Until recently I would have told you video games are
a waste of time. Maybe because I thought they were only about
entertainment. Maybe because I don't play them because I'm bad at them!
I don't have great coordination at getting the game to do what I want it
to do. I prefer games like Text Twist, crosswords, etc. I am good
at those. I experience success with that type of game. After reading the
article "The Seduction Secrets of Video Designers" the light bulb
went off. As much as I love the challenge of my "brain games"
my students love the challenges of video games and they can learn from them
just as I learn from my games.
Stuart points out in his research that "an effective learning
environment, and for that matter and effective creative environment, is one in
which failure is OK-it's even welcomed..." I have often told my
students they learn more from failure than from success. I teach Culinary
Arts and we often are food that my students have never even tried yet alone
prepared. Many times, on our first try, it doesn't come out correctly.
That leads to many discussions on what could be done differently next
time. Critical thinking, problem solving in action. That is what
video games do for students as well. It is a safe place to try something
new. If it doesn't work you can try again. This allows students to work
through different scenarios and try to predict what the outcome may be.
If they are correct they move on. If not, they can try again.
It's a safe place to experiment. There are not many places like
that in the real world, especially in education. Typically, if you get a
question wrong it affects your grade but you move on either way. Do our
students learn in that way? What is our goal in education? A grade
or learning content? Some students can work through faster than others
but the goal is that students learn the content. The shift to gaming puts
more focus on learning the content than on the grade earned. And after
all, isn't that what education if for? For our kids learning something
new? Just a thought from this new-to-gaming-in-education convert!
I'm intrigued by the high tech nature of your recent posts. Gamification is the buzzword of the day, but I do have concerns about where this leaves the teaching profession. Fortunately, another one of your posts may hold the answer to my concern.
ReplyDeleteAs a software developer, I find it incredibly difficult to get across how much effort goes into the maintenance of any application. That period of time between concept and the beta version of any application is an exciting time as you take a concept and make it a reality. Problems are just challenges that haven't been solved. Sleep can become a distraction as your mind races to create the vision for that first concept meeting. But every beta version is a line in the sand. At that point, you are no longer just creating. You are now in "fix it" mode as people report bugs in your application. Before you roll out the beta version, you make a distinction between what you are willing to roll out now and what you want to roll out later. Ideas you have thinking of now have to take a backseat while you deploy the beta version. You might have time to work on those new ideas once the beta version is out, but chances are they won't be as important as fixing the bugs that inevitably show up. This is the life of a software developer.
Now, think about all that while you are a full-time teacher. Can you roll out your gamification app in time for a lesson? Will it have bugs? Do you have time to fix those bugs, prepare upcoming lessons, help students, etc, and have some family time/down time? Trying to be both the teacher and the developer might be a challenge, and finding off-the-shelf gamification apps that work for for your discipline and lesson plan may not be practical.
Good news, everyone! The idea of having students make videos to teach other students (your March 4th post) could be co-opted to have students create gamification apps for your classes. Those students get to understand the nuances of your lesson and pass that knowledge on to other students through an app. You have a ready-made maintenance team to help fix any bugs, leaving you to focus on the teaching side of the equation. You are the most important part of this equation - you are the one that creates the path and molds young minds. You don't need to be bogged down in all that boring software development.
I haven't thought about the troubleshooting side of things. That's a great point. I really didn't figure I would be creating them from scratch. I do not have your developer brain. I would probably have to find one that is already created for my discipline. What we are doing in the class I am writing this blog for incorporates some of the gamification ideology. We are earning points and badges as we move through assignments. Most of the assignments are more geared toward the traditional side of education. We are doing a lot of reading, researching and creating some sort of product with each quest. Some things like pictograms and the star wars game you saw are on the creative side. There is a balance of traditional type assignments with these high tech assignments. I would most likely have this type of set up to go along with the hands on labs that I have as opposed to actual gaming. I am, however, looking at a program that has students simulate a hotel experience where they work through every day type problems/tasks as they check in clients, complete housekeeping, plan events, etc. It is set up similar to a SIMS game.
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