"Video games are more popular now than they have ever been, and the video game industry is on the verge of hitting its Golden Age (Diver, 2015). In 2015 alone, the video game industry is predicted to reach $91 billion in sales revenue (Nunnely, 2015). Video games have become a key element in today’s youth culture (Seel, 2001; Aarsand, 2007; Gee, 2007). With such a successful and culturally relevant medium at their disposal, pedagogues can use this form of entertainment as a gateway medium for educational instruction. This paper describes the progressive integration of technology in music education as well as the implications of using a non-traditional method of educational instruction through a video game. Focusing specifically on the instruction of music theory, several methods of instruction are examined. Past studies using video games as a medium to convey instruction are further examined. The development of an educational music theory video game is explored along with several development tools in its design. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in an undergraduate classroom where participants completed a series of activities using either the music theory video game prototype or a simulated method book application. The data suggests a significant improvement in each skill topic when using the video game and compares similarly to the simulated method book application."

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:37:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Venyton Nathan Leandro Izidoro.pdf: 1903798 bytes, checksum: 9381a055579503451c2cb1fd8267f60f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-01 / The educational game Calangos is based on the ecological modeling of a real case of lizards that inhabit the Dunes of the Middle São Francisco River, in the state of Bahia - Brazil. The goal of the game is to enable students to interact with an environment that promotes a proper understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes. The game should serve as a tool to support the teaching and learning of ecology and evolution to high school students. For the Calangos Game to achieve this goal, central concepts of evolution and ecology should be properly incorporated in the game. Thus, the first scientific challenge of the project, in addition to the technological challenge of developing the game itself, is related to modeling the population dynamics and evolutionary biology in the context of Calangos. To investigate these aspects independently of the game, this dissertation proposes a simulator for Calangos, as well as a genetic-evolutionary model for the lizards. Furthermore, it performs a set of experiments that examine the ecology and evolution of the lizards in the proposed simulated environment. More specifically, four experimental scenarios and three difficulty levels for each environmental scenario are proposed to carefully analyze the dynamics of populations and the influence of the evolution on the fertility and longevity of lizards populations located within the simulated environment. The results clearly show that in a balanced environment without predators it is possible to observe a dynamic equilibrium of populations in a typical Lotka-Volterra model of population dynamics. On the other hand, it is also observed that in the most hostile environments containing large numbers of predators, the capability of evolution allows the lizard species to survive in the environment, which does not occur if the lizards evolution is disabled during the simulations. In the context of the Calangos game, the results presented here serve as the initial proof of concept necessary for the modeling of the lizards to be incorporated in the game. / O jogo eletrônico educativo Calangos é baseado na modelagem de um caso ecológico real relativo aos lagartos que habitam a região das Dunas do Médio São Francisco, no Estado da Bahia. O objetivo final do jogo é possibilitar ao estudante interagir com um ambiente que promova uma compreensão adequada de processos ecológicos e evolutivos da natureza. O jogo deve funcionar como ferramenta de apoio ao ensino e aprendizagem de ecologia e evolução no nível médio de escolaridade. Para que o Calangos atinja esse objetivo conceitos centrais de evolução e ecologia deverão ser incorporados adequadamente ao jogo. Nesse sentido, o primeiro desafio científico do projeto, que antecede aos desafios tecnológicos de desenvolvimento de jogos propriamente ditos, está relacionado à como modelar a dinâmica das populações e a biologia evolutiva no contexto do Calangos. Para investigar estes aspectos de forma independente do jogo, essa dissertação propõe um simulador para o Calangos, assim como uma modelagem genético-evolutiva para os lagartos e, na sequência, realiza um conjunto de experimentos que permitem analisar a ecologia e evolução dos lagartos no ambiente simulado. Mais especificamente, são propostos quatro cenários experimentais e três níveis de dificuldade ambiental para cada cenário, que permitirão analisar cuidadosamente a dinâmica das populações e influência da evolução na fecundidade e longevidade de populações de lagartos localizadas dentro do ambiente de simulação. Os resultados mostram que em um ambiente equilibrado e sem predadores é possível observar um equilíbrio dinâmico das populações, em um formato típico dos modelos clássicos de dinâmica populacional baseados nas equações de Lotka-Volterra. Por outro lado, observa-se também que em ambientes mais hostis contendo grande quantidade de predadores a capacidade de evolução dos lagartos permite a sobrevivência da espécie no ambiente, o que não ocorre caso os lagartos não possam evoluir durante as simulações. No contexto do jogo Calangos, os resultados apresentados aqui servem como a prova de conceito inicial necessária para a modelagem computacional dos lagartos a serem incorporados no jogo.