Games in the Classroom to Increase Student Engagement
20 Mar
I have a pretty big interest in education. My fiance, Marie, is a 6th grade english teacher, and my mom is a 4th grade teacher so fairly prevalent in my family. Clearly, the US education system could use some work. The data shows that the US is falling behind many other developed countries in standardized testing scores. Something needs to be done and there are a lot of differing opinions on what the best solution is.
Now I’m not an educator personally so I can’t speak from experience, nor do I have any real data to back up my point. I do believe though that the education world would be wise to pick up on some of the major social media trends right now and incorporate games into the classroom.
Take Foursquare, Gowalla, and Farmville into consideration – 3 services that are all the rage in social media right now. They are all games that involve rewards, interaction, and engagement. Aren’t interaction and engagement 2 of the most important ingredients to improving a classroom. If students are actively involved in their learning and striving to reach specific goals they have a much better chance of learning the material than if it’s simply lectured in a boring manner.
One concept that I definitely think deserves some major attention is that of IU Telecommunications Professor and professional game designer Lee Sheldon. He has formatted his class like a “massively multi-player game” (like World of Warcraft) and assignments do not receive grades, but rather “experience points.” There are different types of assignments that are either done solo, with a partner that the students choose, or with a “guild” chosen by the professor. This allows for students to work in different formats so that everyone has a chance to work in their preferred setting at some point. The students are motivated to be engaged because they can gain experience points at unexpected times. Check out Edward Castronova’s blog for an excellent overview of “Sheldon’s Syllabus” and using games in the classroom curriculum.
Are K-12 teachers experimenting with this type of game learning? I definitely think they should be.
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