Blog Post:
Hi Everyone,
Robyn, Jackson and Marie here!
We are super excited to get to spend the week teaching the class about Game Based Learning! Game-based learning is a huge and growing industry in education so to narrow things down a little we have chosen to focus your learning this week on learning and reflection within commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games.
There are going to be three parts of our learning resource. We recommend that you break things up throughout the week, but also understand if you want to do all three sections at once. It is totally up to you! In keeping with our theme of game based learning, we’ve tried our best to keep the activities as fun as possible and tried to incorporate game elements and reflection into each section.
PART 1: Introduction to Game Based Learning
- Play a Game: What better way to get started learning about game based learning, then to play a warm-up game! This is an educational game focused on financial literacy and budgeting. Money Magic (playmoneymagic.com). As you play this game, start to think about how this game might help you to learn about budgeting.
- Sign up for our course and start to review our OER: We have created a course for you to join and sign up. Please create an account and enroll in our course. Once you are enrolled; read, review, watch and engage with Chapter 1: Introduction to Commercial Games and Experiential Learning
- *BLOG* Discussion Part 1: Now that you have a better understanding of learning that occurs in commercial-off-the-shelf games and have played a game yourself it’s time for some reflection! In the discussion post below can you please share a commercial game you have played before (with a link to the game) and what you may have consciously or unconsciously learned through playing that game?
PART 2: Continue to Learn and Reflect on Game Based Learning
- Continue to review the Course: In this part we will be focused on Chapter 2: The World of Commercial Games and Learning. Pay special attention to the section quiz: Commercial Off the Shelf games: Benefits and Limitations. Make sure to pick either true or false before proceeding through each question.
- *BLOG* Discussion Part 2: Based on your learning in the quiz, post in the discussion post below. What do you think is valuable about game based learning and where do you think there are limitations? Did anything surprise you?
PART 3: Learn Through Game Based Learning
Great work so far! You are nearly done and we are in the final stretch 🙂
- Review the last section of the Course: Chapter 3: Examples and Innovations in Game Based Learning
- Play a Game: It is time to apply everything we have learned to our own game-based learning experience! Please pick one (or all three of the games below).
- Life as a whole: TREE on Steam (steampowered.com)
- The nostalgia of lost connections: DDRKirby(ISQ) – Dear Toki and https://store.steampowered.com/app/648390/Maries_Room/
- Seeing one’s parents as an adult: https://marafrass.itch.io/abide-with-me
3. Reflection: Now it’s time to think about your own learning from the game you have played as we wrap up the week.
Click here to post your thoughts and reflection.
Hi Team – So great to see you are using Thinkific, I look forward to completing your course on GBL. To answer your first blog question about commercial off-the-shelf games, I have recently played WarioWare: Get it Together (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/warioware-get-it-together-switch/). It was a gift over the holidays from my brother, who gifted it for nostalgia reasons. It was both fun and challenging. For those of you who don’t know, these are 5-second mini-games that are both sensical and non-sensical. There’s a lot of humour involved, making the key ingredient: fun. There’s a lot of cognitive use in this game and it is not a game that can be played when you are tired or not feeling engaged as it requires your full attention. It challenges your physical coordination (speed, time, accuracy, precision, timing), formal logic, time pressure, memory & knowledge. I feel like a lot of this learning is unconscious, especially since the game is so fast.
Hi Marie-Eve. Warioware is a fun one! Thinking of games, your mentions of coordination remind me of how these games can really test and build one’s ability knowledge. I personally am not a big fan of sports because of my fear of flying objects, but playing those games help me with timing-related tasks. I would love to know what kind of knowledge you got from the game? Was it mostly physical?
I think a lot of digital games can help with a coordination aspect that is usually developed by playing sports, glad to hear you found a substitute, Jackson! To answer your question, I would say I mostly got knowledge about the game, not much applicable outside Warioware – just how to beat certain levels, which characters tend to do better with challenges… As an educator, my takeaway is the fun aspect and how fun can come from quirkiness. Fun is the foundation of good GBL.
DISCUSSION PART 1: Myself, my brother, and my father have all always loved video games, and my mother has always been the odd one out. When my brother and I were young, she was quite perturbed by the amount of time we’d spend in front of the screen. That is, until I started chattering on about Joan of Arc, and how she had rallied the French troops during the Hundred Years’ War to turn the tides of battle, and was martyred for her beliefs! My mother was not quite sure what to make of 8-year old me and my sudden knowledge of ancient French history, or how I knew what a “trebuchet” was… the answer: Age of Empires II! This real-time strategy game, set in the Middle ages to real stories, taught me an extensive amount of information about all sorts of conflicts of the era, as well as ancient civilizations, weaponry, not to mention reading and pronunciation of words in all sorts of languages. I would say that it was “concious” learning, since it was reading/listening to the game and its stories, and not so much learning through the actual gameplay. Certainly, I would say that the “learning” was not the point of the game, and I was definitely not the demographic the game was aimed at for the time. But, I was drawn in by the real history and the dramatic storytelling nonetheless, and I learned a lot. From that moment onwards my mother was a bit less critical of our time gaming… For fun, I’ve included a snippet video of the introduction to “Joan of Arc” from this game: https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxnATHm_TzrZklUYaxqau3WRWcWZGA3gie
And, of course, a link to the game itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires_II
That’s a great reflection Ally. I think that as games have developed over the years, creators have realized the importance of a backstory to set the stage their games are set in. I myself have always been drawn to quest games. I love puzzle solving and a purpose beyond just getting the most hits. Incorporating historic and modern facts into game play are not always a large component in mainstream games, but they definitely have their following.
These history-heavy games do seem to lean even more into the niche lately, that’s true! I feel like when I was younger it was more common to find a balance… nowadays you have entire gaming-company hired historians for accuracy! Lots of nice touches, but definitely not the most popular games out there.
Discussion Part 1: Interesting question, most of the commercial games I play tend to be very story heavy RPGs which focus on having epic plots and stories inspired by different mythologies and cultures. As to which games contained an “learning” or educational element in them, I’ve chosen 4 examples to discuss: (i) Return of the Obra Dinn. The player is required to solve the fates of 60 passengers (including their names, where and how they met the fate, who their killer was and possible location of survivors) who were aboard the ship. The learning aspect comes from requiring the player to use lots of lateral thinking, deduction, inference and narrowing down possibilities. Think of the game as a giant Sudoku puzzle where you need to use the information obtained in the game and existing knowledge which you might have (how certain accents sound like or regional dialect/slang etc). Answers are not always clear as clues or hints might be contradictory or vague/contains several possibilities. The challenging part is certain information might not be available until you’ve solved another fate. It’s definitely satisfying to see your efforts pan out as you slowly piece together the information you’ve gathered into a larger overall summary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qxLrFycrc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_the_Obra_Dinn
Other examples include: (ii) Simcity 2000 which taught me the basics of urban planning, how to manage a city and other various tidbits such as taxes, zoning, monitoring environmental situations and balancing budgets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_2000. (iii) Game Builder Garage for the Nintendo Switch allows the player create their own games by using a visual form of code called Nodon (which is very easy to use) and experiment with different coding combinations to create actual playable games. A useful feature which the game includes is a lesson mode to guide the player through using the Nodon language and to help them understand some of the principles of game development though a series of seven built-in games that the player can create. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXG4KdstVw4 (iv) Ring Fit Adventure, I probably unconsciously learnt a lot of new fitness poses/exercise routines from the game which proved useful for quickly stretching/moving around after sitting for too long at work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skBNiJd61Qw
Hi John! I also enjoy RPGs, more specifically, Japanese RPGs. My childhood favourite is Tales of Symphonia. I wanted to ask you about Return of the Obra Dinn because it is a game I longlisted to teach. However, I felt discouraged reading the PEGI 16 rating that commented on its sustained depictions of death. I am aware that having those warnings are useful for unaware shoppers and parents to know; at the same time, I also feel it is an easy way to find myself in trouble even if I have scaffolded or primed material for students beforehand. What are your personal thoughts on the game? Do you believe it could ever enter a secondary education classroom?
Nice to see a fellow JRPG connoisseur! I grew up in the SNES/PS1 era of JRPGs, just a few years before Tales of Symphonia haha (that was around 2003 i think?) Anyways back on topic, yes Obra Dinn does depict death in various ways and is arguably a central theme to the game. However the silver lining is, as the player you don’t engage or cause violence but rather, you goal is to resolve it and find out what happened. Compared to other violent games which gives players direct agency to commit violent actions, Obra Dinn is quite tame in comparison. It’s probably along the lines of Shakespearian stories/History lessons where death is discussed as a theme which seems to be widely acceptable in high school curriculums. To be safe I would recommend either (i) create your own version of Obra Dinn as a analogue game and change the flavor/setting so it’s more acceptable for a wider audience but keeps the same core gameplay learning loop/replace some of the events to more happier ones or (ii) discuss with your course leader to be sure since there are some “weird” and slightly creepy chapters in the game. With some revision/changes, I think it’s an interesting template for teaching students. Apologies for not being able to provide additional advice as all my students are adults along with difference in policies for high school vs higher education.
No worries at all John! Thank you for the comparison to Shakespearian stories and history. I would have to watch or play through the game myself so I can update my course leader
Discussion #1: I was pretty into Fortnite for a while because it was a team-building activity with some co-workers (okay fine, I played it by myself too). Apart from the development of coordination skills, I found it was a great opportunity for language learning (I was learning Japanese at the time). I played on the Asia server with a Nintendo Switch, and naturally, my teammates were usually Japanese kids. It forced me to converse with my limited Japanese (e.g. where should we go, there’s a gun, [steps on lava] ah it’s hot, etc.) in an immersive way. I think online games are a great way to learn a language (and to experience another culture), and I see this in my students that play Roblox with North Americans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortnite
Hi Aaron. I also played Fortnite (but only twice)! I am proud to say I got second place by doing nothing buy hiding because I shoot like a potato. Having games that span across the world open up opportunities like language learning. Although Fortnite comes off as a more commercial game than educational, you seem to show its significance in helping you learn Japanese. As food for thought, I am plugging in Influent, an educational game that is focused on language learning: https://store.steampowered.com/app/274980/Influent/
Looking at the two and balancing between the fun and the learning would be an interesting exercise!
Interesting point about Language acquisition. For me, playing games was one of the earliest mediums which forced me to learn and be able to read a new language. I remember importing Final Fantasy 8 when it was initially released in Japan (North America got it sometime later) and played through the entire game holding a Japanese dictionary and Chinese strategy guidebook. Interesting to look back and reflect that digital games was a catalyst for learning the basics of another language
A commercial game I’ve played before is the classic Super Mario Brothers. What I learned through playing this game were varying skills: how to survive against many obstacles, where to find hidden coin boxes, how to progress through levels, how to access powers, which directions to go in, etc. I think all of these skills could be described as memory skills as you need to remember where things are (threats and beneficial elements), strategy and problem solving skills ie: how to stop a turtle shell and social elements such as how to cooperate with friends to solve problems and progress through levels by sharing tips and information with each other. I think a lot of commerical games have many educational benefits that we can all learn something from and can be linked to a large range of learning outcomes found in varying curriculums as well. https://www.miniplay.com/game/super-mario-bros
I think that is the bonus of video game play, as many of the skills garnered are transferable skills. Games can provide the platform for learning without the specific goal of teaching that skill, but it is an unintended outcome. Super Mario Bros was my first video game.
Funny enough I think Super Mario Bros indirectly trained me to have a higher EQ/level of patience. The entire skill/drill concept and constantly overcoming obstacles without loosing my temper (as a kid) was actually training me for dealing with bigger things as an adult haha
That’s a good point, I think the game really taught persistence, patience and overcoming obstacles alongside collaboration as many time I would ask my siblings or cousins for tips and tricks to progress in the game as well.
I think we can draw some strong correlations to EQ and other “life skills” and the game based world. Persevering in getting through a world or level, navigating group play on an online server, building empathy for other players or figures in the game play are all positive outcomes of game play. As is the added historically accurate references being made in newer games. I often wonder however, how far we should allow games to infiltrate learning environments and whether or not we as a collective should pull in the reigns to ensure that gaming is still an outlet, an escape away from the learning environment? As spaces for younger to enjoy unsupervised play with their friends continually vanish, is this a space we can preserve for them?
In regard to prompt #1: I have not played a digital game for leisure and for my own fun, for a very long time. I think the last time I played a game for fun, it was Othello and I played it to bond with my Mom because that was the only game on the Nintendo game cartridge that she liked.
Many of my students have a subscription to Reading Eggs which is a language arts/reading application that uses multi-sensory games to teach reading, writing and phonics. The children love it and they supplement their language arts curriculum with it. (https://readingeggs.ca/)
I did go into the Money Magic game. I thought this game was useful for young students to learn the merit of a budget. It presents a fun way to devise one’s budget. Furthermore, it is multi-sensory, steady-paced and I like that it requires you to read text. While I think that games have their place, personally, I am slow to implement them in my teaching because there are limits as to how much screen time kids (and adults) should have in playing games.
Hey Cindy! Great examples shared here. Curious if you would be quicker to implement more game based learning in your practice if it was not screen-based? Curious if you have used non screen based games in your teaching before?
Hi Robyn,
Thank you for your reply!
For sure! I have used non-screen-based games especially to support students with some special learning needs. These are games that help practice executive functioning, puzzles, games that involve movement (to help count and read) and overall, games where learning math is fun.
One wonderful “game” for primary students who need an extra boost in literacy (grade 2-3) is to create a moveable alphabet, create a word and have them drive their favourite toy car/stuffy over the letters of the word as they use phonics to sound them out. This also works for full, vocabulary words where you do not display the word but it is an object. You line the object up against the wall, say the word, and the student drives the toy car/truck to the correct object. Uno is an accessible and fun game for grade school kids to play need to further integrate how they see and process numbers/logic.
Prompt #1: I’ll admit that I am a ‘non-gamer.’ I never had or played video games growing up, and whenever I played at a friends house I always felt frustrated because I wasn’t very good. However, I am a proponent of educational games. Depending on the design certain games encourage collaboration, which affords social benefits in additional to the curricular desires. Other games promote goal setting and decision making, some can even adapt to the player as they progress along or through the game, which better individualizes and supports their diverse learning journey. Many games can increase retention through their often interactive and immersive mechanics. Sometimes, (maybe more so depending on the age of students), games can even “trick” students into learning – they are having so much fun they don’t realize they are learning. What I think is the most interesting about games is that they can shift the focus from marks and performance onto mastery and competence, these games support failure, since it is part of the game. For the business education courses that I teach I find there to be a lot of “good” educational games, and in my experience the students love them! Here are a few links to ones my students have enjoyed (and have been rather addicting for myself).
https://www.smartsims.com/business-simulation/mikes-bikes-intro/
https://bizcraftapp.jacampus.org/
That is the frustration with video game play, If you are not able to feel efficacy when playing, it’s easy to give up and move on. Many studies specifically with Math curriculum talk about this productive struggle. Problems that are just hard enough to challenge, but not too hard that you give up. In the pursuit of the task you will gain confidence and build on the desire to continue.
I too am a non-gamer, but things have changed recently! My story was similar to yours, mstr, in that I was quickly frustrated when I lost or when other players were clearly better than me. The recent change is that I am taking the Digital Games and Learning course this semester as well, and part of one of my assignments was to write a game journal, so I “had” to play video games for research. What I discovered was a huge change in the style of games I grew up with, where I was given a limited number of lives and failure meant starting over completely. The games that I am playing now are so much more explorative and forgiving! Now I can try levels without fear of failure and am finding the stories so immersive that I’m just as hooked as with any great Netflix special… actually, based on time-spent, probably more so! Long story short, I am becoming a bit of a convert to the benefits of gaming. I think the productive struggle you talk about Marie is much more prevalent in newer games.
Hi Hayley, thanks for sharing! I’m sure I could be ‘converted’ as well! I hope to take the digital games course next semester, so I’ll be interested to see how my perspectives continue to change. The productive struggle is real – the struggle is true of games, but can also be applied to almost anything. If it’s too hard we will give up, of it’s too easy we will get bored.
Prompt 1: Very very cool OER. I loved it so much that I went through all the chapters in the same sitting! As a VERY heavy gamer, I was able to make a lot of different connections with the various games that you listed. The most impactful one for me is Starcraft and Starcraft 2. I have spent MANY MANY hours on the game perfecting my ability to play as the game is incredibly competitive and a single mistake might cost you the game. The game requires you to to collect resources, build up a base, and then create units + upgrade them with the goal of destroying your opponent’s base. The crux of the game is that it happens in real time and the amount of actions that you do can determine your effectiveness in the game. Especially after the first few minutes, the players will have to do these tasks simultaneously while still trying to keep track of your opponent. Each action in the game has a hotkey, with some requires multiple keys pressed at the same time in order to work. A good way to put it would be to play a chess game while driving a car through a busy park. You have to make strategic moves while keeping in mind a large amount of information such as how to avoid people and where you are while still having the physical coordination to make it all happen. There were so many things I learned about strategy, about fine mouse control, hotkeys, multitasking, etc that I still use to increase my productivity in my day to day life. Other than that though, there were very little curricular knowledge that I gained from the game. Yay starcraft? https://youtu.be/bexWuHmV32A?t=214
Hi Wynn. I remember you telling me about your pro Starcraft experience! I agree that the game is a true tester (especially Starcraft 1) when it comes to real-time strategy and thinking. I wonder if the game could ever be used in the future as a way of showing international relations, like between the Zerg, Protoss and Terrans!
#2: Firstly, I’d say games are designed to be fun. There’s probably something to be learned from any game, but when I’m immersed in a good one for hours on end, I’d more likely feel like I’m “wasting time” than “learning” something. In that sense, it’s so effortless and it’s easy to do it consistently. Secondly, I’d say team-building is a big benefit of game-based learning. A game I used to play with co-workers was skribbl.io (basically online pictionary). Games can unite people from all sorts of demographics. In online games, people don’t really care who you are (most of the time); they just want to win. But in a way, that could be a limitation of competitive games – players may be too focused on winning and losing, and this may affect the educational experience (depending on the context).
I completely agree Aaron with the “unite people from all demographics.” I can think of so many popular games that increase community amongst its players. Pokemon GO had people everywhere joining up and meeting and exploring new places. Now, the WORDLE phenomenon has everyone working on their 5 letter skills, they share their experiences on social media, successes and their struggles. Both of these games you can dedicate a short period of time and still feel connected.
Discussion 2: What do you think is valuable about game based learning and where do you think there are limitations? I think the problem solving and increasing persistence are great benefits to game based learning as they are valuable skills to learn for other areas of life. Did anything surprise you? The quiz surprised me with the hand and eye coordination not being a benefit to game based learning. I always thought of it as similar to playing sports in that these skills were developed with practice such as through playing video games (using joysticks/controllers while watching the screen). I was also surprised that the quiz said that video games can improve your health. Upon reading your explanation further I can understand there are a lot more active forms of video games such as Just Dance for example and I suppose more video games are going in the direction of movement such as through VR viewers and that would help explain this as well.
Hi Alexis, I was very surprised as well by those answers on the quiz. When doing research, I had highlighted two studies, but there were many more. It seemed to prove that as hand eye coordination could be improved for game play and more success in games, it did not translate over to other areas in a gamer’s life. As for improving health, the 80s and 90s brought a wave interest in physical fitness, but it also was the dawn of at home video games. Many of them did not rely on any body movements other than it your hands. With this came the stigma of the couch potato gamer. It has been in the last decade that game developers have sought to open their audience to people who wanted a more physical component of the game. From the beginnings of Nintendo Wii and Xbox Kinect to now PlayStation VR, Oculus Quest, and Oculus Rift, they allow you to play and move. I actually remember having this game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErzuU78v60M Perhaps the first movement game on the market.
Discussion Part 2: Based on your learning in the quiz, post in the discussion post below. What do you think is valuable about game-based learning and where do you think there are limitations? Did anything surprise you? It seems that people trust the design and learning in games more than they trust the design and learning of a ‘traditional’ lesson or class. So much so that teachers will give a test after teaching a subject whereas you wouldn’t give after test after playing a video game because the game already tests its’ players inherently. Having immediate feedback, and higher levels of engagement should be rationale enough for using game-based assessment. What surprised me is that people playing games feel empowered and connected. The design of games impresses me with how it affords players to be active participants rather than passive observers. However, one concerning limitation is accessibility in game-based learning, where one student may excel as a result of gamification in learning, another student may find more traditional lessons more effective for their learning needs. Of course, finding, affording, or designing a game that meets the course outcomes are other challenges!
I think like all lessons there is not one size fits all. Although there is a huge popularity to gaming not everyone feels as connected to that medium. As Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences states not everyone excels at one type learning, and as educators we have to incorporate the right balance of activities. I think that is why digital games can have success as there is such a wide range of types to incorporate for players to feel success.
Quite right about the constant and immediate feedback that games provide. As we think about implementing games into educational spaces, part of the conversation needs to include the assessment piece. Our educational institutions, by extension of our society, is based upon marks there needs to be a way for educators to pull an assessment grade from the use of the games in the learning environment. While some advocate for a marks-less classroom, until there are viable options presented at all levels of education, we need to ensure that games consider this vital piece if we want to include them in the classroom. Programs like Desmos have certainly thought about this, however that is a program designed specifically for education, and we have already discussed the differentiation between authentic gaming experience and gaming for learning.
Discussion Part 2: What do you think is valuable about game based learning and where do you think there are limitations? Did anything surprise you? I am always inspired watching videos and reading about game based learning. The example in the Tedx talk with the calculus game was especially interesting to me as I find a lot of the time examples of games used in school are for subjects where it is easier to teach by a narrative (like teaching history via civilization).
That being said, I think one of the big limitations on game based learning is the actual time, money and resources needed to develop games for all the information that students must learn. I think it’s hard for teachers to find games specific to the lesson being taught which provide the direct learning results needed for the entire subject, and I doubt there are many teachers who have time/knowledge to create educational games that rival commercial ones. So although games might be used as an add-on to a lesson, they can rarely be used as the main focus of learning, like in the Tedx talk. Perhaps if those in charge of educational budgets come online with the research, more resources will be put into educational games, and there will be more really good games on the market… and school really might feel more like a game!
I definitely agree, there is never enough time or money to experiment and develop resources. For me, when researching, it seemed to be a great add on, but I hadn’t found one that would be the main component of the learning plan. In practice, there is rarely one type of medium that would successfully be used as the main component. I think adding diversity by including a widely popular past time would definitely peak interest in a topic to pull in those reluctant participants, as long as you can find a game that fits 😉
Discussion Prompt 1: I have played a number of games in my lifetime, though perhaps not as much as some who have posted here. Super Mario Kart was a fan favourite among my fiends when I was growing up. A pretty simple concept, racing around a race track with various animations and battle concepts. It was a great social game, allowing four players to play on the same screen, choosing to race around a track or choose a closed map and try and play a game of battle tag. In short, I learned a great deal of social skills. As friends became enemies, slight overreaction, we worked through all kinds of emotions and interaction types. What I didn’t think I was learning was better driving skills, but evidently, there is some correlation between playing mario kart (or games like it) and improved driving skills.
https://go.exlibris.link/qTQnrT5m
I think games that can incorporate social skills like communication, cooperation and even the an appropriate way to win or loose is an asset and gives valuable tools to use in life. I always say that about K-12 education, the most valuable skills you take from it are not the in curriculum like reading, writing and math but those lessons that teach a person how to act, live and connect with other members of society. Students are given an opportunity to thrive or sometimes not in an environment that hopefully cushions the life lessons they get until they are more mature to handle them as an adult. Gaming can be a positive aspect in their development.
The life lessons, or transferable skills that gamers learn are important and often not fully understood as they are harder to study empirically, and as such gaming has received unfair negative publicity. While I fully support the idea of learning through gaming, are games at such a state that there is enough empirical evidence for them to be implemented whole scale into the classroom? Are games being designed to be authentic to the gamer, with enough embedded curriculum based learning that school boards could adopt them?
Discussion Prompt 2: I tend to agree with many of the comments already here, that the biggest limitation is resources. Designing and developing games, specific to education, at such a high volume so as to reach students all over the world, or at least enough students to have an impact presents a large problem. Even if funding were received, having the cross-industry collaboration necessary to create high quality games that have educational value enough to both attract students to play and to encourage educators to make use of them in their settings seems like a large task. Further; having the infrastructure within public education facilities becomes yet another hurdle that needs to be crossed in order to make use of these amazing games. Lastly; a repository that allows educators to find the game to be used, for the topic covered that day, for the specific group is also another step that needs to be considered. The repository could then consider privacy and student safety (when considering k-12 students) which is another potential barrier.
Resources are always a stumbling block in education. I have found lots of opportunities for students to use technology, but usually the devices or wifi leave the options limited. What would you think of using the option of students using their own devices? Usually they are more updated than a schools, but they are on the same wifi. I am not sure asking students to use their own devices in a classroom isn’t like opening a can of worms. They already have a reliance (some would say addiction) to their devices, and perhaps encouraging to use them more would have them off task more often than not.
Marie
For me students using their own devices is fine, however it does bring up an argument about the inequity that this would create. Not all families can afford technology for their children, most especially if they have more than 1, and so even if we had enough technology for those students to use while others used their own, the machines may be outdated, or lacking the power to run some of the newer programs. I wish that technology firms would be allowed to invest in public institutions, by donating hardware and repair hours so that students have access to new technology, are the first to experience the evolutionary changes (XR for example) and pedagogy more rapidly reflects this changing of technology. Subsidies are one thing, but I think if we truly want to have strong technological impact in the public education sphere equitably, we need to start re-thinking how private entities can interact with public ones.
I completely agree about allowing for tech firms to invest in schools. Clearly public funding doesn’t get it done. I remember when the pandemic first started and the news would show classrooms that were modern and spacious. I just thought wow what district is that as its not mine? I know it could be a slippery slope to allow specific tech sectors to have access to an impressionable market, but I do wonder if the benefits would outweigh the cons.
DISCUSSION PART 2: When I think of “playing games” I think of myself diving into a lengthy and illustrious storyline of a solo-player RPG game. I love the immersion that you get from a game, the same sort of immersion you get from a great novel, but one that you are a PART of. I do find a great deal of value in this escapism, and the opportunity to experience things that you may otherwise not experience. Despite that, I do feel that the enabling of social interaction and the learning of social skills is the MOST valuable opportunity with game based learning. People have always played games as a great way to “break the ice”, learn about one another, and learn how to interact. This skill has always been necessary and will continue to be, and I think it is the greatest strength of game based learning. A limitation, by comparison, would be the fact that the “social” aspect of gaming is not usually controlled, especially not in commercial gaming environments, and it is possible to reinforce negative social activity (thinking of certain games with “toxic” fanbases…) Not a lot of surprises in the quiz itself, but I was surprised to see so much legitimate research backing up these findings!
Your idea of escapism resonated with me. Like a good book, sometimes I enjoy participating in something that leaves no obligations or requirements of an outcome. Does all of our past times have to have a purpose; I don’t think so because the enjoyment we get from them should be enough. The problem is when this “toxicity” becomes a component within the game that can actually be dangerous. In the education world it would be a hard line to walk trying to maintain the social connectivity of a game while also monitoring the way people interact in that game.
Marie, totally agree, sometimes its just carefree entertainment I am looking for! As for toxicity, it’s enough to know that large vtubers who play games for entertainment of others have their own separate moderator staff (!) when they stream, just to ensure the quality of their stream is maintained. In the uncontrolled environments of ‘open’ commercial gaming, managing the social environment is probably not something a teacher can (or should) reasonably manage. Private servers, like with Minecraft, can be a good option to avoid this, though.
I tried out all the games. I wouldn’t say that ‘Tree’ is a game so to speak, but more so an experience. There are some point-and-click elements to it, but it is more similar to a movie; a boy plants a tree and as the years progress you follow him through his life. The latter two games are meant to be emotional and to elicit strong feelings of melancholy. These immersive and interactive technologies are interesting, but not what I would traditionally think of in GBL. These games would only be ‘played’ once, whereas many other types of games would be played for hours, or until mastered. These types of games would have a limited application in education, but maybe useful in other settings.
Hey, thanks for trying all the games. While I agree some of the games might not elicit traditional skills learning, I still think there is opportunity for students to reflect as they plays these games and to further develop their soft skills as they experience different emotions throughout the game.
I am inclined to agree. Another such experience is the Anne Frank house on the Oculus Quest; while it could be used to teach about her story and the history of the holocaust, I find it far more intriguing as an end-unit activity to stimulate empathy in our students.
I agree that games can be used to experience different emotional situations (perhaps GBL could be used to teach empathy or EQ control?) and not games need to have traditional elements such as action or movement for it to qualify as a game. Tree looks simple on the surface but a good experience which is harder to replicate with a textbook or lecture (students won’t be able to form a connection with the boy). It actually reminded me of a similar game called Flower (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk1-F5il_c8)
BLOG* Discussion Part 2: Based on your learning in the quiz, post in the discussion post below. What do you think is valuable about game based learning and where do you think there are limitations? Did anything surprise you?
Hey team thanks for a great OER and one I find myself constantly thinking about since I took digital games and learning! I think the value of game based learning is also its inherent limitation: learning can occur in virtually any existing learning environment! This can definitely excite students when a particular game emulates or is part of an existing game which they are familiar with such as Minecraft education edition or prodigy math in place of the Pokémon games, however, this also leads to a form of “game-based selection” where a few games dominate their respective niche and students have likely grown tired of using the same vehicle for learning. While the distinction between gamification and game based learning did not necessarily surprise me, I think what I’ve learned over time is that games can also be a canvas for students to create expressions of their learning, such as when students use x and y coordinate systems in scratch to explore how functions can be used to create rules or boundaries in a game world. Thanks for taking me through some fun new games and for promoting a thoughtful discussion on the future of gaming in education!
Hey Brendan – Thanks for the feedback, glad that you enjoyed playing the games. I love this analogy that you shared of ‘games being a canvas for students to create expressions of their learning’ I totally agree that games can provide a different way for students to express what they have learned and explore new concepts. I also think that games can cater to different students who may struggle with traditional methods of learning.
Prompt 2: I have a rough idea of the benefits of the games, thus nothing was a big surprise for me, however, the difficulty that I had with using games within my classroom is linking the said game to the learning outcomes of the lesson as well as allocating the necessary time to create powerful learning moments. For example, with games such as civilization and starcraft, as wonderful as they might be to give students a meaningful way of looking at conflict and give historical facts, they are unfortunately not feasible within a classroom. For instance, when I played Civilization 6, it took around 6 hours per full game, and that’s after everyone playing has become familiar with the mechanics of the game and can do their turns reasonably quickly. I would hesitate to use any “big” games within the classroom due to the learning necessary to play the game and the amount of time it will require them to fully realize the game and translate it into knowledge. This leads me to the second limitation that I have with games, which is that the learning is hidden behind many layers. I understand for many gamers, the immediate learning outcomes of games do not come instinctively. For myself, it took many many years of playing before I was comfortable enough with the mechanics to focus on the learning. Topics such as aiming, moving, and figuring out game mechanics are not obvious to students, and could take away from the learning as they try to acclimate towards the games themselves. However, when you bypass these limitations, there are so many wonderful things you can do with games and the new generation growing up with games might give more opportunities to game-based-learning.
Interesting insights, Wynn. I could see how it would not be practical to spend hours acclimatizing students to the mechanics of a game before you could actually start playing. I have read articles championing gaming and game design as part of a “new media literacy” which could be considered important enough to teach children from a young age. If kids were regularly operating games in school from a younger age, maybe the learning curve would be less steep with more complicated games in later years? Perhaps this is already somewhat happening? Although I suppose there will always be a gap between those who are gamers at home and those who only play digital games in school. (for reference, I am talking about articles like this one: Burke, Q. & Kafai, Y. (2014). Decade of game making for learning: From tools to communities. M. Angelides & H. Agius (Eds.) Handbook of Digital Games (pp. 689-709). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
Hey Hayley and Wynn some great insights from both of you! Curious Wynn, if you didn’t have to follow strict learning outcomes do you think that you would consider the time spent learning to play the game as learning for students? Curious if the challenge was more around tying your specific learning outcomes to these games? Hayley, thanks for sharing this, I think this is quite an interesting to see the push for ‘new media literacy’ for children in education. As our world shifts more and more to a digital format in many aspects of life, I think this will be an important part of education.
Hi Robyn, I think I would still spend the time playing games to promote curricular competencies as critical thinking and communicating is so important in all aspects in life. My partner is a non-gamer, and whenever we play, I notice that I’m more focused on the story and the message that the game developers are trying to convey while she is just trying to foster the necessary skill to beat the game and move on to the next level. While our learning outcomes and our engagement with the story is different, we will were able to acquire new skills through the experience.
Hi Hayley, I completely support the idea of a “new media literacy”, but my opinion is that we think about the idea in a backwards way. Typically, my experiences with people and video games is that we’re starting to use games more in education. However, as a long long time player, I found that games were always educational, but the prevalence of games in our culture requires us to have literacy to get more out of it, similar to reading and books. I’m sure that some would agree that games is almost akin to an entertainment revolution where I would consider games to be a stronger platform for telling stories and conveying information, thus it would be important to learn this literacy. The only issue is that it is very time consuming and we typically don’t get great until much later in life.
What do you think is valuable about game based learning and where do you think there are limitations? Did anything surprise you? Interaction is probably one of GBL’s greatest asset as there doesn’t seem to be any other mediums which offer the same level of control as games. Most of the time, learning is passive as we intake knowledge and internally process it. For some learners this approach works but for students who prefer hands on or kinaesthetic methods, using GBL offers a creative solution which enhances the learning experience. In more simple terms, it’s essentially bringing the textbook/theory to life and allows us to view it using more than just one sensory function. On a positive note, there are many genres available now and many games actually serve as “passive” experiences to which anyone can pick up and play. You don’t need to be a skilled or experienced gamer to participate. Limitations are definitely an obstacle as entry barrier for games is one of its biggest challenges. Most games require a basic level of hand eye coordination and for some individuals, this might be hard to overcome. Content wise, there’s always a debate as to whether the GBL content resembles a game more than learning experience. If this the case, where do we draw the line between the definition of “what’s a game” and “what is educational”. In addition, GBL needs to be inclusive and ensure that everyone in the classroom can participate without issues of skill level gaps. That being said, I personally do find value in using GBL as a supplementary teaching material, especially for introducing new topics as the level of interactivity and participation actually allows students to learn better at the start and helps them establish a good connection between the course materials and their experiences with the game activity. Knowledge retention is also easier for students as they seem to remember important theories better if it’s learnt from a game session. However, I’m still somewhat hesitate to use mainstream AAA games (eg: large productions) in my classes as I feel those are catered towards blockbuster entertainment than educational values. Perhaps if more games offered a “discovery” tour mode (eg: the more recent Assassin’s Creed games allowed players to virtually explore Ancient Egypt, Greece and The age of Vikings) and experience life as an ordinary citizen back then. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMDdQKfv70) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A8vES0EwOY) then I would be inclined to use more off the shelf GBL solutions.
Hey John- Thanks for some great discussion points here. I totally agree that games are a great option for students who prefer hands on or kinesthetic methods in their learning. I think that it can provide more accessibility for students to have a kinesthetic learning experiences. I also think your point around drawing the line between “what’s a game” and “what is educational” is an interesting discussion point. I am not a teacher, and I’ve noticed a lot of teachers have had a similar discussion point around fitting learning objectives and outcomes with games. I think that for most games a case could be made that some sort of learning had occurred but I also wonder where that line is between a game vs learning.