Three Ways Game-Based Learning can be a Helpful Tool

“A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.” Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World Game-based learning is fast becoming a trend in education. Teachers across the globe are experimenting with not only using games, but also game mechanics in the classroom. Games engage us. Games as Assessment: As students play games they are being assessed on their progress, provided feedback, and allowed to try again without fear of failure. Games as Engagement: Games are carefully and intentionally designed environments that create flow—the balance between challenge and progress. Authentic Learning Experiences: James Paul Gee, game-based learning advocate and guru refers to this as “situated learning.” Games can be another tool for engaging in rigorous and authentic learning.

Katie Salen on the Power of Game-Based Learning (Big Thinkers Series) Student: It's really cool school. I've never gone to a school quite like it. Student: Well, we get to design games and play each other's games, so instead of just doing work, work, work all day. Student: Well, we have the basic classes of a school, but we gave them different names, like math is called Code World. Student: We learn everything that all the other schools learn. Katie Salen: My name's Katie Salen and I wear a couple of different hats. Quest to Learn is a new sixth grade through twelfth grade public school that opened in New York City in Fall 2009, and it's a school that has the tagline, school for digital kids. So it's a school that from the ground up has been designed to leverage the kind of digital lives of kids, and it also looks at the notion of how games work as learning systems, and it's developed a pedagogical approach that delivers what we call game-like learning. Student: And then you have two goals, but one of them is impossible to get to. Teacher: Okay.

wiki SimCityEDU | Create & Share SimCity Learning Tools Gamestar Mechanic WoWinSchool / FrontPage This is a collaborative workspace for the development of instructional items for the use of MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft, GuildWars2 and others, in a school setting. Please take a moment to explore the various sections of the site and if you would like to contribute, please email Lucas Gillispie at lucas AT edurealms.com. The original focus of this project was to develop a curriculum for an after school program or "club" for at-risk students at the middle and/or high school level. This program would use the game, World of Warcraft, as a focal point for exploring Writing/Literacy, Mathematics, Digital Citizenship, Online Safety, and would have numerous projects/lessons intended to develop 21st-Century skills. All project materials, including a fully-developed language arts course, aligned to middle grades standards, is now available under a creative commons license here. PLEASE NOTE - All portions of this wiki are open and visible. -Lucas Gillispie, Project Founder and Lead Developer

Promethean Planet - Activtips by Promethean, Inc. Game-Based Learning: What it is, Why it Works, and Where it's Going Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. –William Butler Yeats Introduction Deconstruct the fun in any good game, and it becomes clear that what makes it enjoyable is the built-in learning process. To progress in a game is to learn; when we are actively engaged with a game, our minds are experiencing the pleasure of grappling with (and coming to understand) a new system. The implications of delivering game experiences for education and training are enormous. Because of good game design, more than 11 million subscribers spend an average of 23 hours per week immersed in World of Warcraft. What is Effective Game-based Learning, and Why Does it Work? When education or training feels dull, we are not being engaged and motivated. We don’t need more time in the classroom to learn how to think and perform in the face of real-world challenges. Good game-based learning applications can draw us into virtual environments that look and feel familiar and relevant. How We Learn

quietube | Video without the distractions | Youtube, Viddler, Vimeo and more Commercial / Off the Shelf Software Connected Learning Principles We are living in a historical moment of transformation and realignment in the creation and sharing of knowledge, in social, political and economic life, and in global connectedness. There is wide agreement that we need new models of education suited to this historic moment, and not simply new models of schooling, but entirely new visions of learning better suited to the increasing complexity, connectivity, and velocity of our new knowledge society. Fortunately, we are also able to harness the same technologies and social processes that have powered these transformations in order to provide the next generation with learning experiences that open doors to academic achievement, economic opportunity, and civic engagement. What would it mean to think of education as a responsibility of a distributed network of people and institutions, including schools, libraries, museums and online communities? At the core of connected learning are three values:

Non-Digital Games ExitTicket | Student Response System | Student Clickers | Exit Tickets | Classroom Response System