I am beginning a quest to figure out how I can tie the principles of my game Tic Tac Toe Ten to education and learning. The end goal is two-fold: to encourage students to play Tic Tac Toe Ten and also to prove to their teachers that this game is contributing to their development as students. I believe that elements of the game introduce and reinforce concepts (memory, pattern recognition, decision making, etc.) that are necessary for a successful K-12 educational experience.
So today I start with the game of Chess and look at what it has to offer and why it can be (and should be) used as an educational tool and not just a game. I hope to take some of these truths and apply them to Tic Tac Toe Ten as I defend my hypothesis that Tic Tac Toe Ten should be used in schools (embedded into curriculum, used in refreshment exercises, etc.) as a learning tool to help students develop skills needed to have successful educational experiences.
The first article I looked at was called "Chess and Education" by John Artise. I was struck by a couple of things in this article.
First, the notion that chess conditions players to be extremely observant, analytical, and calculating. The importance of this is that these skills are necessary for success in everyday life. To have a concept (learned via a game) at your disposal to use in a challenging life situation is very valuable. It helps to shape and inform the decision making process, even outside of the domain of Chess. I found this very interesting.
Second, the notion of operant conditioning is a huge player. To quote the article, ". . . operant conditioning involves the learner actually doing, observing and responding to the stimuli presented to him." So the fact that you can be an active participant and learn (in real time) from your good moves and from your not so good moves is a big plus. Perhaps this is why children prefer video games as opposed to memorizing the fundamental theorem of calculus. The difference is that you can see and feel your impact immediately, you're learning by doing instead of being made to memorize something (without meaningful application).
So like Chess, Tic Tac Toe Ten has elements that would make it a perfect play for the school district who is trying to instill principles of memory improvement, logic, observation, analysis and operant conditioning in their students. This is very encouraging as I move forward with the research for this project. The next entry will continue looking at Chess and ask/answer questions about how to practically roll something like Tic Tac Toe Ten out for consumption.
stay tuned :)
B.M.
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