Blog: Gaming in
Education
The quest required reading two
articles: “Situated Learning in Virtual Worlds” and “Immersive Simulations and A Literature Review of Gaming.”
There were also two videos: Future
Learning a Mini Documentary and Gaming
Can Make a Better World. These
resources provided several different aspects of gaming which are positive to
education. Beginning with the articles, the point was made that there are
correlations between goals of traditional instruction and the motivations and
outcomes of children immersed in gaming. A sound and productive learning environment
can be attained with gaming, as well as the importance of play integrated with
education was the first point. In my observation in a middle school class, I
saw this in action. The children were “playing” Kahoot, a multiple choice
framework enabled by their personal tablets. In fact, they were studying for
the social studies test scheduled for the next day. The children were
challenged and at the same time having fun. I remember my son, who is now 22,
playing a world civilization game on his play-station. I thought he was wasting
time until he explained to me the evolution of ships from trireme through the Spanish
galleon. This leads to the second point - gaming provides personalized instruction.
He was challenged: but his goals were also achievable, therefore he persisted. The
third point – engagement. Engaged with his quest, he pursued the relative
information necessary to complete the task with repetitive practice. The fourth
point – 21st century skills is a given; computer skills are second
nature to the younger generation as well as researching required information.
The final point – relative assessment is also apparent when a student is progressively
achieving different levels by meeting goals. The whole game is inherently an assessment.
Problems addressed were technical in nature - connectivity glitches and the
ability or lack thereof to type fast enough. Broadband access is solving the problem
with glitches and repetitive practice is the answer to lack of typing skills.
The videos provided reinforcement
on these points. Starting with the mini documentary, Professor Mitra points to
traditional teaching strategies being outmoded which were based in the Victorian
Era. The answer as he sees it is in self motivation. He contends that almost anything
is possible with access to a computer and enthusiastic reinforcement. Merrill interjected
the blurring line between playing and education. He emphasized the importance
of a relaxed mind with stress causing the brain to shut down. Another aspect discussed
is the universal participation in a gaming scenario. I personally experienced
this with online classes where students who would normally not participate were
encouraged by collaboration on Moodle site to give impute in a blog format. One
of my undergraduate classes was entirely the role playing game, Fiesta. The class was Sociology and the
purpose was interaction and collaboration inside the virtual framework of the
game.
Reading comprehension, an all important element in education, is obtained not by class drills or assignments, but by the engaged student pursuing personal goals inside the created environment. Minecraft-edu is an excellent example of this line of reasoning. Students in the three short videos were shown working individually with an educator who was only encouraging the child by asking questions on methods and goals while verbally encouraging with comments based on admiration of the outcomes that were being constructed in the context of the game.
Reading comprehension, an all important element in education, is obtained not by class drills or assignments, but by the engaged student pursuing personal goals inside the created environment. Minecraft-edu is an excellent example of this line of reasoning. Students in the three short videos were shown working individually with an educator who was only encouraging the child by asking questions on methods and goals while verbally encouraging with comments based on admiration of the outcomes that were being constructed in the context of the game.
We
were also required to go to three educational gaming sites and play. Going back
to essentials, some of the sites failed to load; others provided information
but no access to the game. I chose: Geography
Games, Submerge, and Educational Gaming Commons. In Geography Games the game Metropolitan
Areas was to properly identify major cities around the world and another Geogussr was to guess a location based
on a panoramic interactive picture from Google Earth. Submerge provided a Jamestown
Colony Adventure. The task was to land, decide on the appropriate
interaction with Native Americans, and choose which crops to plant for the
survival of the colonist. Penn State’s Education
Gaming Commons offered elementary school games. The one I played encouraged
sharing and how that might be reciprocated. I had a sixteen year old
collaborator who played the Metropolitan
Areas and Geoguessr. He immediately
became engaged and after completing the tasks, was motivated to replay both
games. In Geoguessr he was able to
move further in the sites and pictures than I thought possible. Of course he
did this without reading instructions. He also showed determination to find his
location without time constraints incorporating many different strategies:
types of cars, language on signs, and topography to come to his conclusions. He
scored very well.
My Jamestown score
Learning to share
My Geoguessr
Taylor's Geoguessr - He beat me!
My score on Met. Areas
Taylor's Met Areas- I won this one!
It took him a few more attempts.
