Mobile Technology Applied to Educational Games

Case Study Analysis:
“My-Mini-Pet: a handheld pet-nurturing game to engage students in arithmetic practices”



General information

Digital pet-nurturing games have been around roughly since 1995 with the development of Pokemon (Nintendo, 1995) and Tamagotchi (Bandai, 1996). The reason for the development of such “games” is to present educational content to children in a playful was as to increase motivation to engage in the learning activities that must occur in order to nurture the “animal.” I was interested in this case specifically because I was eleven years on in 1996 and had a Tamagotchi. I remember when you were only cool if you had one of these handheld pets. Though not discussed in this piece, many of my friends also had Nano babies, puppies, or cats in the time that the Tamagotchi pets were popular. Upon further investigation, I learned that these Nano pets are still available and now come in other species as well—including a turtle and a pony (http://www.virtualpet.com).

While these “pets” were the rage 15 years ago, today My-Mini-Pet takes their place as the en mode version of virtual pet nurturing. While there was some learning involved with earlier digital pets, the newer versions make the learning that children must engage in more concrete-they must use arithmetic in order to meets the needs of the pet. While the “pets” of yesteryear were more of a chore for students—in fact I found mine more bothersome than my living dog, My-Mini- Pet is “designed to be a child’s learning companion” (Liao et al 2010, p. 78).

Analysis

Who were the learners?

In the specific case were My-Mini-Pet was tested and analyzed, the learners were nine 10-year old fourth graders students (6M; 3F) from Taiwan (p. 82). However if we are thinking about the pets in terms of all learners, any elementary aged student could potentially use and benefit from the pets.


What characteristics did they have?

The common characteristics among the small group of students who piloted the pets were that they all had parent permission, they did not have familiarity with the content or software used, and they were not participating in any other extra-curricular activities during the time of the study (p. 82). Other than these factors, the subjects of the study had diverse characteristics which include not only gender, but initial ability in math (p. 86).


Technology

The technology used with My-Mini-Pet includes the use of a personal digital assistant (PDA). Each student piloting the game was given a PDA with wireless capability. The My-Mini-Pet platform is accessed online via the wireless internet capabilities of the PDA.

Objectives

The objectives of the study were very clear:

1. To help Motivation/ sustain learning


It is believed that the caring for a “pet” will help or influence children in four ways. First, they can experience physical changes such as decreased blood pressure and stress. Secondly, caring for a pet can help children who are shy or have ADHD. Third, caring for something else, such as a pet, can help children better connect with their feelings and develop a sense of empathy for others. Lastly, children can learn to interact more with their pet—thus developing social skills. All of these things together factor into motivation. When children feel good about something, when they feel like there are accomplishing something, helping, and making connections, they are more likely to stick with whatever activity they are engaged in. In this case, that sense of motivation and engagement with the “pet” will also increase learning opportunities because they way they nurture their pet is through further learning.

2. Instant Feedback

The appearance of a child’s pet reflects his or her success in the learning activities. For example, earning a high score or getting answers correct may give one’s pet glasses or a scarf as opposed to no change in appearance if there is no increase in achievement. This immediate change helps children to monitor and reflect on progress and make changes when necessary. There is also instant feedback with the pet’s moods and expressions. When the child does something good, the pet will be happy; when a child is consistently incorrect, the pet will be upset.

3. Pet as Facilitator

While I don’t think anyone would argue the value of a teacher along with any mobile learning activity, one of the objectives of the pet is to allow the pet itself to be the facilitator of the learning. Thus, the student is incredibly mobile in his or her learning because one is not waiting for the facilitation by another person. The pet gives either immediate feedback or delayed feedback as is the case in the “mini-game” (table 5). The student does not have to wait for someone else to make corrections or give feedback; the pet does the work.

Games as Mobile Learning Components

How did the game play?

The game is played basically by the student or subject completing tasks in order to earn EduCoins. These EduCoins are used to buy food, medications, etc. The higher quality activities and material items the student is able to buy, the more healthy and happy his or her pet will be. Therefore, students must continually engage in the learning games (arithmetic) in order to be able to feed, entertain, and care for the animal.

How did the mobile games work for achieving learning objectives?

My-Mini-Pet system seemed to work well for increasing student achievement through instant feedback. Students generally did better on the post-test than on the pre-test. However, as is admitted by the authors, there were only nine participants and no control group. The findings from the study were “positive” but not all factors have been considered. The students did seem motivated by the product because they described their “pet” as “cute” and were observed as discussing their pets’ appearance, etc. with other students. To this objective reader, it just does not seem like enough went into this study to really give readers enough information about how well the learning objectives were achieved.

Pedagogical underpinnings

The one strong element of this study was the pedagogical underpinnings. I think the researchers certainly have certainly developed their background knowledge; there just is not enough experimentation to go with it at this point.

The one pedagogical theory is mentioned straight-out: ARCS. Students are motivated by novel ideas. The act of learning while also keeping a “pet” alive is motivating to many students. It gets their Attention, the caring for a pet is Relevant, the thriving of the pet from one’s achievement helps build Confidence, and creates a sense of Satisfaction.

The other theory that applies to this study is Behaviorism. Students receive instant feedback and are given an opportunity to correct errors and thus change their behaviors in order to nurture their pet. The instant feedback is key in the learning process in this case since the pet is the facilitator of the learning and not another person.