Welcome everyone to our OER on mobile games. Please visit our site and make your way through the contents and activities. (The Genially games are optional and just for fun ????). Don’t hesitate to post your thoughts and reflections on our Dotstorming wall which you can access on the Reflection Zone page.
Also, please don’t forget to participate in the discussion by responding to one or more prompts in the comments section on this page.
Prompts:
- How do you, if ever, use mobile games in your professional context?
- Do you believe in the ‘’gamify your life’’ apps? Why? Why not?
- What are some of the concerns about using mobile games in education?
- A gameful mindset is a very important attribute of the 21st century. (Read about it here. 2 min. read). What in your opinion are the obstacles and challenges that hinder educators from fostering this mindset among learners? What factors facilitate it?
Dear Safaa and Louisa,
Thank you for your wonderful OER, and an excellent topic for discussion. I am also grateful to my peers for sharing their critical thoughts on games.
In my humble opinion, games are an obligatory part of the process of teaching a foreign language as they motivate students to learn more, to learn faster and better. After a certain age, a foreign language won’t be mastered without considerable effort though as far as I remember it was not easy for me to master my two native languages in my childhood either. Especially the topics in which they differ: it was very frustrating to make mistakes in the material that I previously learned in another language.
Currently, I practice games whenever I can. In a way, some part of any EFL (English as a foreign language) lesson is always a game where I try to “catch” my students, and they are doing their best to “run away”. At the beginning, my international students look stressed a bit, but I really love this transformation appr. in the middle of the semester when they are already well-prepared with shiny eyes and a half-smile, anticipating my questions about everything (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, some cultural facts, etc.) while being fully ready to parry any attack. And they are positively delighted when our roles are reversed, and they are supposed to be cats with me as a mouse. Oh, how happy they are then to chase me!
Or we can take irregular verbs which are important for English tenses, voices, moods, verbals, etc. We play a very simple game all semester – “Who knows more irregular verbs?” – where one by one, students in the classroom quickly give an original irregular verb in three forms from their memory. It goes in a circle, and at the end, only those who know many verbs will stay in the game. Like in dodgeball, only the strongest one “survives” and takes the prize. What I find interesting is that at the beginning of the semester, I can participate in a game, but at the end of the semester, only male adult students can play it till the very end/a victor because they think and speak faster. Seriously, they eliminate me and female students pretty quickly to shine in linguistic glory themselves and be applauded by us, mere mortals, afterward!
I see my task as guiding them gently to get truly interested in those irregular verbs as well as in other English topics since an ambitious student, male or female, is kind of an unstoppable force. This almost unnoticeable transfer from an ignorant and indifferent to a knowledgeable and passionate learner really fascinates me every time. So, yes, I am a proponent of a gameful mindset.
Regarding mobile games in a classroom, many students like them, and some students don’t. I realize that everyone is different, and for some extroverts, for example, it is essential to do several things at once to be at ease. That is why I don’t consider mobile games a distraction and don’t ban them from my classroom, but I don’t utilize mobile games for teaching either.
What else I noticed about students and mobile games: when I asked my most enthusiastic gamers about an educational benefit of their favourite games, they became visibly uncomfortable. It seems to me that for many of them, mobile games are a pleasure and a form of escapism, and not a responsibility, not a study. I believe they would like to keep it this way, rest and education apart, and I am the last person to spoil their fun.
At the same time, I consider mobile games my secret allies together with English songs and movies because they do give some ESL students a context to place, say, new English vocabulary. Most international students don’t often interact with native speakers, and mobile games give them a vicarious native English language experience.
Well, this is what I noticed, and I might be very wrong in my assumptions as mobile games are not my cup of tea. I was surprised when Duolingo was called a gamified experience because I find nothing competitive there in the app, just hard work and no game. Or do they mean that I compete with myself, my own laziness, and other life priorities? Well, since Duolingo makes my brain more flexible, I am fine with it, game or no game. Thank you for reading and I would love to hear from other EFL teachers here too.
Anna, what a great way to gamify language learning! I love using games in my classes, and will be using games almost exclusively for the rest of the semester with my math classes to help reach some foundational numeracy, because what they have done so far, hasn’t been working, so the traditional math teaching of “let me show you how” followed by “now you try” hasn’t actually taught them how math works. I’m looking for some good online, mobile math games that teens would be interested in, but we’ll see how that goes. I have some kahoot games planned, as well as board games, dice games, and card games to try to get some basic numeracy in.
Sounds great! Math is so cool; I majored in math and physics in high school. Not sure about the best approaches, but I would advise praising your learners more, Catriona. And let them teach you whenever it’s possible. At least this is what works for the young international adults here. Have a nice new week, my friend! Best, Anna
Thank you for sharing your experience and insights, Anna!
Game-Based Learning is a great aspirational goal, but one that needs to have two key points “lubricated” in order to become widespread in classrooms:
1) If teachers are to dedicate sufficient time to play these games in class, then they must be clearly aligned with the curriculum, and have reliable assessment. How can we give up hours of class if we are not sure of the results?
2) The cost of these games must be born at a higher level than the classroom or school. Given the choice between a textbook that covers a full year of curriculum outcomes for a subject for $100 vs. a game that may only cover a limited number of outcomes for $10, the school will pick the book every time. If they have to buy the book, either way, where is the incentive to pay for the game?
Some individual teachers and schools may find success in using computer GBL in class time, but investment needs to come from the Ministry level before real change is likely to occur.
While I agree with some of your assessment, I also like what is mentioned in another post, that the games “shift the focus from marks and performance to mastery and competence.” One of the biggest drawbacks that I see in my students is a lack of resilience, and a lack of persistence. If a game can teach students that failure is a necessary part of learning, and that every time you fail, you can either get up and try again, or quit, and if quitting is disincentivised, then students will learn far more that content, they will actually learn the skills necessary to live their lives as productive students.
Hi Douglas and Cimray,
Thank you for your contributions. These are really interesting points you make about two areas that we should consider when choosing to use games in our classrooms and I agree that there is a need for higher levels of educational administration (aka. regulated time, money and research) invested in the methodology of GBL but I also definitely agree with Cimray in that it is a refreshing chance to shift the focus from testing and performance based assessments to “mastery and competence”. Additionally, there is not usually a test or assessment given at the end of a video game (regardless of its purpose) because the assessment is part of the game play, the proof that a student is understanding is in their progression of the game. It works in a completely different way than testing students at the end of a unit of of inquiry to make sure they have understood and absorbed the materials taught along the way. I think GBL pedagogy gives us a chance to start to redesign the way education has been done/assessed for a very long time and hopefully offers up some inclusive, dynamic ways to both teach, learn and assess.
Hi Safa and Louisa, wonderful OER! I enjoy this topic and appreciate the effort you into creating this site and providing many great resources.
I think having and fostering a “gameful” mindset among students is very important as gaming has always had a following outside of the school environment, but recent research has shed light on the educational benefits of gaming for learning. What sets games apart for me is their ability to shift the focus from marks and performance to mastery and competence. I gameful mindset embraces failure and sees it as a necessary part of the game. However, one of the biggest obstacles is the negative perception that games have in some educational contexts. Some educators and parents still view games as a distraction or a waste of time, rather than as a valuable tool for learning. This mindset can prevent teachers from incorporating games into their teaching practices or promoting a gameful mindset among their students. As the educational benefits of gaming become increasingly recognized, and with the continued development of AI and game technologies, I think educators expect to see even more innovative and effective ways of using games for learning in their classrooms, thus promoting a gameful mindset in their learners.
I agree, the gaming mindset is something that is difficult to promote, especially given the negative impacts associated with gaming. Distraction, too much screen time and the potential for inequality displayed in games are potential drawbacks. Additionally, Garris et al. (2002) mention, “what is fun to some people will not necessarily be fun to others. Individual differences in personality traits such as competitiveness, curiosity, or sensation seeking may be predictive of preferences for certain types of game themes or of preferences for game play itself” (p.460). Although these drawback will need to be addressed with more effective game based learning, there are many positive impacts such as increased problem solving skills, critical thinking, student engagement and motivation.
I have personally witnessed this when my brother learned how to read, before he started school he played games on the PS2 and often the game had instructions that needed to be read (unfortunately no audio). He would ask me to read it for him but as I became busier with school, he took it upon himself to learn how to read on his own so he could play his game independently. The engagement that instilled an intrinsic motivation in my brother is very inspiring to me, as it is the key event that changed my view on gaming.
Garris, R., Ahlers, R., & Driskell, J. E. (2002). Games, motivation, and learning: A research and Practice Model. Simulation & Gaming, 33(4), 441–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046878102238607
Thank you, Vithu for the valuable insight. Gamification and GBL are indeed just like any other pedagogical approach or strategy, the don’t necessarily work for every audience and every subject or learning context. It is an essential task to know when and for whom to use this strategy.
Hi Vithu,
Thank you for your participation in our discussion! Yes, I can easily understand your points about the challenges of gaming especially concerning varying reactions to different kinds of games and the attempt to cater to, and suit a variety of tastes and preferences. I am not a gamer myself and even after having tried to adopt a gaming mindset and immerse myself in the world of games for various projects and assignments, I still don’t seem to connect deeply to the act of playing mobile games. But that does not stop me from recognizing the profoundly impactful way that games can be used in education and the value of gamification.
I have experience a similar situation with my students as you did with your brother. As my young EFL students have been making their way through the levels of Minecraft Ed, I have seen a huge increase in literacy as there is so much to read and and so many instructions to follow in order to understand and progress in the game. It also really helped to change my view on using video games in the classroom. I had previously not been so warmed up to the idea and although I eventually saw the game as having potential problem-solving skill building, I never dreamed it could be used for the purposes of literacy and communications. I now see it as one of the most powerful and transformational tools that I have witnessed in a classroom and would recommend to any parent to allow their child to use it as part of their learning portfolio.
Hi Bingying,
Thank you for exploring our Mobile Games OER and for your thoughtful response and question! It is especially nice to hear this from the perspective of a bona fide “gamer” as I myself am a true amateur to the world of online and mobile games. Researching and preparing for this project certainly gave me a great deal of information and I now can claim to have a much better understanding of GBL and Gamification but I still feel the ‘impostor syndrome’ pretty strongly when it comes to online gaming! I agree completely that the cross-platform game play will continue to be a huge trend and if it hasn’t already, will firmly cement its place as a 21st century learning pedagogy. I was highly doubtful of Minecraft when I first heard it was used as an educational tool but now after using it (not teaching it, because the kids are usually teaching me!) for the past two years in an international ELS Saturday school program, I can only see more and more potential in the cross-platform centric world of MC as a powerful and diverse learning tool. The possibilities are infinite from both an intructionist and constructionist/constructivist perspectives and I imagine this should apply to all sand-box style of online gaming.
You very accurately note that gaming is a male dominated field but I do believe that this is changing and there does need to be a great deal of change. The depiction of women in video games up till now has been mostly over-sexualized, crass and completely derogatory. I think what is more important currently is the idea that we need to re-examine the way women and girls are portrayed in popular games (both educational and otherwise) and begin producing female friendly (and all genders for that matter) stories, settings, characters, everything! Game writers and producers need to rewrite the direction of video and mobile games in order to make them inclusive, tolerant and accessible to all. Only then, will gender differences and attitudes towards gaming begin to evolve and become something we can really apply to mainstream education.
This is a youtube video that I pulled from my 510 literature and it does contain many upsetting depictions of women but it is a highly interesting watch if you have the time –> https://youtu.be/4ZPSrwedvsg
So to answer your question: do you think there will be gender differences when using educational gamification and game-based learning? Yes and no, I have noticed absolutely no difference in attitudes towards gaming in my students whether they are boys or girls. They tend to choose different styles of games but they both love to play games equally. Their personal preferences may be due to both gender and cultural influences but I would guess that it is more to do with the learned cultural and environmental ones. I also currently live in a culture that is still highly patriarchal and has clearly defined rules for what are acceptable pursuits for boys and girls so it would be really interesting for me to hear more about this from the perspective of a teacher in a more gender-balanced society. I would encourage others to share their experiences using games with students and tell us how the gender dynamic looks with your students?
Hi Safa and Louisa. Great ORE with tons of information!
I am interested in games, especially mobile games. Adventure puzzle-solving games are my favourite, and I’ve played Candy Crush for over five years (more than 3300 levels) haha 🙂
When exploring the “gamification and game-based learning” section, the first related topic I think about is serious games (SGs), which are games that are designed for a primary purpose other than entertainment. SGs have been used a lot in education to achieve more engaging and motivational learning environments. I like the cross-platform play mentioned in the “trends” section. Although most educational gamification interventions are computer-based, the fast development of cross-platform play will gradually allow students to learn in more diverse ways. Furthermore, mobile technologies will promote learning unrestricted to location or time. As Gee and Gee (2017) suggested, playing games helps cultivate complex and dynamic DTAL (distributed teaching and learning) systems through various learning and teaching opportunities; and the DTAL systems, in turn, offer nearly infinite chances for learning without the traditional school learning limitations.
Since “game” is a male-dominated field, do you think there will be gender differences when using educational gamification and game-based learning?
References
Gee, E., & Gee, J. P. (2017). Games as distributed teaching and learning systems. Teachers College Record, 119(11).
Thank you for sharing your game experience, Iris!