster, which is finally made into the warrant. All clues can be copied to a notebook. The main resource is the 'finder', which contains all the geographical information necessary to folllow the thief. Typing in 'Nile' would be prompted with 'Egypt' (and maybe 'Sudan' also). The 'finder' also contains information about countries that is not directly related to the game, but can be explored freely. Other features of the game are 'guided tours' of all the places and 'the boss' who gives orders, but also functions as an online-help.
There are (at least) two versions. 'Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego' takes the player to countries all over the world, while 'Where in the US is Carmen SanDiego' focuses on the states of the US. Both games are nicely done, with neat graphics, little animations, and sound (most information is read to the player). We also used a Spanish version, which was much older and less elaborate. It is also different in the way it provides ressources. For the purpose of this paper I will focus on the two English versions.
What do kids learn from playing 'Carmen SanDiego'?
Since our class focused on 'Development of Thought and Language', this question was discussed widely. The following excerpt from the discussion on the class' web page illustrates concerns as well as optimistic views.
One undergraduate enters the discussion: "I also have been playing Carmen Sandiego a lot and am wondering what real learning value it and other games have." ... "I also think once you get the gist of Carmen Sandiego there is not much learning going on. Because you are not really learning all that much about the country or state, because you have forgotten the information about it, I end up too worried about the thief." (K.S. 1/24/97)
The instructor of the class replies: "I think in this game kids learn about getting and analyzing available clues to catch the thieves. Those clues involve some pieces of info about countries and states. That is what, probably, kids learn. I agree with you that many things that appear on the screen kids seem to ignore. But it is because these pieces are often irrelevant or too energy and time consuming to read and analyze. I think there are some problems in the game design. But still I think that kids learn a lot if not about countries and geography (although, I believe they do) but about approaches to how to use clues." (E.M. 1/26/97)
The undergraduate then underlines her concerns about the lack of learning from the game: "I think that the kids do learn about clues to follow, but it seems to me once they have figured out what order to follow the clues, they are staying at the same level of learning. I think that the kids are learning a slight amount of geography, they just aren't taking much away from the computer with them. I am not trying to pick on this game in particular, I think a lot of the video games are very similar in that way." (K.S. 1/26/97)
Let us first take a look at how kids used the program and what can surely be said they learned. The following piece of a fieldnote tells us about an eight-year-old girl, who copes successfully with not being able to read, and thus is still able to play: "The game requires the player to read messages. It became very apparent to me that this child who is in the third grade can not read on her own." ... "She has played the game before and was using the mouse quite well. She also knew what the purpose of the game was. She had an understanding of the proper options to click on when talking to strangers in the game, but when I questioned her on what the signs said she could not answer." (G.B. 1/27/97) If not reading, she has at least learned to get along without reading and probably use undergraduates to get help.
Another fieldnote shows how a nine-year-old boy, in his quest to move through the game as quickly as possible, has learned to use some functions of the game: "This time when playing the game Carmen San Diego, Jerry* found another short cut in locating the next place for the clues. His old way was to guess the flights (eni-minie-miinie-moe) today, he used the locator (he typed in the Pyrenee mountains to locate the country). So after only one clue he could use the computer to cut down on the time spent asking all the people where Carmen went. very ingenious... when last week he did not want to have anything to do with spelling out the clues...he just waited until he understood the name of the country or asked one of the undergraduates." (M.Z. 3/11/97) Another undergraduate summarizes the boy's cognitive development as follows: "The development I observed in Jerry* was his ability to type, to read, his game plan, and ability to refernce others for help. His ability to look at the screen and copy words, appear to show his understanding of language and spelling." (M. C. 2/3/97)
And he found other ways to speed up the game. He would use hints the program designers might not have wanted to be exploited: "Jerry's* way to know instantly if he has gone to the right place is that there has to be a cartoon playing." He had learned to select and organize information in the way that suited him best. "He would not listen to the video message from the boss, but just click to skip it. I asked him what she did say and he replied it wasn't important. Jerry continued to play very efficiently, following his plan of first finding out what the suspect looked like and then where he/she went." (both J.S. 2/24/97)
This last peculiarity in the way kids played the game was often reported. Here an undergraduate describes an eight-year-old girl: "I have noticed that Betty* has a certain pattern to which she follows the game. First we hear from the woman who tells you what the crime is, then we go to the place and only ask each person one question, "what did the person look like". Then we go back and ask each person "Where did the person go?". We then try to figure out the country(or state), by looking in the book that you can bring up. We will type in one of the key words people have told us. Then we go to that place. We have solved quite a few cases this way. But it is hard for me not to interfere with her pattern. I just feel that I would play a different way." (K.S. 2/4/97)
Although this way to play the game might not seem the most efficient to an adult --one could get both pieces of information at once and proceed both strands-- the kids seem to have found a way to break up the complex game into subgoals, thus reduce the amount of information that has to be held in memory at any given time. This is regarded as an important ability for problem solving.
Later the same undergrad describes new 'discoveries': "[Betty*] had learned a couple of new things on Carmen Sandiego. She was pulling down quotes of what people had said when we asked where the suspect went. She was then using those clues to be able to spell words correctly in the glossary of the countries" (K.S. 2/27/97) This point is only the last of a number of concepts the kid has learned. To name just a few: Things people say contain information. It may not be straightforward information, but I can use it. There are certain keywords in a sentence that are especially important. I can use the resources the computer provides. Typing words is a useful activity. Do not misspell when dealing with computers. It is easier to type a word correctly if I can see it.
I believe that basic geographical concepts are learned similarly unnoticed. This could be categories as cities, mountains, rivers, sights, currencies, as well as their connection with a certain country. It might also be an important for american kids to experience that there is a considerable amount of other countries outside the US. Although the backgroung graphics are a simplifying, kids might even get an idea of what a country looks like from that.
The game offers the opportunity to learn geography, by offering engaging play with ongoing contact with geographical facts. An undergraduate who had worked with a ten-year-old girl, wrote: "We both agreed that the game was hard work in the sense that it kept you thinking, but she said that it was good and she wanted to keep going." And she goes on: "This is a quality game. I really like the way this game keeps you involved and makes you put things together. This kind of game gives you textbook information (world geography) in a fun manner." (M.G. 2/4/97)
The amount of geographical data that a kid actually learns, depends on their way to interact with the game. This undergraduate reflects about an eight-year-old girl: "I've noticed that other children just play this game without taking the time to figure out the clues (especially geography ones). It seems Roberta* plays in a more mature way. It seems that she wants to learn while playing. Rather than just win as I have seen other kids do.I think she plays in the intended way (to gain problem solving skills and learn geography). Roberta* takes her time and the information sticks with her as should education do. In that, when we learn something new we should store it so that when in need we can remember that certain thing. (S.S. 2/26/97)
The aditional opportunities to learn about the countries and states that are not directly related to the game are rarely used. Another undergraduate writes about his interaction with a eight-year-old boy: "The game has the option of reading about a country and learning more about what it is like there. Plus the street images are nice in getting a picture of some of the main sights in a city in the world. But I noticed that Igor*, as well as myself, have little interest in learning about the new countries." (A. G. 1/26/97)
Similar behavior becomes visible in the following self observation of one undergrad playing Carmen SanDiego by herself. She had started to play patiently, getting information about all the places from the guide. But: "I soon became engrossed into the game and when I one my fisrt case, I was ecstatic! Forget the guide, and all the geography stuff, I need to catch the criminals!!! I found my self rushing through the game, trying to catch as many criminals possible, for goodness sakes, I only have an hour and 30 minutes left to catch all the criminals!! Whenever you click on one of the people who give you the clues, they greet you and so on. Greetings, smeetings!, I didn't have time to listen to them blabber; I need just the facts!! So I started to cut them off (you can do this by clicking on them twice) and just go straight for the clues. I even found out that when ever you click on the finder, you can start to type out the word you are searching for, before the finder screen even appears, so that the word is all typed out by the time the screen appears!! This was great, even more time to find the criminals. I tried to use as little location clues as possible so that I could find the criminal in less time. The whole time, I was thinking to myself, 'this is crazy, I am doing everything that I and other undergrads have criticized the children for doing; not really using the game as it was intended to be used: to learn about geography.'" (T.V. 2/24/97)
When I asked Betty* at the end of the quarter if she remembered any of the geography stuff from the game, she said "no", and after a while came up with "Jackson, Mississippi". I asked her why she could remember just this piece of information, but she couldn't report any unusual incident that made her remember it. Given that the amount of information you can recall from memory is only a little part of what you could recognize when seen, or what sits somewhere in your mind and makes relearning material so much easier, I would say that Betty* has probably learned a fair amount of geography, despite of the fact that she has not paid special attention to geographical details. I would also expect her to do better in any attempt to learn the material purposeful (in school, for example), because the material has become meaningful for her, she 'has been to all the places'.