Posts Tagged ‘games’
Games for brains
Posted on: December 26, 2011
Tom Chatfield outlined seven ways video games engage the brain. You need to fast forward to the 8min 40sec mark before any of the seven are mentioned!
- Having experience bars for measuring progress
- Offering multiple long and short-term gains
- Rewarding effort
- Providing feedback that is rapid, frequent and clear
- Including elements of uncertainty
- Creating windows of enhanced attention
- Interacting with other people
iPhone games in real life
Posted on: December 3, 2011
It’s the weekend. It’s time to chill out with a music video that features Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies and other iOS games as they may play out in real life.
Social evolution of games
Posted on: November 22, 2011
Video source
I chanced upon this short PBS documentary on games in Vimeo’s “Staff Picks”.
It covers quite a lot of ground but what impressed me the most was how games have evolved from being male-centric and about wanton violence to being more about user expression and construction. They have become about giving players choices and having them deal with the consequences.
Games have become about life, sometimes mirroring its dark and painful aspects, but remain about playing, feeling and thinking. That is why I think game-based learning works.
Gamers, gaming today and tomorrow
Posted on: August 29, 2011
Video source
I tweeted this resource last week and have shared it with my ICT class as we prepare for sessions on game-based learning.
Gamers Today Are More Social Than You'd Think, readwriteweb.com/archives/gamer…—
Ashley Tan (@ashley) August 24, 2011
The video is not about game-based learning. Instead, its focus is on the gamers of today and tomorrow, and how they hope to see gaming evolve.
What caught my attention was the statistic that 75% of the respondents would like to see games in classrooms and for learning. Actually, this shouldn’t be too surprising given how the 2011 Horizon Report for K-12 predicts that game-based learning has a two to three year time-to-adoption period.
I am ready if they are and I am doing my best to prepare teachers who are ready too!
Games and change
Posted on: August 16, 2011
I think I have moved past selling video game-based learning as an alternative strategy to adopting it as a core strategy. But others remain unconvinced.
Some teachers may comment that video games are not relevant to their curriculum and they are right. Games are not for maintaining the status quo, i.e., racing through curricula the same old way. Games are for change.
I also think that many “curricular games”, particularly the drill-and-practice sort, are not actually based on key game-based learning principles like immersion, storytelling, and emotional manipulation.
What I find harder to argue about is whether games and game-based learning are relevant in an arena where tests and exams rule. Games are, after all, a succession of tests with immediate feedback after each test.
My responses so far are half-baked at best. I argue that knowledge, skills and attitudes picked up in games can transfer to other domains and to tests. For example, I constantly refer to game examples whether I am teaching my son math skills or life skills.
I also challenge anti-game teachers by asking them if they want to prepare students for the exams of school or the exam of life. I don’t see why you cannot do both.
For me, not tapping into the energy and excitement of games is akin to refusing to learn the language and culture of digital residents (be they young or old). If I am to teach them effectively, I must relate to them and communicate with them. When I do that, the tests and adult bickering fade far, far away into the background.
Ways games reward the brain
Posted on: November 4, 2010
Source
You need to skip forward to the 8min 40sec mark to get at the seven ways.
If the talk was a game, most people would have stopped playing…
One man’s trash…
Posted on: February 8, 2010
Is another man’s treasure.
[image source, used under CC licence]
A new centre in Cambridge is to study computer games and comics as forms of literature consumed by learners.
The short BBC report reveals why:
“If what we regard as trash is popular with young people, we need to know why and whether, as researchers and teachers, we can offer them something that addresses the same needs but also deals with these themes in a critical and ethical way.”
She [Professor Maria Nikolajeva, director of the centre] added many trainee teachers did not understand the significance of the latest children’s books or films when they went into the classroom.
This is something I must definitely keep tabs on!
Stephen Heppell on ICT and games
Posted on: May 21, 2009
Much of what Heppell says about gaming in education is similar to James Paul Gee’s thoughts. That is not a bad thing because it shows that the same kinds of thinking are emerging in different contexts!
All four of my classes have started their journey on educational/serious gaming by this week. We focused on Flash and Wii-based games.
So to all out there I ask: What are your recommendations and why?
To my trainees I ask: What you think of the MxL and your experiences there so far?
