Brains On Purpose™

Using games to educate and solve problems: Playing with conflict and brains

Over the years, the decades, I have been time after time convinced of the value of games to teach, and so recently have been researching game design. I want to create my own educational games. The topic is wide-ranging and opinions on every aspect, even the definition of game, are many. Unfortunately the number of books and articles on the actual how-to of designing is sparse. At this blog post, I will post what I find in my search. Do you recommend any resources I can add below?

The book I have found most interesting because it is almost a philosophical take on games is The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses; unfortunately reading it will not equip you to create your own game but will allow you to thoroughly evaluate one you've already designed.

Games focus on health, wealth, contentment, fun, war, much more—and the list grows daily. My emphasis right now is conflict resolution. Many of us have been using games in ADR training for decades and have found them beneficial for learning: Everything from a multitude of versions of Prisoners' Dilemma to Med-Arb. Several people with whom I have talked think it is time for a new crop of games to teach about conflict resolution and a number of people are working on design, myself included.

Let's look at an example of a teaching game. Although not focused on conflict resolution, here's one that looks at our other focus here: brains! From the news release:

AXON offers players a rare glimpse of how the brains is formed and an ‘inside the brain’ introduction to the strange world of neurons, proteins and axons.

Click to play the game.

At Gamasutra, the place where the news release about AXON was posted, you will find much information about game design. I enjoyed the three-part series on timing in storytelling. Story, by the way, is a critical component of many games. I also was glad I took the time to read Improv Acting And Game Development.

More soon. I will continue to post resources here at this blog post as I find them.

• "Interactivity and Reward-Related Neural Activation during a Serious Videogame" (PLoS ONE)
• "A video game that involves killing cancer cells, activates parts of the brain involved in motivation" (CNet)-About the research at the PLoS ONE link immediately above
• "My View: A Game-Changing Major" (CNN.com)-Game design is being taught in college
• "Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design" (Gamasutra)
• Slide presentation on gameification (MPI)-on how game principles can create engagement for meetings and events
• "Adult Learning Theory in Games and Simulations" (LEEF Blog)
• Gamification Wiki 
• "Serious Games Taxonomy: Game Theory Part 1" "...Part 2" (LEEF Blog)
• "All The World’s A Game" (TechCrunch)
• Video: "How to Use Games to Excel at Life and Work" (99%)
• Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success
• "The Gamification of Education Infographic" (Knewton)
• "Motivations of Play in Online Games" (Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior)
• Chapter 6 of Art of Game Design: "The Game Begins with an Idea"-The whole book is online here.
• "Are you an achiever, explorer, socializer, or killer: Is conflict resolution a game?" (idealawg)
• "Why Do Games Need Neuroscience? or, The Importance of Having a Theory" (AndrewHsu.com)
• TED Talks on gaming
• "First Steps in Board Game Design" (EDTEC)

Are there advantages to face-to-face mediations? When are they necessary? This white paper looks to neuroscience for answers

Although this white paper is about business meetings, much of it also would apply to conflict resolution sessions. From the Executive Summary of the white paper "The Future of Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face" (found on the Web site of the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research):

With the advent of virtual-meeting technology, the issue of how to format group meetings and events has become remarkably complex. Meetings can be completely virtual, completely face-to-face, or a hybrid of the two. Leading companies are using all three formats. The challenge for meeting planners is to decide which format is most effective for important business outcomes. Rather than rely on personal preferences or currently popular approaches, the decision regarding meeting type is a strategic one that should rest on specific, scientific criteria. This paper examines those science-based decision criteria to help executives determine when face-to-face is the most effective approach to large-group meetings or events. This decision is important because face-to-face meetings require the greatest investment of all meeting types, and thus carry the greatest expectations for a strong return on investment. Face-to-face is most likely to be the best approach in the following three business situations:

(1)          To capture attention, particularly when you want to initiate something new or different;

(2)          To inspire a positive emotional climate, as a way to catalyze collaboration, innovation, and performance; and

(3)          To build human networks and relationships, realizing that information can increasingly be shared virtually whereas the greater value is in people networks and relationships.

You download the white paper at the above link. For another summary of it, read Why Invest in Face-to-Face Meetings? Look to Neuroscience" (Corporate Meetings & Incentives). Excerpt:

Law & Neuroscience Project Web site links to many resources

The Law & Neuroscience Project, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, maintains a Web site. Click to see the site, Project blog, external web resources, online video, bibliography, and list of related blogs.

Your Brain at Work: Web site with lots of neuroscience resources and information

Click on over to http://yourbrainatwork.org/ to explore this resource-rich Web site brought to us by the Dana Foundation. Plan to spend a while; there's much to be found at the site.

New: Cognitive Science Network of the Social Science Research Network

SSRN announced its new Cognitive Science Network to which I subscribed yesterday. They have an easy way to subscribe to all 7 of the subject matter ejournals at once (link below) and subscriptions are free until October. I have no doubt that some of the papers will relate to conflict resolution.

From the e-mail I received from SSRN:

We are pleased to announce the creation of the Cognitive Science Network (CSN). It will provide a worldwide, online community for research in all areas of cognitive science, following the model of other subject matter networks within SSRN.

We expect CSN to become a comprehensive online resource for research in cognitive science, providing scholars with access to current work in their field and facilitating research and scholarship.

...

Initially, CSN will begin with the following 7 subject matter eJournals, and subscriptions will be free during the start-up phase until October 2009.

COGNITION & CULTURE: CULTURE, COMMUNICATION, DESIGN, ETHICS, MORALITY, RELIGION, RHETORIC, & SEMIOTICS

View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Cognition-Culture.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Cognition-Culture

Editor: Todd Oakley, Associate Chair, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science

Description: Cognition & Culture focuses on the cognitive study of cultures as creations of human minds in environments. Its scope includes research on cultural manifestations, their differences and incommensurabilities, and their expressive and semantic regularities and universals. This eJournal announces working papers, meetings, and events associated with interdisciplinary research projects and aims at encouraging collaboration across disciplines. It presents research in cognitive science having to do with such fields as design, ethics, history, jurisprudence, morality, philosophy, politics, religion, sociality, science, and technology.

COGNITION & THE ARTS

View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Cognition-Arts.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Cognition-Arts

Editor: Mark Turner, Institute Professor, Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science

Description: A publication dedicated to the artful mind and its relationship to the full range of higher-order human cognition. All scientific approaches are welcome, including developmental, evolutionary, linguistic, and comparative. Cognition & the Arts construes artistic behavior broadly, to include not only the various recognized genres of the arts but also design, style, and performance, throughout the lifecourse.

COGNITION IN MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, & TECHNOLOGY

View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Cognition-Math-Science-Tech.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Cognition-Math-Science-Tech

Editors: Gilles Fauconnier, Professor, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, and Mark Turner, Institute Professor, Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science

Description: Mathematical insight, scientific discovery, and technological innovation are hallmarks of higher-order human cognition. Cognition in Mathematics, Science, and Technology is dedicated to the cognitive science of mathematics, science, and technology - in phylogenetic descent, ontogenetic transformation, and historical action.

COGNITION LINGUISTICS: COGNITION, LANGUAGE, GESTURE

View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Cognitive-Linguistics.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Cognitive-Linguistics

Editor: Mark Turner, Institute Professor, Case Western Reserve University - Department of Cognitive Science

Description: "Cognitive linguistics goes beyond the visible structure of language and investigates the

And rounding out the list of 40 mediation sites in 40 minutes

We were very happy to be included in mediator Geoff Sharp's great list of 40 mediation sites. And Brains On Purpose has a category of its very own: Mediation Friendly Psycho Site. I hope Psycho is just a shortened version of psychology? Both Jeff and I are relatively sane so I will go with the abbreviation.

Sharp's blog is mediator blah...blah.... I highly recommend you follow his mediation blog, and watch and listen to the videos at his Mediation vBlog Project. (That's his photo over to the left.)

Thanks for including us, Geoff!