Research a good article/poster/video/TEDTalk/educational game/mobile app on gaming in higher education. In your submission, link to the resource you found and explain why you found it interesting. Make a connection between your linked resource and your specific content area or class. How do you or how would you implement something like this in your course?
10 Bonus Points: Read another player’s submission and comment on it.
Charla
Robin
Val
Lee
Marian
Ann
Dave
Mary
I have been receiving Thiagi’s newsletter via email for years. Here’s the December newsletter. I often just glance at the table of contents, but this challenge caused me to look more deeply at this month’s issue.
My specific content is instructional design and professional development. This resource inspires me to try something different. The matchstick exercise looks look a fun one to help people think about teaching/tutoring others.
This is a great resource. I am going to check it out. I am always secretly envious of instructional designers and their resources/creativity. That will be our secret.
I just read an interesting article in Scientific American that I want to share with everyone.
I found the article interesting because it shared many different views on the use of gaming for education. It was stated in the article that there is not a lot of research on gaming as a means of improving academic performance. Although: “A 2013 University of Cambridge … found that the improvements in game scores for children with low levels of working memory did not extend to broader skills. ” (retrieved 12/2/14 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-video-games-are-the-future-of-education/)
The article did state that half of the teachers using gaming regularly in their classrooms saw a benefit with low-performing students and motivated struggling students.
Link to article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-video-games-are-the-future-of-education/
I read this and found it intersting as well. It reinforced some of my intuitive thoughts about gaming. Namely, that it works well for subject matter that lends itself to drilling, learning protocol, etc. I also can see that if you wanted your students to internalize material, using scenarios as the basis for a game could be effective.
Check out this cool graphic that outlines how games are changing education and that outlines the skills developed with specific games:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/528469337497000187/
That’s very interesting. I’ve been thinking and wondering about how children’s brains are going to develop in the future. I think we will see an evolution of the brain as kids are tuned into a whole new way of communicating, thinking and doing. I would like to be a fly on the wall in about 100 years.
Speaking of brain development, check out the TED talk that Kathi Baldwin posted in today’s challenge (10:0-18:33). While not scientific, it is eye-opening and alarming at the same time.
Oops, it was actually posted by Mary Purvis (see below).
That is a great graphic – and helps to explain why games may provide a powerful role in some types of learning. Thanks for the link.
And another one that makes the case for games with relevant statistics:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/528469337497000248/
And this one about devices that are relevant in today’s classroom:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/528469337498754900/
Hi Charla, Thanks for sharing this. I mentioned using clicker questions during VC but I have had to abandon using the actual clickers recently due to low bandwidth in some of the Outreach sites. I would like to move to having the students use their mobile devices and this validates the potential for that. It is so much better for me as an instructor to ‘see’ what the students are responding so I know what I need to reinforce if they are missing the question rather than rely on how enthusiastically they are calling our answers.
Have you ever checked out polleverywhere.com? It’s great!
Currently, I send my students on a digital “scavenger hunt” which takes place via text messages between the student and the instructor during the first week of school. This requires them to use their cell phones and establishes an immediate connection which I like to think breaks down communication barriers and traditional views of professors.
I like this idea Charla. Do all students participate? Do you ever have students that don’t have cell phones or texting? It seems like it could be a great icebreaker.
I say it is “optional” but I would say about 95% participate. It is my sneaky way to get them to communicate with me using a method they already use in their real lives and they report loving that I give them my cell phone number. The scavenger hunt I use also requires them to try out technology in other ways which I think helps prime them for distance learning. For my colleagues who have seen this example before, I apologize for bringing it up again but it seems to fit here. I do end up getting about 1-2 texts per week during the normal course of the semester and then it picks up a little when assignments are due and as the semester is drawing to an end. It creates a very easy way for me to quickly respond to requests about system outages, Bb access issues, assignment clarification points, and other minor items that I can easily address which ultimately minimizes confusion in the online environment.
I have been looking at an article from Eudemic called the 23 Best Game-based Education REsources for 2014and it has sent me around to all sorts of interesting places. There are tons of resources listed here.
http://www.edudemic.com/23-best-game-based-resources-2014/
I stumbled across a list of MOOCs on Gamefication. Here are the two from the list that interest me the most:
The first is self-paced course from Open Learning. This is from Australia.
The second, from Coursera, runs for 6 weeks starting on Monday, Jan. 26, 2015.
Hello, Well I am going to add to what I already posted about starting to use the ‘Case Mysteries of Pathophysiology’ book in pharmacology. I read a book chapter this week in “Indigenous Storywork” by Jo-ann Archibald that talked about using stories to teach and how you can use the same story more than once because each time it is used, the listener will have changed, or matured, and they will be able to apply higher concepts to the story teachings. I thought – wow, that is what I was hoping to do with that ‘Case Mysteries’ book – because the Pharmacology students are first year and not able to apply more advanced critical thinking to some aspects of the Case Studies, and I was also focusing mainly on medications used in each Case Study. So I called another nursing faculty who will be teaching these same students in their last semester of the nursing program and we discussed her use of this same book and the Case Studies I already used and how, and then planned how she could take them a step further since they will be ready to graduate. I think it will so validating for them to review these again when they can see a ‘bigger picture’ than they did the first time they experienced it and they will have proof of how much they have learned and how they are able to apply it.
I love the idea of case studies. Seems like a no brainer for classes that relate to health related topics. It would be fun to have a game created around the idea of a case study. Remember the Choose your Own Adventure books? Maybe a game here would be related to different decisions made at certain points in the case study process.
I am not sure if this is considered a game, but here is a “game” I played in class to teach students the below learning outcomes.
• Be able to answer the question: What is Economics?
• Define and identify what is a scarce resources. And explain what is meant by unlimited wants against limited resources.
• Define the opportunity cost as the mostly valuable alternative forgone -(e.g. : http://blogs.worldwatch.org/transformingcultures/saveenergy)
• Explain the idea of purposeful decisions and behavior. And to explain why people try purposefully to make the best choices they can, given the alternatives available
• Be able to state the three fundamental questions that agents in every economy must answer.
This game was from a textbook that I bought from the Council for Economics Education. Here is a link to the textbook:
http://capstone.councilforeconed.org/about/toc.php
I used Unit 1 chapter 3: Here is what I did:
I divided the students into groups and provided a story of a shipwreck that they were involved in while kayaking in Southeastern Alaska. They were then required to come up with a survival plan. I then guided them to answering the important questions that would ensure their survival. And then I guided them to relate these questions to the very questions that economists ask every day. I use this to explain what economics is and to explain the fundamental questions that economists ask.
Here is a link to the PowerPoint presentation that I created for the lesson plan when I was teaching face-to-face.
Unit 1 Lesson 3 Activity Survival (from my Google drive):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3oV-9dYEQ0sNC1Dck9iR2dnZzg&authuser=0
I also used Unit 2 chapter chapter 7 from this textbook – and students just loved this “game” This one taught them to experience how supply and demand actually works in real life.
Thanks for letting me see your lesson. I was interested to see how it interfaced with the survival skills that are a part of the course I teach (based on a curriculum I co-authored when I worked for Alaska Marine Safety Education Association). There were a number places where the two are really close. AMSEA uses seven steps to help people deal with situations like the one your students were in: Recognition, Inventory, Shelter, Signals, Water, Food, Play. Your scenario also seems to teach the difference between heuristic and systemic processing of in formation in decision making. It was really fun to see the overlap, and that lesson must divide the socialists form the capitalists pretty clearly. Very creative!
Here’s an interesting TED talk about video games. I actually found some of it rather disturbing. Would be interested in your reactions. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_perry_on_videogames
Wow. The part from 10:00-18:30 was alarmingly interesting. I thought there was a big disconnect between the message being sent by the TED talk presenter and the content of video containing the student’s perspective. The hopeful bit at the end seemed a desperate attempt to not sound so grim. Missed the mark for me. I know that video game addiction can destroy families and the closer the games get to reality, I think that thin line will continue to blur even more. For a disturbing movie that delves further into this concept, watch Strange Days (1995, Rated R).
I agree, I came away with a negative feeling vs. positive. Video game addiction scares me as a parent; I don’t know why he would want his young daughter to like them. I read about a camp in China or Japan a few years ago where they treat kids who are addicted to video games. As someone who doesn’t care much about video games I had a hard time imagining that we would need treatment centers.
I do think if we can incorporate what makes video games fun, engaging, and addictive in education we could see positive student outcomes.
I hope, like he said in the video, that game designers think about what they are creating in a deeper way then just how they can addict players and make money.
This was an interesting challenge for me, I opened the blog and read the very first word “Research” and then words like, “link” and “submission” and “how would you”. I closed the blog and went on with my day thinking to myself, “hey, self, this is going to take a lot of time because I have to “research” something and then make it relevant for others. This made me think, all day, about how my assignments can appear overwhelming to a student because of the words I pick. If I can create, game that is asking the student to learn a concept without using scary words like “research” I can accomplish my goal. A free word search or puzzle maker application can be used instead of sending students to a website to “research” I could send student to the website to “find the answers to fill in the puzzle based on what is found on the website” In elementary education I found this article “Are word searches a waste of time” Well maybe they are not – just like a scavenger hunt.
http://www.readingrockets.org/blog/22430
Leslie – your comment was so incredibly insightful. Thank you so much for this observation and I am going to give this significant thought in terms of how I can possibly reword instructions in a way to make them not sound so daunting. In fact, if assignments can sound fun, the students may be more likely to jump right in so they don’t miss out. Likewise, in terms of what I am learning with this experiment, I am surprised at how much more interesting it is to participate in the daily challenge knowing that I am earning “game” points (and not a grade).
After searching the internet, I found another great site that provides links for ideas in higher-ed economics classes. It comes from the UK.
http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/themes/games