One thing to keep in mind while viewing the results is that the survey was entirely an experiment; I wasn’t entirely convinced that outside of my group of friends I’d attract much attention. I was pleasantly wrong. Most of the questions required short-answer responses, and the lack of quantitative data collected makes the sheer number of responses unmanageable in many ways. Along the lines of oral histories, many of the responses shed light into how students played the game in the classroom, and how they remember parts of the game. I’ve had luck navigating the responses by using keywords, although without being able to bundle similar responses it’s difficult measure the number of occurrences. Still, patterns in the results can be discerned. Here are the questions I asked:

Year of Birth:
Gender:
State:
Game Version:
Where did you play the game?
How often did you play the game?
Was the game taught with a lesson on the trail, or did you just play the game?
What was your favorite part of the game?
What was your least favorite part of the game?
How were Indian characters portrayed in the game?
How were female characters portrayed in the game?
How were male characters portrayed in the game?
What did the West look like in the game? Do you think this was accurate?
Do you think the game accurately portrayed the Oregon Trail? Why/Why Not?
Any additional comments or memories of the game:

The object of the survey was to have respondents recount representation within the game, judge whether or not they think this memory of the game is accurate, as well as give insight into how the game was used within an educational setting. Understanding historical representation in the classroom, and measuring the effectiveness of the game to present that knowledge was of key interest.

Beyond the educational goals of the game, many of the survey responses discussed elements of the game that I glossed over in my research, but resonated with students. One of these was the ability to name characters in the game. Here are some interesting quotes related to that:

I liked the excitement of it. It felt like an adventure, plus you could always name your crush as your husband in your party!

I would use my friends names as members of my wagon train

Being able to name people… And then letting the ones I didn’t like die, or rub salt in their wounds, etc. Morbid, I know, but I think most kids will agree that was the best part of the game.

the first time I played, the people I played with named all our characters after the X-men because they were popular at the time, because of the cartoon.

Also fun to name your characters stupid things. My personal favorites were names like “Nobody” or “Somebody” or “Everybody,” so that the game would be like “Somebody has cholera” and you’d be like ‘but who?’ and “Nobody has died” and you’re like ‘Whew, that’s a relief.’

The last response was the best IMHO.

After playing this game it made [me] want to learn even more about the Oregon Trail and all about the pioneers who walked and did their best to survive. To know that they survived sickness and weather and Indians was amazing to me

The reviewer was amazed that pioneers survived amid the threat of Native Americans, however that threat wasn’t present in the game. Yes, in the game thieves sometimes attacked your wagon train – but they weren’t Native Americans. Moreover, Native Americans offered food in the game – a far cry from any threat the reviewer perceived. The reviewer’s subtle reference parallels many of the inaccurate and more explicit responses I received from my survey. When asked to describe Native Americans in the game, survey respondents occasionally wrote, “they attack you”, “bad”, or “savages.” These descriptions indicated a disconnect between the history represented within the game, and the knowledge retained by the game’s users. Individuals unintentionally saw the past through racist stereotypes, engendered by other forms of media and culture.

The reoccurrence of these inaccuracies and stereotypes is intriguing. Are they due to the inherent limitations of computer simulations? Are stereotypes foundational to how we see the past? Are there other examples of history and the past becoming abstracted in the minds of individuals – being replaced by stereotypes? Is this a phenomenon that could be studied further? Am I unduly extrapolating upon a perceived pattern and is this all just a waste of time? I already have preliminary answers to several of these questions – but I would appreciate feedback from my readers regarding ways to approach this.

In January I moved to Washington, DC to pursue a fellowship at Georgetown University working on the Crossroads Project. Much of my time has been spent developing the American Studies Web search engine, recently released in beta.

Although I stated online that I was going to publicly release the results of my Oregon Trail survey, I have decided to withhold any final conclusions. Several individuals who were interested in learning about the results have contacted me; I encourage you to do the same but at this time it would be inappropriate for me to publicly disclose these results. Recognizing weaknesses in my own online survey methodology, I need better data to definitively draw any conclusions. With that said, I’m very surprised by the results and success of the survey. Expect an improved Oregon Trail survey to be conducted in the future!

Speaking of surveys, I’ve begun development on an online survey tool called Surveylicious. Recently I was contacted by graduate students who wish to do online surveys connecting to Facebook (Hello Jim from Stanford!); Surveylicious establishes this connection similarly to how my Oregon Trail survey worked, using the Facebook API. Fortunately, the API is now in stable release so the session problems I encountered should no longer be an issue. I’ll be blogging a lot about the development and methodology of Surveylicious.

The first weekend of May I graduate from St. John Fisher College with a degree in American Studies and minor in Information Technology.

Beyond studying the Oregon Trail computer game, several months ago I began documenting and analyzing “Wild West” computer simulations in Second Life. I am working with users in Second Life to archive these environments, many which no longer exist. Once I gain full permission to distribute these images, text, and objects I’ll post them for others to study.

Notice the new URL and feed – I’m now davelester.ORG.

We’re now the most popular web-based developer project on Facebook!

If you experience a problem or have any questions, please e-mail or IM me. My aim screenname is “Finding America” and I would love to talk to you about it. At this time the problem seems to be minor, but I will continue to work on fixing the problem.

Right now the survey is ranked number two on the facebook development page!

Lots of users are starting but never completely finishing the survey. Approximately 77% of those who have taken the survey have completed the first set of questions never complete the entire thing. My own theory is that this has to do with the introduction of short answer questions. Although the survey is prefaced by a consent form that estimates the survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete, I don’t think all users understand the depth of questions I ask. This seems to be true with people who completed the survey, but left most of the short answer questions blank.

A limitation on my research through this survey has been the ability for users to choose what questions they will or will not answer. My college’s institutional review board required this unless I had gone through a lengthy review process. As it was, I had to wait three weeks for the approval of this survey. What I am left wondering is if and how making questions mandatory would affect the results. Would less people be willing to take the survey? Would certain groups of people be less likely to take the survey as a result?

Although the survey has been online for less than 48 hours I value it as proof of concept. Online surveys and web-based academic research can work. The survey authenticates users via the Facebook API and connects to a pre-existing social network, thus bypassing traditional limitations of online polling. Additionally, the ability for users to easily share information within the Facebook community with their friends has led to survey responses from not only all around the country, but around the world. At the time of posting this, my survey is the second most popular Facebook developer product which has led to its recognition on Facebook’s own developer site.

While I have infrequently blogged in the past, my hope is that this will become a place for dialogue; both of my ongoing research as well as greater methodological and disciplinary debates which are currently taking place. I welcome anyone who wishes to discuss these issues with me.