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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5 Questions to Ask When Considering Games Based Learning

Games can be a powerful tool to teach a myriad of things, from curriculum matter to soft, 21st century skills such as problem-solving and collaboration. However, they are not always appropriate. These questions may help you decide whether games are right for you:

1. Will using a game bring anything to the table? – Don’t use games for the sake of it. If the game adds nothing, or if other methods are superior, don’t use them. However, if the game teaches at the same level, go for it! It will have added value (spice up curriculum and engagement). Be wary of ‘games’ that are just quizzes with graphics and tagged on mini-games. Learning outcomes are paramount.
2. What problems do I have that I need to address? – Think what problems you need to address rather than where you can use games. This could be curriculum based e.g. “I could do with a way of showing the inner workings of the human body, beyond two-dimensional diagrams”. Or non-curriculum based e.g. “I need to get students to work together to help reduce bullying”.
3. ...

For the full article, click here.

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Building a 21st Century Education System with Games Based Learning

I am extremely happy to announce that I have been selected to be a Hot Topics Contributor for Microsoft Partners in Learning.  I am now a contributor to their Games Based Learning Hot Topics page and have just uploaded my first post.

The post discusses the current education system and why it is lacking.  I offer suggestions for improvement and explain why improvements are important.  There are many ways that games based learning could be part of a solution to building a 21st education system.

To see the post, click here.

Their word limit is pretty tight, so if you want to read a post of mine on this very blog, which follows a similar theme, visit '21st Century Skills and Games Based Learning'.

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10 Resources on Creating your Own Learning Game

Image Courtesy of Ian Dick on Flickr.

I hope you all enjoyed our previous post (our very own infographic: “Quick Guide to Developing a Learning Simulation”).  I thought I’d follow up this week by sharing with you a list of resources to help you further in designing and developing your own learning game.  The resources cover cognitive flow, feedback loops, making games engaging, common usability testing mistakes and so on.  The list is obviously not exhaustive and some of the more academic papers may warrant something closer to ‘skim reading’, but these are just some of the best and most useful articles, papers etc. that I have found.  The first one is particularly interesting and definitely worth a read.

1. Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design 
2. Improving The Way We Design Games for Learning by Examining How Popular Video Games Teach 
3. Learning Game Design Series, Part 1: Play and Evaluate Games 
4. Creating Flow, Motivation, & Fun in Learning Games 
5. Designing Learning Games That Don’t Suck 
6. Designing Mobile Games For Engagement and Learning 
7. Games For Learning 
8. ‘Narrative’ in Serious or Learning Game Design Research 
9. Feedback Loops in Games and Learning 
10. Five Common Mistakes in Game Usability Testing and How to Avoid Them 

And for good measure, you might want to have a read of our post “Three ‘Games Based Learning’ Development Tools Explored”, if you are thinking about developing your own learning game.

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Video Games in School Infographic

Earlier this week, a wonderfully informative and interesting infographic was brought to my attention. It is from bestmastersineducation.com and this post is simply going to be dedicated to the infographic (it's a pretty long one). And as ever, if you have anything relevant like this to share, please do so in the comments section or email us at pfinfo@pixelfountain.co.uk



Source: Video Games in School

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15 Articles that Show Gamification is Taking Over our World

Image courtesy of woodleywonderworks on Flickr.

Okay, yes, that title may be a bit of an exaggeration and may make gamification sound like a bad thing (and some of these articles will look at why that could be true).  But the aim of this article, is to show the broad spectrum of uses (and abuses) of gamification, from education and training, to business, healthcare and more.

Gamification of Learning: Education and Training

• Game On? The Use of Gamification in E-Learning 
• What Critics Don’t Understand about Gamified Education 
• Gamification to Encourage Learner Autonomy 
• How Gamification Results in 21st Century Learning 
• NSA Gamifies Surveillance Training: Ethical or Questionable? 

Gamification of Business

• Gamification is the Best Way to Engage Consumers Say Experts 
• 5 Gamification Lessons from J.C. Penney’s Sales Failure 
• Playing to Win: Mobile Gamification Done Right 
• The Future of Loyalty is in Big Data and Gamification 
• Beyond the Hype: 5 Ways That Big Companies are Using Gamification 

Gamification of Healthcare

• The Game Changer: Gaming in Healthcare 
• Food for Thought: Is Gamification Viable for Rewarding Blood Donations? 
• Brain-Training Video Games May Help Reverse Cognitive Decline in Old Age 

Gamification of Making the World a Better Place

• The Future of Gamification Lies in Civic Engagement 
• Top 10 Social Gamification Examples that will Literally Save the World 

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Badges, Gamification, Employment & Lifelong Learning

Image courtesy of kerolic on Flickr.

We often talk of gamification and have even won an award for doing so (click here).  But we (and many others) usually talk about how badges are engaging and motivating for the learner or even how they can essentially coerce people to do things that an organisation/individual wants (e.g. good behaviour in class, sharing promotional content on social media sites, reviewing products etc).  Badges and other gamification strategies have been used very successfully in this way.  However, the report, ‘Expanding Education and Workforce Opportunities Through Digital Badges’ takes a slightly different look at the phenomenon.

This new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education and Mozilla has looked at how badges can be used as a way of showing and verifying to employers the skills that individuals have amassed.  These can be formal education, knowledge based skills, 21st century skills as well as skills gained through hobbies and other ‘extracurricular’ activities.  “A digital badge system can bring resumes into the twenty-first century,” says Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia.  “Digital badges are making anytime, anywhere learning a reality for learners of all ages who want to pursue their interests with tangible results in real time… Badges bridge the divide between formal and informal education, and they have the power to transform competency-based learning and hiring practices.”

The report does explore how digital badges can be used to improve student learning and outcomes, but also how they can expand vocational and interest-based skills for learners of all ages.  And importantly, what this can mean for employment.  “The way we learn and the way we work have radically changed in today’s digital age, and we need the credentials that make sense for the way we live our lives today,” argued Erin Knight, senior director of learning and badges at Mozilla.  “Open Badges can connect learners to better jobs and opportunities, allowing them to increase skillsets and marketability. In return, employers can look beyond abstract credentials or self-reported resumes and get credible information on candidates—finding a better match, and unlocking a better future for all involved.”

Expanding Education and Workforce Opportunities Through Digital Badges defined badges as ‘credentials that represent skills, interests, and achievements earned by an individual through specific projects, programs, courses, or other activities.’  The report argued that it is important that badges are defined accordingly and are measured against a specific set of standards so that they could be used by employers in a meaningful way.  The report suggests that for this to happen, there must be an open badge standard that ensures all badges contain the same level of criteria and evidence, which allows people to earn badges from different issuers, manage and collect them, and display them on websites as they see fit.  Mozilla has created this “Open Badges” standard that ensures the credibility of verifiable skills involved with the badges.  They aim to make the badges credible by making them store information through hyperlinks about what tasks, projects etc. were completed to earn the badge.

Schools can use the system to connect their pupils’ curricular and extracurricular learning as well as rewarding them for developing their 21st century skills.  The schools and colleges that have adopted the system so far have also done so to make learning more engaging and innovative.  “Learning pathways differ from student to student, but badges can bridge those differences and provide students with opportunities to follow their interests, and connect what they have learned—at any time and place—to academic achievement, career success, and civic engagement,” Wise said.

But what interests me most is what the badges could mean for employment.  It is unlikely that this system would completely become the norm, but it does make one wonder.  It could encourage children from a younger age to think about their careers.  It could encourage a closer relationship between students and employers, giving both valuable experiences.  Employers could tailor more what is being taught in schools.  They might put emphasis on different elements of a person than their grades.  The system also has interesting implications for lifelong learning.  It could foster a more positive relationship with learning as a whole.  It may make people think of and approach learning differently.  People could become inspired by the badges of others.  The intrinsic reward of a badge along with the ability to ‘show off’ to others could generate an impressive level of learning.

Obviously, these are all big ‘what if’s and this one system is unlikely to do everything (if any of these).  However, I do think it highlights something interesting and very positive about society and it would be great if it took off.  The popularisation of geek-chic (which I thoroughly approve of) along with the acceptance and popularity of video games may just have amalgamated to create something that could be great for learning and learners.  One thing I would like to see being emphasised though, in a system like this, would be badges for good deeds, charitable giving and so on, and then we could really be on to something great!

Click here for the full report.

Click here for more about Open Badges.

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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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Motivating Generation X and Y with Gamification

There is a reasonable amount of research into motivation at work being undertaken these days and it is interesting to see where gamification fits into the picture.  A recent study from Odgers Berntson and Cass Business School suggests that organisations are unprepared for the new generation of leaders.  Richard Boggis-Rolfe, Chairman of Odgers Berndtson argued "The retirement of the current generation of corporate leaders will lead to cultural changes that most organisations are unprepared for. In order to thrive in the post-baby boomer landscape, companies need to put serious thought and effort into smoothing the intergenerational transition for leaders from generations X and Y."

But Who are Generations X and Y?
Jane Sunley, CEO of Purple Cubed (a consultancy firm specialised in workplace engagement) explains, “The baby boomers are the generational cohort born between 1945 and around 1961, generation X were born between around 1962 and 1981 and generation Y from around 1981 to 2001… Don’t get too hung up on the dates though, because everybody says that they’re different. The important thing is to appreciate that every generation has been influenced by the environment of their upbringing: education, parents and – in the case of generation Y – the biggest influence has been technology.”

What are the Key Differences Between the Generations?
According to Sunley, there are five key differences between the upbringing, character and motivations of each generation that affect their working styles:

1. Reason they work – Baby boomers ‘live to work’, generation X ‘work to live’ and generation Y work to fund their lifestyle.
2. Decision-making – Baby boomers prefer to make their own decisions, generation X will take direction but then like to be left to get on with it and generation Y require constant direction and collaboration.
3. Feedback and response to work – Baby boomers know when they have done a good job, generation X like regular feedback and generation Y need constant feedback.
4. Sharing opinions – Baby boomers like to keep their opinions to themselves, generation X share their opinions and generation Y assume others want their opinions.
5. Attitude to change – Baby boomers are resistant to change, generation X relish change and generation Y are flexible.

Could This Cause Problems?
According to the Cass Business School study, “Only 41% of respondents believed that their organisations are ready for changing workplace demographics of age, gender and diversity.”  Many respondents to the study also commented that “the retirement of baby boomers from leadership positions would result in a mass exodus of talent over the next 20 years, which will intensify the global war for talent among existing executives”.

Obviously organisations will have to adapt their leadership strategies, corporate culture and so on to adjust to the new generations of leaders and workforce as well as the 21st century as a whole.  Sunley argues that understanding the differences between the generations could give organisations the edge when managing the shift in their workforce.  Appreciating the five key differences could help directors form a more effective leadership strategy.

How Should Leadership Styles be Adapted?
The Cass study suggested that, “Foremost among the new leadership skills will be emotional intelligence, people skills and flexibility, which will be needed to attract and motivate a more diverse and mobile workforce… This more collaborative form of leadership will be key to helping executives navigate the 21st Century workforce.”

Professor Cliff Oswick, Cass Deputy Dean, believes, "The increasing diversity of the global workforce will need to be taken into account by corporate leaders. Cultural awareness will be at a premium and leaders will have to cultivate emotional intelligence and be better attuned to gender differences."

What About Gamification?
I have been reading about this topic over the past week or so and it struck me that gamification looks like another way that organisations are coping with some of these new generational styles as well as the 21st century world of work as a whole.  The likes of Google are creating new ‘gamified’ offices that cater to the often young, innovative, creative types that they wish to attract and motivate.  They often include things such as gyms, gourmet cafeterias, dogs, hair stylists, scooters, massage parlours, slides, shops and so on to support the lifestyle and motivational needs of generation Y (amongst other things).

The fact that generation Y like to work together and collaborate is often encouraged by gamified solutions as well as new office spaces.  Rewards for collaboration can be encouraged by team leader boards, badges etc. as well as collaborative games being used to train, assess, build teams and so on.  ‘Gamified’, 21st century offices also support generation Y’s need for collaboration.  For example, offices are often made with areas specifically for people to bump into each other or act as the proverbial water cooler and encourage people to spark off one another and innovate.  Many offices now create open plan areas with smaller pods or seating areas within them to make collaboration natural, easy and fun.  For example, white board walls, pianos, ping pong tables and so on are often included in new offices to promote team bonding and collaboration.

Perhaps most strikingly, gamification is a way that generation Y can receive immediate feedback.  Members of generation Y are likely to have been brought up around video games and to have amassed a lot of hours playing them.  Games offer immediate feedback which could be why generation Y come to expect it from every aspect of life.  Gamification can allow immediate feedback to occur and give employees a virtual ‘pat on the back’ for completing actions.  This would be time consuming for their managers or peers to do and may not come naturally to them (especially if they are baby-boomers).

What can be gamified:

• Recruitment – see article. 
• Learning and development - pixelfountain does this, see: www.sim-uni.co.uk.  See article.
• Strategy and implementation – pixelfountain also does this.  See article.
• Communications (internal and external) and Marketing - see articles here and here.
• Rewards, incentives and recognition – e.g. Badgeville.
• The cultivation of a specific corporate culture – see article.

Motivation is extremely important at work, both for the employees and the organisations.  The infographic below sums up very well how generations X and Y might be motivated differently to the baby boomers and how gamification can be utilised to engage and motivate the workers of today and tomorrow.

Infographic courtesy of Badgeville, click for larger image.

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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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Gamification In and Out of Education

Our recent blog posts about gamification and education (‘Gamification in Education’ and ‘Gamifying the Classroom: 10 Inspiring Articles’) seem to have gone down very well.  So I thought I’d compile a list of articles about gamification in general, from the classroom to the office and beyond.  Just click the titles to go to the full articles and click the infographic below for a full-scale version.

Image from SOCIALCAST. Click for full-scale infographic.

1. A Teacher’s Guide to Using Badges in your Classroom - The simplification of gamification to badges is criticised.  However, they can be powerful and have a strong history as this article explains.  Good advice about how to implement gamification in the classroom.
2. Gamification Boosts OTT’s eLearning Engagement by 65% - A success story of using gamification principles to great effect.
3. Brand Gamification is Hot Trend in Social Marketing – An analysis of how and why Klout and Foursquare use gamification.
4. Why Gamification is Important as a Young Professional - Includes aspects of gamification such as that Generation Y is used to gaming and that it makes work more fun and meaningful.
5. Smart Gamification: Seven Core Concepts for Creating Compelling Experiences - Includes ideas such as designing for the target audience and building a system that is easy to learn but hard to master.  Includes a video.
6. 8 Research Findings Supporting the Benefits of Gamification in Education - Including an increased attention span, augmenting language capabilities and increased cognitive and social growth.
7. Let the Games Begin! – A podcast about gamification being used to drive member engagement in loyalty programmes.
8. Why Gamification is Important as a Gamer - The author argues that everything should be gamified as it is fun, improves problem-solving, out of the box thinking and so on.
9. The Three F’s of Successful Gamification - How Feedback, Friends and Fun drive gamification.  Also shares what Gabe Zichermann argues are common mistakes made by those applying gamification to their business such as a heavy focus on badges plus an indication of gamification trends.
10. The Term Gamification: Why I Hate It AND Why I Love It - A discussion about the term gamification and some suggested alternatives, such as engagification and motivational design.

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Gamification with World of Classcraft

We briefly discussed World of Classcraft in our blog article ‘Gamifying the Classroom: 10 Inspiring Articles’.  But we are so impressed with the innovative use of gamification in a school setting, that we decided that to do them a bit more justice and give them a full blog post.

What is World of Classcraft (WoC)?

In WoC, pupils play as adventurers and the teacher acts as the game master.  The students form groups and each choose a class (mage, warrior or healer).  These should be balanced in each group as each class has real-life powers ranging from eating in class to bringing their notes to an exam.  Some of these powers are for personal use but some can be used on other players.  They gain powers by doing good deeds (helping fellow students, finishing homework, getting to class on time etc.).  However, bad deeds (bullying, being disruptive, not completing homework etc.) lose hit points, which can lead to death and terrible consequences (such as the dreaded Saturday-morning detention).  As a team, they face monsters (homework) and fight boss battles (exams). 

Does it work?

Student motivation has skyrocketed since the game was implemented by the inventors in their school.  The students’ desire to level up, coupled with the risk of in-game death has vastly changed their relationship to classes and school.  By fostering collaboration (collaborative actions and powers are rewarded with bonus XP), students are now helping each other with daily challenges of school life such as questions about homework, in class work, tardiness.  According to the inventors, the effects have been profound.

More than just Badges

Critics of gamification argue that rewarding people with badges will only work so far, in certain circumstances and with certain people.  They argue that it is just a fad.  However, they are really missing the point.  Gamification isn’t just about the badges, that is just an easy way many people choose to use game mechanics to encourage engagement and so on.  WoC has shown that gamification can be a rich experience that frames the entire learning process to achieve great results.

Compared to other gamification efforts in school, World of Classcraft is vastly more

complex.  Students can choose from 3 classes, there are almost 30 different powers and over 100 random events (http://worldofclasscraft.com/events/) can be applied to any subject matter.  The possibilities are endless which makes for an engaging experience that can be changed and adapted to suit the individual needs of each class.

What’s Next for World of Classcraft?

WoC is building a free game engine to allow teachers all over the world to play the game with their students.  A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to raise funds to cover initial development and maintenance costs.  To help click here.

Find out More

Visit the website: http://worldofclasscraft.com/en/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldOfClasscraft

Twitter: https://twitter.com/worldofclasscra

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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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Outstanding Lessons and Games Based Learning

For anyone who doesn't know, or who doesn't live in the UK, ‘Ofsted’ stands for The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.  They essentially inspect schools (and other children’s services) and grade them based on various criteria.  This has a considerable effect on the school’s reputation.

The top ‘grade’ you can achieve through Ofsted is outstanding and teachers and schools all over the UK are striving to achieve ‘outstanding lessons’.  But what does this mean exactly?  How can games based learning help more lessons to be outstanding?

Outstanding lessons will obviously vary greatly depending on the lesson being taught.  However, what is common to achieving this standard is the quality of teaching and learning.  Ofsted say that outstanding teaching includes “a focus on pupils making exceptional progress as a result of inspiring teaching, from teachers having excellent subject knowledge and the innovative use of new technology” (information from http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/outstanding-lesson-11943).

In other words, one of Ofsted’s main criteria for outstanding lessons is the innovative use of new technologies.  This, in itself, would be a good reason to use games in lessons.  However, if we look at the criteria more closely, we can see how games based learning can tick more than one box.

Outstanding teachers must fulfil the following criteria:

• Subject expertise and flair
• The involvement of every pupil in the learning process
• Intelligent questioning involving every pupil
• The use of a wide variety of resources as appropriate including new technology
• Involving pupils in the learning process and developing independent learning.

For me, it goes without saying that teachers should have a reasonable level of subject expertise.  However, subject flair is a little more interesting and perhaps more difficult to prove.  One cannot impose passion for a subject on teachers but a good way to exhibit it may be to use a related game in lessons.  Being up-to-date on goings on in their field and finding new ways to instil knowledge that they find interesting is impressive and games exhibit this.

Good learning games should also involve every pupil in the learning process.  Games can tap into multiple learning styles (‘Games Based Learning Supports Multiple Learning Styles’) meaning that all children should be able to access the learning at some level.  Collaboration is also a great benefit of learning games.  Although some technology limits the amount of players, the ideal situation is for all pupils to be learning collaboratively from one game (see the pedagogy page of our corporate website).

The next criterion is intelligent questioning involving every pupil.  In my blog post ‘Unorthodox Uses of Games in Education’, I talked about a teacher using Angry Birds to teach his pupils.  Pupils built catapults to launch real life angry birds and all the while the teacher asked them questions about the physics behind what they were doing.  This can also be done with computer based learning games.

The final criterion involves developing independent learning.  This is really about motivating and inspiring pupils.  It is unlikely that children will become enthused about a topic if the lesson is uninspiring and involves a dull presentation with written exercises to follow.  This is the bulk of most education.  Children can become enthused by a topic and want to learn more about it on their own.  If you make something fun, i.e. by using a learning game, surely they are more likely to do this.

Outstanding lessons are judged on teaching practices, but they are also judged on how the students behave in a lesson.  The key factors (from http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/outstanding-lesson-11943) include:

• Are the pupils highly engaged?
• Do they move from listening to being positively motivated?
• Do they learn and make progress?
• Do they obviously enjoy the lesson and have fun, and are they keen to discuss what they have learned and what they might be doing in the next lesson?
• Do the pupils ask appropriate (and challenging) questions?
• Do they show a keen interest in the tasks?
• Are they proud of their work?
• Are the pupils involved in deciding any part/content of the next lesson on the topic?

Most (if not all) of these criteria can be met with the use of games based learning as part of the curriculum.  Games are excellent for engaging and motivating students and providing fun and enjoyment (see blog post: ‘Motivation, Motivation, Motivation').  A teacher observing one of our games-ED lessons said:  “The children were fully engaged for all the session and the ‘buzz’ in the room was one of real active learning” (from 'Marrying up to the Situated Learning Theory').  Children also talked to their parents following the session about how much they had enjoyed the learning simulation and what they had learned.  This is obviously a step up from the usual question of “What did you do today at school sweetheart?” being met with the response, “Stuff”.

Games are also a great way of showing progress.  Many games have some sort of score, ratings, badges, achievements and so on to show progress.  A teacher overseeing one of our games-ED lessons commented: “[The children] were genuinely interested to see the impact their purchases had made on the town. They were disappointed to see the results/consequences of their purchases in Year 2 and were keen to rectify them in Year 3!”  One of the pupils in the primary school also commented, “I liked finding out what score you got at the end and looking at the improvements.”  Playing a game multiple times enables you to clearly see skill / knowledge development.

From our experience of running our learning simulations in lessons, all of these criteria can be met.  If you want more of an idea of how learning games can help you achieve outstanding lessons, have a look at these previous blog posts, ‘Marrying up to the Situated Learning Theory’, ‘Proof of the Pudding’ and ‘Proof of the Pudding Part 2’ and have a look at our corporate website: games-ed.co.uk.  There are some demos of our products on there too, if you are interested.

There are obviously other factors that are important for outstanding lessons and using learning games in every lesson would be considered inappropriate.  However, it is extremely easy to see how using games in lessons can show evidence of outstanding teaching.  And more than simply providing evidence, games could achieve these outstanding outcomes for students and make real improvements to the standard of lessons and their learning.

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Ten Reasons why Games Based Learning Works in Education

The following list (in black) is from connectED with some of my thoughts (in green).

1. Familiarity – Most students use technology regularly at home, so integrating technology and games based learning into their school life can be very quick and easy. 

2. Engagement – Games based learning can be engaging for children of all educational levels and interests as good educational games draw on different learning styles and they offer something a bit different from the norm.  Games can also be used to engage the disengaged.  Feedback from games-ED workshops frequently mentions this.  For example, “it really captured their attention” and “the students were engaged in the activity” (from an earlier blog article, found here) See a wonderful example here on the Guardian blog ‘An English teacher discovers digital literacy really works’ http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/dec/05/engage-disengaged-students-digital-literacy.

3. Blended learning has a real place – blending traditional printed media with interactive multimedia gives you the best of both worlds. Technology no longer needs to play a supporting role.  A benefit of games based learning is that it gives people the chance to learn by doing (and being, see earlier blog article).  Rather than simply listening to a teacher or completing written work, students get the chance to engage with interactive software with the opportunity to receive immediate feedback and see the results of their actions (in learning simulations, such as those by pixelfountain).  For example (see Proof of the Pudding article) in the words of one pupil, “It was great being in charge of the town and seeing what the result was.”

4. A cost effective option – In terms of the outputs and results, games based learning is relatively cheap to implement.  Most schools have access to computers and additional consoles can be bought relatively cheaply (and used many times).  However, cost is seen as one of the main barriers to games based learning.  Specifically educational games are often cheaper than commercial entertainment games (when multiple licences and consoles are taken into account, see The Games Based Learning Planning and Analysis Tool by Paul Ladley).  Some games may also represent better value for money than others if they can be used across the curriculum and for various age groups.  games-ED games for example are designed to be used in this way. 

5. Content galore! – Educational apps abound and it’s now really easy to create your own multimedia educational content for use on everything from language labs to macs, pcs and ipads. The Internet is stuffed full of free resources to help bring content to life everything from Voki (used to create your own avatars) to Camstudio (records all screen activity and turns it into a small video file).  Some companies also offer schools and organisations tailoring services, so the games can be personalised to the particular school etc.

6. On a mission! – games based learning also refers to the use of ‘mission’ and ‘quest’ based learning. A lovely example here from Soar Valley College where students used Sony PlayStation Portable and augmented reality software Second Sight to bring the secrets of the solar system to life. http://www.connectededucation.com/case-study/making-sense-of-the-solar-system-with-sony-playstation/ Goals can be extremely motivating for learners and this is especially true for children, when it is not always obvious why they are at school.  Using fun, goal-based games gives children a goal to aim for which can be very motivating and aid greater learning and retention.  Playing in a quest like way can also increase skills such as collaboration and communication skills, problem-solving skills and encouraging students to think of the ‘bigger picture’, which are important ‘soft’ skills to be learnt.

7. Flexibility – Game based learning techniques are not just restricted to inside the classroom. Teachers report bringing class sets of PlayStation Portables out on field trips to make video diaries.  Robust and durable, these new technologies mean educational content can still be accessed on the move.  Some companies also make social networks for students or include home use in their licences so that the children can play games at home: homework that is fun.

8. Stay ahead – getting stuck in and embracing new technologies helps brings teacher multimedia skills up to date, equally an understanding of game based learning helps to support schools and teachers to make the most of the technologies they already have. See an example here of a successful game based learning intervention and deployment in action at The Richard Rose Morton Academy in Carlisle.http://www.connectededucation.com/case-study/richard-rose-morton-academy-leads-the-way-in-game-based-learning/.  An understanding of games based learning can greatly improve teaching methods and help the achievement of learning outcome and schools’ mission statements and so on.  However, as games based learning in education is relatively newly recognised (through research etc.) but seen as ‘the way forward’, it looks good for the school and individual teachers if they have experience of teaching through games.  It is a competitive advantage.

9. 21st century workplace skills, more and more organisations require different skills from the old Industrial model (see earlier blog post). Game based learning encourages these 21st century requirements of independent thinking, mission and quest based tasking, communication and collaboration skills.  As mentioned earlier, ‘soft’ employability skills are extremely important and children of all ages should be encouraged to develop them, ‘the earlier the better’ so to speak.  One student in a games-ED workshop said, “It was really good fun and it increased my knowledge of working together and sharing”.  These skills are not only good for employability but are obviously good social skills to be learnt too.

10. The students love it! On a recent game based learning project designed to engage Y5 pupils in literacy at Foxhill Primary School when asked “Who likes writing?” at the start of the project, only 13 hands out of 23 went up. When asked “Who has enjoyed writing about our eye pet?” all 23 hands in the class went up!  pixelfountain has had similar feedback from students (see Proof of the Pudding parts 1, 2 and 3).  For example, a student at one workshop said, “It was fun and a great way to learn”.

Oh and its fun!