Tech Trends

Gaming in Education

My assignment for this week was to read and digest the NMC Horizon Report, 2014, K-12 Edition.  I must admit, what a pleasant surprise.  The Horizon Report, developed by an expert panel, identified 18 topics likely to impact technology planning and decision making.  As I read, I first became a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of technologies that could impact education and the way we view what the educational setting should look like.  I wondered how schools would ever keep up with all of the technologies slated to have an impact, considering cost, training, and changing outdated attitudes. I also wondered which technologies I would focus my attentions on; then I read about gaming. 

In my last assignment, I read five peer-reviewed articles and wrote an annotated bibliography about gender and technology.  Most of my research was focused on how girls' attitudes are formed based on past experiences using the technology, and inadvertent exposure to negative attitudes from parents and teachers about their abilities in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) related fields.  In a post-research discussion, I felt the need to write about how I wanted to plan lessons geared toward either gender.  I am very passionate about the topic of gender because I teach all boy or all girls classes, and I see first hand the differences that exist between the genders.  I recall a TED talk which inspired me for two reasons.  First it talked about how incorporating gaming into the classroom will help to inspire boys, and secondly it was given by an instructional designer and professor from Penn State (my Alma mater), Ali Carr-Chellman. Please take 12 minutes to watch this powerfully, insightful TED talk.

Gaming and game based learning have a two to three year adoption horizon.  The impact of gaming on generation Y will include adoption of game-like activities including quests, experience points, leader boards, badging, and milestones to name a few. According to A. Jones (2008), from the article  "Video games in education: Why they should be used and how they are being used",  gaming in the classroom will help students develop real life skills including

• Constructing relationships between the world through play
• Mastering the structure of their surroundings
• Better understanding the logic behind rules
• Generating a much higher level of positive emotional engagement
• Generating hypothesis about situations
• Motivating learning by challenging and providing curiosity

Consider this website for educational games:
http://www.gamesforchange.org/


An example of an educational game discussed in the article is http://www.food-force.com.   This game is a wonderful example of how students learn the skills to fight world hunger.  I will be using this game in my all boys health classroom in the lesson plan below during a lesson about global health trends. Gaming in a boys health class: Lesson Plan

References

The New New Media Consortium (2014). NMC horizon report: 2014 k-12 edition
Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf


Annetta, Leonard A. (2008). Video games in education: Why they should be used and how they are being used. Theory Into Practice. (47)3. 229-239.