Is Games Based Learning the Solution to Student Engagement?

I recently came across an article from Edutopia entitled, ‘Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement’.  The article is a teacher’s summary of 220 students’ responses when asked what engages them.  Interestingly, they could mostly be answered, if only in part, by games based learning.  Below is her list, with my comments about how GBL could help.

1. Working with their peers – the original article explains the power of collaborative learning and discussion.  Many games are designed to be played together and many that aren’t designed this way can still be used in groups.  Games can spark discussion and debate, even if learners are working/playing ‘alone’.  Games can encourage students to problem-solve collaboratively and improve their communication skills.
2. Working with technology – of course GBL doesn’t have to involve technology, but that is the main focus of our blog.  Therefore, games are a great way to get students working with technology in an exciting and productive way.  The article also explains that technology can allow powerful ‘learning by doing’.  An immersive game can help people learn knowledge and skills in a more meaningful way.  And as the article hints, technology (and often gaming) is so prevalent in young people’s lives that it makes little sense for school to be technology and game-free.
3. Connecting the real world to the work we do / project based learning – good game design should help learners connect their learning to the real world.  The games should be relatable and relevant.  All of these things can help motivate students and allow for better memory encoding.  Games can be used as part of a larger project.  However, a good serious game almost acts as a project in itself.  It could allow exploration, learning, problem-solving, creativity and develop the student’s understanding/skills from start to finish.
4. Clearly love what you do – this is about the teachers.  If you are reading this now, it is likely that you are interested in, or maybe even passionate about GBL or innovative, 21st education.  Therefore, bringing a game to the table is likely to be something that you are excited about and that will rub off on students.  
5. Get me out of my seat! – The article explains that students learn most when they are active.  Not all games are built for movement, however some are.  For example, see our articles, ‘Kinect Games Based Learning’ and ‘Proof of the Pudding…’ (this one explains one of our games based workshops where the children or adults are encouraged to get out of their seats to negotiate, problem-solve, prioritise and more with other individuals and groups).
6. Bring in visuals – a good game will have meaningful visuals.  These can make concepts clearer and motivate learners.  For example, in our game, mentioned above, the children are put in charge of a town, which they have to improve by making purchase decisions.  The town graphic, as well as the reports, change according to their decisions.
7. Student choice – games can be very good for encouraging self-directed learning.  The article also mentions having a choice of activities related to a topic for different levels.  Games can be wonderful for allowing learning at the student’s pace and level.  Often games advance when the student has mastered the initial knowledge and skills.
8. Understand your clients – the kids – this one is obviously very dependent on the teacher’s attitude.  The article explains how important the culture of the classroom can be for encouraging learning.  Allowing learners to play games at school has the potential to bring about a lot of respect for the teacher.  This is especially true if the learners are given freedom to play the game as they wish.  Games can be very self-directed but structured which can encourage a positive environment in classrooms.
9. Mix it up! – Obviously games are a great way to mix things up.  They get people doing an activity that is unlike the norm, which can wake people up and keep them motivated to learn.  The article also talks about multiple learning styles (e.g. auditory, kinaesthetic).  See our article ‘Games Based Learning Supports Multiple Learning Styles’ for more about this.
10. Be human – the article finishes by reminding teachers to have fun themselves.  GBL can be a great way to break up the monotony, spark the imagination, bring fun into learning, wake people up, inspire and so on.  These things are important for teachers as well as students.  The article also suggests asking students what engages and motivates them.  How about going to work tomorrow and asking your students what they would like to see more of in the classroom?  Or maybe even if they would like to try GBL?

For the original article, click here.

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Why Organisational Gamification was Inevitable and Not a Fad

I believe that there are several factors which made Gamification of organisations inevitable.  It is often
criticised for being a fad.  I think that there are some aspects of it which could be.  For example, the dreaded ‘badges and leader boards’ definition of Gamification is unbelievably limiting and that aspect might be short-lived.  However, there are elements of Gamification which represent the larger economy, general opinion and the direction for organisations into the future.  It is something much deeper than superficial badges (although they have their merits too).  This is what Gamification should be understood as, what should be taken from games and it is happening right now.

First, the power of gaming as a medium is growing.  The ‘games cause violence’ pack is dwindling, just as it did for every new entertainment medium before (television, radio etc.).  Gamers are not geeky, social outcasts; everyone can be a gamer and many are.  Games are going mobile, casual and social.  Games are big business and on the rise.  If you are interested in the stats, get your fill from PWC here.  I am sure you are all aware of the huge success of Grand Theft Auto Five.  The game made $1 billion in the first three days of being sold.  The fastest film to reach the $1 billion mark was The Avengers, in 19 days.  Games are big news and it is inevitable that they would have an influence over other aspects of our lives.

Second, Gamification has evolved from 21st century organisational needs.  In some cases it has slipped in unnoticed, in other cases it as added an extra twist to an existing management trend.  There are ways that Gamification is relevant today, inevitable and not a fad and the points below show why this is the case and what organisations should be taking from games and translating into Gamification:

• Feedback – games allow constant feedback and Gamification can be used in this way.  This fits with other organisational trends, such as the breaking down of communication barriers across the organisation, at different levels.  It also allows the organisation to exert control and monitor, but in a constructive way that is more carrot than stick.  It also marries up with Generation Y’s need for constant feedback as they move into organisations (see ‘Motivating Generation X and Y with Gamfication’).
• Competition – games can promote competition, against others but also yourself.  Players are able to see feedback about how they performed and strive to better this performance.  This can be a powerful use of Gamification.  Businesses need to remain competitive.  Especially in a recession and when innovation and market dynamism are so powerful.  Encouraging competition within the workforce, giving employees more autonomy and allowing them to self-monitor can help this process along.  Gamification is therefore, a natural and fun progression of this.
• Teamwork – A lot of games and Gamification promote and facilitate teamwork.  There has been a huge move to making use of teams in organisations due to their self-management, innovation and so on.  Teams are a part of the ‘Japanisation’ of the Western organisation.  Gamification, therefore, can be seen as an extension of this, a means to promote collaboration and cooperation.
• Learning and Development – Organisations have come to appreciate the power of their human resources, especially in terms of their capacity for good ideas, creativity and innovation.  They, therefore, want their employees to be lifelong learners and to constantly develop their skills and expertise.  Organisations can no longer promise to offer a ‘job for life’, so they have moved to support employees’ employability.  Games require constant learning and development of skills and Gamification could be the next frontier for this in organisations.
• Creativity – Games are fantastic for generating creative problem-solving and innovative thinking.  They require it and reward it.  These skills are needed for 21st Century businesses to survive and thrive.  Therefore, Gamification should be used to reflect and encourage this.  See our post, '21st Century Skills and Games Based Learning'.
• Change and Flexibility – Games often require the player to be adaptable to change.  The current economic climate and dog eat dog nature of capitalism means that the business world is extremely chaotic and dynamic.  Employees and organisations need to be responsive, flexible and welcoming of change.  Gamification could be great at encouraging this outlook and culture amongst organisations.
• Fun – There is a move to make work more fun.  Organisations are now more aware of the benefits of a ‘carrot’ approach to motivation, as well as the creative benefits of having a fun office.  For example, Google offices have slides, scooters, lava lamps, pianos and so on, all designed to promote creativity, collaboration and innovation (as well as keeping people at work longer and feeling they owe the organisation).  Generation Y also work to fund their lifestyle as this is the most important motivator for them.  So organisations try to bring this ‘lifestyle’ into work.  They are motivated by something more than the money itself.  These things also represent youth and dynamism, which are championed by many organisations.  The Gamification of spaces and processes at work is probably the most apparent usage.

I study management and organisations, so this area as well as GBL and Gamification interest me greatly.  It strikes me that Gamification embodies many of the directions that management is taking in the 21st Century.  The fact that we now have a name for it doesn’t make it a fad.  The term Gamification has more scope than badges and leaderboards and many game-like elements have been translated into management.  Organisations might not see how games can help them yet.  But, with the growing strength and following of games as an entertainment and learning medium, I don’t think it will be too long until they catch on.  This could be just the beginning for Gamification.

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Part 3: What Skills Does Programming Impart?

This blog post is part of a series.  We have discussed how programming might be able to help children acquire jobs and be better suited to the 21st century ('Part 2: Learning to Program: An Easy Way to Get a Job?'), but how?  Obviously learning to program teaches children programming skills, however, it can also teach and develop much more than this:

Image courtesy of Tim McCune on Flickr.

• Systems thinking – programming requires an understanding of how various inputs, outputs, lines of code and so on affect each other.
• Logic and problem solving - it requires a great deal of logic and greatly develops problem-solving skills to work out systematically what a problem might be and how to deal with it.
• Creativity and innovation – when a problem is found, the programmer will often have to find novel ways of fixing it.  They may also try to use code in unusual ways, try to make innovative games and so on.
• Maths and science – while not a necessity, learning to programme can encourage students to learn maths in a real world setting.  Their programme may also require physics knowledge such as trajectory, gravity, speed and so on.
• Collaboration – programming is often a collaborative activity, which requires individuals to hone their team working.  For example, someone might be game designer, another may be head coder, another would be graphic artist and so on.
• Subject mastery – programming requires knowledge not only of coding but also whatever is to be programmed.  For example, a game about the water cycle would require the programmers to learn about the water cycle.  
• Media skills – most games involve some pictures and sounds.  The programmer may also have to learn how to produce and edit these.

While not a skill, as such, learning to program and the act of programming something can be extremely motivating and provide students with a sense of accomplishment and pride.  Sam Blazes, a winner of the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge says, “Programming is fun to me… It’s something that I can sort of do and have fun and work on, and I can feel a sort of sense of accomplishment when I start working on stuff and even finish something.”  This can allow children to learn things without necessarily knowing it.  The act of programming is an engaging project that can teach all sorts of things stealthily, in a very fun way.

The next part of the series will show you how you can get started with learning to program or teaching others to program, from apps for 4 year olds, to making lego robots move and interact with the world.  We will cover a range of products, tutorials and so on for a range of ages, price ranges and devices.

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Kinect Games Based Learning

I have spoken in a previous blog post about the amazing uses for the Xbox Kinect with children on the Autism Spectrum.  However, there are also many other ways that Kinect technology can be used to teach a wide range of things.  The website http://www.kinecteducation.com/ has tonnes of educational games that people have developed for a wide range of subjects.  Some of them are a little basic, which is what you might expect for such a young market.  However, it is clear that the Kinect has great potential for games based learning.

I do recommend taking a look at that website as it is full of interesting games and lesson plans etc, but I’m going to focus on one game developer in particular in this blog who has particularly caught my attention.  David Renton is a games developer and lecturer based in Scotland.  He has created several games for the Kinect, which look both educational and great fun.

The first game is Kinect Angles.  This game aims to help children learn angles, percentages, fractions and decimals in a fun way.    In-game, the screen shows a picture of the game-players through the Kinect’s webcam-like system with superimposed images on top.  The aim of the game is to visually represent angles correctly with ones’ arms.  The game can be played individually or as a pair, competitively or not.  In David’s own words, the game “promotes active learning methodologies.  Pupils are engaging with their learning in a physical and multi-sensory manner, meeting the needs of different learning styles; aural, visual and kinaesthetic.”  One child, in a pilot lesson said, “It’s active and you understand it better than just doing it in your jotter.”

The second game is Kinect Time.  It works in a similar way to Kinect Angles, but is used to help teach children time.  Again, it can be played individually or as a pair.  In David’s words, “The point of the game is basically to set the hands on the clock to match the time digitally displayed, you do this by moving your arms; Kinect captures the motion and my game translates it to the hands on the clock face.”  Visit this blog post for a video of the game in action.

The Fun Theory

The Fun Theory (a Volkswagen Initiative) argues, “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better”.  They held a competition for people who had fun ways of encouraging good behaviour.  For example: a ‘bottle bank arcade’ to encourage recycling, ‘piano stairs’ to encourage exercise, ‘the world’s deepest bin’ to encourage people to properly dispose of litter and ‘The Speed Camera Lottery’ (shown below).

The theory is obviously a bit of fun and good marketing but it did have impressive results.  For example, the Speed Camera Lottery ‘game’ reduced the average speed of cars on that road by 22% and the piano stairs meant that 66% more people than normal took the stairs over the escalator.  This gamification of everyday things seems to ‘nudge’ people’s behaviour in profound and measurable ways.  This begs the question, how far can you nudge people and in what ways?


Companies such as FavorTree, Practically Green and Crowd Rise have already made use of these ideas.  They have adopted gamification to encourage generosity, sustainability and charitable donations.  


However, gamification is not just being used to encourage social good.  Gartner (the world's leading information technology research and advisory company) predicts over 70% of Global 2000 organisations will have at least one gamified application by 2014 (see source).  Gamification (as we have discussed in previous blogs) describes how game mechanics can be applied to non-game environments to motivate people and change their behaviour.  Brian Burke, research vice president at Gartner argues that "successful and sustainable gamification can convert customers into fans, turn work into fun, or make learning a joy. The potential is enormous."  Therefore, gamification seems set to be popular amongst charities, businesses, educators and so on in the future.


The reason that gamification works to steer behaviour is rooted in basic psychology.  Positive reinforcement is a form of conditioning championed by B. F. Skinner.  It is essentially where you reward a behaviour you want to be repeated.  The reward of having fun doing something seems to be enough to make people change their behaviour.  Skinner argued that positive reinforcement is superior to punishment in altering behaviour as it results in lasting behavioural change.  Punishment, on the other hand, only changes behaviour temporarily.


A New York Times article, ‘Making Good Citizenship Fun’ argues that this may be why government schemes to steer behaviour (exhortation and fines) are largely ineffective.  The article also gives many more examples of how fun has been used to steer behaviour.


Therefore, fun and gamification seem to be gaining popularity as people begin to understand their power and as psychological theories catch up with technology.  Fun can be a powerful conditioning device and is being adopted in many sectors.  The Fun Theory: that “fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better” seems to have some solid foundations and is becoming more widely accepted and made use of.  Gamification seems set to be a common feature in our lives and one that may make our lives much more fun.