Gaming in Classrooms
As I was writing this piece, I had multiple flashbacks to the 1980s, the decade I first experienced game based learning. To this day, I attribute these gaming experiences as integral to my understanding of my favorite subject – history. However, although the games I was playing were directly related to content, I wasn’t playing them in school! All of my first game learning experiences – like Pirates! , Revolution ‘76 Balance of Power
In education, the instructional strategy called “gamification” is a pedagogical practice that utilizes design principles of games (traditional and digital) in a classroom setting. Gamification, I suppose, has always had some connection to formal education. Think about the roles recess, team sports, and play in general has had on the development of students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal skillsets and dispositions. Educational focused technology, of course, was a turning point for gamification. And with the advent of digital learning, students’ and educators’ application of game based learning has been transformed.
As an instructional practice, digital gamification, seen as a novel in schools, taps into a very familiar mode of learning for students. Bridging these two worlds has a positive impact on student engagement. Still, like any learning experience, students’ engaging with gamification need time to process, apply, and discuss content they encountered in the games they play. In this sense, the games students engage with should be a source of content and not relegated to just review or memory games.
Social Studies, the content I work with the most, is a robust landscape for gamification experiences. Teachers, in turn, have embraced a range of games from a host of providers. The list below represents the more common platforms used in our district.
From my experience, the benefits of gamification are so evident that we utilize them in our summer school experiences. Students’ feedback of their three weeks in July, mirror what students share during the school year – they are memorable experiences. Still, the main factor in the gamification outcome depends on a teacher’s design of that learning. Identifying how your organization can be an active partner in this aspect of teaching will be valuable to develop. Game on!
Micro Schools are small, private institutions that meet in commercial venues, nonprofit space, private residences, and religious affiliated buildings. Located in Las Vegas since 2022, The National Microschooling Center
In the state where I live, Virginia, all three of these “non-traditional” approaches to schools exist in varying forms and with different models across the state. Working in a field that promotes the value of personalized learning and laments “one way for everyone” in education, this is not surprising. In turn, you and your organization should continue to work within the complexities that come with varied educational formats and expect that soon these approaches, like their earlier counterparts, will be commonplace.
Written by: Craig Perrier
Educational Thought Leader and Practitioner
Craig is the High School Social Studies Curriculum and Instruction Specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax, VA. He also is an online adjunct professor of education for Framingham State University and the teacher certification program, Educate VA. Previously, he taught at American Schools in Brazil for six years and for six years in public schools in Massachusetts.
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