There is no doubt that video games are engaging. Some educators are incorporating gamified elements into their classrooms and using game-based learning as a way to engage their students. Gamification is using game mechanics such as rewards, badges, levels, upgrades, currency, avatars, leaderboards, and more to motivate and engage the learners. Game-Based Learning is done through game or game like activities that incorporate gaming principles and usually involve the playing of a game. These games could be made with education in mind or can be made by students to demonstrate their understanding in a topic.
Opportunity Statement:
The video game industry has seen continued growth in recent years (Read, 2022). The global educational game and gamification application market is growing at a steady rate as well (“KBV Research”, 2022). With the growing trends in technology, not only are more educational games created, but the improvement in accessibility to video game making has allowed for a whole new way for learners to showcase their understanding.
Resources:
OER made by Jerry Chen and Michelle To
Educational Game Market Report
5 Strategies for Using Game-based Learning to Drive Learner Engagement and Motivation
List of video games with education potential
As a massive fan of simulation games in the Social Studies classrooms, I think GBL can bring some less engaging and stale units to life, using immersive and engaging tools like games that are aligned with the content and curriculum in schools. Having said that, I prefer to use these games as supplemental activities to the main SS units, helping students explore content more deeply while staying engaged.
While the majority of games focus on producing “winners” and “losers”, GBL Stories, Not Brief Narratives encourages learners to take tiny experiments every time and slowly shift their focus to the right direction.
Similar to Vlad’s point, i believe GBL should be used as a complementary activity from the main curriculum. However, with learners’ attention span shortening overtime, I see GBL as a powerful tool to stimulate motivation and active learning.
Just watch how fast a student learns how to navigate Minecraft Education. Watch how fast they will figure out how to download mods to change the game to suit their needs or intentions (appropriate or otherwise).
I see gamification as a powerful means to engage learners. It has the potential to meaningfully extend and individualize knowledge building within project-based learning assessments. In my thinking, a unit of study could be taught to all (the class or cohort) in a standard format to make life manageable for the teacher (but with as much access built into the design as possible), and with the assessment gamified to allow for the individual’s demonstration of targeted outcomes as they relate to personal interests and ways of being and doing.
Game-based learning is an avenue I would like to explore further and discover the possibilities of implementing this into my classroom. I believe game-based learning provides both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for students to practice and review topics that may otherwise be boring or difficult for them to conceptualize. It can also allow students to engage with their learning rather than learning passively.