The blog looks at gamification, g-Learning and games based learning theory and practice. It provides insight (via games-ED and pixelfountain) on games based learning use in education and g-Learning (including learning simulations) use in adult learning / training such as application in curriculum delivery, training, awareness raising, organisational development, communications and engagement.
Hello again after my short break from blogging! I am afraid I was very busy sitting my final year university exams (and am pleased to say I achieved a first class honours) and then I travelled to Brazil for the World Cup. I thought I'd share this fantastic infographic with you as my first post back, enjoy and as always please share your thoughts in the comments section. Click the infographic for a larger, interactive version.
How Google Glass might be used in Education – An infographic by the team at Open Colleges
As you can see there are many ways that Google Glass technology could be used to enhance education and update learning for the 21st Century. It also fits in with some of the other educational movements we have discussed previously on the blog, such as Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Multiple Learning Styles and so on. As always, it is a technological tool that doesn't provide all the answers, but alongside these educational movements as well as Gamification, Games Based Learning and so on, education could fit more with the 21st Century world and really benefit students... and teachers.
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.
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:
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.
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.
This TED talk from Dr. Richard Van Eck brings up some very interesting points. I would greatly recommend watching the video, but as it is 20 minutes long and not everyone will have the time, I will summarise the main points here for you. If you have watched the video, please feel free to ignore the summary, just skip to the black text later on.
Why raise test scores when they don’t measure what we need them to in the 21st century?
If we really cared about learning, we would individualise it to each student – not ready to do this.
There are two main modes of change / reform:
Changing because if we don’t adapt, we can’t survive.
Disruptive technologies – new technology that solves problems that we face but in a way that forces us to change our behaviour.
The Industrial Revolution changed the education system to produce workers. Children were all taught the same things, in the same place, at the same time. We now live in an ‘information age’ where ideas are the new commodities.
Situated cognition - if you are going to teach someone something, you should teach them in the environment that they will use the knowledge – learn by doing. This promotes faster learning, better retention of knowledge and the transference of knowledge to the real world. Games allow this.
Games promote systems thinking – currently education teaches discrete facts, not connections and systems.
Games promote collaboration – social negotiation of skills, collective intelligence, collective problem-solving all prevalent in games.
Games promote problem-solving. The problems presented require new knowledge to be generated to solve it. There is a value for the learner in solving the problem. Schools sometimes get the first aspect but usually try and persuade children to “just do it, trust me it will be important later.”
Games produce engagement (engagement is not about fun or motivation but cognitive effort). The challenge should be optimal – too hard and they’ll quit, too easy and they won’t want to play. Zone of proximal development: some things so easy we don’t need help to do them, some things too difficult no matter how much help, some things where the challenge is ‘just right’. This is where all the best learning occurs as it keeps people operating at the maximum of their ability. This is what games do – can choose difficulty at start and can’t move on until mastered initial skills.
But, games are disruptive technologies and this has practical consequences. Games will require fundamental shifts in the education system.
Current tests don’t measure 21st century skills and tests might not be able to ever measure these skills.
Collaboration vs. cheating – how will we adapt to these new ideas?
Individualised instruction – currently we fit education to the lowest common denominator, which means that some children are not optimally challenged. If we individualised learning, some children would take 2 months to complete the curriculum and some, 2 years. Practical and financial consequences.
If we bring in games, we will have to adopt everything that comes with them. Disruptive technologies by definition, destroy things; revolutions are messy.
Games may not save the education system, they may destroy it and this might be exactly what is needed.
Dr. Richard Van Eck makes some great points, I completely agree that our current education system is somewhat ignoring these 21st century skills. I also agree that the education system needs a revolution. However, I thank that games can be integrated into our current education system very easily and this could produce change for the better now. People, on the whole, are scared of change and the idea of a revolution, whilst headline grabbing, might not be feasible. I am not sure if he meant it to come across in this way, but it seems that Dr. Van Eck is arguing that there is an either / or choice to be made: either we stay the same or we have a revolution. I think there could be some middle ground.
What exactly are 21st century skills? This is another good article, which lists the essential competencies for a student in the Information Age:
Ways of thinking - Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and learning.
Ways of working - Communication and collaboration.
Tools for working - Information and communications technology (ICT) and information literacy.
Skills for living in the world - Citizenship, life and career, and personal and social responsibility.
In a dynamic and competitive knowledge economy, innovation, creativity and problem solving are everything. We exist in a world dominated by the likes of Apple and Google. For these firms to survive, they must innovate. They require a workforce of creative critical thinkers. Furthermore, to survive in this economy and obtain employment, these are the skills that students need to be learning too. Games are a great way of encouraging the development of these skills. Succeeding in playing a game often requires problem solving, critical thinking and most definitely decision making. These skills can be practiced in a safe environment. For example, puzzle games such as Portal require explicit problem solving involving physics. However, all games involve some form of thinking skills such as these. How do I fulfil my Sim’s life ambition? How can I make my theme park more popular? How can I make my town more sustainable (an example of our learning simulation, Sustainaville)?
Communication and collaboration are also extremely important. On a purely practical level, flatter organisational hierarchies require good communication skills. This is common in a knowledge economy. Further than this, the most successful companies have realised that their workforce are their best resources. They have also found that collaboration can encourage innovation and so on. For example, Google have special areas of their offices specifically designed to stimulate ‘spontaneous’ communication and collaboration with people that they wouldn’t usually come into contact with. They also have small collaboration zones such as yurts and huddle rooms.
Image from Marcin Wichary on Flickr.
Games can encourage collaboration in different ways. First, multiplayer games can obviously provoke communication and collaboration. For example, players in games such as World of Warcraft, Halo, Portal and so on need to work together to succeed in their mission / level. In our games-ED learning simulations, players make up sub-teams that need to work together to achieve the overall outcomes of the whole group. The sub-teams are in control of one sector / building e.g. local council, health sector, private sector which must work together to improve the virtual community that they have been put in charge of.
Single player games can also encourage communication such as “Guess what I did on Fifa last night?” or “Have you been on this quest in Skyrim?” However, they can also encourage collaboration such as “How did you do that pass / goal celebration?” or “How did you defeat that boss / find that item?” While talking about communication and collaboration, I’d just like to bring your attention to this Swedish classroomless school. This innovative new school in Sweden has no classrooms, focuses on 21st century skills and children are split into grades based on their level rather than age. One of their main priorities is the promotion of collaboration along with all the other 21st Century skills mentioned. Is this the school of the future? For more information on communication and collaboration see ‘The Art of Conversation’.
It goes without saying that IT skills should be encouraged through the use of IT based games. However, what about the final bullet point above: skills for living in the world? These benefits might not come about from all games. However, they will in many. For example, semi-realistic life and career skills are simulated in The Sims. You must manage your sim’s life, made up of physical needs, social life, love life, career, family life and so on. Other games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft have pretty strict rules about social etiquette and citizenship.
Our games-ED learning simulations are designed to educate learners about some of these areas. For example, The Climate Game teaches students about climate change and environmental responsibility and Young People First teaches students about young people’s issues such as teen pregnancy, worklessness and anti-social behaviour. For more information on how game-ED aims to encourage these 21st Century (or Personal Learning & Thinking) skills click here.
To conclude, these skills are needed in the 21st Century. Needed by job seekers, employers, organisations and our future leaders. In my experience, these are the skills that people are after (employers often just require you to have a degree, not a degree in a specific area) more than the knowledge of facts and figures. Some specific knowledge is needed sometimes, such as medicine and law. However, in many fields, knowledge needs to be gained on the job anyway. Why then, is so much emphasis placed on this type of knowledge in education when it will be forgotten? Why not put more emphasis on 21st Century skills?
Further Viewing
If you have the time, you might want to watch this video from Dr. Tony Wagner about what he calls, the ‘global achievement gap’ (the gap between what is being taught and what is needed to be taught in the 21st century).
