Hosted by Danya, Rika and John
Welcome to our open educational resource (OER) on Mobile Games in Phonics Education! Our team is super excited to kickstart the Moveable Feast and we hope that you’ll learn something new about Mobile Games and Language Acquisition from our OER.
Please click HERE to access our OER and begin your journey into the world of Educational Mobile Games.
Our project aims to be both educational and reflective at the same time as it explores various important topics related to Mobile Games in Education.
As games are meant to be interactive, we have included several activities for you to participate in. We also have included several optional videos and hyperlinks to explore.
Ice Breaker Activities
Over the course of the week, we encourage you to engage and participate in in the following activities:
1: Survey
2: Boom Cards Game Demo
3: Learning with Phonics Game Demo
4: Your choice of any 3-5 discussion prompt questions (listed below and in the OER Summary page)
Discussion Prompt Questions
- Have you played any Mobile Games before? What did you like or dislike about them? Share your experiences
- What would you add to the Boom Card game to create a better experience?
- My experience learning phonics/how to read as a student was…
- Imagine you were to learn a completely new language through Mobile Games. Would you be motivated to learn, find it innovative or outright useless?
- How do you think having access to mobile games when you were learning phonics/how to read would have made a difference?
- How are you teaching your children/students how to read?
- Is there a particular subject which you believe Mobile Games can enhance the learning experience?
- Mobile Games could replace the physical classroom if…
- Mobile Games in learning are useless because…
- Does a game necessarily need to be ‘educational’ in order to teach?
- What limitations or disadvantages can you see in Mobile Game Learning?
- Mobile Games support diverse learners because…
- As a teacher/course designer would you consider including more or less mobile games into your curriculum?
- Do you think Mobile Games can be used in Adult Education/Corporate Training/Continuing Education?
- What game genre do you think works best for teaching? Propose a new game design idea which could be used to educate.
- What challenges or roadblocks do you foresee if Mobile Games become commonly implemented into classrooms?
- Do you think modern Mobile Games are (i) inclusive (ii) accessible and (iii) easy to learn?
- Are you concerned about Mobile Game addiction?
- Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of Mobile Games in Education?
Enjoy and Game Start!
Thanks for all the work Mobile Games Team! I have played mobile games before. I remember my undergraduate life involved doing dailies for my gacha games and checking Pokestops from Pokemon Go. I think the one thing I both liked and disliked about mobile games is how much sustained attention it required from me. Many games have incentives for logging in or doing certain objectives for a day; after all, the more screen time committed, the more developers can gain from this attention. Although this was great entertainment-wise, I knew I was sinking my time too much. When teaching, I don’t think games necessarily need to be educational in order to teach. Some games come with important competencies and themes that work well with topics. For example, games like Life is Strange: True Colors (LGBTQIA2S+) and Papers Please (Morality) are games that aren’t advertised as educational but have metaphors and teachable moments. My experience learning phonics as a student involved a lot of rote repetition. One method they tried was having me watch their lips as they pronounced sounds and words. I’m not sure if that was helpful but perhaps that is a useful feature apps could use?
Hi Jackson, I wonder if the “secret addictive sauce” of dailies could be implemented into classrooms as a way to encourage students to follow up with their progress/work on a daily basis (without the teacher reminding them). I agree that mobile games require too much attention these days (eg: all those limited events or FOMO rewards) though on a positive note, the format works because most mobile games are quite Micro in nature (could fit into microexpression/learning culture). While it demands a few minutes of our daily time, at the very least it (somewhat) respects the user’s time and doesn’t require players to play for hours. I’ve played both of the games you mentioned (though not on mobile), they’re great examples of accessible and easy to learn games which are engaging for students.
As for leaning via lips/mouth movement, personally I think it’s a useful way to learn how to pronounce certain phonetical sounds but ultimately, learning a language is more about audio feedback, perhaps someone can design a game where players need to guess the word based on the mouth shape?
Hi Jackson!
Building on your experience with phonics, it reminds me a lot of YouTubers who cater to children. Particularly popular lately is Ms. Rachel who uses motherese (a higher pitch, animated voice), a zoom in on her lips, images and sign language to teach her viewers to say certain words. There is a high value in seeing if the lips and when I am in class, even if I am masked up, I have to remove my mask to show them my lips for pronounciations of certain words. So a limitation of Boom Cards then, is the lack of ability to include a video to show the movements of lips.
Thank you for your feedback.
Hello! Congratulations on a successful project. It was visual, interactive, and engaging. I will post my thoughts on the following discussion prompt: “Is there a particular subject which you believe Mobile Games can enhance the learning experience?” I taught math this last year (for the first time) and I struggled with how I could make it more than just worksheets and practice questions. I teach grade 8 students who love gaming. I tried to find a couple of interactive games to introduce to my students, primarily IXL. However, I think if more games existed on relevant material, this could really help those struggling to engage. Math is all about understanding and practice and not all students appreciate worksheets, even if they do have a challenge involved in them. I know my students would benefit from math gaming as it would increase their engagement and overall participation.
Hi Megan, thanks for encouraging comments! Whenever I think of Maths and games, I go back to my primary school days where the classroom had an old Apple computer in the back with Number Munchers and Math Blaster installed. Funny enough I wasn’t a big fan of “traditional” math classes yet when given the opportunity to play those math related games, my attention and interest in maths immediately peaked. I was doing all these internal calculations in my mind as I was determined to pass the stage no matter what haha. As you say, Maths is all about practice which translates into the skill and drill concept in education. Completing routine tasks can be boring, perhaps if daily math equations/practice questions were presented within the framework of GBL, it could make it more interesting for students to participate. Rika posted a great example called “Prodigy Math” last week, it looks like a really fun template to learn math for K-12 students!
Hi Megan:
Relevance is huge! I think that was one of my struggles as a Grade 1/2 teacher . I wanted games that were authentic to all the current units or particular sub-units that I was teaching that day to allow students to practice or reinforce their learning. This is how I came across boom cards that allowed me to personalize games to the particular lesson I was teaching. Time consuming, but it allowed me to turn some of my slide shows into game activities.
Apart from prodigy, there’s also splash learn where you can pick and choose games that are relevant to your curriculum needs!
Your work is absolutely amazing! Thanks for starting the movable feast strong and steady. Your work has given us a great example and offered me great insights into GBL. I participated the survey, and played the boom card game & the phonics game. It must have been a lot of work putting this all together. Great team work!
#Mobile Games support diverse learners because…
Mobile games can be applied in different settings with different learner groups. For instance, games can help ADHD kids strengthen their abilities to focus. Moreover, games are usually more visually appealing and audio engaging, hence it could really enhance the learning experience for learners who have Developmental Dyslexia. Not saying games are only applicable to learners with special needs but it does help to enhance the learning experience.
Hi Vera, thanks for the feedback and participating in all our activities! It’s great how you mentioned diversity as it seems to be an important topic which many classmates are concerned about. Accessibility and equity in education is a big issue which most educators are trying to improve and maybe through the use of games as an alternative teaching method, it can cater to those who find it difficult to follow/focus traditional classroom teaching methods. Perhaps if applied correctly, it can change the way people stereotypically view games as a “waste of time” and instead, see them as powerful tools which enables learners while promoting a greater degree of inclusivity in the classroom.
Hi Dayna, Rika, and John,
I, like everyone else, was very impressed with your OER on mobile games! I really appreciated your explanation of the difference between gamification and game-based learning (GBL). I won’t tell you how old I am, but that I enjoyed playing the phonics game activity.
Imagine you were to learn a completely new language through Mobile Games. Would you be motivated to learn, find it innovative or outright useless? I had started using Duolingo to learn Spanish. It was fun at first, but I found that with no regular opportunities to use the language, that I became demotivated. I will probably pick it up again before our trip to Spain. What I appreciated about Duolingo were the opportunities to read, write, and pronounce words and phrases. Also, the act of listening to the language and writing down the conversation was extremely helpful.
Does a game necessarily need to be ‘educational’ to teach? I don’t think games need to be labeled educational to teach. An educational game disguised as a regular, fun activity is even better. An example would be a game where the player practiced sequencing to progress. I currently have one game on my phone which I enjoy. It includes, quests, competitions, and a leader board.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future of Mobile Games in Education? I am very optimistic about the future of mobile games in education. I believe that we need to design games with UDL and diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind. As Sebastian has already mentioned, accessibility is important.
Hi Tamaka, glad to hear you enjoyed the activities. I can relate to your Duolingo experience, having the opportunity to practice/use a new language which you’ve learnt is important and a key component to maintaining fluency. The sad aspect is there isn’t always someone to practice with, perhaps in this situation mobile games (powered by AI or Chatbots) could be a good alternative to help users practice their language skills in the absence of human interaction. Feedback is intrinsically linked to motivation so hopefully games can solve that issue through visual and audio indicators. Bridging back to what Aaron mentioned earlier, I agree that games don’t necessarily need to be “educational” in order to teach. I guess one way looking at it is not to view the mobile game as a teaching device but rather, a tool which enhances/improves the learning experience (metaphorically it’s something along the lines of ingredients vs seasoning)
Hi Tamaka:
I’ve lost which application it was, but last year I came across an application that measured the percentage of accuracy in your articulation in a particular language. I did not introduce this to students due to inequity. What types of inequity to this type of application can you think of?
I selected these three prompts as I felt they kind of linked together for me. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 1. Have you played any Mobile Games before? What did you like or dislike about them? Share your experiences: I have played quite a few mobile games in the past. I generally like to try out new games to see what they’re like, but I don’t tend to keep them for very long. I think this is for two reasons. Either it’s a game that I don’t find very stimulating, so I lose interest and remove it from my phone, or I really like it, but then feel guilty about spending so much time on it so I end up deleting it anyways (e.g. candy crush, the original snake, and trivia quest, etc.). ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 4. Imagine you were to learn a completely new language through Mobile Games. Would you be motivated to learn, find it innovative or outright useless? I actually currently am learning a completely new language through Mobile Games. I am using Duolingo to learn Spanish and I absolutely love it. I find the streak encouraging and the friend/weekly challenges fun. I like that I can listen to stories and podcasts and have virtual conversations to practice my spelling and vocabulary. When it comes to my pronunciation, I like that there’s so much Duolingo speaks out loud because I feel like I can try and mimic their pronunciation. When I paid for my subscription last year, there was a feature where they would analyze your pronunciation and tell you what words you could work on. Although I am not having real-time conversations with Spanish-speakers, I felt it gave me the confidence to try and communicate in Spanish when I was in Spain a few weeks ago. I realized that I was able to understand what people were saying as I could identify the sounds and words. I also was able to express myself. Even if I have an accent, my understanding of how the words should sound from my experience on Duolingo helped me to communicate. It might not be the best Mobile Game for everyone, but I like it and find they are constantly adding new innovative ideas. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 10. Does a game necessarily need to be ‘educational’ in order to teach? My instinctive reaction to this question is to reply with a ‘no.’ I know that Mobile Games offer a variety of learning opportunities, even if they are not specifically aiming to teach something in particular. However, interestingly, I do see that, according to my previous two responses, I personally feel like I get more out of something if it is aimed at being educational in some way. I tend to delete Mobile Game apps from my phone as at times I feel I am ‘wasting’ time, yet I use Duolingo every day for at least five minutes. If I were spending time every day on a ‘non-educational’ game, I would feel guilty about it. Although I might be learning something, I personally like to know that what I am learning I will be able to use outside of my phone. Like speaking Spanish, or learning about plants, etc.
Hi Danya, I’m not a big fan of games either. However, I do enjoy creating and playing Kahoot games. If that interests you or you feel like this could be something applied in your classroom teaching, you can explore more at https://kahoot.com. I’ve also heard a lot about the game-based learning platform Minecraft Education, which helps to sharpen kids’ collaboration and problem-solving skills, check out this short video to find out more https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ7AcvbebKo.
Hi Zheng, thank you for the recommendations! Kahoot is a lot of fun, but I haven’t tried out Minecraft education in my classroom yet. It looks like a great platform to use to encourage creativity!
After taking a quick glance at the apps on my phone, I realized that I have no mobile games on my phone. I came to the realization that playing games on my phone are not something I take part in, during my free time. I think because I try to be as productive as I can with my time, and I suppose I feel mobile games are a waste of my time? I remember one of the games I played 10 years ago was called ‘Draw Something’, which was really popular at the time, which this article highlights: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2119676/The-drawing-game-worlds-app-just-seven-weeks–company-sold-180million.html. What I loved about it, is that it was social, and you could create and send images and your friend had to guess what it was. You could open others’ drawings on your own time, and then write messages to a friend, so they did not require your immediate attention. It was a fun way to connect with someone virtually, which did not require solely text conversations. However, I have not played that for years and probably would not consume my time with it as much as I did previously. As popular as this game was, like many games, people lose interest. That is an obvious disadvantage of mobile games, in that they need to continue to capture the engagement of the user, or else, gamers will move on to other games. Ofen, interest in a game is fleeting, and that is why sometimes mobile games are tricky to include in educational settings. Are there any mobile games that you feel may win over generations, and remain popular?
Hi Agnes, funny enough I don’t have any mobile games on my phone at this current moment either (yes this sounds funny coming from a classmate who just covered Mobile Games) as most of my phone time is given to either messaging apps, browsing the web or taking photos. To clarify, I “have” played various games on my phone before but quickly found them boring. There just isn’t enough time to use it for playing games as I prefer to use either a traditional console/pc or tablet to play. While I see value in playing them and it’s debatable whether they’re a waste of time, personally I have other priorities for my phone as I don’t want to completely drain my battery just from playing games on it. The social aspect is a great point, I think the recipe to a good educational game is being able to share and instantly connect with other learners/classmates. Just like Draw Something, it would need to be simple in design, something close to Micro Expressive formats with an increasing level of challenge to engage the user’s attention. I feel that most popular mobile games today heavily overlap with non mobile ones as they’re basically the same game, just adjusted into a different format. I could see games such as Wordle (or anything by NY Times such as word puzzles/spelling bees) end up being timeless and educational. Stuff such as Candy Crush might be more difficult to gauge, who knows if people will still remember it in the future (unlike Snake on Nokia phones in the 90/2000’s haha)
Hi Agnes and John:
Candy crush or many of those types of matching games stem from Bejeweled I feel. Or maybe even something before that. The concept seems the same of match to destroy or create special attacks.
Also, the Nokia snake game dates us a tad! But I do have recollection of it!
Some of the wordle games or sudoku number puzzles have been said to be introduced as a game that challenges the mind for focus and problem solving. In some countries, it is advertised to be a way to combat Alzheimer’s (alike Mahjong). So education then, does not necessarily mean following a curriculum.
Rather, some type of learning or practicing is at play.
Does a game necessarily need to be ‘educational’ in order to teach? In short, no, but I think it depends on the objectives of the developer. Also, without opening another can of worms, what does ‘educational’ really mean anyway? In order to learn anything, repetition and consistency is vital. And the key to those elements is often the element of ‘fun’. Personally, I sometimes feel like ‘educational’ and ‘fun’ can’t be used in the same sentence (haha).————————————————————————————————————————–
What limitations or disadvantages can you see in Mobile Game Learning? I would say money. For the most part, the Gaming and Education industries do not coexist. Although the appeal is there, there are currently not enough consumers that are jumping on mobile games designed specifically for education. As a result, less funding and talent goes into educational game development. ————————————————————————————————————————
Mobile Games support diverse learners because… of the element of anonymity. Games often do not require socializing to perform successfully or simply enjoy the experience. Especially with team-based games, without a mic, you almost always are unaware of who you are playing with (it can even be a bot) – and you don’t care. All that matters is winning and losing~
Hi Aaron:
I appreciate your question: “What does educational mean anyway?” Can it mean that it fits into a curriculum and if it does not fit into a curriculum, is it not worth learning anymore? In our concept, we meant educational as in one that would be appropriate to use in a school setting and one that followed the lesson plans that emerged from the classroom. Though, this does not distinctly define the boundaries to be educational but more open ended. This is the direction that many school boards are moving towards, allowing more choice in student learning and refrain from restricting to just the curriculum.
I agree, it’s actually a great question to consider. Ironically enough, there were times when I learnt something new through playing games (eg: physics, astrology, medical terms such as prosopagnosia, deductive reasoning or the effects of chemical compounds) but the kicker is those games were not “educational” by design. It was a commercial game first and foremost but presented with proper research/facts to propel the lore/plot. I didn’t intend to learn when I first booted up the game, maybe the trick is to design something that’s not too “in your face” educational as it could result in the opposite of what you initially intended. Preserving the element of fun depends on the situation, from experience “fun” is infectious (just like yawning or laughing), so perhaps the secret is to come up with ways to combine fun and knowledge together.
John, I agree with your suggestion in ensuring an educational game is most successful when the engagement and fun aspect is focused on in addition to educational content incorporation. Your group did such an amazing job in the OER you created! Well done!
Money yes, as much as don’t want to admit it, the video game industry is commercially driven (even more so now than before). Pretty much anything mobile now follows either a freemium model with truckloads of microtransactions (I believe Jackson wrote about this phenomenon for his A1), or a traditional paid upfront format which doesn’t guarantee sales. If there is a lack of sales then how can the developers support their title with more content? It might seem pessimistic to think in this mindset but I agree with you that reality (money) often overrides theory, especially in competitive markets such as Mobile apps development
Do I think modern Mobile Games are inclusive, accessible and easy to learn? I recently explored avatar maker apps with my students. They had to use their phone or tablet to find an app of their choice and create an avatar that looks like them or completely imaginary. Here is a site that shows you some of the popular apps: https://www.skillshare.com/blog/8-easy-and-fun-character-creator-apps/
I believe it’s a form of game, because they were going to use this avatar in a comic book creation later. These apps are generally very accessible and easy to understand/learn. What surprised me is how many of them are becoming more inclusive. The choice of skin colors is a classic, but there is also the choice of clothing which offers veils or kippahs. Then, some apps allow you to choose non-binary for gender. I also saw options to add a wheelchair or a hearing aid to the avatar. I don’t know much about modern mobile games, but like these avatar creation apps, I believe that the characters are less stereotyped and that the developers are making an effort to be inclusive. From a broader and more critical point of view, I read this article recently: https://venturebeat.com/2021/12/21/igda-report-tackles-the-essentials-of-inclusive-game-design-and-development/ “Creating an inclusive game doesn’t mean simply diversifying a game’s cast of characters; it encompasses everything from team building and in-house research to game mechanics, accessibility, and even community and marketing considerations.” Inclusivity is therefore more than just a choice of characters!
Hi Sebastien, thank you for sharing those links. It was cool to see the new avatar options in the first link you shared. When thinking back to the early avatars, they have come such a long way. Emojis too! However, it’s true that there’s still a long ways to go. The Games Beat article you shared underlines a lot of the weaknesses when it comes to designing an inclusive game. I have never designed a game before, but I think that it would be a challenge to look inwardly at what I’m designing to consider the inward and outward biases that are creeping into my game design. As stated in the article, it’s uncomfortable to challenge our own assumptions. Hopefully, the fact that “improving diversity in gaming is considered the #1 factor of importance for the growth of the industry” will create some good progress in that respect.
Hi Sebastien:
Thank you for the resources that you have included. I do agree that avatars (even emojis) have become more diverse in option. I also agree that besides character options, inclusion goes beyond just representation. It is the game design that takes into consideration the usability for different needs or learning preferences. That is, some may be visual, auditory or sensory learners. How can a game provide options or the inclusions of these different needs? Have you come across a game that gears towards different needs? Or can you see if boom card games fit that model or can be re-imagined to fit?
Hi Sebastian, thanks for sharing the links and bringing up avatar creation as a game itself. I will admit that in games where they allow you to create/design your own avatar, I spend a considerable amount of time customizing it to ensure I’m happy with the results. Funny enough it’s a relaxing experience when players are given the option/ability to create an avatar which represents themselves in some ways or others. I think if VR chat is eventually implemented into classrooms/education, the concept of avatars in both GBL and representation will be important. In a sense it’s almost like a preliminary checkpoint to ensure a game is inclusive and diverse enough to fit into modern environments, or perhaps it’s a good way for students to learn about topics such as design, fashion, gender/social studies, race etc. (for reference: a decent/robust avatar creation system in games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPocLaya_gg)
Great OER! I loved seeing the evidence of how video games are a great strategy to learn, especially in ELL classrooms. As an English language teacher, I use Splash Learn to teach phonics to my younger students (mostly short and long vowels), it is very fun to use and my students love the cartoons and laugh at their silly jokes. What I dislike about Splash Learn is that most people won’t pay the monthly amount to learn phonics. As a learner of languages, my experience to learn phonics was drilling sounds repeatedly and that can lead to a monotonous experience in the classroom and total avoidance of learning altogether. I have used many mobile apps and games to learn languages, but I always give up because only highly motivated people can stay persistent and complete all the tasks. Mobile games and apps, regarding language learning, are still in their infancy and are insufficient for the learning process. Learners need the assistance of an instructor and a clear map to an end goal, but mobile games can be a great addition for a quick motivational and fun segment in the process. I am very optimistic about the future of mobile games in education, they offer opportunities for many affordances that we can harness in learning and teaching.
Hi Maria,
Thank you for your comment. I haven’t heard about Splash Learn, but I’m intrigued to explore it. I agree with your comment about how certain mobile apps and games can be pretty repetitive when it comes to language acquisition. I actually really enjoy Duolingo. Granted, there are still some things I wish they covered, but they have made some really great changes in the past few years. They have now incorporated podcasts, virtual conversations, and audiobooks which kind of changes up the usual lessons. So I share your optimism about the future as there are lots of possibilities for great progress in mobile games and what they have to offer.
Hi Maria:
I too have used splash learn! I love that you can add your Brightspace or Google classroom to it, assign a grade level to individual students and get weekly reports of your students’ progress. Quite similarly, boom cards do the exact same thing. The difference is, you have to go search their mobile site and assign specific desk to individual or groups of students. The great thing with boom cards is that it covers a wide range of subjects and allows for you to make your own.
Also, on the note of repetition in helping with learning Phonics, another benefit I heard from a parent was that every week, when I had Spelling words for students, I made a boom card to help them practice. Parents note how this was helpful to allow for the student to practice independently and they felt that my annunciations help their child with the correct spelling too. So there have been some evidence of mobile games being helpful for both parents and students.
Hi Maria, I also had similar experiences learning Mandarin and Japanese when I was in high school. I was too focused on the phonetic sounds/pronouncing words through English phonics which resulted in me being able to speak the language but not very good at reading or writing it. It was definitely a sound drilling experience as you mentioned and one which placed too much emphasis on memorization. I agree that the value of the instructor is crucial as I’ve noticed a stark contrast in practicing with an actual person compared to an App/AI/Chatbot etc. While repetitive, I would say one advantage mobile games have is the ability to motivate a learner to engage with the materials as I’ve certainty experienced a sense of boredom when attending language classes, perhaps they just weren’t interactive enough or lacked positive reinforcement.
Learning French in elementary school I felt so confident with comprehension while reading, however, I struggled with oral fluency, and felt self-conscious about how I pronounced some sounds, particularly ‘r’. I felt that we focused primarily on reading and writing French, but there was less of a focus on conversational French. I am grateful for apps like ‘Google Translate’ and ‘Microsoft Translator’, that can now support me in French oral conversations. Although this is somewhat the opposite of your experience in language learning, it clearly means it is important for instructors to focus on reading, writing, viewing and listening when teaching languages.
What a great start to OER weeks! Amazing work assembling a comprehensive site in such a short time! I mostly teach older learners, but your examples were clearly transferrable to any age group, which I appreciated.
In my view, one limitation of Mobile Game Learning is that educators primarily are not the ones developing the resource, meaning that we are dependent upon developers to create the exact resource that we need and it can be time-consuming to filter through the many existing applications to find one that suits our purpose. Mobile games are often so comprehensive that ensuring the appropriateness and applicability of the entirety of a resource can be demanding.
I do not believe that a game needs to have an educational context for it to be a worthwhile educational endeavor. Many “just for fun” games teach problem-solving and critical thinking skills in addition to other skills such as spatial or deductive reasoning. I often hear students discussing their favourite mobile games, so it also promotes pro-social behaviour and enhances communication by giving learners a shared experience to discuss.
Mobile Games support diverse learners because many of the games allow for easy differentiation of content/difficulty and offer different learning targets to meet the needs of the students. Many games also offer accessibility options, such as making text bigger or allowing for voiceover. Since mobile games could be run using the learner’s personal device, any other assistive software or applications could also assist with their learning through mobile games since they are already personalized. Mobile devices may also remove barriers to usage since learners already have familiarity with the hardware.
As a lesson designer, I would definitely consider integrating more mobile games into my lessons than I do currently. An area that I would like to further explore is having students create mobile games as assessments or as learning opportunities for peers. I am curious as to whether those learning experiences would benefit from the same positives that you identified in your OER or would be limited to professionally developed mobile games.
Hi Braden, thanks for sharing your ideas! I like how you mentioned the idea of allowing students to create their own mobile games as it could be a valuable/in demand skill in the future. Not only do they learn how to code/create an app but more importantly it allows them to participate into the process of assessment design (eg: students will be encouraged to create a game which caters to their own learning style/needs) and challenges them to think about learning on a more holistic level with questions such as what is effective, how will I be motivated to learn more about this topic, how can I make readings less boring or whether more collaborative opportunities could be created. As educators, it would be interesting to see how we can use mobile games to support their learning. The dilemma is, most commercial/professionally developed games are not educational in nature and might contain elements which are unsuitable for the classroom as it’s hard to find a mobile game that fits directly into a syllabus. Perhaps the solution is for schools to develop their own games or distribute it as a shared resource between school districts/networks? If the resource problem could be solved then perhaps it’s a feasible possibility. Curious to hear your ideas.
Hi Braden, you make some really good points. John already commented on your thoughts about having students create their own games, which is an incredible way of seeing students get creative, but I also liked your point about how games don’t necessarily have to have an educational context in order to be educational. I think we tend to separate mobile games into ones that fit into the school curriculum or not. Those that do can be viable options and those that don’t can be used at home or outside of school hours. This kind of thinking can lead to missed opportunities though. There are many games out there that are created for ‘fun,’ but can still be informative or stretch us to think, learn, create and explore. Successful games are great because they captivate us in a certain way, they challenge us, make us look at things from a new perspective or offer us an escape. I think anything can be made into a learning experience, whether it be a social interactions, team work, acquiring new knowledge, thinking creatively, etc.
Have you played any Mobile Games before? What did you like or dislike about them? Share your experiences
I have played mobile games with students and mostly do this with sight-word games. We tend to do sound connection videos and ask the students to play them to look at the sounds made. https://sightwords.com/sight-words/games/ and https://www.education.com/games/sight-words/.
What limitations or disadvantages can you see in Mobile Game Learning?
I like that students get engaged and want to play the games. They learn without trying. It is not working for them and becomes fun. When something is fun, they know more. My concern is that they cannot apply the information when asked to do a traditional worksheet. Can they use the information in a different situation? What would the research say?
As a teacher/course designer, would you consider including more or more minor mobile games into your curriculum?
I would include more mobile games into my curriculum, but I am a course designer of online courses. Many parents and students could work on mobile games and have fun playing. The concern is about screen time for most of my families, and some parents are working online because they want less screen time for their students.
What challenges or roadblocks do you foresee if Mobile Games become commonly implemented in classrooms?
In a school, mobile games are fun and can be implemented, but without mobile devices, you will be using iPads and laptops in a school. One of the roadblocks is access to mobile devices, signing them out, ratios of 1:2.5 devices, and creating time in your day and parental buy-in to support this type of learning. In addition, you must show a clear connection between the ‘games’ and the ‘learning.’
Do you think modern Mobile Games are (i) inclusive (ii) accessible, and (iii) easy to learn?
Mobile games are inclusive. Many students work with iPads and other devices to support accessibility and learning. The games are easy to learn, and there are immediate rewards. One concern is the game is based in the UK, and the pronunciation is different from Canada. I would recommend finding a game that uses Canadian ideas.
Hi Jennifer, your point about access to mobile devices resonates strongly with me. Access to these devices is often tied to the SES of the surrounding community. The majority of the mobile devices at my school are a result of fundraising by families rather than district funding. Mobile devices and the corresponding games access may perpetuate inequalities that already exist within geographic regions. Additionally, all of our mobile devices are managed by the district IT department, meaning you have to apply to get an application on the approved list and then request an installation on the device. This is very time-consuming and may be a strong deterrent for educators who are on the fence about mobile game integration.
Some schools in Canada offer a 1:1 program where students and teachers are given their own mobile device to learn. While I’m not familiar with the scheme details, it doesn’t seem widely implemented as it’s only offered in select school districts. As mentioned by Jennifer and Braden, funding is definitely an issue as the costs involved with supplying every student with a device could exceed the budget allocated. This issue was amplified in the past 2 years when everyone had to learn from home, some schools supplied lower cost Chromebooks or Tablets as an alternative, perhaps communication or agreements with vendors is key to creating wider accessibility?
Hi Jennifer:
I made the same reply to Maria but your mention of how words are said differently in UK compared to Canada can affect the way a student spells it. This is something a parent noted in how the way they say a word affects how their child spells it. So she found it valuable when I created mobile games with sound cards to support them in spelling it. I also did find an increase in grades for spelling tests.
I do agree that screen time is a concern and also is met with barriers. What I’m curious to know is, why do you think there is a discrepancy in worksheet grades and mobile game grades?
That’s a good point, first thing that comes to mind is the “R” sound as UK English tends to omit it when they pronounce certain words (or another example would be: to-mah-to vs to-may-to). A more interesting aspect is North American English as there’s a lot of regional/local dialect variations which could affect the way students pronounce/spell their words (even within Canadian or US contexts). Nonetheless, it’s a good reminder to keep in mind regional differences when designing mobile games.
Jennifer, you mentioned how screen time is a concern, especially in online learning. I find that as much as I love technology, it is important that as a teacher, I am mindful of the screen time I request of students. What is too much, and what is not enough? An article by Lammers et al. (2022), reviewed parental knowledge of American Academy of Pediatrics Screen Time recommendations. The parents that were aware of screen time recommendations, stuck to the guidelines. This makes me think that educators should be instructed on guidelines for screen time in classrooms, so there will be a greater instance of teachers adhering to the guidelines, similarly to that of parents in the study by Lammers et al. (2022). I have never received an in-service/professional development that directs teachers on screen time. Have any of you?
References
Lammers, S. M., Woods, R. J., Brotherson, S. E., Deal, J. E., & Platt, C. A. (2022). Explaining Adherence to American Academy of Pediatrics Screen Time Recommendations With Caregiver Awareness and Parental Motivation Factors: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Pediatrics and parenting, 5(2), e29102. https://doi.org/10.2196/29102.
Hi Mobile Games team. As others have pointed out, good working at creating such a robust resource in only a few weeks. I see this resource will be very valuable for anyone who wants to learn more about games and learning in general and how it can be enhanced through mobile technologies. I appreciate the work done on the ‘critical analysis of GBL section’ because I think connecting this topic to other topics we’re exploring in the course is very relevant. It is always good practice to discuss limitations, issues, and trends, and present guidelines for those who are interested in pursuing this path. Personally, I haven’t taken any of the game courses in the MET program, so this resource has been useful to learn more about the topic. I find it very interesting how GBL or gamification can increase motivation, and engagement, and lead to better results. I think this reveals something about our nature as beings who enjoy overcoming challenges with a sense of empowerment and agency. As educators, it is important that we consider this while designing learning experiences as it can maximize learning. It is also very interesting to see how technology has an impact on enhancing a game-based learning experience and consider how we’ll have more opportunities to innovate in this field of education as technologies become more sophisticated (augmented reality, for example). Here are some responses to the questions. 7. Is there a particular subject in which you believe Mobile Games can enhance the learning experience? Last week my post was about an app for learning music (Yousician). It was quite impressive to see how the app features made learning more accessible, and flexible. It has some gamification components here and there, but I imagine that this could be done more intentionally and would benefit the learning experience, making it more fun and engaging. I once had a brief music lesson with my 4-year-old niece. Initially, I was trying to teach her some stuff as I taught young students. The lesson was not coming through somehow, but when I began to change it into a game, her attention and engagement levels increased substantially. 10. Does a game necessarily need to be ‘educational’ in order to teach? I don’t think so. Some games are not designed as educational tools, yet if well designed they make players develop abilities such as critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, digital literacy, etc. 14. Do you think Mobile Games can be used in Adult Education/Corporate Training/Continuing Education? Yes, I believe we all like to have fun. However, in contexts like these I think the gamification aspect could me more abstract. Instead of creating something that on the surface looks like a game, it would be better to understand the psychological dynamics behind game-playing and incorporate those into the work activities. Of course, having more explicit, superficial elements can also be useful.
Hi Eduardo, thanks for the feedback! It’s interesting how people are more willing to overcome challenges if there are visual indications to reflect their progress. It could be something as simple as increasing numbers (eg: stats, points), personalized avatars (eg: cosmetic items, gear) or direct control (skill directly tied to outcome). Compared to real life where some students seem to lack enthusiasm or drive to challenge themselves, framing it within an GBL methodology seems to change their attitude towards it. Maybe we’re all seeking instant gratification or visual feedback as a form of response towards learning. Maybe this even implies the traditional marking scheme of letters or 100% is not going to be enough in the future, interesting thought. Speaking of music education, I’ve noticed a rising trend of GBL based music apps/software in the recent years. For example, Ubisoft released “Rocksmith” several years ago where it enabled users to hook up a real guitar to play along. Compared to playing a toy plastic guitar, this is definitely a step up. I like how you pointed out a game doesn’t need to be educational in order to teach, there are stories of how young learners improved their literacy skills through card games, RPGs or strategy games as those games contain lots of text/comprehension requirements yet they weren’t designed to be education.
Thanks for supplying such great content with such little time! If I were to add to the Boom Cards game I would add a trophy/reward system. As we read earlier in the course, even as arbitrary and useless digital ‘trophies’ are compelling to compete for (see the Samsung trophy given out just for accessing their website). This would perhaps keep learners engaged with the game as they compete for rewards.
For me personally as a high school physics teacher, I really struggle to see how I could make mobile games an integral part of my teaching repertoire. My content is too heavy for rudimentary mobile games to explore and time is too limited as it is to add something like this at the expense of a lab or demo. I see mobile games as something I could much more easily use in my lower-level (non-academic) math classes; the students in those classes respond really well to games and I would get more buy-in from them. Plus, the content of the non-academic classes already has many games that can be used (dealing with fractions, simple mathematical operations, etc.).
I do not believe mobile games will ever replace the traditional classroom experience, however, as new games are created and the technology behind them is refined and educationally focused, they will become a more prevalent tool in helping students reinforce content.
Hi Michael:
This is a very interesting take on mobile games. Correct me if I am wrong, but you feel that some courses are easier to create mobile games than others? Or do you mean boom cards in particular?
What do you think makes physics harder to create a mobile game for than math? How might subject affect game design?
As for trophies and rewards, that was the downside of creating a fast pin or demo was that we were not able to link the class in order for us to gain points or badges or “compete” with one another. It is a way to lure teachers to include their students. Do you think this might relate to AI or data profiling?
I mean that physics is such a content-heavy and difficult course that it is difficult to find a game that can efficiently and/or succinctly cover the curricular outcomes. I have seen plenty of games that are great at covering rudimentary courses (basic fractions, for example) but I have never come across a game that covers grade 11 or 12 physics (or other specialized science) courses. Even if they were there, I would suspect they are not direct tailored to Alberta’s curriculum. I do not think it would be in the students’ best interest to assign a task with a mobile game with, say, only 20% of the game actually teaching our curriculum, for example. This same concept applies when I search for YouTube videos – many videos out there cover the material too advanced so I have to edit the videos to ensure I am not giving students unnecessary information.
I could see a trophy or achievement system used with data profiling via teachers accessing students’ gained achievements and perhaps seeing if there is a correlation to the amount/type of achievements and the result on a student assessment. To me an achievement system’s main purpose would be to keep students engaged with the game itself though.
Hi Michael, thanks for the kind words! I’m immediately drawing parallels to Playstation’s trophy system (maybe that’s what you had in mind haha) when you mention implementing a reward system. As a person who “used” to enjoy earning digital trophies on PSN, I completely understand the intrinsic level of motivation it provides even if the task is mundane or repetitive (it’s worth it for that Gold/Plat trophy…) I’m always curious to see if a similar mindset could be transferred to academic environments as one challenge which most educators face is motivating students to go beyond the extra mile/challenge the curriculum. Imagine how grades could improve if a trophy tied to “complete your assignment one week early” or “read the readings twice” was given out or indicated on their report cards/transcripts. I also struggle to find a suitable mobile game to use in class as I’m limited by the options available. I don’t have the knowledge to program an app from scratch as it’s often a case of whatever I can find, I’ll use situation. Hypothetically speaking, if the school board was willing to design a mobile game based on a set of criteria provided by you, do you think it’s possible to implement it into a heavy syllabus?
I was exactly thinking of PSN’s trophy system – I guess I am hardwired to think that way now ha ha ha. I really like your ideas of possible ‘achievements’ that students can gain. It feels very elementary but I wonder if a non-digital form of this would work in my classes. Do high school students truly care about made-up achievements?
Hypothetically, there would absolutely be a way to use a specifically-designed game. But the reality, unfortunately, is that would most likely not come to fruition. The best way of getting a task like this done would be some cross-curricular activity between, say, a physics class and a computing science class. The physics class would explain the curricular outcomes that they would want to include in the game and the computing science class would construct the game. However, this would take a massive amount of time and you would need high-level students in both courses to make a product that would be meaningful to students who were not part of the creation process.
Just like with trophies, sometimes I question “why do I even bother with a digital prize?” The weird thing is, trophies are technically meaningless/valueless as PSN doesn’t allow us to redeem them (wouldn’t that be great) or do something pragmatic with them, but it feels great to earn one! My concern is including a digital set of achievements might not motivate students as intended. Introducing a friendly competitive aspect might sound good on paper but personally I think it’ll do more damage in the long term as education shouldn’t be fixated about who is ranked first, second etc. Funny enough some LMS platforms such as Moodle already have something similar in place (I think it was digital badges?) but no one seems to care about their value. Making high school students work towards artificial goals might influence them to think in similar (but not a good) way as they’ll be too fixated on taking electives/courses which offer easy achievements (sort of like browsing a syllabus I guess) or finding a job which has a easy job description. I think the concept has potential but as you mentioned, difficult to implement without investing massive amounts of time/planning
I’m in agreement – I really can’t see an arbitrary achievement system being beneficial or useful for the high school students I work with.
I wanted to say thank you for creating and sharing the Boom Cards! I played them with my 6 and 4-year-olds and they loved them. When we purchased an iPad last Christmas, one of the first things I did was research educational apps to place on the iPad for my children. I was looking for apps that taught math, coding, problem-solving, and phonics. The general criteria for apps I sought out included no ads, reward-based (behaviourism), high reviews, and age-appropriate. One app that my kids continue to use today was from my research in one of my MET courses; Maths age 4-6. I ended up playing it myself and recognized the mathematical benefits from it personally. I think that as a parent, playing a game yourself is the best way to review an app, instead of relying on websites or advertisements to give you advice. My top-rated favourite educational iPad apps for my kids include Khan Academy Kids, Homer, Maths age 4-6, and Code Karts. What are yours?
Hello Mobile Games Team,
First, I’m impressed with the amount of information you’ve gathered and created in your OER in such a short time, good job! 🙂 I don’t teach reading or writing to the youngest, but as an adult educator and above all, a language and literature teacher for teenagers, I am sure that your OER will inspire me to go further in my desire to use mobile games in my teaching. Learning should be fun and my students love to play, even at 17-18! And seeing adults get excited in a Kahoot during a fairly serious training, it shows that there is no age to play.
Mainly, in class, I use Quizizz – https://quizizz.com/ – regularly on Ipad. It is often a way to reinvest or complete formative assessments. My students will also create quizzes to share with the rest of the class. For now, I have completed your “icebreaker” activity and I can answer the following question:
What would you add to the Boom Card game to create a better experience?
Shang-Chi was unknown to me 😉 but a possible improvement would be that in the event of a wrong answer, it would be interesting to lose the point and have the right answer instead of having to rewrite. The student might have a result that is not only 14/14 at the end and have a desire to improve and repeat the game.
Looking forward to discovering more! Thanks.
Hello Sebastien:
First off, thank you for your quick adventures into our OER!
You absolutely have a point. If you choose to “give up” the answer does appear, but your score may not be correct. Unfortunately, as this was a Demo, we were not able to show you the other capacity of boom cards. When everyone in this class could be included as a “classroom” in boom cards, that is when your wrong answers are recorded and the badges or rewards visible, as mentioned by Michael as a proposed change. You would also be able to see a leader board if permission was granted by the teacher. Another battle was, do we want to created a drag and drop game, a click the correct answer or our current model of typing in the answer. As we felt the act of typing the answer also helpful in remembering and learning the letter combinations and the sounds they make, that is what we opted for. We also felt that mistakes were not always a “bad thing” but a learning opportunity. But of course, we do risk frustration! Can you sense the dilemma?
Thanks again for your participation!
Team Mobile Games!
Hi Seb, thanks for trying out our Boom Card game! I agree that learning should be fun, not sure if you’ve experienced it before but convincing adult learners to play can slightly be difficult at times as some seem to be skeptical of GBL in general. Once they get past the initial hurdle of accepting GBL, most seem to enjoy it very much and say it makes learning more memorable (I play Werewolf/Mafia and Pictionary in my classes with adult learners). Speaking of quizzes, thanks for recommending Quizizz, it looks interesting. I was also introduced to Mentimeter by another MET classmate and apparently it allows course designers to use real time quizzes/polling in classes. I’ve never tried it myself but I can see how competitive/fun it could get if the teacher uses it properly.