Gees Gaming and Learning Principles & Game Evaluation

Linguistics researcher and Professor James (Jim) Paul Gee has studied language and communication in various contexts. His
early work focused on discourse, communication exchanges in social and professional situations. More recently, Gee proposed the
idea of literacy be expanded and that new types of literacies be acknowledged. His reasoning is that there are additional visual means
of communicating other than text and that there are different skills needed to interpret each type of communication (Wikipedia, James
Paul Gee, 2016).
Jim Gee has also theorized about digital games and learning. According to him there are 13 principles of learning that fall
under 3 umbrella principles: 1) empowered learners; 2) problem based learning; and 3) deep understanding (November 13, 2013). The
13 principles Gee suggests are:
Empowered Learners
1) Agent principle: players are agents within the game and their actions affect the game.
2) Customization: different agents act differently; choose different difficulties, strategies and possibly new strategies to win.
3) Identity principle: players identify who or what is in it for me
4) Manipulation: players can manipulate the game world with control and this offers ways to connect body and mind in learning.
Problem Based Learning: Game - solve problem = win.
5) Games are well ordered sequenced problems that make success reasonably achievable.

6) Games are pleasantly challenging: challenge + accomplishment = competence; which generates more motivation and flow.
7) Leads to a cycle of expertise: challenge > practice > knowledge > mastery.
8) Games offer just in time or on demand help.
9) Games can scale big complex problems down into basic components which are easier to process, like a fish tank does with the
ocean.
10) Games are safe, low risk, places to explore without being judged, like a sandbox.
11) Rather than basic rote learning of skills, skills are mastered and practiced, then applied as strategies to accomplish goals.
Deep Understanding
12) Games foster system thinking and model based reasoning, as players consider the rules, and how their decisions affect the
game.
13) Games present situated meaning as images and actions in a situation are interpreted within the context of a goal.
Many of the principles appeal to me as a learner, but I am not a gamer. The principles that fall under the first umbrella category,
Empowered Learners, appeal to me the most. I resonate strongly with the Agent Principle. Since learning about Daniel Pinks findings
on motivation, I have continued to reflect on how challenging it is for a lot of students to experience the three main motivators:
autonomy, mastery, and sense of purpose (April 1, 2010). I have studied my students and their files. They do not get to choose their
parents (grandparents), their parents partners, their siblings, their foster parents, where they live, how much money will be spent on

their care, what food is available to them, or many other important factors that impact their safety, comfort and emotional well-being.
Pinks findings push me to give as much choice and autonomy as possible. Throughout the year, I have noticed more students asking
for choice, negotiating their preferences, acting as agents in their own learning. Occasionally, I feel myself resist because of my ego or
some idea that I am clinging to, and I have to ask myself what is best for my students.
I also connect with the Customization Principle. Since beginning this program a repeated battle cry has been that the industrial
model of education is dysfunctional (see Ken Robinson for example, I refuse the royal title). While, I am rather tired of hearing that
the system I exist and operate in is dysfunctional from supposed experts who have very little experience as educators at the K-12
level, I agree with the basic premise that each student is unique and the more personalized the learning, the better the outcome.
I have a grade 4 student who started in September being able to recognize most of the 24 capital letters and half of the lower
case letters of the alphabet. By February he was practicing word families such as it and sounding words out as consonants were
placed in front of the family (f-it, h-it). Not for a second do I believe I am some magical educator who finally taught this grade 4 to
read, I believe that he is developmentally ready to start reading. I customized his learning, and that has helped him, but hes the one
doing the learning.
Funnily enough, that same student reminds me of the Identity Principle. He has been saying to me all year, I just want to learn
how to readI want to learn how to read so I can play video games. He is motivated to learn how to read because he says a net gain

for him in real time. He doesnt want to learn how to read so that he can have a decent job sometime in the future, he wants to learn to
read so that he can play games right now.
In my multi-level grades 3,4, &, 5 class I have a lot of struggling readers. Out of 22, approximately 10 are not reading at grade
level. This led to a conundrum for part two of this assignment and irony. Gee is a professor of linguistics, and more broadly an expert
in communication, yet many of the games I looked at required too high a level of readability for my students, and not enough image
and situated meanings. Indeed, many of the games failed in terms of Well Ordered and Sequenced Level Design, the Fish Fank
Principle and the Situated Meaning Principle. I kept searching, believing that with experts like Gee arguing that games can propel
student success through principles of learning, but I was somewhat disappointed. Here is a brief overview of my findings.
Name &
Developer

Age / Grade
Levels

Cyberchase
PBS Kids

8+ (text
based
instructions)

Lifeboat to
Mars
PBS Kids

8+ (text
based
instructions)

Platform,
player
modes,
hardware,
cost
Web-based
Free

Gees Principles:
Empowerment,
Problem Based, Deep
Knowledge

Storytelling
Game-play
User experience

Synopsis

Some Empowerment
A little Problem
Based.

A motherboard has been hacked and

infected. Players earn points to fix the
computer. The parts are unrelated to real
computer parts.

Web-Based
Free

Some Empowerment
A little Problem
Based.
A little Deep
Knowledge

Vague notion that students are building an

eco-system (unrealistically on Mars).
Players ear points by selecting suitable
environments to build an ecosystem.

Fails on: Fish Tank

Principle; Level Design;
Skills as Strategies;
System Thinking;
Situated Meaning
Fails on: Fish Tank
Principle; Level Design;
System Thinking;

Can you Dig

it
Dig it Games

8+

App - Free

Some Empowerment
A little Problem
Based
A little Deep
Knowledge
Empowerment;
Problem Based; Deep
Knowledge

Players click on a dig site and attempt to

dig without damaging artefacts. No
learning about the significance of the
artefacts or the civilization.

Fails on Fish Tank

Principle; Level Design;
System Thinking; Skills
as Strategies;

Where the
River Meets
the Sea
NOAA
Games
Underground
Railroad
Ohio River
Valley
Students
iCivics
iCivics

8+ (text
based
instructions)

Web-based
Free

A girl meets an otter and learns about how

pollution and debris jeopardize estuaries.
Players clean up an estuary to save the
otters habitat.

This game closely met the

principles as outlined by
Gee yet the graphics
were disappointing.

9+ (text
based)

Web-based
Free

Empowerment
Problem Based
Deep Understanding

Players help escaped slaves try to find a

way to Canada. Attempts often fail but the
point is to teach about how often escapes
failed.

Closely met Gees

principles but required a
high level of reading.
Success very challenging.

12 +
Text based

Web-based
Free
USA

Empowerment
Problem Based
Deep Understanding

Players can choose different games. The

branches of government game involves
identifying an issue and developing a law
to address the issue.

Closely met Gees

principles but required a
high level of reading.

My closer analysis will focus on Where the River Meets the Sea developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. This is a free web-based single player game accessible through Windows or Mac, that requires flashplayer. According
to Common Sense Media, the game is for ages 8 and up.
The narrative of the game is that a girl leaves the hospital as her mother is kept overnight for observation. On her way home
she meets an otter and learns that his habitat is in danger. She joins the otter in his quest to find an oracle that will help him save his
home. They learn about how estuaries become blocked by pollution and debris which impacts oxygen levels and fish survival. There

are three levels. In the first level players clean up the estuary. In the second level players replant the estuary; and in the third level
there is a pollution disaster which requires players to apply their knowledge to clean up the estuary again. Players play the game
through the female heroine character. I assume that some analogies will be made between healthy habitats and healthy (human) living,
as the game begins with the girls mother in the hospital.
In terms of game play, the still graphics were much better than the motion graphics. I imagine that my students are used to
more sophisticated looking motion graphics. The game play is a little bit awkward in that navigation is done using the arrow keys but
debris and pollution removal uses the mouse pad.
Where the River Meets the Sea incorporates principles from all three of Jim Gees umbrella categories: Empowered Learners,
Problem Based Learning and Deep Understanding. Players are empowered as agents whose decisions affect the outcome of the game.
It appeals to a sense of purpose and positively contributing to a vulnerable community as players manipulate the game world. This is
an authentic problem presented in an authentic context. Thus, the game takes a huge complex problem and strips it down to basic
components. Presumably this could enhance deep understandings about how pollution and debris impact environments. The game
does not appear to offer customization, an obvious cycle of expertise, or skills as strategies principles. I would use this game to
augment a unit on the water cycle and habitats.

References

Gee, J. (2013, November 13) Principles on Gaming Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQAgAjTozk

James Paul Gee. In Wikepedia online. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Paul_Gee