When I first thought of what gaming in education looks like, I immediately thought of video games. But one thing I overlooked is that gaming can include physical and board games as well. For our class today, we looked at how different types of games can be effective tools for teaching in the classroom and also what cautions we should consider when using them.
First of all, what makes a game good for education? To identify that, we needed to categorize different types of educational games. They can be divided into 4 categories of gamified learning, single-player digital games, multiplayer games, and active versus immersive games. Gamified learning include activities such as Duolingo, where at its core, you are still simply doing learning exercises but just using fun and colourful ways to track your progress. Simply put, there is not much “gameplay.” I think that these types of learning games are effective in teaching, but engagement levels can rapidly drop due to the repetitiveness of the activity,
I think that for learning games to be effective, there has to be an engaging gameplay factor that challenges players; a task that focuses more on the “play” rather than the learning. What I mean by that is not to completely disregard or exclude any learning elements, but rather let students learn through their play. In my own experience, I’ve learned a great deal through gaming where learning was not even the intent of the game. But the game included subtleties and lessons that I got to experience simply through playing. For example, the Interland game that we played in class today had fun and engaging gameplay, but it contained lessons and concepts about internet safety that were sprinkled throughout. I think that games like this are especially great tools for teaching because it keeps the childrens’ attention.
Now, how would we ensure that students are not just playing for fun and actually taking away information from their gaming experience? Teachers could include a follow-up assessment to make sure that their students are absorbing all of the key takeaways from the game. This could be something as simple as a worksheet or study guide that will help students retain the knowledge that the game helped them to learn.
Of course, gaming is not always accessible because technological or budget constraints exist. But Whenever possible, I believe that teachers can use gaming as a great way to teach fun lessons to their students, while having a little bit of fun themselves.