Luxor and Garbage Glut

Learners’ styles

My student’s styles are a mixture of learning styles, and since I teach adults and college aged students, they would be different than the younger students of today. For the basis of this analysis I will concentrate on the students at the university level, who would be closer to the Accommodators, based on Kolb’s learning theory. Accommodating (doing and feeling) learners react by intuition, not logic. They like to jump in, don’t read instructions, and react with their “gut” rather than thinking things through. The students in this group like fast-paced instruction, get bored easily by too much “talk” and like to keep things moving in the classroom.

Based on Prensky’s list, I’d put these same learners near the left side of the scale. They are used to video games, and interestingly, although they come from many different countries, their experiences in this regard are quite similar. They seem to have this commonality, which makes games teaching especially attractive in my classroom. My own learning style vacillates between the groups, if that’s possible, going from a reflecting mode on the one hand to a reactive mode at other times. Being an older learner myself, I can relate to the slower side of things, but am intrigued and interested in all things electronic.


Analysis of games

Luxor 2 was developed by Big Fish Games, a game developing company that, according to their website, is a global leader in the industry. Very little information on the actual company is available on their website, but the game Luxor 2 is pretty self-explanatory once you open it. Although listed as a puzzle game, the website describes this game as “adventure arcade” and I think this is a more fitting description. There was no real puzzle to figure out. The description given on the website of Luxor 2 was a “Journey through Egypt as you work to thwart Set's diabolical plans.” This, too, is an unrealistic vision of what to expect as you use your mouse to move a gold scarab around the screen as it shoots red, yellow and green balls into a chain of other red, yellow and green balls. By shooting the ball between other balls of the same color you create a chain of 3 balls, which explodes into points. As the balls explode, artefacts fall from the top of the screen and you “catch” them with the scarab, earning points. It is a fast-paced game with several levels.

Garbage Glut was developed, written and designed by Gotham Gazette. It is an interactive game about the disposal of garbage in New York City. This game allows the player to make decisions about how they would dispose of various types of garbage and then gives a score in the end on how these choices impact the environment. There is only one level of play but players’ scores are kept and they can replay making different decisions, with different outcomes by the new choices.

Analysis of Learning Style

Luxor 2 would be the favorite game for Accommodating learners based on the two I’ve chosen to analyze. Luxor 2 is a fast-paced game based on using reactive instinct and no logic. The colors, sounds and action of the game would keep the attention of Accommodators, and I admit, I found it very addicting to play. Although the simplistic nature and overall focus of the game doesn’t lend itself to my teaching, I found it exciting and fun. Actually, I don’t know what skills you would be teaching to use this game, other than colors or motor coordination skills, which don’t come into play for my students. There was no reading, except for a small amount of instruction at the beginning. And since accommodators don’t like to read the instructions anyway, there would be no value for an ESL student.
A better choice for learning ESL would be the Garbage Glut game. Extensive reading was necessary for this game, as well as comprehension of environmental concepts such as recycling and shipping garbage. So, although this would be the better choice academically, the accommodating learner style would not be attracted to this type of game. Perhaps it could be used to strengthen those skills that accommodators lack, such as reflection, thinking about things before reacting, etc. In this way, the students might get a lot out of this type of game, but it might be a struggle to have them sit still and concentrate.