COGNITIVE SCAFFOLDS

The cognitive scaffolding unfolds through mission in the internal design grammar, the profession’s semiotic domain with a focus on knowledge acquisition. The intention is to support the conception of professional values and identity within the external design grammar. Also, the idea is that the student systematically acquires new knowledge through crafting principles where knowledge, ideas and thoughts are collected and analysed according to the context. The identification of the power of innovation, academic thinking, data and knowledge collection, evaluation and assessment, asking questions, discussions and argumentation are some of the points that characterise the cognitive scaffold. The activities of the cognitive scaffold are based in particular on the principles that create depth in the MMORPG through an experimental and investigative approach. Through the activities of the cognitive scaffold, the PhD project’s educational game design aims to create an authentic representation of a given practice by presenting the students with tasks and challenges focused on specific practices within their profession.

The first educational link of learning activities in the internal and external design gram-mar of the cognitive scaffold is based on the following conceptual pair:

Exploration (situated) – dungeons/missions

The cognitive scaffold is central to the concept of dungeons or missions. In World of Warcraft, dungeons or missions are a defined and closed system within the game characterised by a particular practice or semiotic domain defined through a variety of activities that users treat in a particular way. Both are characterised by containing

specific content that requires specific skills and systems to succeed. A dungeon or mission is thus a more complex form of activity ‒ often a bundle of activities. These bundles of activities represent what could be called “semiotic domains”, which are a series of activities that people treat in a certain way. Thus, they are a form of practice that draws on more than one modality in regard to communicating different types of meaning. Each dungeon or mission can be seen partly from a theoretical perspective relating to the type of content (facts, theories, principles) and partly from a practical perspective ‒ how people interact in the field. Dungeons or missions are therefore crucial for building a bridge between theory and practice, and the student needs to know about the situated meaning of the theoretical position to understand the situated significance of the individual elements ‒ how they can/should combine knowledge, ideas, perspectives, etc.

Dungeons or missions thus affect and challenge the other quest activities, which creates new understandings and assumptions. It is thus argued that the influence of missions supposedly makes new activities meaningful and encourages reflective and critical changes in the learning trajectories. The student might even add their own activities to the game. The size of the mission also causes the students to be retained in what could be called a “horizontal learning process”, in which the student is more keen to explore and experiment in depth with subtopics (see Figure 49).

Figure 49 ‒ Picture 1 shows how the individual quest and dungeons/missions are tied together through reflection processes. Picture 2 shows how the students initiate new activities on their

own initiative. Picture 3 shows how dungeons hold students at a horizontal level for more extended periods.

Dungeons and missions thus aim to set the framework for students to be able to perform a much better range of doing and saying within their profession in order to carry out intentional actions. In addition, the ability to flexibly handle professionally oriented methods and tools, including following them, interpreting them, ignoring them,

considering them, etc. While quests are focused on general academic disciplines that support the learning process, dungeons/missions are focused on making the student better at articulating a general understanding of what permeates the practice.

Practices can, therefore, be regarded as being coordinated through frequent but temporary collections of doings and sayings ‒ they are linked in a certain way to enable an understanding of 1) what needs to be said and done, 2) through explicit rules, principles and instructions, and 3) teleoaffective structures such as end goals, projects, tasks, purposes, beliefs, etc.

In addition to the internal perspectives, computer games also contain a high degree of normativity in which users must jointly develop strategies, plan resource use and define specific goals.

Figure 50 – A description of a dungeon/mission card.

It is, therefore, a form of situated cognition where social and bodily experiences are the focal point for the acquisition of the necessary cognitive skills and competences in order to win the game. Another factor is the collaboration between the users, where the challenges of the computer game offer scaffolding to an engaged and instructive dialogue ‒ Morris et al. (2013) designate this as distributed knowledge. By sharing values and attitudes to participation in specific activities, it is possible to reduce the cognitive load. Through collaboration and strategic use of resources, the players can perform before they acquire competences. If this is transferred to a learning situation, the students will be able to engage in practice before necessarily acquiring all the necessary skills (Morris et al., 2013).

Name of the dungeon gen-nemfører Mission of the structure af jeres grund og det omkring liggende

område Er der et bredt udbud af rekreative

muligheder i området ? Ligger de placeret hensigtsmæssigt i forhold

til hinanden ? Er der en fornuftig sammenhæng mellem private haver, nærrekreative

områder, og adgang til større grønne områder og parker ?

Subjektiv analyse - fase 2 Analyse af sammenhængende og problemer imellem de tre strukturer - hvordan fungere de godt sammen Hvor er de gode sammenhængende som ikke må ødelægges? - Boligtyper (parcel, etage, tæt lav)

- Boligstørrelser

Different kind of reflection card supporting the inquiry process

The next pedagogical link of learning activities in the internal and external design grammar of the cognitive scaffold is based on the following conceptual pair:

Analysis (situated) – crafting

Many of the game activities in World of Warcraft are all about crafting new items or strategies, and players, therefore, spend many hours collecting material and knowledge, also called “farming”. The basic principle behind crafting and farming is about slowing the game down and keeping the gamers busy, which creates a duality to trivial but necessary everyday activities. The collection of items or knowledge contributes to solving complex tasks, which in themselves are a reward. Furthermore, crafting and farming stimulate both social communication and collaboration about preparing a joint action through quests and dungeons ( Chen, 2012; Nardi, 2010).

The idea behind crafting could be viewed as activities that support the “development of ideas” or the “acquisition of knowledge” with a focus on innovative use of the curriculum. The quality of the creative process is often dependent on the number of new ideas and angles to a problem. Using a crafting principle provides a natural opportunity to incorporate fun-failure as a way to launch a fast idea generation where students during a fixed time frame brainstorm relevant concepts and words for their project and thus “farm” new potential topics, directions or ideas that can subsequently challenge their project. To stimulate the flow of creative thoughts, it is essential to use different types of idea-generating tools. Crafting/farming thinking is thus about creating quests and dungeons/missions based on activities that have a specific focus on tools for collecting material that can challenge the process or content.

The intention of the prototype is thus through the idea of crafting activities where the students are allowed and given the opportunity to work with intermediate actions and activities that require finding new objects or ideas as a prerequisite for achieving a more distant goal. Combining crafting and farming activities with quests and dungeons is a way of controlling a far-reaching goal through sequences of explorations and reflections that tie it all together. Dewey describes it thus:

The question of methodology in connection with the formation of reflexive thinking is a matter of establishing the conditions that can arouse and control the curiosity, to create coherence in the perceived things, a context that will later promote the flow of spontaneous thoughts and lead them to the formulation of issues and purposes that promote the connection in the flow of thought. (Dewey, 2009, p. 54)

By implementing crafting elements into the game system, it is possible to support and facilitate conscious activities consisting of different ways of working through systemic thinking that creates sequences of explorations pointing to a final goal.

Reflective, explorative and innovative processes imply, according to Dewey (2009), a form of coherence and continuity of an organised mindset with the right balance and distribution of the three dimensions of thoughts ‒ ease and speed, scale and variation, and depth. Combining Dewey’s three dimensions of thoughts creates four different categories of crafting activities that represent disciplines characterising an academic and educational process. Each of the four categories will create, through the crafting principles, four different kinds of learning activities that, in combination with the quest system or dungeons/missions, will create learning sequences:

Progression ‒ Low variation of Thought + Fast Thought + Superficial Thought Knowledge acquisition – Big variation of Thought + Deep Thought + Slow Thought Development of ideas ‒ Fast Thought + Superficial Thought + Big variation of Thought

Reflection ‒ Deep Thought + Slow Thought + Low variation of Thought

When these four categories of crafting are incorporated into the PhD game design, it is assumed to open up a puzzle and analytic mindset where the combination possibilities contribute to a depth in the learning process. This approach to Game-Based Learning implies for the students a constant shift of positions created by the game activities, combined with one particular direction that leads them towards the final goals of their project.

Figure 51 ‒ Dewey’s understanding of the three dimensions of thoughts.

The crafting activities thus support the learning process, and as a result of this, the acquisition of the academic disciplines does not take the form of being a mechanical and routine uniformity or, as Dewey describes it, the movement of a grasshopper (Dewey, 1997, 1998, 2013). Instead, the crafting activities provide the student with opportunities to address the curriculum from several angles, including gathering of

ThoughFastts

Low Va riation of Th

oughts Superficia Though l

ts

Slow Thoughts

Big Variation of Thoughts

Deep Thoughts

data and knowledge, evaluation and assessment, asking questions, discussions and argumentation. The following sections exemplify how each of the four categories can be turned into crafting activities through the quest system or the use of dungeons/

missions.

Crafting as progression

This category contains quest activities that through the principle of crafting aim to orient students’ process towards reaching a final goal. These activities are characterised by rapid thoughts that train students to make competent decisions based on their existing knowledge base, development of ideas and reflection. The activities of the “progress”

category help students to focus and create an indirect motivation and sense of feeling that the project is taking shape and direction without losing its depth.

Crafting as development of ideas

This category contains quest activities that, through farming, aim to focus on innovative use of the curriculum. A prerequisite for being able to work innovatively with a particular topic is a systematic process of fast thinking processes triggered by external inspiration or stimulus. The quality of the creative process is often dependent on the number of new ideas and angles to a problem. It is therefore crucial that the process has a speed that does not take into account the usefulness, relevance, rendering or quality of the ideas along the way.

To stimulate the flow of creative thoughts, it is important to use different types of idea-generating tools. Games provide a natural opportunity to incorporate fun-failure as a way to launch a fast idea generation where students during a fixed time frame brainstorm relevant concepts and words for their project and thus “farm” new potential topics, directions or ideas that can subsequently challenge their project.

Quest - Idea development Quest - Reflection

Quest - Progress

Quest - Acquisition of knowledge

Figure 52 ‒ An interpretation of Dewey’s understanding of the three dimensions of thoughts combined into four quest categories.

Crafting as acquisition of knowledge

This category contains quests and dungeon activities that initiate and support students doing analysis, studies, exploration and innovation as well as written materials. The activities are characterised by being a time-consuming performance that takes the pace out of the process. These activities ensure the necessary depth of mind needed to make sufficient learning progress. Also, the activities present the students with new fields of study and theories that may potentially obstruct their process and challenge them to seek new and unknown solutions.

Crafting as reflection

This category contains quests and dungeon activities that focus on an in-depth and slow process that allows reflection processes along the way. The activities in this category have the particular purpose of creating reflection based on the project’s analytical contexts and theory links. Also, the activities contribute to an increased understanding of academic content. Quests that include reflection activities also aim to initiate metacognition partly related to how gamification as a method supports the learning process and partly to whether the intended goal is achieved.