As has been the case with a lot of what we have explored in this class, I have had a big aha when reading and thinking more about gaming and gamification. For me, when I thought of gaming, I immediately went to listening to students share about playing Fortnite until all hours of the night and being too tired to participate at school the next day. Or endless hours of playing Minecraft (or in the my daughter's case, The Sims) rather than playing outdoors and getting exercise.
However, I've always been a big proponent of play in the classroom. When I taught upper elementary, I loved to do simulations with my classes. One of my favorites was about the Westward movement and I still remember how much the students learned from the "mishaps" that happened as they traveled west. They learned about barter and trade, how to negotiate and problem solve, and developed communication and collaboration skills. One year we went on an actual 3 mile trek in period costumes with wagons and provisions to the top of a neighbor's hill in East Napa. Those are the experiences students remember forever.
So when I was reading in Common Sense Media about thinking about games as experiences it shifted my thinking to what I already know about active learning. In his Edutopia article, 3 Ways to Use Game-based Learning, Matthew Farber shares:
While on an iCivics panel at the International Society for Technology in Education conference in 2015, Benjamin Stokes compared the experience of playing games to taking a class on a field trip. With a field trip, you first let students know what to expect and then give them freedom to explore an out-of-school location. Back in the classroom, you facilitate connections to the curriculum. Games, like field trips, provide meaning for students.
This changed my thinking to consider gaming as experiential learning. Just like my old-school simulations, games can help students experience something with the help of technology that they otherwise might never be able to do on their own. I love the idea of students as inquirers and explorers with game-based experiences where they learn through play. And although I looked at many apps and online games that are really cool, there are also low or no tech games that kids can play. In fact, one of the summative assessment choices we often give students to demonstrate their understanding of the big idea of the unit, is to create a game for others to play.
As I was researching for our assignment this week, I tried to find gaming connections with my work with staff and students. I was really interested in the games for change because each year our 5th graders do a culminating action project as their final assignment as an IB student. We try to help them understand how they can make a difference through advocacy and raising awareness. I discovered a fantastic game called Activate where students learn to take direct action themselves (like virtually picking up trash at a park) but also how to recruit others and get bigger projects going. This is exactly the kind of work we try to encourage. This would be a great provocation activity for our 5th graders.
I also wanted to try to look more into Socrative as a possible way to engage with my teachers. I remembered our experience with it at one of our first sessions where we shared short answers. So, I created an account so I could use the game as way to gather the team's thoughts on a topic and then vote as a way to build consensus. I see this as a possible tool to begin our discussion of my driving question about student agency and teacher practices.
I also looked at a Coding app because our Coding Club at school is super popular and I like to be able to share in the excitement. And the last, Biomebuilder, just looked like fun and isn't that part of the point of all this too?
However, I've always been a big proponent of play in the classroom. When I taught upper elementary, I loved to do simulations with my classes. One of my favorites was about the Westward movement and I still remember how much the students learned from the "mishaps" that happened as they traveled west. They learned about barter and trade, how to negotiate and problem solve, and developed communication and collaboration skills. One year we went on an actual 3 mile trek in period costumes with wagons and provisions to the top of a neighbor's hill in East Napa. Those are the experiences students remember forever.
So when I was reading in Common Sense Media about thinking about games as experiences it shifted my thinking to what I already know about active learning. In his Edutopia article, 3 Ways to Use Game-based Learning, Matthew Farber shares:
While on an iCivics panel at the International Society for Technology in Education conference in 2015, Benjamin Stokes compared the experience of playing games to taking a class on a field trip. With a field trip, you first let students know what to expect and then give them freedom to explore an out-of-school location. Back in the classroom, you facilitate connections to the curriculum. Games, like field trips, provide meaning for students.
This changed my thinking to consider gaming as experiential learning. Just like my old-school simulations, games can help students experience something with the help of technology that they otherwise might never be able to do on their own. I love the idea of students as inquirers and explorers with game-based experiences where they learn through play. And although I looked at many apps and online games that are really cool, there are also low or no tech games that kids can play. In fact, one of the summative assessment choices we often give students to demonstrate their understanding of the big idea of the unit, is to create a game for others to play.
As I was researching for our assignment this week, I tried to find gaming connections with my work with staff and students. I was really interested in the games for change because each year our 5th graders do a culminating action project as their final assignment as an IB student. We try to help them understand how they can make a difference through advocacy and raising awareness. I discovered a fantastic game called Activate where students learn to take direct action themselves (like virtually picking up trash at a park) but also how to recruit others and get bigger projects going. This is exactly the kind of work we try to encourage. This would be a great provocation activity for our 5th graders.
I also wanted to try to look more into Socrative as a possible way to engage with my teachers. I remembered our experience with it at one of our first sessions where we shared short answers. So, I created an account so I could use the game as way to gather the team's thoughts on a topic and then vote as a way to build consensus. I see this as a possible tool to begin our discussion of my driving question about student agency and teacher practices.
I also looked at a Coding app because our Coding Club at school is super popular and I like to be able to share in the excitement. And the last, Biomebuilder, just looked like fun and isn't that part of the point of all this too?