Winner! High Score!

     Matthew’s blog post has prompted me to think more about gaming, and how it can be used in an educational setting. Admittedly, before beginning this subject, I was probably leaning towards an anti-gaming stance. Perhaps I was just more of a fresh-air-and-sunshine kind of girl, or perhaps I was just sick of the amount of xbox my boyfriend plays, but either way, I would have argued that games are bad, at least in high doses. However, I have come to see the error of my ways, and reading Two to Three Years: Game-Based Learning has given me all the more faith in gaming.

     Today’s kids and young people have grown up surrounded by digital games, “it is like the air they breathe”, and so they are a great way to reach children through a medium they are familiar with.

When used in moderation, a well-designed game can offer many education benefits for children; teaching them logical reasoning and thinking skills, how to strive for and achieve a goal, and even team work and cooperation in the right game. Aren’t these things good for kids? Yes!

     That said, not every single game around has all these good outcomes, and some I would still argue are not great for kids… many games are quite violent and aggressive, which I don’t think is a good influence for children in primary school. So the real challenge to teachers then, is how can we use games, and choose the right ones?

     I came across this fantastic video below, which really got me thinking some more… It goes beyond just ways in which we can use games to fit them into our current teaching models, but shows how we could transform and ‘gamify’ our whole approach to teaching, to make it more appealing and effective. 

     Will you accept the challenge, beat your high score and take your teaching to the next level? 

The Escapist : Extra Credits : Gamifying Education

Kafai, Y. (2006). Playing and Making Games for Learning: Instructionist and Constructionist Perspectives for Game Studies. Games and Culture, 1(1), 36-40.

Thanks to Flickr for Image: 'Day 218/366 - My Nintendo DS' 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26104563@N00/2740981120