7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning - ELI7106.pdf
How Digital Games Help Teachers Make Connections to Lessons and Students
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. Zack Gilbert teaches a course called “Ancient Civilizations” at a middle school in Normal, Illinois.
Engaging learners through games: Help or hype?
Select games that allow room for self-paced exploration and experimentation, the author writes. “Engagement” has become a popular buzzword, as educators increasingly cite disengaged students as a problem that needs to be fixed. In this context, games are often trumpeted as the perfect tool for creating student engagement. But what do we really know about how engagement works? What opportunities and risks do games present as tools for increasing engagement? There is no standard for what “engagement” means. How student engagement develops It is useful to break down student engagement into three core elements: interest, motivation, and attention. Engagement begins with interest, which refers to a student’s inclination to use content. A student’s interest evolves from “situational interest” to “individual interest.” In the context of learning games, this means that interest in the game’s theme and trappings ultimately can lead to interest in the underlying learning content.
Students want more use of gaming technology
Results from Project Tomorrow's annual Speak Up survey reveal a disconnect between students', adults' views on technology in schools By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News Read more by Meris Stansbury April 8th, 2008 Educators are largely missing out on what could be a huge opportunity to capitalize on their students’ appetite for electronic games and simulations to teach them about core curriculum topics, results from a new national survey suggest. Project Tomorrow’s fifth annual Speak Up Survey, the largest annual survey addressing the attitudes and opinions of K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school administrators toward the use of technology in education, reveals that online or electronic gaming is one of the technologies that students use most frequently—and that educational gaming is one of the emerging technologies that students would most like to see implemented in their schools. She continued, “We are witnessing a metamorphosis of sorts. Links:
Teens, Video Games and Civics
Video games provide a diverse set of experiences and related activities and are part of the lives of almost all teens in America. To date, most video game research has focused on how games impact academic and social outcomes (particularly aggression). There has also been some exploration of the relationship between games and civic outcomes, but as of yet there has been no large-scale quantitative research. This survey provides the first nationally representative study of teen video game play and of teen video gaming and civic engagement. The survey looks at which teens are playing games, the games and equipment they are using, the social context of their play, and the role of parents and parental monitoring. Almost all teens play games. Video gaming is pervasive in the lives of American teens—young teens and older teens, girls and boys, and teens from across the socioeconomic spectrum. Fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games.
eSchool News » Researchers: Even violent video games can be learning tools » Print
NYU's Games for Learning symposium explores how people learn—and how gaming can influence that From staff and wire reports Read more by staff and wire services reports May 28th, 2010 Panelists discussed how people learn and how games can be engineered to be even more educational. You’re at the front lines shooting Nazis before they shoot you. Or, you’re a futuristic gladiator in a death match with robots. Either way, you’re playing a video game—and you might be improving your vision and other brain functions, according to research presented May 27 at a New York University conference on games as a learning tool. “People that play these fast-paced games have better vision, better attention, and better cognition,” said Daphne Bavelier, an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester. Bavelier was a presenter at a daylong symposium on the educational uses of video and computer games from NYU’s Games for Learning Institute.
Engaging learners through games: Help or hype?
By Ben L. Grimley Read more by Contributor April 4th, 2013 Select games that allow room for self-paced exploration and experimentation, the author writes. “Engagement” has become a popular buzzword, as educators increasingly cite disengaged students as a problem that needs to be fixed. There is no standard for what “engagement” means. How student engagement develops It is useful to break down student engagement into three core elements: interest, motivation, and attention. Engagement begins with interest, which refers to a student’s inclination to use content. A student’s interest evolves from “situational interest” to “individual interest.” In the context of learning games, this means that interest in the game’s theme and trappings ultimately can lead to interest in the underlying learning content.
How Video Games Save Education
I know education and I know gaming. I’ve taught middle school students for the last fourteen years, and I have struggled as most teachers do to get the next generation to participate in their learning. Students sit glazed over with bored expressions as we tell them the way to learn is completely separate from their methods of interaction with the world. Our education system was created near the beginning of the last century and had a purpose that is different than what we currently need and hasn’t been much revised since. What’s Wrong with Education- I Know, Call on Me!! Education is stuck in recycled programs we rename and trot out every few years, and standardized testing and finger-pointing and lower standards and victimhood. Books are fantastic and should never go away, but even the ways we can read have expanded. It’s obvious, kids love games, adults too. Video games, even the popular, pulpy ones contain volumes of useful information, insight and creativity. Education needs games.
