Evaluation of Online Game or Simulation By Lori Welty June 2013 Working at an Arts Integration Magnet School, I was interested

in a game that could be integrated with the curriculum. I played and evaluated, A. Pintura Art Detective. This game provided reading comprehension, analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills. These are skills that support common core instruction. Though text complexity is may not be evident, students are required to find evidence. Based on Blooms Revised Taxonomy, students are Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating.

Below are the applications of the A. Pintura simulation/game based on the taxonomy: Remembering Students needed to retrieve information read. Understanding There were opportunities to compare as they read explanations. Applying It was necessary to begin applying their skills of Remembering and Understanding as they selected the answers to questions. Analyzing It became necessary to deconstruct additional information and compare with the details in the painting. Evaluating Based on previous knowledge from art instruction at the school, a hypothesis was needed to select the correct artist. Creating This game does not provide experiences in creativity; however, teachers can extend the lesson so students create their own mystery. Structuring the lesson so teams work collaboratively to select a new work of art and create a detective game. This is necessary since I could locate only one art detective game. This game received awards in 2002 as the Most informative and innovative site on the internet in 2002. It was also selected for display in the Digital Experience Gallery of the Getty Museum. Over 10 years has passed and the game continues to be recognized, though it does not have the bells and whistles of games today. I appreciate that it requires the students to read and problem solve as they progress through the game. From observations made in the Salvador computer lab, many students will select buttons and neglect to read the text. Some students value completing a task quickly as opposed to moving through a process carefully and learning about a given topic. This seems happen more often with the students that are challenged to read or solve problems. A teacher may need to incorporate another element for accountability. For example, students may work in groups to answer the questions on the worksheet below. This worksheet is available on the website. Since this is a low level task, perhaps a class jigsaw would increase the process of learning. Each group would develop a creative presentation on one of the artists in the simulation.

Worksheet for A. Pintura: Art Detective

1. What does Miss Featherduster bring you? What does she want you to do?

2. What country was Picasso from and when did he live?

3. Describe the kind of subjects Titian liked to paint.

4. What was the Renaissance? When was it?

5. Describe Van Gogh's painting style (brushstrokes, colors, subjects...).

6. What was one of Gauguin's favorite subjects?

7. What was Millet most interested in showing in his paintings?

8. Describe perspective as used by Raphael. When was it developed and what does it do?

9. Which artist painted the mystery painting? How do you know?

10. Why did Miss Featherduster really want to know about the mystery painting?

11. Which was your favorite artist? Why?