Designing Learning Games, Part 1: Evaluate Games. Generalization & Game-Based Learning: What Parents & Educators Need to Know - LearningWorks for Kids. One of the most common themes I hear about in my clinical practice is inconsistent learning. “Jacob knew all of his spelling words when we studied them at home last night, but received a 60 on his spelling test’” or “Emma knows where every American Girl doll is in her room, but can’t find her homework in her backpack.” While some of the inconsistencies we see in children can be attributed to motivation and memory, much of it is directly related to difficulties with generalization. Psychologists define generalization as the transfer of an action learned in one setting to a different setting, so that individuals are fully able to utilize the skills they have learned in one environment in various settings, with other people, and with different materials.
Generalization is one of the transcendent themes of learning and education. Parents use the concept of generalization on a daily basis to help their kids learn skills across various settings. Playing Games in the Classroom. Games in Education: Teacher Takeaways. This August I attended the Games in Education Symposium, a free, two-day event held in upstate New York. Co-presented by 1st Playable Productions, it focused on practical implementations of game-based learning for K-12 teaching. Much of what I learned there has made its way into my lesson planning for this current school year. Game design professor and Multiplayer Classroom author Lee Sheldon gave the first day's keynote address. He spoke about what teachers should look for in learning games. To a teacher, the marketplace can be bewildering. Sheldon suggested seeking "balanced" games -- a middle ground where learning and fun intersect. Paul Darvasi gave the second day's keynote about alternate reality games (ARGs).
Students as Designers There were several workshops about teaching game design. I learned more about the basics of paper prototyping, the paper-and-pencil testing of game mechanics prior to being digitally rendered. Have a low barrier to adoption (no technology needed!) The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning. MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning How can games unlock a rich world of learning?
This is the big question at the heart of the growing games and learning movement that’s gaining momentum in education. The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning [PDF] explains key ideas in game-based learning, pedagogy, implementation, and assessment. This guide makes sense of the available research and provides suggestions for practical use. The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning started as a series of blog posts written by Jordan Shapiro with support from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and the Games and Learning Publishing Council.
We’ve brought together what we felt would be the most relevant highlights of Jordan’s reporting to create a dynamic, in-depth guide that answers many of the most pressing questions that educators, parents, and life-long learners have raised around using digital games for learning. Here's a preview of the table of contents: Gamifying Education: Do We Know How to Gamify the Classroom? Gamification in many parts of education is a sham. Listening to the researchers and experts in this area has convinced me of that.
If you’re interested in making your classroom more intriguing and powerful, read on. We can do better. Who Is Shaping The Gamifying Education Conversation? In this week’s conversation with Australian Gamer and researcher Lauren Ferro we all went on a bit of a rant about the ridiculous state of badges in education.Teacher Alice Keeler uses games all the time (and doesn’t give grades).Sixth grade teacher Michael Matera reinvented his whole sixth grade classroom as a Games Based classroom and shares how he did it.A Higher Ed Panel had a powerful conversation for why we need games in highered. (Jackie Gerstein, Beth Ritter-Guth, Alice Keeler, Lauren Ferro and Lee Graham)Colin Osterhout shares how to do Minecraft for beginners if you want to start.Pete Rorabaugh inventor of Twitters vs.
I have 3 take aways from the learning so far: The first is Game Mechanics.