Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

10.29.07 | During the 2006/07 school year the University of Chicago’s Center for Urban School Improvement‘s Digital Youth Network offered “Video Game/Digital Storytelling” as one of our eight pod(class) offerings.  At the beginning of the year I had high hopes that many of our girls would enroll in the pod and discover a love of programming the same way I had in the 8th grade. My hopes were based upon the fact that all of our students had laptops, our girls were as sophisticated as the boys in the use of their machines for academic and non-academic means and that our girls stated in surveys that they played video games at home.  Finally, we were offering the program on a day with few other options so the competition with other pods was limited. 

Unfortunately, like many similar programs across the country, the pod turned out to be an all-boys program with girls floating in and out.  The few girls who stuck with the program were there mostly because of parental desire.  As a computer scientist, the lack of engagement by the girls signaled a redesign alarm!  I designed and taught a simulation/game 8-week course as part of the school day.

I felt that by requiring all students to take the class; designing it around a project; teaching the class; and choosing StageCast, an environment that focuses more on the story of the simulation/game by allowing users to program by example, I could provide an opportunity for girls to experience success with programming in an inviting environment (half the class is girls) and thus provide another entry into the world of video game design for them.  Of course, we knew that the boys in the class would love the idea of creating games during the school day. A final hook to engage students in taking the activity seriously was provided by the science teacher who after sitting in on the first session asked if I would link the topic of the games to their upcoming global warming science project.  Students were asked to work in pairs to create a simulation or game that taught the user something about global warming.

The result? 

The majority of groups were same gender. The students selected their groups with most choosing to work with a student of the same gender.  Based upon email requests for help and log data, girls spent more time working on the project. I believe many treated it as a school assignment and thus viewed engagement as a non-option. 

The overall winner (game or simulation) was a group lead by a girl, the best game was created by an all girls group, and the group getting the highest votes from fellow students was also an all girl group. 

When asked about whether they liked programming, the winning group stated they didn’t realize how much fun it could be and that they were going to work on another game.  But to the question of whether more girls will enroll in the video game pod only time will tell.  Still, the class was a success and we are busily thinking about how to build simulation/game options into the science curriculum. All the games are available here.

Editor’s Note: See also here, here and here for more discussion of the Digital Youth Network.