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The Landscape of Digital Learning Games: Finding Paydirt

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By Ryan L. Schaaf

 

This article first appeared at Amplify here. Reposted with permission.

There are a wide variety of digital games available for players on countless platforms. It makes it very challenging to find a game for a specific purpose such as learning. The first step is to understand the purpose of gameplay. Typically, a person engages in gameplay for fun and entertainment. However, in recent years, more and more people are playing games for unconventional purposes. Some gamers want to build mindscapes using digital resources, some want to learn new concepts or cultivate new skills, some use it just to pass some downtime, and some are immersed in game-based storylines and narratives.

Regardless of the purpose of playing them, finding games to meet these various needs is a challenge. The process remains decentralized – there is no one-stop shop or catalog to research. However, self-research is a practical strategy to find a potential game.

Web Browser–Based Games

There are tens of thousands of digital learning games available online at this very second. Educators can perform a simple web search for content-specific games to infuse into their lessons. For instance, imagine a group of science students learning about life cycles. A teacher simply conducts a Google search using a query such as “Interactive life cycle games for kids” to find hundreds of potential games for students to use. Since most schools already have many digital devices, browser-based games are the easiest to adopt into instructional lessons.

RhymeTime_scrn_01 Copy (1)Aqua is a web-based supplemental reading curriculum for grades K-2 currently in development at Amplify and piloting in schools across the country. In Rhyme Time (depicted above) students practice with different rime families and decode words in these families by swapping the first letter sounds of words while the ending sounds remain constant. Learn more about Aqua.

There are also large collections of digital games referred to as game hubs. These sites house many different types of digital games tailored to many different ages as well as content areas. Online learning game hubs can be used in lessons, as resources for technology learning centers, or as support or extra practice at home.

Steam

Steam is an enormous online-gaming platform. Steam hosts a massive online catalog of over 5,000 games for PC, Mac, and Linux-based computers, mobile devices, and even smart televisions.

‘Apptastic’ Markets

The eruption of application or ‘app’ markets has created a digital gold mine of potential games for learners. It is hard to fathom that this multi-billion dollar a year market is not even a decade old. The two major app markets are Apple’s App Store and Google Play. The App Store serves users on Apple’s operating system (iOS) devices such as the iPhone and iPad. And, Google Play supplies apps to smartphones and tablets using an Android platform. Both App markets have their very own categories for Educational Games. With thousands of games spread across numerous mobile platforms, the app markets are extraordinary sources to find potential games for tablets and smartphones.

Personal Computer (PC) Games

Although the download-and-play approach to acquiring new digital games is now popular because of tablets, smartphones, and web-connected computers, PC games are still very popular in classrooms. Schools are still hosting desktop computers workstations and common technology labs to cater to the hundreds of students that require digital learning in their curricula.

Game Consoles

Gaming consoles are one of the last platforms teachers would consider using as learning tools for their students to access highly-interactive virtual learning environments. Teachers are repurposing gaming consoles and using them as instructional workstations rather than as entertainment systems. With careful consideration, gaming consoles and devices have a lot of potential for classroom learning applications. Many learners have these same gaming consoles at home, so they already know how to use them.

Resources to Find Good Learning Games

Common Sense Media is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. They review numerous games for use by both educators and parents.

Games 4 Change has accumulated numerous databases of potential learning games for players, educators, and parents to consider.

Playful Learning is a project of the Learning Games Network, an award-winning non-profit producer of games for learning.

The InfoSavvy21 team collaborated to create the Digital Learning Game Database (DLGD). It was conceptualized to archive and curate digital games with learning potential and provide it to educators for use with their students.

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At Amplify, we are committed to the educational potential of learning through digital gameplay. Aqua is a new kind of reading curriculum in development by the Center for Early Reading at Amplify. It is a reading adventure that gives students practice in phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension through games. Learn more.

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Gaming Research Uncategorized

The Research Supporting Digital Gaming and Learning Part 2: The Gamer’s Gains: Evidence of Efficacy

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By Ryan L. Schaaf

Preface

There are literally thousands of research studies, books, web articles, and news reports examining the effectiveness of games during the learning process. Some of these sources are research in nature; some are based on firsthand experiences or accounts, while others are formed on opinions or even sophistry. The truth is the analysis of gaming’s efficacy during the learning process are still evolving.

As often as we witness the digital generation’s love of games and the amazing societal, technological, and cultural impact they usher in, there remains the need for evidence of their success as learning tools, or even learning environments.

There is a substantial amount of research on gaming and learning – so much so that this post will be delivered in two parts. In the first part, entitled The Gamer’s Brain, readers examined what scientists, researchers, and educators have observed about the relationship between digital game play and the human brain. In this installment, entitled The Gamer’s Gains: Evidence of Efficacy, examines many of the recent studies and analyses that demonstrate the potential for learning with the use of digital games. The links and citations for each study, report, or data source will be listed below and cited within each snippet.

“Digital games have the potential to transform information for its players into valuable knowledge and experiences.”

Knowledge Gains

In a meta-analysis (an analysis of many studies) conducted in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Wouters and colleagues (2013) found that training with serious games is more effective for developing knowledge, knowledge retention, and cognitive skills than other instructional methods such as lectures, reading, drill, and practice, or hypertext learning environments. These results were further supported by Vogel and colleagues (2006) in a similar analysis as they observed higher cognitive gains in simulations or games as they did in traditional instructional techniques. Similar knowledge gains were evident in analyses conducted by Wolfe (1997), Sitzmann (2011), and Ke (2009). Digital games have the potential to transform information for its players into valuable knowledge and experiences.

“Game-based learning motivates and engages learners just as much, if not more, than other tried and true instructional approaches.”

Motivation to Learn

Student motivation is another powerful attribute that makes learning through gameplay that much more alluring. Thangagiri and Naganathan’s (2016) study explored if games affected student motivation. Their data analyses disclosed that using a gaming approach was both more active in stimulating students’ knowledge and more motivational than a non-online gaming approach. In another qualitative study conducted by Yu and Hsaio (2011), students’ learning motivation was a significant factor in knowledge acquisition during gameplay. These results were further supported by another participatory action research study conducted with learners ages 8 to 10 years of age. The data suggests digital game-based learning were as effective in the classroom as other research-based instructional strategies when measuring student motivation and time-on-task behavior. (Schaaf, 2012) So, regarding instructional strategies in a learning environment, game-based learning motivates and engages learners just as much, if not more, than other tried and true instructional approaches.

Attention, Attention!

The attentional benefits resulting from the use of digital games seems to be the most research-supported. Many studies performed by researchers such as Bavelier, Green, Dye, and others showed improvements in attention, optimization of attentional resources, integration between attentional and sensorimotor areas, and improvements in selective and peripheral visual attention (Paulus, Marron, Sobera, & Ripoli, 2017). Boot and his colleagues (2008) explored similar variables in their work and found participants improved in task switching and visual tracking. In summary, evidence suggests video game players show improvements in selective attention, divided attention, and sustained attention. Finally, McDermott, Bavelier, and Green (2014) observed their research participants showed evidence of greater speed of processing and enhanced visual short-term memory when compared to a control group.

“Students learn better when they assume ownership of the process, take the initiative, and direct their own learning.”

Skill Builders

There are numerous studies that explore the relationship between problem solving and game play. After all, most games have a problem or challenge for the player to face and overcome. The researchers assessed their problem-solving ability by examining the types of cognitive, goal-oriented, game-oriented, emotional and contextual statements they made. They found that younger children seemed to create short-term goals as they played games, while older children examined the problem as a whole. (Blumberg, Ismailer, 2008) Well-designed, content-deep games supported in-depth learning, as well as developed investigative, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. (Clark, Tanner-Smith, Hostetler, Fradkin, & Polikov, 2017) Games are also ideal for skills acquisition and retention.

As for student achievement, many studies support that games contribute to academic success. They can increase scores on achievement tests, (Posso, 2016) they can improve learning achievement (Hwang, Wu, & Chen, 2012) (Sitzmann, 2011)

Learner Ownership and Agency

Students learn better when they assume ownership of the process, take the initiative, and direct their own learning. (Savery, 1998; Zimmerman & Schunk, 1989) In a literature review conducted by Nousiainen and Kankaanranta (2008), learners that succeeded through gameplay felt ownership in the final outcome, meaning they felt responsible for their learning and accomplishments.

Student agency refers to the degree of freedom and control that a student has to perform meaningful actions in a learning environment. Dalton (2000) reported that 56% of students who participate in online courses sensed a lack of interactivity; they were not active learners with the freedom of choice. Well-designed games, however, encourage students to adapt and design learning and teaching styles most suitable to them, which in turn leads to a more active role in learning. (Klopfer et al., 2009) Sawyer and colleagues experimented the impact of student agency on learning and problem-solving behavior in a game-based learning environment. They found that students showed significant learning gains when offered the freedom and control to learn on their own with some guidance. Game-based learning practitioners should allow learning to take place in an environment that provides freedom and ownership for learners.

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At Amplify, we are committed to the educational potential of learning through digital gameplay. Aqua is a new kind of reading curriculum in development by the Center for Early Reading at Amplify. It is a reading adventure that gives students practice in phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension through games. Learn more.

Sources

Blumberg, F., & Ismailer, S. (2008). Children’s problem-solving during video game play. In F. C. Blumberg & S. S. Ismailer (Cochairs), What do children learn when playing video games? Symposium paper presented at American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.

Boot, W., Kramer, A., Simons, D., Fabiani, M., & Gratton, G. (2008). The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica 129, pp. 387–398.

Clark, D., Tanner-Smith, E., Hostetler, A., Fradkin, A., & Polikov, V. (2017). Substantial integration of typical educational games into extended curricula. Journal of the Learning Sciences.

Hwang, G., Wu, P., & Chen, C. (2012). An online game approach for improving students’ learning performance in web-based problem-solving activities. Computers & Education (59) 4. Pp. 1246–1256.

Ke, F. (2009). A qualitative meta-analysis of computer games as learning tools. In R.E. Ferdig (Ed.). Effective electronic gaming in education (Vol1, pp.1-32). Hersey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., & Salen, K. (2009). Moving learning games forward. Cambridge, MA: The Education Arcade.

McDermott, A., Bavelier, D., & Green, S. (2014). Memory abilities in action video game players. Computers in Human Behavior 34, pp. 69–78.

Nousiainen, T., & Kankaanranta, M. (2008). Exploring children’s requirements for game-based learning environments. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction.

Paulus, M., Marron, E., Sobera, R., & Ripoli (2017). Neural basis of video gaming: A systematic review. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

Posso, A. (2016). Internet usage and educational outcomes among 15-year-old Australian students. International Journal of Communication.(10).

Savery, J. (1998). Fostering ownership with computer supported collaborative writing in higher education. In C.J. Bonk & K.S. King (Eds.), Electronic collaborators: Learner-centered Technologies for literacy, apprenticeship, and discourse (pp.103-127) Mahwah, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Sawyer, R., Smith, A., Rowe, J., Azevado, R., & Lester, J. (2017). Is more agency better? The impact of student agency on Game-Based Learning. The IntelliMedia Group.

Schaaf, R. (2012). Does digital game-based learning improve student time-on-task behavior and engagement in comparison to alternative instructional strategies? Canadian Journal of Action Research,13(1), 50-64.

Schaaf, R., & Mohan, N. (2014). Making schools a game worth playing: Digital games in the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA.| Corwin.

Sitzmann, T. (2011). A meta-analytical examination of the instructional effectiveness of computer-based simulation games. Personnel Psychology 64. pp. 489-528.

Thangagiri, B., & Naganathan, R., (2016). Online educational games-based learning in Disaster Management Education: Influence on educational effectiveness and student motivation. Eighth International Conference on Technology for Education.

Vogel, J., Vogel, D., Cannon-Bower, J., Bower, C., Muse, K., & Wright, M. (2006). Computing games and interactive simulations for learning: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(4), pp.229-243.

Wolfe, J. (1997). The effectiveness of business games in strategic management course work. Simulations & Gaming 28(4), pp. 360-376.

Yu, F., & Hsiao, H. (2012). Exploring the factors influencing learning effectiveness in Digital Game based Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, (15) 3. pp. 240-250

Wouters, P., van Nimwegen, C., van Oostendorp, H., & van der Spek, E. D. (2013, February 4). A Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive and Motivational Effects of Serious Games. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication.

 

 

 

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The Research Supporting Digital Gaming and Learning Part 1: The Gamer’s Brain

BraininHands_istock
By Ryan L. Schaaf

 

This post originally was posted here. Reposted with permission from Amplify Games.

Preface

There are literally thousands of research studies, books, web articles, and news reports examining the effectiveness of games during the learning process. Some of these sources are research-based, some are first hand experiences or accounts, while others are formed on opinions or even sophistry. The truth is the analysis of gaming’s efficacy during the learning process are still evolving.

As often as we witness the digital generation’s love of games and the amazing societal, technological, and cultural impact they usher in, there remains the need for evidence of their success as learning tools, or even learning environments.

Do playing games, both learning and commercial, both digital and non-digital, both long-form and short-form, promote learning? There is a substantial amount of research on gaming and learning – so much so that this post will be delivered in two parts. The first part, entitled The Gamer’s Brain, examines what scientists, researchers, and educators have observed about the relationship between digital gameplay and the human brain. The second part entitled The Gamer’s Gains: Evidence of Efficacy examines many of the recent studies and analyses that demonstrate the potential for learning with the use of digital games. The links and citations for each study, report, or data source will be listed below and linked at the end of each snippet.

The Gamer’s Brain

It is essential for educators and researchers to explore the human organ responsible for learning – the brain. Learning during the gaming experience provides information and experiences in a manner that promotes brain-based learning.

First, gameplay accesses many regions of the brain associated with learning. When a gamer is engaged in gameplay, they are receiving information through their eyes into their occipital lobes. This region of the brain is associated with visual perception, color recognition, object movement, reading and comprehension, and depth perception. Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, notes that fast-paced, action games can retrain the visual cortex to gain a better understanding of the visual information it receives. (Achtman, Green, & Bavelier, 2008) Video game play also augments grey matter in brain areas crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory, and motor performance. (Kuhn, Gleich, Lorenz, Lindenberger, & Gallinat, 2013)

As humans, we are all inherently visual learners (with the exception of individuals with visual disabilities). The human eyes are nature’s greatest cameras. They collect 72 gigabytes (the size of a computer hard drive in the early 2000’s) of information every second. Human eyes contain 70% of our body’s sensory receptors (Cartier-Wells, 2013), which allows them to process the meaning of images 60,000 times faster than that of text. (Burmark, 2002) The digital game experience uniquely accesses visual learners, because, in most games, it is the main method of information transfer to the player.

Additional human senses and brain regions are extensively accessed during digital gameplay. Information received or transmitted through sounds are processed in and routed through the temporal lobes, which are associated with auditory processing, language comprehension, memory, and speech.

Digital games do an amazing job of transmitting high-quality, highly expressive, realistic, multisensory experiences—sight, sound, and touch (and likely in the near future smell and taste). They provide gamers with experiences more immersive than watching a video or listening to audio. Gamers are engaged in these virtual worlds and their appetites to learn and explore are incredibly ravenous.

In the past, the brain was believed to be composed of an unalterable, unchanging structure. However; the scientific community has discovered that repetitive experiences can alter the brain’s structure and rewire it.

“Neuroplasticity is the process of ongoing reorganization and restructuring of the brain in response to intensive inputs and constant stimulation” (Jukes, McCain & Crockett, 2010). Video games provide these repetitive situations and experiences across the different game types, platforms, and genres. They provide constant stimulation for students to learn from using multiple forms of sensory input such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. (Schaaf & Mohan, 2014)

The challenging nature of games also makes learning with them particularly rewarding. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is associated with intense pleasure, is released as a reward in response to conquering a challenge such as making a prediction, choice, or action, and receiving feedback that it was correct. Gamers want to repeat this neurotransmitter release, so they advance through more challenging experiences. Unfortunately, if a challenge is too easy, then the Dopamine release doesn’t occur, and the player loses interest in the game (Willis, 2011).

Digital games have the potential to provide powerful learning experiences to the gamer’s brain. They transmit visual, auditory, and even tactile information in a compelling manner, so more regions of the brain are accessed during gameplay. They provide information in a manner that helps to restructure (and even retrain) the human brain neurologically. Finally, gameplay offers the opportunities for the brain to reward perseverance, tenacity, and learning through conquering challenges with a pleasurable neurochemical release.

Sources

Achtman, R.L. & Green, C.S. & Bavelier, D. (2008). Video games as a tool to train visual skill. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. 26. 435-46.

Burmark, L. (2002). Visual literacy: Learn to see, see to learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Cartier-Wells, A. (2013). The social revolution – Remember me.

Jukes, I., McCain, T., & Crockett, L. (2010). Understanding the digital generation: Teaching and learning in the new digital landscape. Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada: 21st Century Fluency Project.

Kuhn, S.,Gleich, T. , Lorenz, R., Lindenberger, U., & Gallinat, J. (2014). Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: Gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game. Molecular Psychiatry (19). pp. 265–271.

Schaaf, R., & Mohan, N. (2014). Making schools a game worth playing: Digital games in the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA.| Corwin.

Willis, J. (2011). Neuroscience insights from video game & drug addiction. Psychology Today.

 

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Gaming Uncategorized

Setting the Record Straight: The Difference Between Digital Game-Based Learning, Gamification, and Other Related Buzzwords

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By Ryan L. Schaaf

 

This post was originally posted here. Reposted with permission from Amplify Games.

As more and more educators consider using games in their learning programs, they must understand all of the nuances involved. Today, the buzzwords in education are gamification, play-based learning, gaming, game-based learning, and digital game-based learning. There are some popular misconceptions about these terms. This post will set the record straight and give potential game-based learning facilitators helpful definitions for the terminology they may encounter. What follows next is some clarifying explanations to help refine meaning and eliminate some of these frequent misconceptions.

Play

Play is a highly creative process, using both the body and mind. Its definition is flexible, and may or may not involve goals. Bruce (2011) describes play as, “a spontaneous and active process in which thinking, feeling, and doing can flourish; when we play we are freed to be inventive and creative. In play, everything is possible with reality often disregarded and imagination and free-flow thinking taking precedence.”

Learning philosophies and educational theories such as Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, and Lev Vygotsky all recognize the value of children using play for self-teaching and its important role in a child’s cognitive development.

As parents and educators, we must provide our kids with more opportunities to play. After all, George Dorsey said it best, “Play is the beginning of knowledge”.

Games

What exactly is a game? Have you ever tried to define what a game is? We know games come in many varieties and genres. Karl Kapp, Professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University, defines games as, “a system in which players engage in an abstract challenge, defined by rules, interactivity, and feedback, that results in a quantifiable outcome often eliciting an emotional response” (Kapp, 2012, p.7). Futurist, author, and gaming guru Marc Prensky also dissected their components. Games have “rules, goals and objectives, outcomes & feedback, conflict/competition/challenge/opposition, interaction, and representation of story” (Prenksy, 2007, pp. 5-11). Whether simple or complex, single or multiplayer, or collaborative or competitive, games have many common characteristics:

  • Challenge — the problem or scenario presented to the player to overcome.
  • Rules — the structures, boundaries or freedoms provided to players during gameplay.
  • Interactivity — the actions or processes players undergo during gameplay.
  • Feedback — the reaction of player interaction. Feedback can provide rewards for successful gameplay or consequences for mistakes.
  • Conflict — the in-game challenge, friction, or opposition between players, the game system, or rules.
  • Goals / Outcomes – Goals represent the player’s end desired result. Outcomes represent the end results such as a win, lose or draw.

Game-Based Learning (Digital and Non-Digital)

The quick and dirty definition of game-based learning is simply learning through the use of games, both digital and non-digital. Players learn or review academic content during gameplay. For example, Food Truck (pictured below).

FoodTruck_scrn_01 Copy

Food Truck is a phonics game from Aqua, where students practice “chopping” blends, ending sounds (rimes), and whole words into beginning sounds (onsets), ending sounds, and individual letters to create orders for their hungry goblin customers.

Game-based learning promotes a student-centered approach to instruction. This approach allows teachers to step out of the spotlight and become learning guides rather than the source of all information in the classroom. Many students today would rather not be lectured to, or receive information from a single source. Rather, they prefer to generate their own knowledge from the readily available resources (digital and human) around them.

Gamification

Gamification (or what Jane McGonigal often referred to as gameful design) is an emerging field of practice that involves the use of game design and mechanics into non-gaming situations. We experience gamified situations like this daily.

Have you ever played the MacDonald’s Monopoly game? Is buying a burger or milkshake a game? No, but creating a system-based mental construct that entices players to buy more food for the opportunity to win a million dollars sounds much more appealing.

Do you belong to the Starbuck’s Rewards program — a program that gives you a stamp for every Soy-based Latte you buy? How does this reward you? It provides the consumer with a free drink after so many purchased drinks.

Both of these consumer programs are popular examples of gamification.

Have you ever created a bracket for March Madness? Or raced a spouse to finish cleaning the house or running errands? Or read a story-based book to that asked you to make a decision amongst a few choices? For example, should you visit the wizard, follow the path to the left, or cross the river?

Gamification has many structural elements. In the classroom, they may include the following (adapted from Kapp, 2012)

  • Creating a compelling storyline or narrative — Powerful stories draw us in. When used in the classroom, gamification becomes a means of immersing students into an engaging narrative. Classroom imagination and storytelling spawn a new and exciting mental construct. Students are transported from their classrooms into a storyline. The content, assignments, assessments, and even the classroom procedures all take on the attributes of the storyline.
  • Autonomy — In a game, players receive a great deal of power to make decisions and succeed or fail by their own choices. Educators must look for ways of placing the powerful decisions in the hands of their learners.
  • Mastery of skills — Games allow players to experience them over and over again to master skills or review content. Repetition is a powerful learning strategy.
  • Immediate feedback — Games provide both positive and negative feedback in a timely manner. This fast-paced response allows the players to adapt quickly and overcome learning challenges.
  • Collaboration — Games promote teamwork and community. The individual needs of the players are replaced by a combined focus on common goals.
  • Competition — The conflict and challenge between individual players or teams.
  • Problem-solving — Games provide problems for the player to solve. The problems cannot be too easy, or the player will lose interest. If the game is too hard, then players will become frustrated and give up.
  • Differentiated learning experiences — Games can progress from easy challenges to harder ones. They can offer the right level of challenge based on the current skillset or ability of the player.
  • The use of badges, points, and leaderboards — Games often provide players with data to determine how they are progressing. Badges, points, and leaderboards are a few examples providing feedback to the player. Although these mechanisms are often lower-level strategies, they are easy to implement and augment a gamification initiative when combined with other strategies (as listed above). (Schaaf, Mohan, 2016)

Game-Based Learning vs. Gamification

Game-based learning and gamification are not the same. Although each of these strategies has the potential to invigorate learning, game-based learning and gamification are distinctly different approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment. Remember, game-based learning involves the player learning or reviewing content or developing skills as they play a game. Gamification or gameful design involves the use of gaming elements in a non-gaming scenario. This graphic, provided by my friend Steve Isaacs, summarizes of differences between the two terms. Of course, it is always up to how the educator is using the game or bits of a game in the context of learning to truly make the distinction between both strategies.

Game-Based-Learning-and-Gamification

Sources

Bruce, T. (2011) Cultivating Creativity: for babies, Toddlers and Young Children. London: Hodder.

Kapp, K. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

Prensky, M. (2007). Digital game-based learning. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House 5-11.

Schaaf, R. & Mohan, N. (2016). Game on: Using digital games for 21st century teaching, learning, and assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

A special thank you to Steve Isaacs (@mr_isaacs) for the use of the infographic!

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Digital Learning Disruptive Innovation Uncategorized

The Death of Reading As We Know It

Screen Shot 2017-12-04 at 5.21.21 PM

What follows is a message that everyone needs to hear regardless of how close they might be to retirement. Most of the people reading this post grew up communicating with text. That’s why today, most schools continue to focus primarily on learning how to communicate with text. Meanwhile, quite some time ago, in the world outside of school, communicating solely using text was superseded by visual communications.

The younger generations have been raised on multimedia. For them, visual communications have become the new standard –  the new normal. And things haven’t stopped there. The world has moved even further – beyond visual communication to a new video standard. Students today are using video production tools that as little as ten years ago would have cost millions of dollars to buy – but which today are free or inexpensive.

The younger generations’ world has fewer words and a greater number of images.

As a result, the younger generations’ world has fewer words and a greater number of images. Their brains are wired for the fast delivery of content, data, and images from computers, video games, and the Internet. This is why students are quickly moving beyond Google to YouTube. Current research had clearly demonstrated that unless you’re in the top 10% of readers and writers, you learn far more quickly and efficiently – and you retain far more information – by watching a video and then talking about what you’ve learned as opposed to writing an essay about it.  Case in point is the eight-year-old boy from Ohio who taught himself how to drive on YouTube, then packed his young sister into the car and drove successfully to McDonald’s without incident.

What’s known as picting or pixting – taking pictures and video rather than writing and reading – is increasingly the literacy of today’s youth. To the younger generations, words are an add-on – images are primary. In K–12 classrooms, today’s students spend 90 percent of their time with text-based materials – and 10 percent of their time with image-based materials. Outside the K–12 classroom, they spend 10 percent of the time with text-based materials – and 90 percent of the time with image-based materials using Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and dozens of other easy to use apps.

As just one small example, about 30 percent of millennials in the United States visit the Snapchat app at least 18 times per day – and they spend roughly 30 minutes a day using Snapchat – and about 10 hours and 39 minutes each day consuming media – or approximately 65% of their waking hours. The same trends toward visual learning show that games outperform textbooks in helping students learn fact-based subjects such as geography, history, physics, and anatomy, while at the same time games also improve visual coordination, cognitive speed, and manual dexterity.

That’s why some schools are now opting not to teach handwriting – and instead they’re letting learners use digital devices to record their progress using a range of different media. Many kids are completely immersed in the world of full motion video that they watch for both entertainment and to learn. And as a result, in less than a generation, many of our students have moved from simply being viewers or consumers of media to being prosumers of media – simultaneously consuming and producing media.

Amongst the younger generations, visual communication is challenging the supremacy of traditional reading & writing.

So what’s my point? You might not like what I’m going to say next, but you need to hear this. You need to understand that amongst the younger generations, visual communication is increasingly challenging the supremacy of traditional reading and writing. While reading and  writing will always have a place, in an increasingly visual world, visual communication and design must be an everyday part of the curriculum. Not just for senior students – but for students at every grade level and in every subject area.

Modern digital media has fundamentally changed the essential skills we all need to be informed consumers and producers of media in the world today. Students and teachers alike must be able to communicate as effectively in multimedia formats as we, the older generations, were taught to communicate with text and speech when we were growing up. Don’t get me wrong – the 3 R’s are still essential, but in the modern world, traditional literacy is no longer enough.

We all need to understand how differently modern readers read digital text from the way the older generations read traditional paper-based text. As a result both students and teachers alike need to understand modern information communication skills such as the principles of graphic design as well as how typography  shapes thinking – the effective use of colour – the principles of photo composition -sound production techniques – and the fundamentals of video production – not to mention how we use all of these skills to effectively communicate to different audiences.

The bottom line is that in the new digital landscape, traditional literacy – traditional reading and writing – is no longer enough. There are new basics of modern communication needed by all of us – not replacing traditional reading and writing…at least not yet – but rather augmenting traditional communications skills. As a result, in the very near future – for all of us – expressing ideas by creating a simulation or video is going to be as important if not more important than being able to write an expository essay.

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Uncategorized

Why Are We Called Committed Sardines?

Committed Sardine Logo 2

 

Nicky and I live a very busy and full life of travel and talk, so whenever we start feeling overwhelmed by our schedule, there’s a place we like to visit. It’s the Monterey Aquarium in Monterey, California – the world’s greatest aquarium in our opinion. We were there recently, and after we paid for our tickets, we walked inside. On the right-hand side, there’s a gift shop where they play a video about the Blue Whale.

The Blue Whale is largest and at 190 decibels, the loudest mammal on Earth. A Blue Whale weighs more than a fully loaded 737. It is the length of 2 1/2 transport buses put an end to end. It has a heart size of Volkswagen Beetle, a tongue 8 feet long; and it weighs more than 25 elephants. A baby Blue Whale is estimated to gain 15 pounds an hour in its first year of life. A very little known fact about the Blue Whale is that it is so mammoth that if it is swimming in one direction, and wants to turn and go in another direction,  it takes a Blue Whale 3 to 5 minutes to turn 180 degrees. There are a lot of people in education today who draw a strong parallel between the Blue Whale and our existing school systems. Both seem to take forever to turn around.

But if you walk past the video on the Blue Whale, turn to the left and walk on for about 50 yards, you come to what we consider to be the absolute center piece of the aquarium. It’s a ten-story, all glass tank, inside of which the aquarium staff has placed many of the creatures that are indigenous to the Monterey Bay. If you’ve ever read John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, you will know that a century ago every year in the inner Monterey Bay, there used to appear schools of fish – actually they were schools of sardines  -that were the length, width, and depth of city blocks. Schools of sardines that had a mass, not of one, two, or three Blue Whales, but of a thousand.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. Indeed it the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead

But there’s a fundamental difference between the way a Blue Whale turns around – three to five minutes – and the way a school of sardines turns around – instantly. How do the sardines do it? How do they know when to turn? Is it ESP? Is it Twitter? Are they using Facebook or Snapchat? Because we were curious, we walked up to the tank and pressed our noses against the glass and stared at the massive school of sardines that was swimming around inside.

At first, the sardines appeared to all be swimming in the same direction. However, after a while, as our eyes adjusted to the light, we began to realize, slowly at first, that at any one time, there would be a small group of sardines that were swimming in another direction – and when they did this, they caused conflict, discomfort, and distress.

But finally, when a critical mass of truly committed sardines was reached – not 50 or 60% of the sardines who wanted to change – but 10 to 15% who truly believed in change – the rest of the school instantly turned and followed. This is exactly what has happened over the past few years with our perspectives about things such as tobacco, the unacceptability of drinking and driving, the emergence of social media, or concern about climate change. Each one of these shifts in attitude was an overnight success that was years in the making even though they seemed to happen overnight.

 

Our question is – who amongst you is willing to become a Committed Sardine? Who amongst you is willing to swim against the flow? Who amongst you is willing to swim against conventional wisdom, against our longstanding and traditional practices and assumptions about education – and begin to move our schools, begin to move our students, our communities and our nations – from where they are to where they need to be? That’s why we’re called Committed Sardines!

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. Indeed it the only thing that ever has…Margaret Mead

The only thing worse than not being able to see, is being able to see and having no vision…Helen Keller

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Social Media Uncategorized

Social Media – the New Tobacco

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The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they are friendly nerd gods trying to build a better world. And admit they’re just tobacco farmers in t-shirts selling an addictive product to children because, let’s face it, checking your likes is the new smoking. A recent 60 Minutes exposed what is called brain hacking. 
 
How everything Silicon Valley develops is purposefully designed to make us feel compelled to check-in constantly. To make you want to use it in particular ways and for long periods of time because that is how they make their money. every time they check their phone, users are playing the slot machine – what did I get? To hijack people’s minds and form a habit. That’s right! Apple, Google, Facebook – they are essentially drug dealers. And then I thought, where have I heard this before – no I realized, oh yeah on 60 Minutes. 
 
The tobacco industry was in the nicotine delivery business. That is what cigarettes are for. Cigarettes are a delivery device for nicotine. Yup! It was never about smooth tobacco flavor – it was about the nicotine and the other drugs the tobacco industry deliberately put in to make it addictive. It was not enough just to sell you a product – people needed to be addicted to it. 
 
Every time you check your phone you are pulling that slot machine handle because you might get a reward, a text, a like – we all know the feeling, we post a picture on social media and when the likes pop-up it floods your brain with gratifying dopamine. Facebook purposely holds back the likes sometimes so that you will keep checking. 
 
How come my friends did not like that picture of my soup? What is wrong with me? Wait until we see this picture of my water bottle. It’s come to this – you do not exist until you get a 🙂 or a thumbs up or a giant thumbs up. This is why the average person interacts with their phone over 2600 times a day. It wants all your attention – all of the time. It is not a service, it is Glen Close in Fatal Attraction.  
 
A third of Americans check their phones during meals. 19% of them check it in church. Pedestrian deaths are way up because people in crosswalks looking down are getting run over by drivers looking down the whole damn country is looking down. Phillip Morris just wanted your lungs, the app store wants your soul
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Uncategorized

The Power of Gaming: A Global Phenomenon

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By Ryan L. Schaaf

 

This post was originally posted here. Reposted with permission from Amplify Games.

During sporadic times in my life, I would have labeled myself a gamer. I started with the classic Atari 2600 in the early 1980’s (no old jokes, please). As I developed through my adolescence, the video game industry continued to evolve. The Atari 2600 made way for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the NES made way for Sony’s PlayStation, the Playstation gave way to the Super Nintendo, then PC games, then the Xbox and so on.

Today, my children have access to a wide variety of game types on various platforms – access is quickly becoming less of a barrier for gameplay. Although my boys and I enjoy a wide variety of activities, we love to play games together. Games, both digital and non-digital, are an incredible draw for so many people.

Playing digital games is an immensely popular form of entertainment. Simple real-world observations will attest to gaming’s connection to our youth. Go to a restaurant such as Buffalo Wild Wings and the restaurant passes out tablets for its patrons’ children to use. And on each tablet (besides germs and BBQ sauce) are digital games ready to engage children in gameplay; allowing their parents to have a conversation that doesn’t involve Barney or the Teletubbies. This recurring pattern of turning over mobile devices to children is occurring everywhere. A quick scan at restaurants, in the backseat of cars, or in their own homes helps draw a simple, crystal-clear conclusion – our youth love to ingest media.

“Seventy-two percent of children age 8 and under have used a mobile device for some type of media activity such as playing games, watching videos, or using apps.” (Common Sense Media, 2013)

These children, the members of the always-on generation, are growing up with hundreds of ways to consume and produce information using media.

The digital games of today are visually more appealing, contain better storylines, are developed using better technology, encourage both single and team gameplay, and are easier for new players to adopt than classic games from the past. Today’s digital games are products of an incredibly powerful and awe-inspiring market that have helped spawn “a gaming culture”.

The gaming industry is a booming and lucrative one. After all, there are between 1.75 to 2.1 billion people in the world that play games (Levin, 2016; McKane, 2016). Over the years, the number of new gamers adopting the pastime has steadily increased as more and more countries embrace new technologies. Market research firm Newzoo projected global revenue would reach over 128 billion dollars by the year 2020; an overall compound annual growth rate of 6.2%. The mobile gaming sector accounts for about 42% or 46.1 billion dollars of this revenue. (McDonald, 2017)

Gaming Projected Revenue

Source: Newzoo, 2017

If we focus specifically on the United States, then the data is quite compelling and convinces us that the old barriers and stigmas associated with gaming are rapidly disintegrating. First, 150 million or roughly about 59% of people in the United States spread over a vast variety of backgrounds, ages, genders, socioeconomic statuses play games.

About 65% of U.S. households are home to at least one person who plays 3 or more hours of video games a week. (ESA, 2015)

Next, the preconceived notion that a gamer is a teenage boy playing in a dark basement at night all alone is no longer accurate. It’s true that about 99% of teenage boys do play games at least weekly – that is a no-brainer for many of us to accept. However, the surprising statistic is that 94% of teenage girls also play games weekly. (Lenhart, Kahne, et al., 2008)  Here’s a question to consider (No Googling) – What is the average age of a gamer in the United States? 10 years-old? 15 years-old? Maybe 20 or 25? All wrong – the answer is 35 years old. (ESA, 2015) So, more and more people; young and old, boy and girl, novice and expert are jumping into stories, sending game requests through social media, fighting foes, traveling through time, and finding hidden objects in an ever-expanding global culture. A culture that is growing with no signs of slowing down.

 

Categories
Gaming

Digital Games: Learning through Gameplay – A Prequel

Boy playing video games holding a control - isolated over a white background 2

This post was originally posted here. This article is reposted with permission.
By Ryan L. Schaaf

 

Have you ever observed a person playing a video game? Have you ever witnessed the intense range of emotions, extreme task commitment, engagement, and focus players experience as they smash buttons and hold on to their game controllers for dear life? My ten-year-old son, Connor, amazes me with his proficiency in playing games on the family game console or his tablet. I was guilty of starting Connor on this early path to gaming. At the ripe old age of 2, Connor was visiting Starfall.com to learn about phonics and letter recognition. This interactive site was the gateway to more advanced gaming experiences such as Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Star Wars Legos, and most recently, Minecraft.

What was truly amazing with Connor’s gameplay was the amount of content he was learning. However, this learning was a side effect of his fun. Connor discovered digital games had a lot to teach him. Similar to educational books and videos, Connor considered games an educational media format — one that will continue to evolve in its presentation and message for its players for many decades to come. In fact, Connor’s younger brother, Ben, is learning how to game. It puts some credence into the popular proverb, “the family that plays together, stays together.”

Digital games are a powerful factor in the lives of so many people. Whether we observe a committed gamer, spending 20+ hours a week playing Call of Duty or Halo; or a casual gamer, playing Clash of Clans or Candy Crush in their spare time, games are an extremely popular form of media. As gaming evolves, its purpose is changing. Games are no longer considered just an entertaining pastime. A growing body of research (which will be shared in this series) is identifying games as extremely powerful tools for modern-day teaching, learning, and assessment.

Quality digital learning games promote the development of soft skills; the skills so many educational visionaries (Sir Ken Robinson, Ian Jukes, Sugata Mitra, Tony Wagner, and Marc Prensky to name a few) identify as being crucial for our children to develop in order to thrive in the modern world after their academic careers are over. During gameplay, players develop skills in problem-solving, communication, perseverance, strategic planning, information processing, and adaptability to name a few.

Try to envision a scenario where the younger members of the digital generation play to learn. They would take risks, work productively alone or in groups, strive to improve, focus on a single task for an extended period of time, fail without stigma, persevere through challenges, work towards short and long-term goals, and learn through experiences rather than absorbing dry, unconnected facts – all while having fun during the process.

Today’s generations have become experts at analyzing gameplay, interpreting storylines, and ingesting raw game data. If parents and educators could take advantage of gaming’s popularity and positive attributes during learning, then edification would become an epic journey for our children.

Many living in Connor’s generation, the digital generation, will never experience a world without Mario, Master Chief, or The Sims. Outside of schools, they play hours of video games each week. While playing these games in their spare time, they are extremely focused, they take on all challengers, work collaboratively, solve problems, receive instant feedback and gratification, and ingest and retain a large amount of information quickly with amazing accuracy during recall. If these attributes can be transferred to academics, then we will cultivate a generation ready to take on the world.

This post is the first in a 12-part series entitled Digital Games: Learning Through Gameplay. In this series, parents, educators, and other stakeholders invested in the success of the digital generations will: examine the ubiquitous, pervasive nature of digital games and their grasp upon the digital generations.

-define the essential vocabulary associated with digital games, digital game-based learning, gamification, and other related terms.

-analyze the current research related to digital gaming and learning.

-compare and contrast the various platforms digital games are played on and their potential for individual, small-group, or large-scale digital game-based learning implementation.

-examine the criteria for selecting quality digital games for instruction.

-analyze the various ways digital games can be used by learners at home or incorporated into classroom instruction at school.

-observe testimonials of digital game-based learning in various academic programs.

 

Please join us as we dive headfirst into the educational potential of learning through digital gameplay