Group items tagged

What if instruction could actually engage students and get them excited about learning? What if school could foster student creativity and support their expanding imaginations? What if educators around the world had the tools to provide students with the 21st century skills to imagine and create their own futures in our ever-changing global society? Education innovation is in full creative flower at Quest to Learn, a New York City public middle and high school. As the Guidance Counselor and Wellness Coordinator, I support the groundbreaking and effective teaching and learning that takes place here, nurturing social and emotional learning (SEL) as well as 21st century skills like inventiveness, risk taking and collaboration.

University of Wisconsin game-based learning scholar Constance Steinkuehler talks about her research on online video games and literacy, and how learning skyrockets when students are passionate about the subject matter. Steinkuehler is currently serving as a White House policy analyst, shaping the Obama administration's efforts to encourage development of games that improve health and education.

This blog post discusses the basics of game based learning and takes a look at current game based learning projects incorporating games designed for education as well as popular off the shelf titles.

Abstract: New information technologies make information available just-in-time and on demand and are reshaping how we interact with information. Meanwhile, schools remain in a print-based culture and a growing number of students are disaffiliating from traditional school. Video games are emblematic of this paradigm shift toward a digital culture and may have potential as a medium for instruction. This case study investigates one enactment of a video game-based curriculum and explores the nature of learning within game-based environments. Specifically, it describes how fictional elements situated the learning experience and induced academic practices, the nature of student-created inscriptions influenced emergent understandings, and the game-based curriculum's game design features pushed students' conceptual understandings, and how learning through a technology-enhanced curriculum triggered students' identities as independent problem solvers. The implications for librarians in a world where teachers and students are designers and creators of information are discussed.

Daniel Floyd's video on Video Games and Learning featured in Mark Chen's HP Catalyst Academy's Crash Course in Gaming. The video provides a strong context for the value of tangential learning provided by games. It is presented in an 'in plain english' style.

20 blogs dedicated to game based learning.

This blog post features the top 10 online learning communities for educators involved and interested in game-based learning. Join a community and get involved :)

As mentioned in my last post, I am planning to gamify next Fall's first-semester FYC course, using Interactive Fiction (IF) and the multiplayer classroom model. The decision to do so came completely independently of a new MOOC that started this past week that focuses on Games Based Learning (GBL).

This white paper by Dr. Chris Haskell highlights the benefits of incorporating gamification principles through quest based learning in schools.

Game to Learn supports learning in the classroom and is reaching out to educators across the globe for anecdotal accounts of successful uses for games in education.

Worth having this list of blogs at the ready if you are interested in Games in Learning!

One of the many tremendous resources offered by Jerry Blumgarten including sites to articles on games in learning, sites including learning games, etc.

From Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001)

This playlist put together by Diedre W. puts all 13 of James Gee's Principles of Game Based Learning together in order. These videos were presented in the Coursera Video Games and Learning MOOC from Wisconsin State facilitated by Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler.

"In this chapter, we (Steinkuehler and Squire) review studies of videogames and learning, organized in terms of the functional roles in which videogames are typically positioned: (2.1) as content providers, (2.2) as bait for other forms of valuable intellectual activity, (2.3) as vehicles for assessment, or (2.4) as architectures for engagement whose design characteristics can be applied to other content and/or activity domains. We close with a discussion of the recent debate on evidence and the current challenges and trends in the area." (Steinkuehler & Squire, 2013)

Imagine yourself living some two million years ago. Your survival would have been mainly through hunting and food gathering. Slowly, as the human species evolved, (around 70,000 to 80,000 years ago), they started hunting small game. The word 'game' here means any animal hunted for food. The term game was used as a medieval hunting terminology in the late 13th century. It has its origin from the old English word 'gamen' which means joy, sport, or amusement. Then, as man evolved to the agrarian stage, around 12,000 years ago, he learned to domesticate a few animals and, alongside, grow crops. This was the time when hunting started to become a sport and also a source of food. And gradually, man started inventing different types of games and sports for various purposes. Now you may wonder what the difference between a sport and a game is. A sport is usually a physical activity. But some non-physical activities like chess and bridge are called mind sports. Games, on the other hand, can be physical or mental. All sports are games, but not all games are sports.

Imagine yourself living some two million years ago. Your survival would have been mainly through hunting and food gathering. Slowly, as the human species evolved, (around 70,000 to 80,000 years ago), they started hunting small game. The word 'game' here means any animal hunted for food. The term game was used as a medieval hunting terminology in the late 13th century. It has its origin from the old English word 'gamen' which means joy, sport, or amusement. Then, as man evolved to the agrarian stage, around 12,000 years ago, he learned to domesticate a few animals and, alongside, grow crops. This was the time when hunting started to become a sport and also a source of food. And gradually, man started inventing different types of games and sports for various purposes. Now you may wonder what the difference between a sport and a game is. A sport is usually a physical activity. But some non-physical activities like chess and bridge are called mind sports. Games, on the other hand, can be physical or mental. All sports are games, but not all games are sports.

SMARTeacher is an advanced math learning software for kids grades 1-5 that uses adaptive technology to create a customized learning path for each and every user

A collection of videos covering a variety of areas within the realm of game based learning.

This open course is designed for educators who want to learn more games, simulations and game-like environments for education. It is designed for all levels of participation. We are using the matrix from Dr. Lisa Dawley's Social Network Knowledge Construction as the model for the course.