Category: Gaming

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assessment Gaming

Study Shows Video Games’ Impact On Face-to-face Teaching

A new study conducted by faculty at NYU and the University of Michigan has uncovered some interesting results in regard to using digital games to provide formative assessment to students during the learning process. Jordan Shapiro, an expert in gaming and learning, shares this news in Forbes.

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

In the past, I have covered many studies that look at the efficacy of game based learning. But a recent study from A-GAMES, a collaboration between New York University and the University of Michigan, is significant because it looks at the way games impact the learning experience and the relationship between teacher and student. It does this by considering how digital games support ‘formative assessment’ — a term educators and researchers use to describe “the techniques used by teachers to monitor, measure, and support student progress and learning during instruction.” It may sound fancy but “formative assessment” really just refers to the ongoing attention that all good teachers have always provided their students, monitoring student learning and offering ongoing and specific feedback.

A-GAMES stands for Analyzing Games for Assessment in Math, ELA/Social Studies, and Science. The project is one among many games and learning research projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The study, entitled “Empowering Educators: Supporting Student Progress in the Classroom with Digital Games,” was undertaken by Jan Plass at NYU and Barry Fishman at University of Michigan. Surveying 488 K-12 teachers from across the U.S., they found that “more than half of teachers (57 percent) use digital games weekly or more often in teaching, with 18 percent using games for teaching on a daily basis. A higher percentage of elementary school teachers (66 percent for grade K-2 teachers and 79 percent for grade 3-5 teachers) use games weekly or more often for teaching, compared with middle school (47 percent) and high school (40 percent) teachers.”

These numbers are more or less consistent with previous studies. particularly the Level-up Learning study that the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop issued this past fall. That study focused on teachers and how their thinking about digital games in the classroom impacts actual implementation. This A-GAMES study, alternatively, is looking in more detail at the way games impact the teacher’s ability to provide personalized attention, assessment, and feedback to individual students.

The NYU/University of Michigan study found that on a weekly basis, 34 percent of teachers use games to conduct formative assessment. What are they assessing? Facts and knowledge; concepts and big ideas; mastery of specific skills. And they are doing formative assessment with games in the same way they do it with other classroom activities: observing students in class; asking probing questions; looking over their shoulders. All of this suggests that “using digital games may enable teachers to conduct formative assessment more frequently and effectively.” Game based learning seems to be aiding and supporting existing strategies rather than radically transforming the practice of teaching.

“Formative assessment is thought of as one of the most important classroom practices to support student learning,” said Barry Fishman, professor of learning technologies at the University of Michigan School of Information and School of Education.  “And our study indicates that teachers who use games for formative assessment conduct assessment more frequently and report fewer barriers.”

One of the useful things about this new study is that it does not focus on radical disruptions to the culture of education. Nor does it focus on cost savings or efficiency–not even on student achievement. Instead, it focuses on the efficacy with which digital games enable teachers to do their jobs. Therefore, it may help to dispel some of the negative myths about game-based learning that have become obstacles to widespread implementation.

Believe it or not, the perception of video games in the classroom is not always positive. Many teachers that I’ve spoken to express a fear that games are going to replace human teachers with automated video game avatars. I’m not sure where that notion comes from. I talk to a lot of game developers and pro-tech educators and so far I’ve never met one who wants to replace teachers with robots. Most want to create tools that are help teachers to do their job with more ease and greater impact.

Still, many folks worry that there are nefarious legislators and big bank types who see technology as a way to reduce labor costs through automation. I acknowledge that such a fear is not totally absurd. I’ve read Diane Ravitch’s work and I understand why she worries about the ongoing privatization of the public school system. I see how what begins as a an effort to create a marketplace where parents have more choices could spiral into a mess of potential dangers. In fact, I’ve even argued myself that we need to stop thinking of education as a business or an industry, and stop thinking of teachers like factory workers or resources. There’s nothing hidden here. It is easy to see how our unwavering faith in the corporate mindset has created a tragic level of socioeconomic stratification.

But it is also important not to swing all the way to the polarized opposite perspective. Although lowering labor costs seems to be an inherent part of the Walmart way (which is certainly not in the best interest of our children), we should also acknowledge that financial considerations have always been part of the school conversation, even at the very beginning of the great U.S. public education experiment. It wasn’t all idealism at the start. Don’t imagine that everyone used to act in the best interest of equity, social justice, and democracy but somehow we wandered off the straight and narrow path. That’s just plain false.

While promoting her book Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession, Dana Goldstein brought renewed attention to Catherine Beecher, an early feminist educator who was not only an outspoken advocate for girls’ education but also played a pivotal role in the women’s movement by leading women into professional classroom employment.

In the 19th Century, Beecher argued that one of the reasons women would make good teachers is because they provided cheap labor. In an interview with Rebecca Traister, Goldstein explained that Beecher “needed to make this pragmatic appeal to cheapness because one of the main barriers for early education reformers was trying to make education compulsory, so that parentshad to send their kids to school. And resistance to raising taxes was the major barrier to this movement.” The economics have always been one of the biggest obstacles to equity in education.

So please don’t spout nostalgia from a meek-shall-inherit-the-earth anti-profit moral soapbox. Someone profits on pencils and blackboards and desk-chairs and lockers and magic-markers. Sure, we should watch the hucksters carefully. Be wary. They’re not to be trusted. But also, we don’t want to miss out on good innovations because we’re afraid we might get scammed. If we’re afraid to take risks and iterate, an education for reflective critical thinkers is already long lost.

Certainly I worry about the tragic impact edtech and game-based learning could have on our children were we to mistakenly prioritize the capacity to create high impact at a low cost. This criteria absolutely should not hold more weight then other factors which guarantee an education for human dignity. Were affordable scalability the only promise of game-based learning, I’d be the first to object. But that’s not the case.

Instead, game-based learning uses interactive simulation to blend content with context in such a way that students learn not only facts, but also how to use those facts in relationship with other individuals and with the world around them. What’s more, games make it easy to harness the power of play and creativity, creating a pedagogy grounded in discovery learning (hands-on exploration) instead of just direct learning (lecture, demonstration).

Now, thanks to this study, we have some evidence that game-based learning can also enable better formative assessment. Which means that it even helps facilitate the kinds of live interactions that have traditionally formed the foundation of good teaching. Remember, it is not a choice between video games and live teaching; it is a happy marriage of both.

 

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Gaming

4 Best Practices in Implementing Game-Based Learning

Using gameful design for teaching, learning and assessment is such an enticing learning approach. Student motivation and engagement are such powerful ingredients to deep learning. Yet there are also important factors educators must consider before implementing gaming mechanics in the classroom. Sam Patterson at Edutopia shares four such considerations for gameful design.

Posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Are you seeking a high-engagement makeover for some content you’re required to teach? Do you need an organizational structure for individually-paced hybrid learning? Gamification might be just what you are looking for.

Here are some truths about gamification and some tips for success.

1. The game needs to play well with students and their parents.

Your gamified lesson needs buy-in across the board. When you introduce gamified instruction, make it an event. Write a blog post, send newsletters, run an ad campaign on the whiteboard — but most of all, send clear communication home about the learning goals for the lesson and how you will be helping all students to meet those goals. Be prepared for frustration from parents and students, especially those students who are good at traditional school. This won’t always be the case, but don’t let it surprise you. School is already a game, and now you’re changing the rules. If the gamification is effective, these students can learn more, but it also might be more work for them. By communicating early and often with parents and your administration team, you can help everyone understand how this instructional modality is helping all of your students.

While I’m doing a project like this, I drop into my principal’s office and give her informal briefings. I’m excited about the work happening in my classroom, and I want her to hear about it from me. These briefings also prepare her for conversations that she might have with parents or other teachers.

2. With great data comes great responsibility.

Some of the best uses of gamified instruction involve helping students navigate a large amount of content in a self-paced, hybrid-learning environment. Once we move the teacher out of the traditional “sage on the stage” role, we have to really pay attention to assessment. When I’m running a class, I’m constantly assessing how well my students understand the lesson. I ask them questions, peek over their shoulders while they work, and sometimes I even give quizzes. Most of this assessment is formative and informal, and I adjust the class based on the results.

Thinking about the gamified classroom, I want to know where this formative assessment happens. How will I design the game experience to assess how the students are doing? The opportunity in this challenge is that I can invite my students into the assessment process. Whenever possible, I ask them to self-report their progress and understanding, which brings them into an assessment dialogue. This is real empowerment. I’m thoughtful about the types of learning I ask students to self-report on, and the process requires auditing. In the best case, while they’re engaged in playing the game, I’m looking at spreadsheets connected to the Google Forms I designed to help the students self-report. The bottom line is that you shouldn’t waste the data opportunity in the game — have a plan for how the data you collect will shape instruction.

3. A leaderboard is no fun for struggling students.

When we think about gamification, what immediately springs to mind are levels, badges, and leaderboards — the visible trappings of the game. While I can imagine an amazing leaderboard at the front of the room proudly displaying the top students in the quest to understand Romeo and Juliet, I have to pause and consider the other end of this list. I see some clear connections to behavior charts, and I am reminded of Pernille Ripp’s blog post on charts and shaming, forcing me to ask, “If I am hoping to engage my most challenged students in a gamified instructional model, would they feel supported by a leaderboard?”

Clearly-defined levels of achievement are one of the most useful aspects of gamified instruction. In fact, that is what makes it such a great way to support individually-paced hybrid instruction. The kids know which level they’re on, and they’ll talk to each other and find out where their peers are. I don’t need to make a leaderboard available to the whole class. It would send the message that I highly valued those students in the lead positions. The challenge is finding ways to celebrate all learners in your classroom, and in this case you’ll have to work against the natural mechanics of most games. We need each student to be able to win his or her own quest.

4. Play is a powerful teacher.

When we have fun in a safe social setting, our brains are ready to learn and we are fully present in that learning moment. When you approach gamified instruction, discover how you can use game mechanics and choice to have fun together. Don’t just wrap some worksheets up in the trappings of play. Get the content off the page and into a more playful space. Don’t forget the fun. Friendly opt-in contests can give kids the option to compete directly with each other. If you design levels with flexible requirements, students can develop really fun ways of working together to show their understanding. For example:

  • Write a song about factoring.
  • Create a stop-motion movie that models water’s change in state from a gas to a liquid.
  • Design a Google lit-trip detailing some part of the Underground Railroad.

In these cases, the fun comes in the form of choice and creative empowerment.

Have you gamified a lesson or unit? What best practices can you add to this list?

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Digital Learning Gaming

6 Minecraft Lesson Ideas for your Common Core Math Class

My son loves to play Minecraft. The sandbox game was just purchased by Microsoft and is still the rage with digital children. More and more teachers are starting to leverage Minecraft’s popularity and functionality to use as a tool to teach concepts in the classroom. Jim Pike via eSchool News shares six exciting ideas for incorporating the popular digital game into math instruction in the era of the Common Core.

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Last year I taught third-grade math in a whole new way. Combining elements from the wildly popular sandbox game Minecraft, I had students thinking visually and creatively about mathematical models and theories that went way beyond a typical third-grade curriculum, transforming math class into what I like to call Mathcraft.

Why Minecraft? I could say I am using Minecraft for a number of reasons, like how I find Minecraft enhances metacognition by increasing students’ memory storage capacity. The game itself creates a relatable enjoyable experience that can be internalized and shared in a community of learners. The limitations on the working memory are minimized because the gameplay itself is an extension of our visual sketchpad. Working with students they always say, “I can see it,” and when they see it they share it.

However, the real reason I use Minecraft is that the students chose it. The popularity of the game is so overwhelming and when the lesson became the engagement their attention, confidence, and motivation soared. Here are six great ways to use it in your math classroom.

1. Let students create their world.
If you have an aggressive Minecraft class, you can put them in a single world and either let them all build it by themselves, or allow all the students to build a world together. Personally, I just open up a world in MinecraftEDU (which makes it easier for the teacher since you can do things like freeze the students and transport). I don’t use worlds that have already been created, opting instead to let the kids build their own. I use MinecraftEDU as my server runner and open up the superflat world. We start building and we end up with a crazy math city.

2. Create your own visual, conceptual math world.
I’ve tried to use base ten blocks before because they’ve got a lot of great conceptional knowledge, but they’re just a nightmare to use—to get them to fit in and take out, and with the kids always messing up each other’s blocks. But with Minecraft, the blocks are digital so the kids can’t mess each other up, if you know how to manage them, and the bonus is that the students are incredibly engaged. Then you can throw in the fun part. You can let them PvP (fight) and chase each other in their world. The structures they’ve just made make a lot of fun things to hide behind, like funky-looking trees based on prime factorization or stacks of blocks in patterns that represent long division. It’s kind of a conceptual math world.

3. You can use Minecraft, even without access to computers.
We were only able to play Minecraft in the computer lab twice a week but that was perfect because I just ran math class using Minecraft as the lesson on those days. On other days, we’d be doing similar things. The kids would have graphing paper and would make their models with colored pencils and crayons and we would play math. I was really trying to teach them how to read and write algebra and to look at math as a different language.

4. Minecraft is just one creative tool in the toolbox.
In my third-grade class, we did a lot of tracking and graphing slopes, and I turned it into a maker activity as well. We learned how to read rise over run, and how to build a slope in Minecraft. Then we chopped up a bunch of different cardboard boxes and made racecar ramps at different slopes around the classroom, and ran averages on how far the racecar would travel with each slope—and this was a third-grade classroom.

5. Let the dog drive—at least sometimes.
One way to get started is just to try a whole class lesson and to see how the kids respond to it. And be prepared to let the dog drive at times—meaning when the class is playing the game, let them take control and just play. Give them their time but take yours as well. If you need a jumping-off point to get started, look for Minecraft lessons online, or see mine on the website Educade. The Parthenon lesson I created is one example. It turns algebra into a puzzle and it gives students simple instructions on how to build something cool. (There’s also a video that explains why the formulas actually work).

6. Use Minecraft to help change your classroom culture into something students love.
By far the greatest effect Minecraft has had on my students was a change in the classroom culture and attitudes about education. When we were preparing for our benchmark test I gave them ten Common Core word problems for homework. When I put them on our Edmodo page, they got mad at me. Mathcraft—at least the way I use it in the classroom—is not all in a video game. There is a lot of reading and writing of algebra and word problems. Before, they used to complain and give up when they had to do similar problems out of textbook. But now my kids turned even that part of the curriculum into a game and can not put down the pencil.

[Editor’s note: For more on Jim Pike’s use of Minecraft in the classroom, see the video, produced by Educade]

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Digital Learning Gaming

Some Struggles Teachers Face Using Games in the Classroom

Although many educators are starting to see the potential of using digital games in the classroom, there is still several barriers they must overcome they are accepted as mainstream classroom tools for deep and meaningful learning. Katrina Schwartz at MindShift offers a teacher’s accounts of the challenges they face using gaming in the classroom.

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iStock

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Teachers have long known that making content more playful can be a great way to engage students and add diversity to classroom activities. As technology becomes an ever more significant part of modern classrooms, it makes sense that teachers are using video games for everything from teaching content, to keeping tabs on learning progress, and for skills practice. In a recent survey, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center found that 74 percent of K-8  use digital games for instruction in some way and 55 percent use them weekly.

While digital games are becoming more common, many teachers still use them primarily as supplemental material or as a reward when the “real work” has been accomplished, not as the main instructional tool. Many teachers are still skeptical that students will learn mandated content from digital games well enough to prove mastery on state exams.

TIME IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER

Tony Mai experimented with some digital games in his middle school English Language Arts classroom as part of a pilot project at William McKinley IS 259,  a junior high school in New York City. His principal chose him to participate because he’s comfortable with technology and likes to play video games himself. The game, The Sports Network 2, required students to take on the roles of employees at a media company trying to market a product to a younger audience.

In addition to the virtual gameplay, students had to do offline research on solutions they could use within the game. The Sports Network 2 is aligned with Common Core ELA standards but places the skills within the context of real-life tasks. “They had to read fake email and highlight important things on screen,” Mai said. “I saw improvement with students’ ability to figure out difficult vocabulary words using context clues.” He also said students stayed more motivated.

Still, playing the game took precious time and Mai slowly started to fall behind the other eighth-grade ELA teachers on the mandated curriculum. “It does take someone who’s willing to make sure the rest of the curriculum is covered while using these games in the classroom,” Mai said. Teachers are under a lot of pressure to make sure they cover a jampacked curriculum, and that can make any game feel like one more thing to do, something extra or supplemental.

“At the end of the day, if the teachers know that their curriculum already addresses all the other standards, then they won’t feel there’s a need for the game in the classroom,” Mai said. That’s why he thinks games that have robust data tracking and clear corollaries to standards will get the most teacher buy-in. “Teachers want to be able to see the gains that students are making on a specific skill and be able to link it to a specific question or part of the game,” Mai said.

The immersive quality of the game deeply engaged students and showed them how the skills they were learning applied to the real world, Mai said. But it was those same game qualities that made him worry that he wasn’t covering the basics. The more that a game maps exactly to the standards, the less game-like it becomes, he acknowledged, and the more it resembles educational software, not a game.

Concerns about time and explicit instructional standards being met are mirrored in the Cooney Center report. “Few teachers are using learning games of the immersive variety, the kind that lend themselves to deep exploration and participation in the types of activities that set digital games apart from more didactic forms of instruction,” writes Lori Takeuchi in the report’s executive summary. “Most teachers instead report using short-form games that students can finish within a single class period. While lack of time is a likely explanation, teachers may also find shorter-form games to be easier to map to curriculum standards.”

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

Heather Robertson teaches English language learners (ELL) in a K-5 school in Wisconsin.
The district has great access to technology — they’ve gone one-to-one with Chromebooks, but the devices are mainly used for what Robertson calls “worksheets on a computer.” She’d like those setting policies and vision in schools to recognize that while online testing may have brought the devices into schools, they can be used for far more than that. “We’re so focused on our testing and we’re not going deep in our learning,” Robertson said. “We’re just really trying to get through the surface of it.”

Robertson used to teach in a less conventional district in Madison where she had more freedom to explore different teaching strategies. “The most exciting thing is that research around ELLs shows that concrete experiences are the best way for them to learn,” Robertson said. But how can teachers give students concrete experiences of abstract ideas like government? Robertson has used the digital game iCivics to help give students that virtual experience.

“Games like that allow kids to interact in an almost concrete way that is very powerful,” she said. “They take on the role of the characters and understand it in a much deeper way than they would otherwise.”

That virtual experience, paired with conversation, can be very powerful for students who are having trouble accessing the content. “I believe what English language learners need more than anything is a lot of talking and interaction,” Robertson said. “Game-playing is actually a key component of that.” She treats games a bit like she would a text, scaffolding learning around gameplay, and using students’ excitement about the game to connect more meaningfully. Kids play the game for a while and then stop and talk about it with Robertson.

“I think [games are] best when paired with reflective conversation,” Robertson said. “It’s developing the awareness of what you’re doing. The only way to really develop metacognition is to have a conversation with someone who can ask Socratic questions.”

Robertson still uses games in her classroom, because she has support from her principal, but she doesn’t feel that same commitment from the district leadership. “Localized leadership allows me to use games during intervention time, but it’s not something that’s supported broadly,” Richardson said. Despite the barriers, she pushes on with the practice because she has experienced how motivated struggling learners can be by games and how much that inspires her.

But without support it’s getting harder to hold onto that conviction. For example, this year Robertson put MinecraftEDU on her supplies list and got it approved by her principal, only to have the request held up at the district level. Another time, Robertson was invited to help develop a game-based assessment by World-Class Instructional Design and Assessement (WIDA), an assessment consortium focused on English Language Learner growth. “Which seems to me like an incredible learning experience, but I was told no because I’d already used my three professional development days,” Robertson said.

It’s these experiences that make Robertson understand why so many teachers are reluctant to step out of line or try something new. Most teacher professional development focuses on the subjects that are tested — reading, writing and math — not tools like digital games that could provide a more engaging way of teaching those things. And teachers don’t have a lot of extra time to experiment and play with unfamiliar games, let alone find quality games that suit their needs.

There are some good game-rating sites now available, but too few teachers know about them. And, when districts are actively encouraging teachers to focus on prescribed curriculum, there’s little incentive to put in the time to play around and test out more immersive games.

The obstacles to widespread teacher adoption of games as the primary means of instruction are many, but despite the struggles, many teachers do use digital games creatively to push students to think critically. Those early-adopting teachers will be the ones to inspire and teach their colleagues about what works and where the pitfalls lie as this trend grows.

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Gaming

7 TED Talks about Gaming’s Potential

TED Talks are an incredible resource for the classroom. Some talks are great for professional development for teachers, some are great for student resources, and many still are great  for demonstrating presentation/speaking skills to students. Laura Devaney at eSchool News shares seven TED Talks that explore the potential benefit of gaming and learning.

Minecraft Screenshot
Minecraft Screenshot

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

These TED Talks highlight promising and inspiring concepts, including gaming in education

Every educator needs some inspiration now and then, and these days, such inspiration can be found online in just a few seconds.

The internet brings inspiring and motivational speakers and experts to anyone with a connection and an internet-ready device.

TED Talks are some of today’s most popular examples of the internet’s power to expand learning opportunities to all.

Each month, we’ll bring you a handful of inspiring TED Talks. Some will focus specifically on education; others will highlight innovative practices that have long-lasting impact. But all will inspire and motivate educators and students alike.

1. Gaming can make a better world
Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

2. Gaming to re-engage boys in learning
In her talk, Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.

3. Your brain on video games
How do fast-paced video games affect the brain? Step into the lab with cognitive researcher Daphne Bavelier to hear surprising news about how video games, even action-packed shooter games, can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask. (Filmed at TEDxCHUV.)

4. Massively multi-player…thumb wrestling?
What happens when you get an entire audience to stand up and connect with one another? Chaos, that’s what. At least, that’s what happened when Jane McGonigal tried to teach TED to play her favorite game. Then again, when the game is “massively multiplayer thumb-wrestling,” what else would you expect?

5. How games make kids smarter
Can playing video games make you more productive? Gabe Zichermann shows how games are making kids better problem-solvers, and will make us better at everything from driving to multi-tasking. (Filmed at TEDxKids@Brussels.)

6. 7 ways games reward the brain
We’re bringing gameplay into more aspects of our lives, spending countless hours — and real money — exploring virtual worlds for imaginary treasures. Why? As Tom Chatfield shows, games are perfectly tuned to dole out rewards that engage the brain and keep us questing for more.

7. The game layer on top of the world
By now, we’re used to letting Facebook and Twitter capture our social lives on the web — building a “social layer” on top of the real world. In his talk, Seth Priebatsch looks at the next layer in progress: the “game layer,” a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce. (Filmed at TEDxBoston.)

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Digital Learning Gaming

A Third Grader’s Plea for More Game-Based Learning

 

Listen to young Cordell Steiner makes a sincere argument for using video games in the classroom in this TEDx talk. His talk introduces two positive aspects of digital game-based learning teachers can take advantage of for deep and powerful learning. Thanks to the folks at MindShift for sharing this treasure.

 

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Third grader Cordell Steiner makes a pretty convincing argument for using video games in the classroom in this TEDx talk. He describes feeling more motivated to learn and master new skills because of his eagerness to beat his own high score or finish before the clock runs out. He says he used to be bored in class when his teachers had to slow down to explain concepts, but now each student plays games intended to help him or her with specific skills they’re trying to master. He even gives examples!

Check out his call to teachers, administrators, parents and students to think differently about education.

Categories
Gaming

All Fun & Games? Understanding Learner Outcomes Through Educational Games

Teachers rely on the use of informal and formal assessment data to drive classroom instruction. However, traditional assessments can interrupt pacing and do not measure all of students’ abilities, such as their ability to collaborate with others, use of communication skills, the process of problem solving, or creativity. Kristen DiCerbo at Edutopia promotes an innovative assessment tool–educational games! The proper use of educational games can engage students in the curriculum, and yield useful data on students’ knowledge and skill abilities helping to drive teacher instruction.

posted by: Devin de Lange

Original Source

Over the past several years, there has been tremendous interest among educators in the use of digital games as serious learning. Advocates of game-based learning for K-12 students cite the value of digital games to teach and reinforce skills that prepare students for college and career, such as collaboration, problem solving, creativity, and communication.

Not as often discussed is our ability to use students’ in-game actions as evidence for the assessment of skills and knowledge, including those not easily measured by traditional multiple-choice tests.

The Potential of Games as Invisible Assessments

Traditional assessment methods often require teachers to interrupt classroom learning and administer tests. In contrast, invisible assessments make use of technology to record information about the ways students interact with learning material in a seamless manner, without interruption. Hence the term, “invisible.”

Invisible assessments such as games provide teachers, students, and parents with immediate feedback about progress, enabling them to make timely adjustments to teaching and learning approaches. They also enable educators to build models of student learning and proficiency by capturing many observations of a student over time, without the pressure of performance on a single test.

In games, educators can observe a student’s sequence of actions, time spent on tasks, multiple attempts at activities, requests for help, communication process, and so on. In other words, games allow us to examine a student’s process of problem solving, not just the final product at the end. These observations can help educators make valuable inferences regarding students’ mastery over skills, while offering new ways to assess factors not easily measured on multiple-choice tests, such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, persistence, and creativity.

It is important to note that the term “invisible” does not imply that learners or teachers do not know that assessment is happening. Rather, it implies that the actual activity of assessment is not visible, or interrupting the classroom. Just as when playing a game, players get feedback and scores as a regular, expected part of play, so with all digital learning activity, we can be providing information about proficiency and suggestions for other activity.

Game or Gamification?

Educators must be careful, however, not to confuse educational games with the “gamification” of education. Gamification is generally defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. A game, on the other hand, is a system where changing one element results in (often unforeseen) changes to many other parts of the system. There is little to no evidence that applying only selected game elements outside of a game will yield positive learning outcomes.

Quality educational games must balance engagement, assessment, and learning as three equally important components. Engagement relates to a game’s “fun factor.” Assessment is the ability for educators to gain key insights from a game regarding student abilities, and learning is the level to which a game effectively teaches skills and information. The key is to balance these factors so that games are both fun and educational, while providing the information educators need to assess and improve student outcomes.

A Look Toward the Future

A number of quality games exist today that successfully balance these factors and have tremendous potential as tools for both learning and assessment. However, much work is still needed to maximize their value, particularly in the area of integration. As of today, games and game data often exist in a silo. By making them a seamless part of curricula, there will be less of a burden on each individual teacher to determine when and how to integrate games into the classroom. By integrating the data with other gradebook-type information, teachers, parents, and students will get a richer picture of student knowledge, skills, and attributes.

While games do not fit into the current model of assessment for accountability, they do offer the opportunity to engage and attract learners while providing information useful for making immediate on-the-ground adjustments to teaching and learning plans. The potential of educational games will continue to grow as computers become increasingly ubiquitous in schools, and as game developers work ever more closely with education experts. If schools and teachers can collect and accumulate meaningful evidence from students’ everyday interactions with games and other digital tools, we have the potential to create new models of students’ knowledge and skills that expand our ability to both understand and influence student learning.

Categories
Gaming

How Digital Games Help Teachers Make Connections to Lessons and Students

Katrina Schwartz at MindShift provides readers with several examples of how teachers are integrating digital games or gamifying learning experiences in classrooms. Math, History, Science, Social Studies – games have the potential to produce powerful learning experiences for students.

Minecraft Screenshot
Minecraft Screenshot

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

It’s not unusual for educators to use analog games in the classroom, but as more classrooms gain access to technology, digital games are also making a strong showing. A recent Joan Ganz Cooney Center survey of 694 K-8 teachers found that 74 percent of those surveyed use digital games in the classroom, up from 50 percent two years ago. Many of the teachers finding the most success are good at creatively connecting the game back to the curriculum, while allowing it to maintain the qualities of a good game. These teachers are often more comfortable with games themselves, playing for fun in their spare time, and are thus more likely to see valuable classroom connections. It’s one thing to have empirical evidence that digital games are growing in popularity and another to get an in-depth look at how and why teachers see them as a valuable use of precious class time.

Introducing Global History

Zack Gilbert teaches a course called “Ancient Civilizations” at a middle school in Normal, Illinois. He’s been using game simulations in his classroom since 1995, but when he started playing the commercial game “Civilization IV” for fun he immediately recognized its potential to get sixth-graders hooked on history.

“When they’re building their first city, they have to look at the terrain around them. They have to look at the resources to see if this is a good place to build,” Gilbert said. Students often make mistakes in the game, and Gilbert has to restrain himself from trying to correct them immediately, instead letting them figure out where they went wrong. Students often build their cities on flood plains and watch as their citizens get sick and die. That experience prompts them to try a different approach next time. They now understand viscerally the devastation that choice would have brought to ancient civilizations.

“It all starts connecting,” Gilbert said. “When you get into the game it all connects to the state standards.” For example, if students build monuments in the game, they’re using math skills but also thinking about the artistic relevance of such a symbol. “You as the teacher need to know what your goal is for them, and then set them up so they can succeed,” Gilbert said. “If you have a good enough game, they’re going to gain more knowledge than you expect.”

Sandbox games are Gilbert’s favorites — there are lots of ways to win or lose, and students get to show off their creativity and critical thinking. He also thinks commercial games are some of the best tools because of their rich graphics and strong game mechanics. “Civilization IV” is sometimes criticized for not being historically accurate, but Gilbert sees that flaw as a teachable moment. “You can turn the things that might not be necessarily correct into learning experiences,” he said.

Gilbert points out that the hardest part of any teacher’s job is reaching a variety of learners, all at different stages of development and academic skill. He’s noticed that while not all his students love playing video games for class, struggling learners often come out of their shells and prove they can deliver some of the most innovative solutions. Succeeding in one area of class helps them gain confidence for other tasks, like writing and group projects.

This anecdotal observation bears out in the Cooney Center research, which found that 55 percent of teachers who use digital games report they are a good tool for motivating low-performing students. Teachers see that motivation translating into academic performance. too: 78 percent of teachers using digital games saw improved performance on curricular subjects due to gameplay, and 71 percent saw improvement in extracurricular subjects.

Like many other teachers, Gilbert says it can be hard to integrate games into the curriculum when the focus is overwhelmingly on standards and state tests. “Things are becoming more regimented in the classroom,” he said. He understands that many teachers don’t have time to rework their whole curriculum to include games, especially if they themselves aren’t comfortable with digital gameplay.

“Especially for ancient civilizations, you want to make it as exciting as you can,” Gilbert said. “This is their first real taste of history for the world; most kids have no concept of what the history is in other countries.” When playing the game, students build up their own civilizations in different time periods, making choices in five categories: government, legal, labor, economy and religion.

“It gives the kids a visual,” Gilbert said. “They’re actually acting out and making decisions on things that people who lived thousands of years ago would have had to make.” He acknowledges that games like “Civilization IV” aren’t appropriate for class use all the time and he doesn’t use them exhaustively. However, getting kids excited about the high stakes that historical figures faced is a great jumping-off point for writing assignments, discussions and interactive learning.

Gamifying Class

Students in Caryn Swark’s Grade 6 class (she teaches in Alberta, Canada) come to school and immediately find themselves immersed in a fictional world where the king has been kidnapped and they must rescue him. Students have avatars and “level up” throughout the year as they master different skills. This gamified environment is part of the class DNA, so it’s no surprise that Swark is also using digital games to help students engage and connect with the material she’s teaching.

“There’s a lot of games that are basically worksheets in disguise,” Swark said. “I try to avoid those games as much as possible. They’re not really games and kids aren’t stupid.” Like Gilbert, Swark believes there are lots of educational merits to some commercial games, especially if teachers think expansively about how to build on game narratives and skills.

Swark uses Nintendo DS games like “Professor Layton and the Curious Village,” a game that is basically like reading a novel embedded with math problems and puzzles. The first time she played it, Swark was struck by how similar some of the puzzles were to things she had asked students on worksheets. When kids play the game, they are doing lots of reading and math, but they like it.

Similarly, “Prodigy,” a commercial math computer game, is built around a wizarding world where students do battle by solving math problems. Swark wishes the math were a little more integrated, but students still find the game fun and engaging.

“Instead of thinking about a checklist of curricular needs that I have to meet, I think about how this fits into what I need,” Swark said. She has found that not only are kids more interested in what they’re learning through gameplay, but they stick with tricky problems longer, work together better and are more open to trying over and over again. The stakes are lower when a student fails within the game, and she doesn’t see any of the test anxiety that has begun to plague her students.

“Framing things in terms of gameplay helps get through blocks for kids who get to Grade 6 and are already convinced that they can’t learn,” Swark said. She’s seen her weaker students gravitate toward gameplay and make significant gains. Games are one part of her yearlong goals to break students of the notion that they will fail even when they try.

As a female teacher and a “gamer,” Swark has often found bringing games into the classroom helps her connect more to her male students. And students who are alienated socially have become popular because of their abilities to help others in games like “Minecraft.”

Swark got inspired to try games in her classroom after reading Lee Sheldon’s book, The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game, and jumped in feet first. She’s built on her success and retooled her failures, just as she’s asking her students to do with their schoolwork. Parents and administrators have been more supportive than she expected — she’s even suggested parents expose their struggling readers to fan fiction to get them reading.

But not all teachers work in such supportive environments. In those cases, or when an educator is more hesitant, Swark recommends teachers check out game-rating sites like “Graphite,” run by the nonprofit Common Sense Media, to choose games that clearly align with the grade and standards they teach. She also says it’s easier to start with overtly educational games and work up to the more open-ended games. Lastly, she says there’s a lot to learn from other educators.

“There’s a lot of people online who are doing this stuff,” Swark said. “They’re making lesson plans involving games, and you can find those. And then you don’t have to spend the time playing a video game for hours.”

Categories
Gaming

Here’s How Gamer-Teachers Use Video Games in the Classroom

 

Digital games are being used more often to teach students. An impressive 74% of K-8 teachers were using digital games in their classrooms. That number is astounding! However, another interesting tidbit reported by a study conducted by Joan Ganz Cooney Center indicated over 80% of teachers play games in their free time. Jordan Shapiro, gaming author, categories four different gamer-teacher profiles and identifies their potential classroom integration habits.

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Games are being used much more widely in schools than they were when I first started writing about them 2 or 3 years ago. As of fall 2013, 74% of K-8 teachers were using digital games. 55% of these teachers have students playing digital games at least weekly, 9% daily. The games they are using are mostly designed to be educational, with only 5% playing commercial games, and 8% playing hybrids (commercial games adapted for education like MincraftEDU orSimCityEdu).

These insights come from Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop, who recently released a study surveying K-8 teachers in order to understand how they are implementing digital games in their classrooms.

It seems the majority of teachers (82%) play games in their own free time and that there is a relationship between personal game play and in class game use.

Here are four different gamer-teacher profiles that the study identifies.

The Dabblers (20%):

Dabblers “play digital games less often than their peers” and “report relatively low levels of comfort when using digital games with their students.” This doesn’t seem surprising. One must be well acquainted with the skills one’s trying to teach. In the Guide to Games and Learning that I wrote for MindshiftKQED, I explain how important it is for teachers to play the games they are using to teach. Just dabbling won’t lead to success.

Dabblers report facing “moderate barriers” to implementation and “moderate levels of support from parents, administrators, and fellow teachers.” But I’m curious what they mean by support. Because they also report low access to professional development resources and the best kind of support that schools can offer is training and resources. Certainly Dabblers understand this, they have 15.9 years of classroom experience on average.

Interestingly, although they don’t necessarily have high confidence in the efficacy of games, Dabblers are more likely than the others “to indicate positive or no changes” rather than “negative changes” in student behavior and classroom engagement. Perhaps they are using games so rarely that they seem innocuous, just another moment in a much busier day.

The Players (23%):

Players are “avid gamers, but teach with digital games the least often of the four profiles–just a few times a month.” At first, I assumed this group must be fanboy gamers who wanted to preserve the purity of games as entertainment–that once you add educational content it is no longer a game, but suddenly work. I was wrong.

It turns out the Players “demonstrate concerted efforts” to implement digital game based teaching methods, but they report many barriers and “the lowest level of support from parents, administrators, and fellow teachers.” Perhaps these are folks who grew up playing Mortal Kombat under the early video game stigma. Maybe they’ve internalized some level of paranoia about external authorities’ perceptions of gaming in general. I’m just guessing.

The Players are the “most likely group to say that games haven’t changed student behavior or content delivery.” And on average, they’ve spent 14.5 years teaching (the national average for K-8 teachers).

The Barrier Busters (22%):

“Digital games are a common pastime” for this group. Barrier Busters use games with their students regularly–at least weekly. They “express high levels of comfort employing them in instruction.” But these Barrier Busters “face a high number of barriers.” Still, they take advantage of more professional development opportunities than the others. They use the largest variety of games/devices, and they use them both for content delivery and assessment.

I imagine these to be the rebels, the revolutionaries. These are the new rule-breakers. Gone is the old stereotype of the hippy English teacher, standing on desks and suggesting that students choose their own grades. The new cool progressive teacher found him or herself during the Silicon Valley boom. These teachers are entrepreneurial disruptors, not tie-dyed liberal activists. The Barrier Busters are motivated by innovation and the idea of overcoming barriers while taking the initiative to seek out opportunities for self improvement.

They have been teaching, on average, for 13.6 years and are “more likely than other groups to notice changes in student conflict after introducing games–for better and for worse.” It seems likely, however, that the more one implements games, the more changes one will see.

The Naturals (34%):

Naturals play games often and teach with them often–at least weekly. This group seems to take games for granted. It is not an innovation, just another teaching tool among many. Maybe they’ve already stepped into the future and integrated games, as fully as the chalkboard, into their image of what it means to teach.

Naturals “uses games to deliver core content more often than supplemental content.” Games are not a special side activity they sometimes use, but a central part of their teaching repertoire. Naturals report “the fewest barriers and the highest levels of support from the school community,” which may speak more to their perceptions than it does to the actual school circumstances.

Not surprisingly, Naturals have been teaching less than the other groups, only 12.3 years, on average. And their perception is that games just work. More than the other groups, they see the efficacy of game-based learning “in improving student knowledge, skills, and motivation.”

The full study, with great insights about how digital games are being used in the classroom is available here.

Jordan Shapiro is author of FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss, and MindShift’s Guide To Games And Learning For information on Jordan’s upcoming books and events click here.

Categories
Gaming

How to Choose Learning Games That Don’t Bore Kids

 

What makes a learning game interesting and exciting for kids?  Sophia Dalal, a Common Sense Media intern, recently interviewed her 14-year-old brother about what makes a game great for learning. She also ran focus groups with more than 20 teens to understand how they evaluate learning games. Here’s what some of these savvy kids had to say.

Source: Minecraft Screenshot
Source: Minecraft Screenshot

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Student voices shape the way we rate and review on Graphite. Common Sense Media intern Sophia Dalal recently interviewed her 14-year-old brother, Kavi, about what makes a game great for learning. She also ran focus groups with more than 20 teens to understand how they evaluate learning games. Here’s what some of these savvy kids had to say.

Q. What makes a game great for learning?

Kavi, 9th grade: There are textbooks that try to teach you things like history or algebra just with the facts. There are some games with goals to teach you things like algebra or history the same way. That’s not very exciting. I don’t play games just to input information.

Maya, 7th grade: It’s important to have a balance between learning elements and how fun a game is. It has to have an intriguing plot that makes you want to keep playing. And there have to be objectives so you always have a challenge to work for.

Joby, 8th grade: You need to have some influence over what happens in a game. In real life, are you really going to stand back and watch everything happen around you? You need to have a say in what happens. Otherwise you might as well watch a movie instead of playing a game.

Q. What’s most engaging about games?

Kavi: What’s really engaging for me is the story. All the best games build really good worlds just like a good book creates a fantastic and believable world. There’s no other type of media where you are the first person character and you have to make real-time decisions.

Tess, 8th grade: Creativity is what I love in games because I like to make things. I think Pixton is fun because you get to create comics, and you can personalize them the way you want. You have power and more control over the whole thing.

Katherine, 8th grade: I think humor makes games really engaging. With humor, you can tell that the game maker put a lot of time and thought into it.

Q. Is it important to be challenged?

Lionel, 8th grade: Competition is important. If games have competition, kids want to play them over and over until they beat the other person. They’re motivated to learn without realizing it.

Joby: The goal of a game should change over time. In Minecraft, your very first goal is to build a place to live. After that you have to go mining to get to various levels of achievement. The goal is always moving and that makes you push even harder.

Steven, 8th grade: I like a game that’s not going in a predictable sequence. A good game needs a surprise element. You don’t know if this or that is going to happen next.

Tess: Having a goal is really important. In Sims you’re building things not just to take a screen shot and say, “Yay, I built this.” You’re building for the goal of having someone live in it and have a life there.

Q. What about the look and feel of a game?

Kavi: Beauty is really important. Ugly games are an instant turn off. I’ve played games with no dialogue and no other characters. Journey is incredibly moving because the space is so beautiful. A complex environment that feels real is also important. In my opinion that’s done best when you’re plopped into a realistic 3D world, although I’ve seen it happen other ways, like by creating sound environments. They do that in Sound Shapes — an incredible learning game.

Katherine: Colors are important. If you want people to stay on a game you have to engage them with colorful graphics. When you’re looking for games to play, you’re less likely to click on the ones that are gray and boring.

Joby: The smoothness of the interface is important. If buttons are organized it’s easier to find what you’re looking for than if they’re randomly placed.

Q. Anything else?

Kavi: It’s important to remember that games are another art form, like a book or paintings or music. And I think the most important stuff you get out of a game is the same stuff you get out of art … things like emotions or appreciating beauty.

Maya: I think that a website for teachers to find sources for learning is really helpful because then they can find resources and see if people think they’re good or not and how well they teach things. And if they don’t want to pay a lot of money before they find out what the game is about, they can find out whether they really like it or not. I think that’s really helpful.

Kids’ Ideas Will Affect Graphite

We learned so much from interviewing these teens:

  • Engaging games with style are central to learning and not just a “nice to have.”
  • Personalization features and the ability to create things or make decisions empower kids and help them learn.
  • Worlds, stories, and characters that are stylistically unique draw kids in.
  • Striving to meet a goal — especially if there’s competition — can make kids try harder.

We have a similar take on games. But to hear kids echo what we’ve been thinking about — evaluating games in their own unique way — was affirming.