If we are able to teach and inform teachers and parents about the benefits of games in education, we can create courses that not only hit all the learning outcomes but also engage our students in a way that the learning that is happening is not only desired by the students because it is something they find fun, but it is also deep learning.

When I first tried a game for an educational purpose, I searched for learning games and one that I came across was knowledge guru. This game was not one that I would necessarily use with my students (unless I was doing a nutrition assignment for something) but it helped me to learn what a great learning game looked like. This game sent you on quests, which you completed by answering questions, and when you got a question wrong, it explained the correct answer so you could get it right the next time. Like I said, not something I would necessarily use with my students but I am glad that I played it because I would not have thought to look for question games that explained the right answer without playing this one. I also checked out their website and they had a great Quick Start Guide for Game Based Learning infographic that I think all teachers should follow when starting to implement a game. What I thought stood out the most from this was every step seemed to make a statement (either obviously or not so obviously) about getting familiar with the game before bringing it to your students which is huge. If you bring a game to your students that you have never tried before and expect it to hit learning outcomes based on something someone else said and haven’t tried it yourself, what help are you going to be to your students and how will you be able to justify it to the parents of those students?

Obviously some games will appeal to some students where as others will not care for the same game. I can think of a former student of mine who plays Minecraft a lot and really enjoys it – I even went to visit him and his family and he taught me how to play Minecraft so I could have a basic understanding for this course. After playing Minecraft for a while, I can see how some people would like the open-endedness of it but I like the games where there is a goal and when I obtain the goal I move on to the next level until all the goals have been completed and I beat the game. Knowing this about myself is something that has to be thought about with our students. Some with take huge pride in their creations and exploration games with no firm tasks while others will need to have clear tasks set out by the teacher as that is what appeals to them. The nice thing that I have learned about Minecraft is that all of the steps are logical – you need a pick-axe to mine coal among other things, you can build a furnace and create glass from sand, along with many other things – having a teacher ask a student to complete a task can also be set up so that a trail of logic is formed. I can think of having students learn how glass is formed by playing a video game (much more interesting then reading a worksheet) and then having a discussion after about how the process works.

 Justin Marquis suggests that there are 3 Strategies that you can use to make Game-Based Learning Explicit:

1. Encourage cooperative play
   
   
2. Implement structures for active engagement
   
   
3. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity
   
   

While I agree with all three, I think that the third one is huge. Teaching students that failing is not the end of the world, it is another way that we can learn is a great life skill to have. Not everyone is going to be the best or even good at everything (I can play basketball really well but if you ask me to sing, you will go running for the hills) and having students know that failing is okay early in life will help them immensely. For some students, having the opportunity to fail in a game where it is a make-believe place might make the failure easier to deal with, mostly because the bulk of games allow for another opportunity to try and maybe figure out a different way that works better.

 So why are games so great for learning? Just check out this infographic below

My top 3: (Three things that should be considered when using games in the classroom)

1. Do you understand the game and how it works – if you as the teacher do not understand the ins and outs of the game, how will you be able to support your students? 
   
   
2. Is it engaging for your students – do they enjoy playing the game or are they just playing it because it is a requirement that you have set for them? If you want to see the difference when using games that are engaging to your students with their learning just look at the infographic found here: http://www.theknowledgeguru.com/game-based-learning-infographic/
   
   
3. Can it be modified? – Like Minecraft, different options are available and different objectives can be given, choosing games with different ways of approaching it or different difficulty levels can make a huge impact for more students.
   
   

 

Resources:

Boller, S (June 8, 2013) Quick Start Guide for Game Based Learning Design. Retrieved on March 29, 2014 from http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/quick-start-guide-for-game-based-learning-free-webinar/

Helen (August 14, 2012) Why are games good for learning? Retrieved on March 29, 2014 from http://pixelearning.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/why-are-games-good-for-learning/

Huhn, J (May 15, 2013) Getting the Facts on Game Based Learning (INFOGRPAHIC). Retrieved on March 29, 2014 from http://www.theknowledgeguru.com/game-based-learning-infographic/

Marquis, J Ph.D. (November 25, 2013) How To Help Your Students Embrace Failure Through Game-Based Learning. Retrieved on March 29, 2014 from http://www.teachthought.com/technology/help-students-embrace-failure-game-based-learning/

Students shouldn't have to learn how we teach... We should teach how they learn. Whether we want to admit it or not, students are more connected to mLearning and mobile devices (whether it be smart phones or tablets) more than ever and it’s not going away any time soon, so why not embrace it? I should take a moment to say that this post will be a bit tricky for me to write. As a DL teacher, all of my students do at least a little bit of their learning on a computer, tablet or mobile device; if not all of it so in a way they have signed up for this schooling knowing that they need to have their own device or at least access to a shared one. I did find it hard to connect to some of the discussion that we had surrounding this topic because of my teaching situation.

 We had a Blackboard Collaborate session about BYOD and it was interesting to hear the views and opinions of other teachers who are in the face-to-face schools. We also watched some video clips and the one that struck me was the one that was BYOD in the 21st Century when it said “leave the computing to the computers and focus on the meaningful”. I agree with this statement, why not give our students the ability to use the computers to do what they do best and they can then use it as a tool to do meaningful work that deepens their learning? I will admit that if I were to write all my blog posts with pen and paper, I would not be as articulate and thoughtful as I am when I type. No, it’s not because I use the thesaurus to make myself seem smart, I just know that if I were writing it out, I would only want to write it one time. Typing essays, blog posts and other assignments allows me to go back over what I have written, make changes, modify the way I stated something and most of all, I am a lot faster at typing then printing.

 If you haven’t guessed by now, I am a supporter of the BYOD movement. Again, because I am in a DL setting it is hard for me to picture the struggles that would be faced outside of the DL realm and in the public schools but I can back myself up with one instance I had in a face-to-face public school. I had a student who had dyslexia in one of my practicum classes and we allowed him to start bringing his laptop into class. His laptop allowed him to do just what I explained above – he could type a lot faster, he could get all his ideas down then go back and fix spelling errors and grammar after, and he felt a lot more confident with his ability to use the computer to check for errors instead of fretting over each word he had spelled with a pen on a piece of paper (we left the computing to the computer).

 
References:
Marc-Andre Lalande (June 4, 2012). BYOD in the 21st Century retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSXyfX8ABhA



As a little extra: Here is my daughter who participated in BYOD by playing on her tablet (practiced tracing her alphabet) during our Collaborate meeting.

Here are some apps that were reviewed by myself and my group for mLearning (Educational game and presentation apps). We focused on games and presentation apps that would cover a variety of age groups, subjects and each section of blooms taxonomy.

The rubric we created to review the apps:

Buzz Math

Explain Everything

Fizzy's Fresh Pick Lab

Frame Artist Pro

Side By Side

Stop Motion