Toward Understanding the Potential of Games for Learning: Learning Theory, Game Design Characteristics, and Situating Video Games in Classrooms, (2014)

Turkay’s et al. article attempts to bridge the gap between the researchers and policy makers relating to the role and possibility of implementing video games in classroom settings. The article provides research-based areas of awareness and a discussion of factors that can facilitate understanding related to choosing and using video games.  To do so, the authors show how educational games can be conceived by different theoretical perspectives on learning and discuss several essential design issues that educators should take into account when considering a video game for educational use. Finally, the authors provide a list of several concerns relating to implementing video games in the classrooms.

The authors state that cognitive, social, and cultural aspects of learning interact with each other, and recognizing how video games align to these learning theories is crucial to understand their potential as vehicles of learning. The article also touches upon the crucial component of video games, feedback. The authors provide pros and cons, as well as different strategies of providing feedback such as instant, visual, and auditory feedback. Furthermore, the students’ choices of video games and platforms are briefly discussed. Finally, the article shows in table some questions to consider when integrating games into instruction. Such these question are:

1. What is my instructional goal and how well does the game being considered match?

2. Does the game match my instructional philosophy and incorporate learning theories consistent with my goals?

3. Does the game match my instructional philosophy regarding appropriate feedback? 

4. Does the game match my instructional philosophy regarding the availability of learner choice?

5. Does the interface match my instructional context?

Reference

Turkay, S., Hoffman, D., Kinzer, C. K., Chantes, P., & Vicari, C. (2014). Toward understanding the potential of games for learning: learning theory, game design characteristics, and situating video games in classrooms. Computers in the Schools, 31(1-2), 2-22.

Video Games in Education: Why They Should Be Used and How They Are Being Used, (2008)

Video Games in Education:

Why They Should Be Used and How They Are Being Used

Leonard A. Annetta,  2009

The article discusses two fundamental questions raised by educators, teachers, students, and families regarding implementing video games in classrooms: is the classroom ready? Are teachers and

administrators ready?

The author provides a brief history about using video games in the classroom. It was started around 2003, and the series of that games was known as serious games to fulfill the need of Net Generation (i.e. students). Annetta shows examples of educational video games: Immune Attack, Food Force, Discover Babylon, Quest Atlantis. After that the author describes what some of

the new literacies that contribute to 21st century skills might look like such as Play, Performance, Simulation, Appropriation, Multitasking.

After that, the author explains in details how and why teachers should use The Wolf Den video game in the classroom. Also, Annetta concludes the article by stating that“Video games in the classroom are not a replacement for good teaching. They are merely a supplement that engages students in the content and provides an avenue for them to learn difficult concepts of the real world in an environment in which they are comfortable.”

Reference

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

Video Games in Teaching-Learning Processes: A Brief Review, (2014)

Cruz, Cruz, Ruiz, David, and Hernandez (2015) provide a brief review of the influence of video games in education. They also state different types of video games as well as several disciplines to implement these games.

According to the article, education games are defined by Salen and Zimmerman in the book Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals : “A game is a system where players are driven to an artificial conflict, defined by rules, where the result is a quantifiable measure”. The article then presents different definitions of games based on three generations. The authors categorize video games as Action/platform games, Adventure Games, Fighting games, Role-playing games, Simulation, Sport games, Strategy games.

The authors concluded their review by providing some aspect of a video game for teaching and learning. For example, Gifford provide some characteristics of a good video game:  1. Should permit the exercise of fantasy, no spatial, temporal or gravity limitations.
2. Must facilitate access to "other worlds" and sharing each other through graphics, contrasting sharply with conventional classrooms and static.
3. Should encourage replay and try and try again in a safe environment.

I encourage educators who ar interested in incorporating games in education to read this article to gain better sense of the role of video games in education.

Reference

Cruz, E. M. C., Cruz, J. A. V., Ruiz, J. G. R., David, L., & Hernández, H. (2014). Video Games in Teaching-Learning Processes: A Brief Review. International Journal of Secondary Education, 2(6), 102.

THERE’S NO APP FOR GOOD TEACHING

Laura Moorhead

8 ways to think about tech in ways that actually improve the classroom.

Bringing technology into the classroom often winds up an awkward mash-up between the laws of Murphy and Moore: What can go wrong, will — only faster.

It’s a multi-headed challenge: Teachers need to connect with classrooms filled with distinct individuals. We all want learning to be intrinsically motivated and mindful, yet we want kids to test well and respond to bribes (er, extrinsic rewards). Meanwhile, there’s a multi-billion-dollar industry, in the US alone, hoping to sell apps and tech tools to school boards.

There’s no app for that.

But there are touchstones for bringing technology into the classroom. With educational goals as the starting point, not an afterthought, teachers can help students use — and then transcend — technology as they learn.

Starting in pre-kindergarten, children at Love T. Nolan Elementary School in College Park, Georgia, have access to an iPad to reinforce techniques taught in the classroom. Photo by Amanda Golden/Flickr.

“App-transcendence,” says Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard’s graduate school of education who is known for his theory of multiple intelligences, “is when you put the apps away and use your own wits, not someone else’s.” To help kids get to that point, Gardner suggests that teachers and parents “ask who created the technology and for what purpose, to what extent is it flexible, to what extent are the data produced going to be used by the manufacturer and the creator? In other words, interrogate the technology, interrogate the software. The existence of it is nice, but that’s not a mandate to use it.”

The following is what teachers (and parents) need to know when looking at the increasingly lucrative landscape of apps, learning systems, MOOCs and hardware. Already, K–12 schools represent a $600 billion market. Keeping up with the deluge of products is impossible and really not all that helpful. Instead, these 8 touchstones — based on research and backed by good common sense and teacher know-how — will outlast any technology life cycle... Continue Reading

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