15 Games Based Learning Articles and News

This post is a collection of interesting articles about Games Based Learning.  Some of them are pedagogical, some are more practical; there should be a good mix.

Image courtesy of Kevin Jarrett on Flickr.

1. Video Games Becoming Required Coursework in Schools 
2. Building Social Skills and Literacy Through Gaming 
3. MIT Unleashes New Online Game for Math and Science 
4. The Pedagogies in Games Based Learning: A Case Study of Teacher Attitudes and Perceptions 
5. What Research Says about Game-Based Learning 
6. Designing the Future of Games, Learning and Assessment 
7. Teaching Empathy Through Digital Game Play 
8. Researchers See Video Games as Testing, Learning Tools 
9. Disruptions: Minecraft, an Obsession and an Educational Tool 
10. When to Teach Physics with ‘Angry Birds’ 
11. Making Games Based Learning Sustainable Outside the Classroom 
12. Teachers’ Quick Guide on the Use of Games in Education: Learn how to educationally integrate games into your teaching 
13. How to Use Games With Your Students 
14. Ed Tech Review: Game Based Learning in Education 
15. Success Stories – Compilation on Game-Based Learning Initiatives in Adults’ Education 

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Games Based Situated Learning and Sustainaville

Welcome to the first blog post in this series!  I spoke briefly in my previous blog post about how pixelfountain and games-ED use Games Based Situated Learning (GBSL) as the theoretical underpinning of our products.  In this series of blog posts, I will explain further what I mean by this and offer a case study of one of our products in particular: Sustainaville.  This learning simulation is typical of our approach although all of our products are underpinned by the same theory.  The series draws material from the Games Based Situated Learning paper written by the other author of this blog, Paul Ladley.  The full paper can be found on the resources page of our corporate website.

Click for Sustainaville demo.

Index:

• Games Based Situated Learning – A Contradiction?
• games-ED (Games Based Learning)
• Marrying up to Situated Learning Theory

The first part of the series will introduce briefly some of the theories that underpin our products and games based learning at large.  The main focus of this series is Games Based Situated Learning, which we have discussed before, but several years ago and very briefly.  I will also try to uncover whether Situated Learning can actually occur through games and simulations, i.e. is that situated enough?

I will then introduce one of our games-ED products: the learning simulation Sustainaville.  I will explain the simulation and how it is used in a workshop including the plan > do > review stages.

The final and main part of the series will essentially be a judgement of Sustainaville using some theoretical principles outlined in the first part of the series (put forward by Jan Herrington and Ron Oliver, 1995).  This checklist can be used to judge other serious games and learning simulations in a similar way.  We will back up our judgements with both qualitative and quantitative feedback from our workshops.

games-ED (Games Based Learning)

This is the second blog post in the series.  Click back to the index if you are lost.

games-ED current products can be described as resource management games. They are played in a classroom environment on a single computer by the whole class. The games narrative is structured around a relevant context such as a community – they are situated. The class is spit into sub-teams that have to collaborate to achieve common goals such as improving the community.  Sustainaville is one such game.

The games have been used in schools, college and universities and are built on tried and tested adult learning products.

Using the Game in a Lesson
The game plays over a number of rounds (simulated years). The rounds are sub-divided into three phases (plan > do > review). The rounds progressively speed up, as the learners get to grips with the task at hand.

The class is divided into sub-teams. In Sustainaville, the teams are: Local Authority; Education, Learning & Skills; Health; Third Sector; Housing; Utilities; Transport and Enterprise Partnership. Each sub-team is presented with a mission outlining their objectives. Ultimately, the sub-teams work as one team with one score.

It is important to note that the game based lesson sits within a games based learning pedagogy. In essence, pre work, taught material, follow on exercises and assessment wrap around the game based lesson. As Francis notes (2006), games need to sit within broader games based pedagogy in order that a game might be effectively used in classroom contexts.

Phases of the Game Rounds (Plan > Do > Review)
Each round of Sustainville has three phases: plan > do > review:

PLAN:

• Investigate the main graphic, which shows a virtual community with problems such as air and water pollution, congestion, poor housing, unemployment, poor health and rising waste.
• Investigate report screen that help learners to make decisions. The reports show cause and effect and will enable the learner to see the impact their decisions.
• Learners consider cross linkages with other sub-teams and understand that they can achieve more if they work together.

DO:

• Having looked at their reports and developed a plan, the sub-teams can invest their budgets by making purchase decisions.
• Negotiate with other teams and choose win-wins to create a sustainable community.
• After all the budget decisions have been made, the sub-teams present their decisions to the whole group explaining what they have bought and why.  
• The purchases are input into the game by the teacher.

REVIEW:

• The round is updated to the next year.
• The learners consider the impact of their decisions (improvements made to the community):
• The main graphic changes: wind turbines, less pollution, recycling facilities and more housing.  
• The sub-team reports change.
• The score shows how the teams have performed as a whole group. The educator gives feedback on their performance, and the learners can reflect on the decisions they have made. 
• The learners now need to plan what they want to achieve in round 2.

See the next post in this series for how Sustainaville Marries Up to the Theory.

Marrying up to Situated Learning Theory

This final part of the series uses Herrington & Oliver’s ideas (described in the first part of this series) as a design checklist for our product Sustainaville.

Authentic Context
The Interface must map to the situation where the authentic activity would normally take place.  In addition, the learning should be complex and sufficiently large in scope to provide realism when problem solving.

In Sustainaville, learners are presented with a dynamic screen that shows the virtual community changing. The game play itself maps to the real world as learners play the role of decision makers (sub-teams in the overall game) in a virtual community.

Feedback from primary school students:

• “It is harder than I thought to run a town.” 
• “When you could see the town from the past years how it changed.”
• “Sometimes there is a disaster that you don’t know.” 

Over the workshops there was also between 67% and 88% improvement in understanding of sustainable development.

Authentic Activities
Along with an authentic context, the programme should enable learners to participate as though they are the experts.  It is through simulated authentic activity that the learner becomes immersed in the process of learning.

In Sustainaville learners are assigned objectives. They have to develop strategy, deal with incidents, make decisions on how to use resources and negotiate with other sub-teams.  These authentic activities and context interplay to produce a rich learning environment.

Feedback from primary school students:

• “It was like you were a proper business man.”
• “I liked making the decisions on what to buy and how much to buy.”
• “I will take away… planning, working together, making the right decisions.”

Over the workshops there was around a 57% improvement in decision-making skills.

Modelling of Processes and Expert performance
At the core of games-ED products sits the algorithm. It is the algorithm that fires out numbers in response to delegates’ decisions. Purchases in the game alter parameters, which in turn alter other parameters. The algorithm and the interface / activities that surrounds it represent the model of the reality. The algorithm is developed with the aid of desk research and interaction with subject matter experts.

Multiple roles and perspectives 
A situated learning environment provides the learner with the opportunity to investigate multiple roles and perspectives.  Roles and perspectives are brought to the fore in Sustainaville by the placing of delegates into sub-teams. Each sub-team has its own report (perspective), but at the same time the whole group is scored collectively (big picture). These sub-teams need to work together to achieve the overall goal (a constructed understanding). It is this pluralism of thought that the learners need to balance to gain a fuller understanding.

Feedback from primary school students when asked ‘what key learning messages will you take away?’:

• “That when your managing somewhere you need to make sure people are happy and that little things can be very important.”
• “That people have harder jobs than I thought.”
• “We need to keep the environment healthy and public transport is better than cars.”

Collaboration
From the perspective of the situated learning theory, the decision to run Sustainaville as a whole class exercise rather than as standalone software makes sense and adds real value to the experience of learning. The sub-teams need to work together as one team and it is those that do so, that go on to post high scores.

Feedback from primary school students:

• “I liked that we worked together to make the community good.”
• “I liked it when we had to work in a group and play a game to improve the area.”
• When asked ‘what key learning messages will you take away?’: “Work together, make group decisions.”

There was between a 41% and 61% improvement in group working after playing the game.

Game collaboration can have wider benefits. “Social interactions and relationships were seen by some of the interviewed teachers as having been positively enhanced by game-based learning activities in the classroom.” Ben Williamson, Futurelab 2009.

Reflection
A situated learning environment should allow learners to reflect upon a much broader base of knowledge to solve problems. The game anchors the discussion, but the delegates are encouraged to share experiences and knowledge. At the end of the session and after each round, the class is asked to think about the experience from different points of view. The learners are encouraged to build abstractions. Follow-on exercises, either completed as homework or in the next class, allow the learners to further consolidate their understanding and reflect on what they have learned.

A pupil from one workshop responded on his questionnaire that he would like “To do this in citizenship lessons.”

Articulation
Dialogue and articulation of knowledge occurs amongst learners (sub-teams), at the class level and can be educator-led. These conversations, not the technological interactions, should account for the majority the lesson.  In a workshop, the educator’s role is to encourage debate. A key question, as the learners’ decisions are keyed into the simulation is, “so what were you thinking when you made those choices?” The group can be encouraged with, “so what do the rest of you think about that?”

The learners often go through a process of transformation and feel able to participate in a way they could not have dreamed of before.  This is in part because of the inclusive nature of the exercise, but also because democratising nature of the game - games have a leveling effect: prior knowledge is only partially useful and game format may allow previously disengaged or under performing students to succeed.

A class teacher observing one workshop commented: “The children were fully engaged for all the session and the ‘buzz’ in the room was one of real active learning”.

Feedback from a primary school student when asked ‘what key learning messages will you take away?’: “How to discuss and think about decisions.”

Coaching and scaffolding
‘Many designers of interactive multimedia believe their programs should be self-contained ... Situated learning sees the teacher’s role in coaching – observing students, offering hints and reminders, providing feedback, scaffolding and fading, modeling, and so on – as integral to the learning situation’ (Herrington and Ron Oliver, 1995).

The role of the educator in Sustainaville is crucial. The teacher acts rather like the conductor in a orchestra, keeping the process flowing and providing scaffolding and stimulus as and when required.  The educator plays the role of the expert, as described in traditional situated learning. To enable the educator to do so, the software supports them. Contextual help is provided, by clicking on screen elements, to enable the educator to discover what makes up the particular element and its current value in the game.

A teacher overseeing one workshop commented: “the children were able to work [the purchase items] out with peer support or asked for clarification from an adult”.

Integrated assessment
Rather than considering the assessment as an add-on to the course, it should be integrated into learning itself.  Integration should not merely be a case of placing multiple choice questions within the learning sequence, instead the learning and assessment is one and the same thing, creating an authentic experience.

The score in Sustainaville is a highly motivating device. The decisions that the delegates make are fed into the algorithm and the score is fired out each round as the team endeavors to make the community a better place.

The in-game reports can be exported for analysis by the educator and to provide the basis for follow-on reflective / extension work. The reports are aligned to the curriculum, so that they can provide part of the evidence base for broader assessment.

A teacher overseeing one workshop 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!”

Feedback from primary school students:

• “I liked finding out what score you got at the end and looking at the improvements.”
• “It was very fun and you learnt a lot.  It was great being in charge of the town and seeing what the result was.”

I hope you enjoyed this series!  We thought we had better show some practical evidence of the benefits of games based learning after so much theory.

Don't forget to like games-ED on Facebook and Google+ and follow @PaulLadley on Twitter for blog updates and interesting things we find while poking around the internet.  You can also now follow us on Pinterest.

Games Based Learning Supports Multiple Learning Styles

As we have discussed in the past (‘Ten Reasons why GBL works in Education’, ‘Boys will be Boys’, and ‘Kinect Games Based Learning’), we believe that games based learning supports different learning styles.  These are typically understood as visual learners, auditory learners and kinaesthetic learners (learning by doing).  This infographic (pictured below) gives more information about each learning type and some useful learning suggestions based on the characteristics common with each type of learner.

http://www.onlinecollege.org/what-type-learner-are-you

One of the reasons that games based learning works so well is possibly because (amongst other reasons) it makes use of these different learning styles.  In particular kinaesthetic learning can occur through the use of learning simulations.  In these cases, a real world scenario or situation can be played out and the learners can ‘learn by doing’ actions in a safe environment.

Some people question whether learning styles under this model should be used in instructional design.  At pixelfountain and games-ED, the key learning theory that underpins our work is Games Based Situated Learning (GBSL).  This goes further in saying people can learn better by ‘learning by being’ (see ‘Games Based Situated Learning’ and 'Learn by Doing AND Learn by Being’).  This is again extremely related to simulation based learning as people can put themselves into the position of a character in the virtual city, hotel, economy and so on.  For us, supporting VAK is a by-product of our instructional design amongst other benefits and is not the starting point.

What is interesting about the infographic though, is that it suggests that 27.8% of people are predominantly kinaesthetic learners.  This makes up the biggest proportion of learners.  They suggest the next highest proportion learn best through reading / writing, followed by aural and visual.  This could mean big things for games based learning, if accurate.

However, what is important is how the games are used.  If you have a workshop or classroom full of people, they are unlikely to all share the same learning preferences.  Additionally, some people may learn different things in different ways or need a combination of stimuli to really understand something.  It would be foolish to plonk people down in front of a game and expect them all to become experts in that topic.

This is where workshops and full lesson plans are important.  Games based learning is often misunderstood as people fear that the learners will fail to see the point of the game and may just play to win and then forget what they have learned.  This does not have to be the case as tailor-made games (as opposed to commercial games) can avoid this.  However, another way to anchor and reinforce learning and capitalise on peoples learning styles is to offer additional activities (see ‘Six Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning’).  These could be as simple as a brief introduction on the subject and a few questions at the end.  However, they could also involve mini games and exercises before and after the main game.  This also serves the function of ‘waking people up’ and getting them enthused and engaged.  This is the innovative approach that pixelfountain and games-ED take (this page from our website explains perfectly what I mean).

A recent New York Times article talks about ‘Harnessing Gaming for the Classroom’.  It discusses several reasons why games based learning is so exciting and why it works.  It also discusses some general trends of games and technology being used in education.  It is definitely worth a read and explains how people can learn things by physically doing them rather than reading or thinking about something.  They give the examples of improvisation on the piano or catching a baseball.  They suggest that in the future, school children will be able to turn into the thing that they are studying and become immersed in a virtual world related to what they have become.  They give the example of becoming a molecule and this would make molecules more exciting as that molecule is you.  This really is immersive learning at its best.  However, current games and simulations offer a pretty good alternative for now (and for relatively cheap).

Don't forget to like games-ED on Facebook and Google+ and follow @PaulLadley on Twitter for blog updates and interesting things we find while poking around the internet.

Sugata Mitra – Four Implications for Games Based Learning

I recently listened to a talk by Sugata Mitra at the Education Technology Conference in Leeds.  I am sure you have all come across Sugata Mitra – he is widely known for his Hole in the Wall experiments carried out in India, which the inspired Vikas Swarup to write his debut novel Q & A, which later became the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

By the way Sugata’s talk followed a similar format to one given at TED (Ideas worth Spreading) – Child-driven education, which you can see below.

When listening to Sugata , I was struck by four implications for games based learning: 


1. Generating Interest: Sugata discussed his work with Arthur C. Clarke, who pointed out that “if there is interest, then education happens.” Games based learning can generate a lot of interest. And a lot has been written about games based learning and its ability to motivate and engage learners. I won’t repeat those points here, but what I will say is that games can suffer from being too interesting. Specifically, the design of the game needs to support the learning process – see blog post “Six Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning”.

2. The role of the teacher: Again, quoting Arthur C. Clarke Sugata said that “A teacher that can be replaced by a machine; should be.” It is worth noting that Sugata doesn’t believe that teachers can be replaced (well not yet), but he does believe that teachers shouldn’t be the purveyors of mere information. He believes that is what Google is for. Instead, they should inspire and help pupils analyse what they have found. Teachers can provide scaffolding and expertise, this particularly true in collaborative games based learning products such as games-ED. As game decisions are input into the game (at a class level) the teacher can ask questions such as, “Why did you buy that?” Game reports can be analysed by the students and the teacher – “What worked, what didn’t and how are we going to improve things this round?”

3. The method of the grandmother: Inspiration can come from unusual quarters. Both in experiments in India and Gateshead, Sugata discovered that students could achieve dramatic results (20% increase in test scores) just by being encouraged by an adult – “wow that looks good can you show me again”.  Again, this isn’t to say that teachers aren’t required, but it shows how important inspiration is in the education process. Games based learning can motivate learners by presenting both an interesting narrative and a competitive challenge. The role of the teacher, as previously stated, is to provide scaffolding and expertise, but they should also simply nudge the players along rather like a grandmother. By moving away from rigid traditional instructional method, teachers allow the students to work together to construct their understanding. See blog “Learn by Doing”.

4. The power of collaboration: Key to Sugata’s learning ideas is the power of collaboration. In his experiments, he encourages the students to work in groups of four with one computer. He believes that the key to delivering improved education outcomes is generating conversations. I completely agree and as I written previously in a blog titled “The Art of Conversation”, collaborative games based learning anchors conversations and enables students to learn complex subjects quickly.

Best of Both Worlds

I recently wrote an article on games based learning for Headteacher Update.

The article looks at the debate around games based learning and considers what educators and developers need to think about to when using / creating games based learning products.

Anyways, before I blog a spoiler, why don't you have gander a page 36 of the digital edition of Headteacher Update.

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Edit: Headteacher Update have published a web page version of my games based learning article.

Proof of the Pudding Part 2

Building on a previous blog post (proof of the pudding), this post looks at the practical use of games based learning in the classroom. I didn't deliver the lessons, instead it was delivered by teachers at Kings's School Winchester.

What was particularly interesting for me, is that it wasn't delivered as a facilitated game - this is the way I normally deliver our Sustainaville product. Kings' School still used it as a collaborative game, but the students inputted their own decisions into the game and the teachers supported the game sessions more lightly. The students quickly picked up the game rules (due in part to worksheets produced by Kings' School Teachers) and made group decisions in what is a reasonably complex simulation game.

Report on Sustainaville by Jane Berridge, Enterprise Co-ordinator, Kings' School Winchester
For our year 9 Enterprise Day, we took the 330 students in the year group off time table and set them a business challenge based around a theme.  The theme was sustainability and the students were asked to investigate how they could improve their community in a sustainable way.

We wanted to provide the students with information and learning that related to a sustainable community project whilst being motivational and fun.  So, we chose to start the day with Sustainaville.

Sustainaville Dynamic Main Screen

The whole year group was split into teams of three.  Each team worked at a computer and took on the role of town planners.  Their brief was to look at different sectors of Sustainaville and decide where they needed to invest to improve the town and make it a better place to live.

To make the activity even more challenging, there were tutor group competitions with spot prizes and a prize was awarded to the team with the highest score in the year group.

The game was very successful and the feedback from students and adults was excellent.  The students said ‘we really enjoyed the game, especially when we won the tutor group challenge. We have learned what sustainability is and how to help the environment. Also, we learned how to work with others and to be confident when making business decisions.’  

The teachers said they thought it was a very useful and the students gained a lot from it.

Background on Sustainaville by Paul Ladley (games-ED)
Sustainaville is a games based learning product produced games-ED. The key to success of Sustainaville is that it incorporates the 6 Key Principles of Collaborative Games Based Learning. In particular: it supports group game play; it uses technology appropriately (in Kings's case 1 computer per group not 330 computers) and it supports multiple conversations. The last principle is expanded in an earlier blog post - The Art of Conversation.

Feedback provided via report screens

In terms of Enterprise Education, Sustainaville helps learners to understand the importance of businesses in providing employment and prosperity. Learners understand how investment and specific sector skills underpin sustainable growth plus how generic skills and business improvements impact on competitiveness. They also discover that businesses do not operate in a vacuum and that social and environmental factors can both impact on the success of businesses and can be made worse by business activities.

The game allows the learners to practice skills that they and businesses need. They develop strategies, plan actions and manage budgets. They make choices and work within constraints. They use decision-making skills, practice problem-solving skills and work in teams.

Teaching Methods Deployed:
• Debates
• Discussions (experience transfer)
• Educational games
• Role-playing
• Simulations
• Pupil/student-led activities or exercises.

When Will Educators Get Serious About Gaming?

In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Bruce Dixon asked, “What's holding [games based learning] progress back? Is it that gaming, by its very name, cannot be taken seriously by the wider education community, or indeed the wider community in general? Is it possible that gaming is only now starting to reach a level of "maturity" and sophistication from an affordable technology perspective, that it can finally provide what might be to be "serious opportunities for learning"? Or is it something that might be seen as driving what could be called subversive pedagogy?


Whatever the reason, it's time we thought beyond the fundamental research around the value, impact and opportunities game-based learning provides, and spent some time trying to leverage the evidence we do have be presenting it to a much broader community.

I certainly agree with Bruce on this last point and I shared some evidence in a recent blog post (Proof of the Pudding).


I like to think the problem is an issue of evolution rather than revolution. Specifically, rather than  parachuting commercial games or gaming styles into classrooms, we need to consider what teachers actually want. I think that is a teaching resource that delivers outcomes where traditional approaches might not be suited.

As a consultant and lead designer at games-ED I have delivered over 40 classes using games based learning. I have also delivered over 300 workshops using serious games.

During this time I have:

1. Run classes with commercial-style games where it was hard to extract learning, although there was a lot of engagement. There was also technical difficulties due to graphic cards.

2. Developed and delivered a single player game that was designed to work in the classroom. This was more successful in terms of learning outcomes, although again it was difficult to drag students away from the game.

3. I have developed and delivered collaborative games based learning where a whole class takes on different roles in a simulation. This approach fits into standard teaching practice with natural breakpoints for reflection and scaffolding. It delivers curriculum outcomes and improvements in personal learning and thinking skills.

Much of the research done on games based learning has been on commercial games (or games developed in the style of commercial games) rather than purpose built games based learning. It is this fact that is highlighting some of the technical and pedagogical issues surrounding the adoption of games based learning. I say this, as our experience does not fit the research. I would say the two most important issues around the adoption of games based learning are sales and marketing. When the big players start putting their weight behind the approach things will change.

So, on that note, if there are any large education resellers out there, who want to link up with a  games based learning company, I might be able to help :)

The Art of Conversation

If Elvis had been singing about games based learning, he might have demanded, ”a little less action, a little more conversation”.

The history of the introduction of new mediums is littered with the belief that they kill the art of conversation. Those “halcyon” days when the family gathered around the piano and the men retired for port and conversation have “sadly” gone (as it happens, I would have worked down the pit or in the mill). It is argued that the likes of TV and more recently computer games have put another nail in the coffin of conversation, but I disagree.

New mediums can act as conversational anchors, like the fact that people can chat about Eastenders or Corrie at work the next day. Soap operas offer viewers the opportunity to put the actions and interactions of human beings into perspective, both socially and culturally (Brunsdon, 1997; Gillespie, 1995; Liebes & Katz, 1990). Games can also do this.

Even individually played games can generate conversations. “Have you seen this?” “How did you do that?” We have seen this in action: We have delivered two programmes, involving seven schools, using two different individually played games. These classes were far from quiet! And it also worth noting that “individual” games were often played by pairs of pupils, as they preferred to work this way.

Collaborative games, though, take conversations onto a different level. With our games-ED products the gameplay is structured around rounds and phases to encourage conversation. The learners talk in their teams, between teams, at a class level and with the educator. The game anchors these conversations allowing a natural set of questions (shown below) to flow during the course of the plan > do > review phases. These conversations are at the heart of the learning; they are inclusive and are not formalised / one-way. It is through these questions that learning flows. Together the class constructs their understanding, and makes tacit knowledge (emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observations and internalised information) explicit.

Games can be action packed and so engaging, but it is their ability to anchor conversations that provides the key to their success in the classroom. They also provide a collaborative framework that suits both boys and girls, which I think would make a good starting point for my next blog.

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Brunsdon, C. (1997). Screen Tastes: soap opera to satellite dishes. London: Routledge
Gillespie, M. (1995). Television, ethnicity and cultural change. London & New York: Routledge
Liebes, T. and Katz, E. (1990). The export of meaning: cross cultural readings of Dallas. New York: Oxford University Press

Five Things to Think About When Using Games in the Classroom

Games are receiving a lot of attention as educational resources. Games based learning educates while engaging and motivating students.

Before you grab a Wii remote or zoom off the line in the latest racing simulation; think about your strategy:

1. What are the learning outcomes you are trying to achieve?
  a. If the session is about excitement and engagement then most games are going to work.
  b. If you want to achieve group working, then you will need to hunt out party and collaborative games.
  c. If you have a specific subject knowledge requirement, then commercial entertainment games might have limited use. You need to embark on a quest for dedicated games based learning.
2. How will you ensure that learning takes place?
  a. If the game does not have natural break points, you will need to create them, so learning can be reinforced.
  b. What more can you do pre and post gaming?
3. What kit and environment will you need?
  a. Console or existing computer? The former is going to cost and, if it is the latter, will the class need to decamp to the IT suite because the game is played individually or needs a powerful computer?
  b. Will your current classroom cope? Console games that make use of motion peripherals need enough space to swing the proverbial cat rather than move a mouse on its mat.
4. Will there be a level playing field?
  a. “Pro” gamers might dominate proceedings, particularly if they have expertise in a particular game or console.
  b. Can the game be played in a way where different players can take on different roles, so that they all have a chance to use their unique talents?
5. Is the game too complex? The game needs to be quickly understood.
  a. If you are going to use complex commercial entertainment games, then consider setting up a part played scenario with a specific goal.
  b. Party games which are prevalent on the Wii are quick to learn, yet might be lacking in learning content.
  c. Purpose built games based learning ought not to suffer this problem, but make sure you ask the supplier.

Games are powerful learning tools, and at games-ED we have seen their benefits on many occasions, but like any other method of teaching they need to be carefully integrated into the classroom in order to achieve the desired results.  Above are just some of the points we consider when designing games based learning.  We will revisit this topic soon.

If you want to find out more on games based learning in the classroom go to the games-ED website to see some recent case studies (Mellor Primary School and Central Foundation Girls School).  Also, have a look at this recent article from the BBC.