The Future of Games in Education Infographic

This week, I just wanted to showcase a fantastic infographic from GameSalad full of stats about why games are fantastic learning tools right now and why they will continue to be in the future.  I think it speaks for itself.

For the larger, original, please click here.

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Summary of Games Based Learning Meta-Analysis

Image courtesy of Tess Watson on Flickr.

A report by Futurelab at NFER was published in April 2013 entitled: ‘Game-based learning: latest evidence and future directions’.  The study was a meta-analysis of some of the existing research surrounding games based learning.  It sought to answer the following questions:

• What is game-based learning?
• What is the impact and potential impact of game-based learning on learners’ engagement and attainment? 
• What is the nature and extent of the evidence base?
• What are the implications for schools?

The authors found some interesting findings which I will summarise below and also offered some advice to teachers based on their findings (also below).

Academic Achievement

• Where studies expressly sought to measure ‘academic achievement’, five calculated some degree of improvement. 
• Another meta-analysis observed significant, but undefined, cognitive gains across studies utilising games versus traditional teaching methods.
• However, four studies found no impact on academic achievement.

Problem Solving Skills

• The studies consistently found that video games can impact positively on problem solving skills.
• All five studies that specifically focused on problem solving skills found some degree of improvement.

Motivation and Engagement

• The studies consistently found that video games can impact positively on motivation and engagement.
• The majority of the studies examining the impact of video games on student motivation and engagement found positive results.  However, it was unclear whether this impact could be sustained.

Attitude to Learning

• One study found that games promoted a more positive attitude to maths learning. 
• Another study explored mathematics or academic self-concept (the set of beliefs an individual holds about themselves as a mathematician) and found no improvement. 
• However, a meta-analysis found that significantly better attitudes towards learning were yielded for subjects using interactive games or simulations, compared to those using traditional methods for instruction.

Advice to teachers:

“The best way of integrating gaming into teaching is by using it within a clear pedagogic process. In particular:

• Place learning activities and academic content within the video game’s fictional and entertainment context, maintaining a balance between fun and learning. 
• Make the academic content integral to the game rather than an add-on. Content-specific tasks work better when embedded in the fictional context and rules (‘mechanics’) of the game. 
• Carefully plan the roles that you and your learners will take on in the game. Teachers should play roles that allow them to mediate the experience for learners: providing guidance when needed; ensuring that rules are followed; and maintaining a respectful atmosphere.
• Don’t try to divorce decontextualized components of a game (such as badges, scores or leaderboards) from the fictional context and rules of the game (the ‘mechanics’)”

We would agree with this advice and it is similar to the advice we give in our Games Based Learning Analysis and Planning Tool (click to download) and our blog post “Six Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning”.

Conclusion
The report seems very positive and optimistic about games based learning.  However, the authors seemed disappointed at the amount of and validity of existing research.  For example they say, “It is important we develop a more analytic approach that considers how the different elements that operate within video games impact in an educational setting” and “We noted a complete lack of evidence about ‘gamification’.”  That is, to some extent, to be expected as games based learning is a relatively new phenomenon.  However, what they did find was insightful and supports some of our opinions about games based learning.  It will be interesting to see what future research has to say about games based learning and gamification in education, and there is likely to be much more of it in the near future.

References

Perrotta, C., Featherstone, G., Aston, H. and Houghton, E. (2013). Game-based Learning: Latest Evidence and Future Directions (NFER Research Programme: Innovation in Education). Slough: NFER.

Click here to read in full.

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The Future of Learning

I am very interested in how the education system is changing.  Recent technological developments have lead people to think about the current education system and how it could be improved upon.  There seems to be a vast number of people in this position, constantly innovating, re-thinking and problem-solving and I think it is only a matter of time before their concepts and ideas are accepted and rolled out into mainstream education.

I though I’d share four videos with you of people that hold a vision of the future of learning.  It would be interesting to hear your thoughts and to see if you agree, so please do comment.  I’ve written a brief summary of each, in case for whatever reason, you can’t watch the video and also just so you have access to the information written down.

 1. The future of Learning, Networked Society – Ericsson

Summary: 

• Factory-like system of education is not good enough any more (we no longer have a shortage of factory workers).  The education system is there for children, so it should adapt to them, not the other way around.  
• In the past, schools were a way to access information.  That is no longer what they are needed for; anyone with an internet connection can access information.  Knowing facts is almost obsolete, there are answers everywhere, we need to teach children to be learners and know how to access information.  
• We need to analyse and tailor learning like we do most other things in life.  Newton provides a means to do this.  Newton captures data and provides online courses personalised to individual students.  It also provides insights such as, ‘you work best at maths between 9.30 and 10.42am’ and so on, to achieve the best learning possible.
• Connectivity is opening up the world.
• Educate the youth and you educate a nation.
• Exams are inadequate.  When taking an exam, children think “I hope there are no surprises”.  But the world is full of surprises.  Education prepares you to cope with certainty.  Learning prepares you to cope with surprises.
• No one does standardised tests for a living, so why measure people on how good they are, in a way that is irrelevant in later life?  Parents want their children to go to good colleges and universities.  Those institutes are ‘good’ and famous because they are more selective about which grades they accept.  Therefore, you need to get good grades to get into these institutions, which is not real learning.  The system is flawed and described as a ‘scam’.
• Coursera – online access for everyone, for free.
• Huge leap in education pre and post-printing press.  Online education could be like that.
• Education is less and less about conveying content.  Instead, it should be about the instructor engaging the child and teaching them generic skills such as self-discipline and problem solving.
• We should be teaching children to solve difficult problems, not memorise answers to problems we have already solved.
• School should be more about telling children a topic and letting them learn about it and figure it out.
• More children will be educated in the next 30 years than ever in history – should we not try to get it right?

2. Rethinking Learning – The 21st Century Learner: MacArthur Foundation

Summary:

• It is important for us to teach children to love to embrace change.
• In the 21st century, it is important to have curiosity and a questioning disposition, or a ‘gaming disposition’.  Gamers are incredibly bottom-line oriented; they want to be constantly measured to see how they are improving.  There is often a mantra of ‘If I’m not learning, it isn’t fun.’
• The 20th century was centred around learning content.  In the 21st century, it is about learning the tools and skills to obtain, re-make and produce content.
• Informal learning (e.g. learning that takes place at home, with peers, in a community) is as important as a formal education.  We need to figure out a way of linking and synchronising the two.
• 21st century education needs to be not just about employment but about the whole of life.

3. Salman Khan Describes Future Classrooms with Blended Learning: edutopia

Summary:

• Currently, education is largely centred around the learning of facts and so on and it rarely gets close to creativity and open-endedness.
• The Khan Academy is a virtual learning environment where the content and teaching is done via videos and other virtual means.  
• Salman Khan appreciates the importance of learning the traditional things.  However, he thinks that the Khan Academy can address this element of education.  Children could access the videos and so on at home, which would free up more class time for creative, hands-on, relevant lessons.  It would also allow teachers more time for one-to-one instruction.
• Virtual and physical education can work together, they are not mutually exclusive.  They can enhance one another.

4. Thomas Suarez

Summary:

• Thomas Suarez is a very young man who has taught himself to develop Apps such as his Bustin Jieber App (a Justin Bieber Whac-a-Mole).
• Children want to make games and Apps, but don’t really know where to go to learn.  There are violin lessons and soccer practices, where do you go to learn to programme?  (Thomas might be interested in using Raspberry Pi)
• Thomas taught himself the basics of other programming languages and then used Apple’s Software Development Kit to develop Apps that are available on the App Store.
• He started an App club at school that teaches students to design and develop Apps.
• Students usually know more about technology than teachers.  This is a huge resource that teachers should really be making use of.
• In the future, amongst other things, Thomas wants to find more ways for students to share knowledge with each other.

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The Past, Present and Future of Playing and Learning with Technology

The importance of play to a child’s development is extremely well documented.  Research done by the likes of Piaget and Vygotsky argue that play is essential for proper development.  Research suggests that 75% of brain development occurs after birth and that playing influences the pattern of and connections between nerve cells which allows the development of many skills including motor skills, problem solving skills and learning ability.  Article 31 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child specifically recognises the significance of play in children’s lives, distinct to their right to recreation and leisure.

So, play enhances learning.  But how has play changed over the past decade or so, with the advancement of technology?  And what effects does this have on learning and education?  This infographic from Lego shows just how play has changed.  It is easy to see the parallels between the changing nature of play and the direction that education is going down.

The Past and Present

LEGO MINDSTORMS Infographic

How else is technology changing the face of play and learning for children today?  As this article explains, the rapid improvements in technology are having a profound impact on education for children with disabilities, often using games.  I have mentioned in a previous post about the amazing learning benefits of the Kinect for children on the Autism spectrum.

This year will see the launch if the new SimCity.  However, GlassLab has partnered with EA to build SimCityEDU, a version of the game specifically designed for education purposes.  The developers have appreciated the benefits of and demand for games based learning in education and have followed the likes of Portal2 in creating a game for schools.  We might just see a lot more game developers following suit in the future.

More and more teachers and schools are realising the benefits of games based learning.  However, one school in Sweden has made the playing of Minecraft a compulsory part of their curriculum for 13 year olds.  See my post ‘Unorthodox Uses of Games in Education’ for more information about Minecraft in schools.  The school has appreciated the far reaching benefits of games based learning.  A few of the ‘lessons learnt’ are environmental issues, city planning, creativity and computer skills.  Is this the future of education?

The Future

The Institute for the Future believes that this is the future of play for children:

1. Authorship, storytelling, fantasy, and role-playing will expand into new media.  Children’s content will increasingly be created by children (already prevalent with reviews on YouTube and so on).  The Institute for the Future argues that “Growing up immersed in virtual worlds, social networks, and YouTube videos, children will develop a different set of expectations for evaluating human proximity and presence, as well as a comfortable confidence expressing their views across various media.”
2. Play will be a more fluid material experience, blending the virtual and the physical.  Reinforcing what the earlier infographic mentioned, children will increasingly expect their toys, games and virtual platforms to interact.  The Institute believes that “By 2021, kids will expect their digital and physical objects to share more characteristics, including tangibility and connectivity.”
3. Toys show kids how to get emotional with technology.  MIT professor Sherry Turkle places us at a “robotic moment” in history.  This is characterised by our emotional readiness to attach to inanimate objects, which she argues will go on to provide more friendship and the “comfort of connection without the demands of human intimacy.”  Sociable robots, such as the new incarnation of Furby, encourage our children to care for and nurture them, ultimately “creating more powerful and affective human-machine partnerships”.

These new technologies will clearly unlock more and more skills in children and will bring with them a multitude of learning benefits.  However, as children’s expectations adapt to these new technological features of play, it begs the question, will these new technological advances feed into the education system?

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InformED

One of our readers has pointed me in the direction of a great website: informED!  It is full of fantastic features about education and learning and is well worth a look.  I have picked out a couple of their posts that are of particular interest to me below, but there are loads more.

‘15 Ways to Engage Students and Prevent Online Drop-outs’ by Miriam Clifford.  This post offers tips to engage students and prevent drop-outs including: plan interactive exercises, [use] different types of technologies and develop a ‘collaborative code of conduct’.  It is easy to see then, how games based learning could help, in these ways, to increase engagement and reduce drop-out rates.

‘Educational Psychology: 20 things Educators need to know about how Students Learn’ by Andrianes Pinantoan.  This feature relates to my recent blog post, ‘Games Based Learning Supports Multiple Learning Styles’.  It explains that there are seven learning styles:

1. Visual: Using sight
2. Auditory: Using songs or rhythms
3. Verbal: Speaking out loud the information
4. Kinesthetic: Using touch and taste to explore the information
5. Logical: A more mathematical approach to concepts
6. Interpersonal: Learning in groups
7. Intrapersonal: Learning alone

The article then gives comprehensive advice on how to use this knowledge to encourage successful learning.  It also covers other tips such as using technology and creating space.

‘How to Ignite Passion in your Students: 8 Ways Educators can Foster Passion-based Learning’ by Miriam Clifford.  This great post gives lots of ways to encourage passion and engagement from learners including: allow time for collaboration and allow time for play.  Again, it is easy to see how games based learning can foster this passion-based learning when incorporated with the other strategies.

The site also talks about trends in the education industry.  This is very interesting and gives some more insight into the future of education (adding to my blog post: ‘The Future of Learning Technologies’.

The site is definitely worth a look.  I always appreciate hearing about these fantastic websites and new products, so please do let me know if you have found anything particularly inspiring.  And as always please follow @paulladley on Twitter, games-ED on Pinterest and like games-ED’s Facebook and Google+ pages for blog updates and anything inspiring I find that I want to share with you.

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