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Online video game will aim to teach Chinese language, culture
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Online video game will aim to teach Chinese language, culture
Published April 26, 2006
by JOSH JARMAN
Made flash cards of vocabulary words? Check. Read study terms in textbook? Check. Played online video game with friends? Check?  

When MSU announced a new partnership with the Chinese government Monday to create the MSU Confucius Institute, which will offer online language courses in Mandarin Chinese, it also embarked on a new concept in education.  

Working with the China Central Radio and Television University in Beijing, MSU officials are creating an online immersive video game environment to help students learn Chinese language and culture.  

\"This concept is many years ahead of its time,\" said Yong Zhao, director of the U.S.-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence and an MSU education professor.  

Carrie Heeter, director of the MSU Communication Technology Laboratory, believes games in education will increasingly become part of academic teaching tools in the future because they are deeply engaging. She said even commercial games require high levels of complex learning in order to master them.  

\"Games teach important skills like problem solving and teamwork,\" Heeter said.  

She said the potential of games as learning tools has been unrealized thus far, because there are not many games in this category. Interactive, multi-player games fit very well with long-standing educational theories, she said.  

\"We individually and socially construct knowledge,\" Heeter said. \"When we talk about the concepts of better teaching, we can see these (concepts) in the games, as well.\"  

Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota, and her colleague at Minnesota, Professor Kathleen Hansen, have developed a role-playing simulation for use in some of their journalism classes.  

The pair helped create a customized adventure using the popular Neverwinter Nights fantasy role-playing game by BioWare Corp., but converted the sword and sorcery world into a small U.S. town confronted with a hazardous chemical spill. Students play the role of rookie reporters at the town\'s newspaper and navigate through the world by interviewing sources and working with editors. The students complete their \"adventure\" by writing a news story on deadline.  

\"We were excited because the students really talked about the decisions and deliberated every move in the game,\" Paul said. \"It really reinforced the book learning.\"  

Paul said the students got what the instructors wanted them to get out of the experience, which was to practice what they had learned in class in a safe game environment.  

Hansen said this idea of using video games to supplement student learning is just starting to unfold in U.S. academic circles, but the concept would accelerate in the future.  

\"We are at the beginning of a trend,\" Hansen said. \"This will look like stone knives and bear skins in five years\' time.\"  

Zhao and his team at the U.S.-China center have been developing a video game for MSU\'s partnership with China that allows students to travel through a virtual world of Chinese culture, learning how to interact with other characters as they improve their language skills.  

The game begins in a rural Chinese village, and the player must master some beginning Chinese vocabulary to earn enough experience to move to the city.  

The game works because it teaches players in a social environment, Zhao said, with players interacting in an online world. The format allows players to help each other learn, and get more experience while doing it. He said he hopes to have a version ready for about 200 play-testers before late December.  

The purpose is not to replace traditional teaching methods, but to supplement them, Zhao said.  

\"The most important thing is motivation,\" Zhao said. \"Working hard to achieve a goal is intrinsic in a game. In this game, you use language to achieve your goals and access more content.\"  

Kirby Milton, chief technology officer for the Michigan Virtual University, said he was eager to add the game to supplement the existing online Chinese language classes currently being piloted and will start this fall as part of the MSU Confucius Institute.  

He said the online environment has proven effective.  

\"It\'s a very powerful learning tool,\" Milton said, adding that his daughter is currently enrolled in the online pilot program. He said Kara, a sophomore at East Lansing High School, reflects today\'s high school student in that she is quite comfortable around technology.  

\"She\'s been working on a personal computer since she was 2 years old,\" Milton said. \"It\'s her preferred method of learning.\"


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