Using+Games+in+the+Classroom

Why Use Games? **Games are a part of the lives of students outside of the school day**. According to a 2011 NPD Group Research survey, “91 percent of kids (approximately 64 million) ages 2-17 are gaming in the U.S.” (Riley, 2011). **Games meet the learning needs of our students**. Today’s students are nicknames the “Net Generation.” These learners need “multiple streams of information, prefer inductive reasoning, want frequent and quick interactions with content, and have exceptional visual literacy skills” Van Eck, 2006). These learner characteristics can be easily found in games. **Games are popular**. In 2010, consumers spent over $25 billion dollars purchasing computer and video games. (Entertainment Software Association, 2011)

**Games are effective because of what players are doing as they play a game.** Van Eck describes how learning takes place when the context is meaningful to the game itself. Gamers use situated cognition when they are playing games. This means that they have to learn what is directly related to the game environment. The learning is then applied and practiced within the (game) context. Since it is in context, the learning is more meaningful and effective than learning outside of the context. Most formal instruction occurs outside of the direct context.

**Play is key to learning.** Researchers have attested to the importance of play. “Play is a primary socialization and learning mechanism common to all human cultures and many animal species” (Van Eck, 2006). Play is a form of modeling when direct instruction may not be as effective.

**Games provide learning principles educators want to see in their daily lessons and learning environment.** James Gee’s publication //Good Video Games and Good Learning// (2005), describes some of the learning principles that good games will incorporate and explains how that can be used in the classroom:
 * 1) identity - As teachers, when we do a science experiment, we want our students to feel like scientists, so good video games have players develop their own character or provide a strong, appealing character. Players, then, have this commitment to the virtual world.
 * 2) interaction - nothing will happen in a video game unless the players acts and makes a decision. The video game, in turn, provides feedback and new problems. The player is interacting with the virtual world. In school, we need to find a way to take our static textbooks and turn them into an interactive learning experience.
 * 3) production - in good games, players have a role in designing the game. These games provide the player with choices in order to help them “‘write’ the worlds in which they live” (p 35). Gee encourages educators to have students help them “write” the curriculum they are studying.
 * 4) risk-taking - every classroom should be a place where students can take risks, explore, and even experience failure with lower consequences. Good games encourage risk-taking because players can start where they left off. This is a form of problem-solving for the player because they get to try different ways of completing a problem without the risk of ultimate failure.
 * 5) customization - differentiation is an important part of the learning environment. Good games allows players to tailor a game to fit their personalities. Games have different difficulty levels or allow different ways to solve a problem. In the classroom, educators need to be providing similar experiences for students.
 * 6) ownership - finally, in light of the previous principles, players take ownership in the game they are playing. If an educator applies the previous principles into the learning environment, they will start to see the ownership in learning that is frequently missing in the classroom.

Gee’s article is very much worth the read as he explores ten more learning principles of good video games and how they relate to the learning environment.

**Using Games to Guide and Inform Instruction** Teachers and students need feedback in order to know their progress towards a goal. There are many ways that teachers and students can give and receive feedback. One of those ways is through providing assessments for learning or formative assessments. Formative assessments are administered to students while they are being taught a new skill or given new information. Researchers, like Marzano (2007), have shown that formative assessments "might be one of the more powerful weapons in a teacher's arsenal" (p. 13). Specifically, his research shows that students make significant gains when teachers provide frequent formative assessments to their students. Figure 1 shows the increase in learning that could be expected when the use of formative assessments are used in a classroom over a 15-week period. Formative assessments can be formal (e.g., worksheets, written response/quiz, etc.) or informal (e.g., observation, self-reflection, thumbs up/thumbs down, etc.). The feedback given to teachers and students help determine where strengths and weaknesses are, where there are gaps in learning, or when content can be enriched. There are many resources that educators can use to formatively assess their students. Furthermore, since Marzano’s research proves formative assessment needs to occur frequently, educators need plenty of resources to keep their students engaged while providing them feedback. Integrating games into the classroom can provide the motivation, creativity and engagement students need to succeed academically. The remainder of this section takes a look at several different gaming websites. I have broken them down into two categories: Games for Practice and Review and Games for Assessment. The latter delves into summative assessments; however, these games are also strong formative assessments. = = Marzano, 2007. p. 13
 * = Figure 1   ** Achieved Gain Associated with Number of Assessments over 15 Weeks **  ||
 * = Number of Assessments  ||=  Effect Size  ||=  Percentile Gain  ||
 * = 0  ||=  0  ||=  0  ||
 * = 1  ||=  0.34  ||=  13.5  ||
 * = 5  ||=  0.53  ||=  20.0  ||
 * = 10  ||=  0.60  ||=  22.5  ||
 * = 15  ||=  0.66  ||=  24.5  ||
 * = 20  ||=  0.71  ||=  26.0  ||
 * = 25  ||=  0.78  ||=  28.5  ||
 * = 30  ||=  0.82  ||=  29.0  ||

**Using Games for Practice and Review**

Arcademic Skill Builders
Arcademic Skill Builders can be used in the classroom to help students practice a variety of skills. Geared for third through sixth graders, students compete individually or as a group in math, geography, language arts, and typing. As noted in the video, students are challenged to answer questions quickly and with accuracy. Students can track their progress because the program indicates problems that were answered incorrectly.

Quia
Quia.com [KEY-ah] is an online learning tool that uses quizzes and activities to help students learn various topics. This site is not a free site, but there is a 30-day free trial to see if it is right for your classroom. Educators can develop their own games to meet their learning objectives or they can use the many different games that have already been developed.

Funbrain
Funbrain.com is similar to Arcademic Skill Builder, but is made for individual play only. Educators can set up their own classroom page in order to customize the site for their classroom. Funbrain focuses math, science, history, geography, and language arts skills through eighth grade.

**Using Games to Assess Students** Incorporating gaming into the classroom does not need to be limited to practice or review. Games can certainly be used in the classroom for assessment purposes. Students can be developing their own games as a way to show their teacher they are understanding the concepts. In addition, this is a great way to differentiate for students who are picking up concepts quickly. Developing games is not particularly an easy task, and using some of the gaming programs online can add enrichment into your classroom. For example, if your classroom is studying the structure and themes of tall tales, an extension product could be to write a tall tale and then re-create it as a video game. The game would need to incorporate the plot and setting of the tall tale. Students would create a gaming environment that gamers would interact with. This would be a way for students to literally bring their story to life. The next few pages introduce you to some free programming websites you can use in your learning environment. These sites are designed for kids. They provide excellent resources for educators to help them incorporate game development into the classroom. They are designed to be user friendly and use drag and drop options rather that teaching complex coding. These sites give students the chance to play around, yet be engaged in developing a game that is fun and educational for their audience.

Scratch
Scratch is a program from the MIT Media Lab. Scratch was developed to help students create and share interactive stories, animation, games, music, art, etc. Designed for 8-16 year olds, students do not need any background knowledge in programing. This is ideal for the classroom since gaming is such a new concept being brought into the learning environment. Students get exposure in developing media that uses problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, and reasoning skills. Teachers can use this tool to assess student knowledge about concepts.

Kodu
Developed by Microsoft, Kodu is a visual programming language made for creating games. It is designed as an introduction to game development and is completely icon-based. Students do not need prior exposure to gaming code. When a student completes a game, they are able to play it on XBOX or on a PC.

Alice
Alice is another game development website. It can be used to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a free tool that can be used as a student's first exposure to game development. While students learn fundamental programming concepts they can be using the skills and concepts they are learning in the classroom to develop a game that other students in the class could use to help them practice those skills. This tool is more appropriate for middle and high school students; however, the Alice team is working on a program for younger students.

** Classroom Models ** Game-based learning classrooms can be found across the United States. Some schools integrate games across the entire school day while others use games in certain disciplines. Let’s take a look at how game-based learning can be used in a classroom.

Quest 2 Learn Quest to Learn (Q2L) is a public school in Manhattan, NY designed for digital students. Q2L is a 6th - 8th grade school that adds a grade level each year to eventually serve 6th - 12th grade. Developed by Katie Salen in conjunction with Institute of Play and the MacArthur foundation, Q2L’s mission is to use “the underlying design principles of games to create academically challenging, immersive, game-like learning experiences for students.”

Pender County, North Carolina

Lucas Gillispie is the instructional technology coordinator for the Pender County schools. In his spare time, Lucas is an avid gamer and wanted to combine the education world with the gaming world. After researching game-based learning he decided to pilot a program that would have middle school students participate in playing World of Warcraft (WOW) after school. The goal was to link together the reading and writing activities they were doing in language arts class with the online role-playing game. Specifically. students were studying //The Hobbit// and Gillispie was able to relate the idea of “quests” to WOW. The program resulted in increased attendance, improved social communication, leadership, teamwork, and citizenship skills.

**NAVIGATION**