Shamini Sanmugam (AP040277)
Choosing Games for Experiential Learning Classes
Why do we play games in the first place? To have fun, to immerse into an imaginary world, to take the challenge and outsmart the opponents and/or win, etc. There are probably as many slightly different reasons to play games, as there are players. When we have a look at the games within the learning context as opposed to the activity only for the leisure time, we have learners' and teachers' perspective of using games for learning. From the learners' point of view, using a game for learning can have various meanings, e.g. learning and having fun, taking the challenge and achieve better score, trying out different roles, being able to experiment and seeing what happens, being able to express the feelings, be able to reflect about certain conflict situation, etc.
From the teachers' perspective, we choose to use games for learning to reach a new generation of learners with a medium they are used to interact with from their childhood. We can offer a game for introducing a new learning topic thus raising the learners' interest for this topic, or as a complementary activity for many other reasons, e.g. to create a complex learning opportunity, to increase the motivation of learners, to offer another way of interaction and communication.
Games can also be used for personal development and to improve self esteem of the player i.e. learner. In some cases, games can help to establish dialogue and break social and cultural boundaries. For disabled people games can offer opportunity to experience the world in a way that majority of us take as granted
There are many different off the shelf games that can be used in the learning context. But which game to use and how to choose the game in the first place?
The first question that has to be answered is "What do we want that learners learn?" Based on the learning objectives we can choose games that we want to use for the classes. To improve factual knowledge of the learner, we can introduce quiz games. In the area of learning objectives related to social interaction, games that involve many players, e.g. strategic or role-play games can be applied.
There is a range of options for integrating games into education. Strategies include allowing students to create their own games or integrating commercial games into the curriculum. If games are integrated into the curriculum, it will be important to understand what types of games promote the desired learning outcome. For example:
1. Card games promote memorization, concept matching, pattern recognition
2. Jeopardy-style games encourage quick mobilization of facts, labels, concrete concepts
3. Arcade-style games are good for improving speed of response, automaticity,
4. Adventure games are useful for promoting hypothesis testing and problem solving.
Part of the process of choosing games for learning includes also consideration of various constraints and opportunities in the learning setting, e.g. size of the student group, age, materials, level of proficiency, duration.
References
1. Oblinger. D: "Simulations, Game and Learning" (May 2006) available at
<http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf>
2. Pivec. M: "The benefits of Game Based Learning" (11 July 2005) available at
<http://www.nestafuturelab.org/research/review/08>
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