Concluding Week 5
A big thank you to all for an engaging, collaborative week of Game Based Learning analysis. The discussions were enlightening (and fun!) and we saw various ways of engaging with, and analyzing the effectiveness of, games for learning. There were several very formal analyses done, and others that were more of a quick overview of the experience, but a unifying theme seemed to be emotional engagement with the games. There were lots of “I felt…” statements, indicating that this seems to be a critical factor in how we interact with a game or simulation. Hopefully we have come away from the week with some ideas on what makes for a good educational game, what to avoid, and how we may be able to use them (or create them) in the future. We were pleased to see the practical applications emerging in the discussions, and happy to see a few opinions start to sway away from the ‘games don’t belong in school’ side of the fence.
Polling results:
Based on the results from the PulsePress voting tool, the game most voted for was Spent. That being said, it appears that the main point of impact of the game was the emotional engagement. As one person pointed out, it was obvious from the start that we were being set up to fail. More than one person pointed out how it could be used in context of a larger, social justice framework.
A point that emerged out of this discussion, however, was the idea that we couldn’t see a school board buying a game such as this. And furthermore, that it seems unlikely that they would invest in any games of this nature, since so much good material is freely available online. So how do we make money here? What is the key to a financially successful gaming venture?
Great points, great engagement, great discussions.
To complete your experience, please take a few moments this coming week to check out the finalized wiki that you have created, as well as the wordle cloud below to see where we think the future of gaming is headed. Maybe through this analysis, we will be able to see where the opportunities (and the money) are…
Thanks again!
Team 5
Tamara, Michelle, Julie, Emily and Andrew
bcourey 5:32 am on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great job Tamara, Michelle, Julie, Emily and Andrew! You gave me an opportunity to try our a lot of games that I had not heard of and opened my eyes to the possibilities that go beyond simple practice of skills that I expected to see – the idea of embedding so many social justice issues into a game format was new to me – as a non-gamer, I see I have been missing an opportunity to bring what I want the students to know, into a format that they love. Thanks for that! As for market venture potential – I can see that there is room to make games that deal with complex concepts – and seeing how some of the games fell a bit short on this, there is room to make them even better.
jenaca 6:22 am on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great Job Week 5- Tamara, Michelle, Julie, Emily and Andrew! You gave me a new insight to games and education that I had not focused on before. I really enjoyed the way you set up the week and how you had us actually try games out to see what we thought about them. It was a great way to learn more about different games and their purposes!
I also appreciated sharing our personal experiences about gaming and learning about the ways others interacted with them….I wonder if we were to ask younger students the same question whether their answers would be more focused on “yes, we are familiar”…but more specifically what game they are familiar with!
Great Presentation.
Jenaca
Karen Jones 10:55 am on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for the opportunity to explore this area of learning that I tend to forget or ignore in my curriculum planning, Team 5. It got me looking back at previous course work and considering it in a new light. As well, I now have a number of interesting games bookmarked, and will look at incorporating them into my classes.
I really liked how you set up your platform, wiki, and the discussion. You’ve set the standard for the rest of us to aspire to.
Great work,
KJ
Deb Giesbrecht 6:07 pm on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Excellent week guys! Thanks for enlightening us!
Deb Kim 6:50 pm on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you for doing such a great job! It was truly an interesting topic to discuss.
You all did an excellent work:)
Deb
Jay 9:32 am on October 11, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for engaging us all this week! Well done