Welcome to Topic 11 of our class! Today, we will discuss different ways that Gaming and Gamification in Education might be helpful as pedagogical tools, depending on the ages and resources available to you in your classroom. While digital games can be very cool and could be helpful to learners, we should always keep in mind that there are often lower-tech games that could achieve similar learning objectives.

Topic 11 Learning Objectives

  • Describe the kinds of features that can make games effective learning tools
  • Understand how gameplay can be used as a tool to make traditionally less popular topics more engaging for some learners
  • Be able to discuss the pros and cons of learners using games as consumers, compared to learners creating games (like subject-focused escape rooms for example)

Class Time

Skim the American Psychological Association article on Gaming to Learn. While skimming, please ask yourself these questions from the article:

  • Do certain features make a computer game more effective in promoting learning?
  • Do people learn useful cognitive skills from playing an off-the-shelf game?
  • Do people learn academic content better from playing a computer game than from conventional instruction?

Watch a CNN interview with Jon Roozenbeek on GetBadNews (4 min)

Skim the Bad News Teachers Guide, and please ask yourself the following questions as you skim:

  • Does inoculation theory make intuitive sense to you? 
  • Is there any evidence that inoculation theory works in practice?
  • How effective do you think Bad News would be at inoculating middle and high school learners from “fake news” in social media?

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has a great but short post about 5 Ways to Gamify Your Classroom that has some great tips on using old school games as well as digital games to encourage fun active learning in the classroom!

Test, video game, or cool inquiry project by YouTuber Mark Rober?

  • As you watch the video, please reflect on what motivates you, or demotivates you, to learn new skills or new information. 
  • What are some of the unstated assumptions that are made in Mike Rober’s video?
  • Could Mike’s projects be framed as inquiries?

(15 min)

Hands-on Lab Time

  1. Game time!
  2. Please play 1 below for at least 5 minutes:

Work on Lesson Plan & Activities

Work on your Lesson Plan Assignment. Please ask Rich if you have any questions or would like to run ideas by him.

Please Remember: Your lesson plan, instruction, and activities must have enough detail so that a substitute teacher could be handed the lesson material and successfully lead the lesson with minimal preparation time.

Critical Reflection Blog (30 min)

Write your critical reflection blog post to document your learning in class and to document progress on your inquiries (incorporate audio, video, and screen video capture into your blog posts this week).

Please make your own critical evaluation of one or more of the topics or technologies covered in today’s class.