Using Gamestar Mechanic Within a Nodal Learning Ecology to Learn Systems Thinking: A Worked Example

Abstract

This “worked example” is taken from a game design research study conducted in the spring of 2008 using Gamestar Mechanic, an online game intended to help middle and high school students develop basic game design skills. Game design and systems thinking skills, in this study conceptualized as dialogic in nature, were regarded as having the potential to guide learners to understand the dynamic complexity of systems of various types. The overall study focused on testing the viability of Gamestar Mechanic and the learning ecology it instantiated to improve participants' systems thinking skills. A principal research question that guided the study was: Does a learning ecology generated and mediated by the game design software Gamestar Mechanic improve participants' ability to engage in systems thinking? A second question concerned the question of how: How did participants come to develop systems thinking skills? The worked example is made up of a set of artifacts created by one participant, Tania. The artifacts...