#games based learning

Interactive Games for Study Skills

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash Interactive games for study skills are a great strategy to support students’ learning objectives. Game-based learning offers benefits to students at all levels, starting with preschool education and all the way up to secondary education. They help advance problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Research has found that digital game-based learning has a…

Gamification and game-based learning are different instructional strategies, but both can work wonders for student engagement.

Oskar Almazan's insight:

Advantages of gamification:

Done right, some maintain can engage both intrinsic (pleasure and fulfillment) and extrinsic (recognition and rewards) motivation. It can engage a teacher’s own creativity in new ways, prompting them to explore new approaches to instruction and imagine whole new ways to reach their students. If you create the content, then you also control it.

Challenges of gamification: It requires time to set up quests and reward systems. Preparing these beforehand can be time-consuming at first, but very rewarding. It requires a shift in how the classroom is structured and how students progress through their learning. This may require you to let go of certain things you hold dear and replacing them with new ones.

Advantages of game-based learning:

It’s a low-risk entry point to explore the use of games, without having to redesign your classroom structure, and fits neatly into a lesson or unit much like other ed-tech tools such as the Sphero or Little Bits. Costs are relatively low. With resources such as Youtube, you don’t even need to own the video game itself, as full walkthroughs are plentiful. There are lots of existing yet specialized games to choose from. Whether it’s a video game, card game, or board game, there are many choices available. It can be isolated to a short unit or experience without impacting the rest of the curriculum if it doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped.

Challenges of game-based learning:

Click on the title and grab the Resources from a Games Based Learning Workshop for Educators at Stegi in Athens - January 2018 

A list of games that we have been using in SEN settings. Feel free to propose new games or lists!

Cleaning - Personal hygiene:

http://goet-project.eu/materials/myappearance/

http://www.cleaning-games.net/

http://www.mouthhealthykids.org/en/games-and-quizzes/visit-the-dentist-with-marty/

http://goet-project.eu/materials/quizgames/personalhygiene/en/

Travel Training: 

http://think.direct.gov.uk/education/early-years-and-primary/pupils/over-7s/play/snakes-and-hazards/

http://think.direct.gov.uk/education/early-years-and-primary/media/safest_place/

http://think.direct.gov.uk/education/early-years-and-primary/pupils/over-7s/play/codebreaker/

http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk/

Money - Shopping

http://goet-project.eu/materials/virtualstore/en/

Geography:

http://geogr.eduportal.gr/games.htm

http://www.games.gr/paixnidia/europe_map

Nutrition

http://www.brainpop.com/health/nutrition/nutrition/

Vocational training - Preparation

http://goet-project.eu/materials/quizgames/startingwork/en/

http://goet-project.eu/materials/quizgames/stressatwork/en/

Presented at the 2013 Asian Conference for Language Learning in Osaka, Japan

Find more at: http://erichawkinson.com/en/boardgames

Board games provide a social atmosphere that digital based learning environments are still having a hard time recreating.  This is in part due to the shared experiences created by playing together face to face.  Using board games in an English classroom can be a great instrument for increasing motivation among students to communicate.  It is difficult to find a game that is fun and motivating but also focuses on your intended learning goal.  Now that is possible to self-publish commercial grade board games, teachers can now create games for the classroom or home that are designed to teach and practice English communication for special and specific purposes.

Touring the Multi-School Minecraft Server

Bridges over the River Lava

Just under two weeks ago the TDSB opened a port allowing students from Highland Heights, Agnes Macphail, and the Girls Leadership Academy (GLA) to access the multi-school Minecraft server house at Ryerson University's Edge Lab.  Liam, Diana and I went on to the server and set up our class meeting areas, Liam set up a central square with ports to our different school areas so we can go between playing among ourselves or together.  The fun has just started!

After lunch yesterday, a small group of my students logged into our Multi-School Minecraft server for the first time. These kids hadn’t played multiplayer Minecraft yet, so were pretty excited to be able to build together and, let’s face it, fight each other. When we logged in, we were pleasantly surprised to see Miss Colby’s  students were also on the server. They were on the other side of the map working on their bridge projects, so we couldn’t actually see them. But we knew they were there. In reality, her students were on the other side of the city. My students were like “whatever” and went off exploring. Miss  Colby’s kids weren’t too fussed with us being there either. Both groups just went about their play, work and learning.

That’s when it hit me: our server had become a typical “learning commons”.