Every Game Teaches Your Child Something | Dr. Erik Harpstead
Your child wants a new game, and the app store says it's educational. That label is checked for age, not for learning. In this episode I sit down with Dr. Erik Harpstead, Associate Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, who studies the data behind kids' games to see whether anyone is learning anything, to replace the label with a check you can run in minutes.
Dr. Harpstead teaches game designers how to build games that teach, and he is part of the team behind The Vault, a free online library of learning games made by education researchers. He walks us through the check he trains his own students to run: what does the game want your child to learn, what does your child spend most of their time doing, and does the kind of learning in that loop match? And he leaves us with the answer he gives most often: any age-appropriate game you play with your child is a good game.
What you'll learn
What the "educational" tag on an app store listing is checked for, and what it is not
The three-part check: learning goals, core gameplay loop, and the kind of learning involved
Why a game that teaches makes your child do the thing it wants them to learn
How researchers tell learning from lucky guessing in play data
The Vault: free, browser-based learning games made by education researchers, filterable by age
His picks to start with, and the two answers he gives parents who ask "what game should I get?"
In this episode
00:00 - Welcome: "educational" is checked for age, not for learning01:03 - Meet Dr. Erik Harpstead: the data behind game-based learning02:03 - Learning curves, and the balance-beam game where guessing worked05:44 - All games teach something; the question is what06:34 - The app store "educational" tag, and who checks it06:58 - The three-part framework he teaches his students10:38 - What a "bad" educational game means11:38 - Age-checked, not learning-checked12:44 - The 15-minute sizeup: watch real play, not the marketing13:29 - Integration: a game that teaches makes them do the thing15:37 - The three questions, in brief17:33 - Finding the core loop, with Minecraft19:55 - Where the learning happens, and interest curves22:05 - The Vault: a free home for researcher-made games25:08 - His pick: Wake: Tales from the Aqualab27:09 - Who the Vault is for: K-12 ranges, skewing older28:14 - For older kids: Nicky Case's explorable explanations28:57 - The one thing to walk away with31:19 - Three things to keep
About the guest
Dr. Erik Harpstead is an Associate Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, where he studies how people learn from play, using data from real gameplay to see whether a game teaches what its designers intend. He teaches the Design of Educational Games course at CMU, is part of the Open Game Data community, and is part of the team behind The Vault, a free online library of learning games built by education researchers.
Resources and links
The Vault, free learning games made by education researchers: https://vaultlearninggames.org/
Wake: Tales from the Aqualab (Field Day Lab), his pick: https://vaultlearninggames.org/wake
The Evolution of Trust (Nicky Case): https://vaultlearninggames.org/evolution-of-trust
The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds (Nicky Case): https://ncase.me/crowds/
That's Your Right, his civics pick: https://vaultlearninggames.org/thats-yo...
Chapters
(00:00:00) - Welcome: "educational" is checked for age, not for learning(00:01:03) - Meet Dr. Erik Harpstead: the data behind game-based learning(00:02:03) - Learning curves, and the balance-beam game where guessing worked(00:05:44) - All games teach something; the question is what(00:06:34) - The app store "educational" tag, and who checks it(00:06:58) - The three-part framework he teaches his students(00:10:38) - What a "bad" educational game means(00:11:38) - Age-checked, not learning-checked(00:12:44) - The 15-minute sizeup: watch real play, not the marketing(00:13:29) - Integration: a game that teaches makes them do the thing(00:15:37) - The three questions, in brief(00:17:33) - Finding the core loop, with Minecraft(00:19:55) - Where the learning happens, and interest curves(00:22:05) - The Vault: a free home for researcher-made games(00:25:08) - His pick: Wake: Tales from the Aqualab(00:27:09) - Who the Vault is for: K-12 ranges, skewing older(00:28:14) - For older kids: Nicky Case's explorable explanations(00:28:57) - The one thing to walk away with(00:31:19) - Three things to keep
