You remember Oregon Trail, right? The educational video game that taught schoolkids everywhere facts about Westward Expansion, and also how deadly dysentery could be. Teachers used it to facilitate lessons in history and problem solving, while students were just thrilled to play video games at school.
Oregon Trail is an early and great example of Game Based Learning (GBL), a teaching method based on playing and designing video games at school. Gaming has advanced quite a lot since Oregon Trail, which has increased both the benefits and popularity of integrating video games into lesson plans.
What is Game Based Learning?
Any lesson that incorporates the interactive and immersive nature of video games to instill knowledge is using Game Based Learning. The basic idea is that students can learn new ideas and skills through thoughtful video games, and not feel like it is work because of how much fun they are having.
The options for Game Based Learning can vary. Students can play a pre-designed game, filled with lessons and facts to learn a subject. Or, students can learn to code and programming by designing games of their own.
Benefits of Playing Video Games at School
Statistics show that children react well to immediate feedback such as notifications of benchmarks and achievements. This type of instant gratification keeps kids enthralled and paying attention, always seeking the next reward. Video games hold both these things in abundance and GBL takes full advantage of these measurable success indexes to ensure students stay engaged in the prepared lesson.
Engagement is boosted in more than one way through the use of GBL. Instead of the old classroom model where only one person can speak at a time, Game Based Learning gives every student the opportunity to participate in class at the very same time. As long as there are enough computers to go around, the entire class can be playing the game at once.
The personalization of the lesson through video games at school allows for students to learn the information at their own pace, and not feel rushed by the rest of the class. No longer will a shy student feel bashful in raising their hand as to not to hold up the class, when playing games they may respawn and retry the task as many times as they need to in order to fully understand the ideas presented.
Cooperating with peers is a common theme among modern games. The social aspect of gaming technology allows for communication and cooperation in group settings that traditional projects don’t allow. Specifically, teammates can see how their actions affect their teammates in real time and can correct mistakes quickly.
Designing Video Games at School
It is well understood that coding is an important skill to have in order to compete in the global economy. Designing video games at school is an effective and engaging way to teach these necessary processes. By designing a game from scratch, the student must learn what each line of code means, and how they must be written and run.
Being able to completely customize a gaming experience to a person’s tastes enables designers to let their creativity run wild. As long as the code works and the game functions, there is no limit as to what types of programs students can code.
The tangible results from coding provide a great motivating factor. For a student to see their program come to life, one line of code at a time, makes them yearn for more know-how.
Criticism of Game Based Learning
Critics of GBL cite the impediment of extrinsic motivations on students long-term learning. The argument is basically if the student is too focused on their game character, they aren’t achieving for themselves. While this may not be a big deal in the short-term, over time the warped motivations may diminish the individual’s drive.
Other critics say Game Based Learning blurs the distinction between work and play too much. The equivalency between the two can set up unrealistic expectations of what a job really is.
The biggest challenge in implementing educational video games is the cost incurred by the school district in order to purchase the relevant technology. In a time when education budgets are being slashed left and right, it is hard to prioritize that kind of money. It would also require teachers to learn new methods of teaching that they may not be capable of.
Conclusion
Whether you agree or disagree with integrating Game Based Learning in schools, all trends point to the fact that it is here to stay. While I believe it is changing education for the better, I do understand the opposition to it. One thing is for sure, I am pretty jealous this is catching on now, and not when I was a schoolkid. What do y’all think about this? Is GBL just a fad? Do you miss Oregon Trail too? Let me know in the comments below!!
Blog: www.TechUnchecked.com