Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Learning and Assessment
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Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Learning and Assessment This interactive presentation, based on the book Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, is designed for PK-12 educators and curriculum specialists to find, critique, and evaluate digital games using search and evaluation strategies to determine if they are suitable for instruction, integrate a wide range of digital games into the curriculum utilizing standards, explore the instructional strategies to make these experiences a success for students, and determine meaningful assessment processes during digital game-based learning experiences.
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Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Learning and Assessment
- 1. Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf Game On Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
- 5. Where did the hair go?
- 7. Books Using Digital Games as Assessment and Instruction Tools Book 02 Making School a Game Worth Playing: Digital Games in the Classroom Book 01 Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Book 03 http://bit.ly/RyanSchaaf
- 9. 1 Finding Games Strategies that Work 2 Evaluating Games Critical elements for analyzing games for classroom implementation 3 Integrating Games Strategies that Work 4 Disrupt Gaming Forecast gaming’s future and identify essential needs 5 Promoting Games Enlisting more educators to the cause PROGRAM GOALS Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 10. 1 Finding Games Strategies that Work 5 Promoting Games Enlisting more educators to the cause Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 11. PLATFORMS XBox Xbox One Playstation 3 Playstation 4 Wii Wii U Steam iOS Google PlayGOG.com GamersGate Gamefly Green Man Gaming Itch.io Origin Direct2Drive Desura PlayismWeb-Browser Based PC 3DS XL Oculus Scratch Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 13. 5 Promoting Games Enlisting more educators to the cause Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 14. 5 Promoting Games Enlisting more educators to the cause
- 15. 1 Word of Mouth 2 Professional Learning Networks 3 Learning Game Networks 4 Self-Research • Teacher-to-Teacher • Learner-to-Teacher • Advertisements 1. Word of Mouth Developing professional connections through your schools, professional associations, conferences, and the digital landscape. 2. PLNs • Games4Ed • ISTE Games & Simulations Network • EdWeb.net GBL 3. Learning Game Networks Search by academic standard or content topic 4. Self-Research FINDING GAMES Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 16. Science • SIM City EDU • Niche • Disaster Detector 1 Social Studies • Roman Town • Loot Pursuit • Excavate! 2 Mathematics • Meerkatcher • Addimal Adventure • Minecraft 3 ELA • Aqua (Amplify) • Gone Home • Quandry 4 FINDING GAMES Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 17. Conduct a Search STEP 2 Evaluate Gameplay STEP 4 STEP 1 Brainstorm a Topic STEP 3 Vet Results FINDING GAMES: HANDS-ON Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 18. 2 Evaluating Games Critical elements for analyzing games for classroom implementation Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 19. Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf What are the characteristics of a great learning game? EVALUATING GAMES HANDS-ON
- 20. EVALUATING GAMES
- 21. EVALUATING GAMES
- 22. What other criteria do you look for in a game if you are considering using it during the learning process? EVALUATING GAMES HANDS-ON Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 23. 3 Integrating Games Strategies that Work Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 24. INTEGRATING GAMES – SHORT FORM GAMES Warm-Up Instructional Event Review Formative Assessment Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 25. Workstation Learning Center Homework Enrichment INTEGRATING GAMES – SHORT FORM GAMES Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 26. INTEGRATING GAMES - LONG FORM GAMES Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 27. INTEGRATING GAMES – HANDS-ON Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf What instructional subjects, activities, or topics might this game be linked to? Take 3 minutes to brainstorm some ideas and we will share a few.
- 28. Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf 4 Disrupt Gaming Forecast gaming’s future and identify essential needs for learning
- 29. DISRUPT GAMING Digital games must transcend proprietary nature. Digital learning games must have a “popcorn at the movies” mentality. Digital Gaming and Learning Forecasts Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 30. What other forecasts, disruptions, or needs does gaming and learning need to address to build momentum? HANDS-ON- DISRUPT GAMING Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 31. 5 Promoting Games Enlisting more educators to the cause Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 32. We must take to the digital landscape and support each other in our instructional pursuits. ONLINE COMMUNITIES MENTORS Mentor with an experienced digital game-based learning facilitator. EXPERIMENT AND TINKER Try something new with learners – never feel afraid of failure. WRITE AND SHARE Share your experiences through blogging, commenting, and professional reflection. NETWORK Network, mingle, and unconference as much as you can at Serious Play. These experiences can prove just as valuable as sessions. PROMOTING GAMES LEVELING UP THE MOVEMENT Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 33. COOL GAMES Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf • Amplify Reading (Reading, Early Literacy) • TeacherGaming (Subscription, free trial) • Ruby Rei (ELL students) • Pixowl’s SANDBOX • DigIt Games – Social Studies Games Excavate Rome
- 34. PROMOTING GAMES HANDS-ON SESSION QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf
- 36. Books Using Digital Games as Assessment and Instruction Tools Book 02 Making School a Game Worth Playing: Digital Games in the Classroom Book 01 Game On: Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Book 03 http://bit.ly/RyanSchaaf
- 37. Ryan L. Schaaf @RyanLSchaaf Game On Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Editor's Notes
- My name is Ryan Schaaf. Welcome to my presentation – Game On, Using Digital Games to Transform Teaching, Learning and Assessment. I wanted to thank the folks that organized the conference for inviting me to such an exciting opportunity. Feel free to use Twitter as a back channel – my Twitter handle is @RyanLSchaaf. I wish the L stood for something cool like Ludic, or Lionheart, but it doesn’t. I will be happy to answer any tweets after the session. I will also try to provide some time at the end for questions and sharing. At any point you feel this presentation doesn’t match up with your expectations or you feel another session is more relevant to your needs, then use your legs. I am leaving my ego at the door. I want you all to have a good experience and learn as much as possible. If my presentation isn’t for you, please visit another with my blessing.
- I have been a gamer since the 1980’s with my very own state of the art Atari 2600. I spent hours upon hours playing the games. And I continued this trend with my Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sony PlayStation, PC, and …
- Now my children are growing up as gamers.
- I am a full-time professor at Notre Dame of Maryland University. I am also a graduate faculty member at Johns Hopkins University in their Technology for Educators program, where I teach courses in digital game-based learning, multimedia, and modern-day pedagogy for current and future educators. But before my life in higher education, I was…
- A K-12 classroom teacher - and an eventually educational technology teacher. I fell in love with using digital games in the classroom. I utilized them as warm-ups, instructional tools, and learning environments in long-range cross-curricular learning programs.
- I witnessed hundreds of my students embrace the learning opportunities games offered them. They played skill and drill games to prepare for their tests in math, they engaged in multiple social studies and science units as they created their own cities in SIMS, they improved their keyboarding skills by playing DanceMat Typing, and they tackled computational thinking and algebraic reasoning as they explored the Lure of the Labyrinth.
- So starting in 2007 I conducted my own research and have published numerous journal articles and three books about gaming and learning.
- The Pedagogy of Play is rooted in educational history. John Locke’s philosophy identified play as an important part of the educational process. ” Children must not be hinder’d from being children, or from playing, or doing as children, but from doing ill; all other liberty is to be allow’d them” 1693 Pestalozzi believed play is a natural gift, propensity, or inclination of children, and following its dictates would result in a free-play approach” to an effective education. Jean Jacques Rousseau spoke about play being the work of the young. There games are their occupations and they go into everything they do with pleasing interest and freedom. He wrote about this in Europe during his research in 1762. Froebel, Dewey, Piaget, Papert, Gee and many more have pleaded for children to learn through play. It helps their growing brains make sense of a complex and oftentimes confusing world.
- Today I want to share what I have learned through my studies and hands-on experiences using gaming for modern-day learning. I want to share it with educators, administrators, game designers, and anyone else interested in the learning process with games. We have 5 goals for today’s session. First, we will learn strategies on how to find games, then evaluate the games for potential use in a learning context. As we progress, we will also explore integration strategies for instruction. Finally, we will examine some predictions for the future of gaming and learning, along with ways to further its reaches and enlist more comrades.
- First, finding games that address your curriculum needs does not have to be an exercise in futility.
- Numerous platforms and distribution methods now exist. Before we know it, the proprietary nature of games will disappear and we will have 24/7 access to the titles we must have. WAIT UNTIL ALL TEXT BOXES APPEAR We will soon have a
- Netflix of gaming where any game will be on-demand and easily accessible to us in a moments notice. We are starting to see services like this already – Steam for one.
- In the eye-opening Level Up Learning Report written by Takeuchi & Vaala and published by the Games and Learning Publishing Council, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center surveyed about 700 K-8 teachers on their use of digital games during the learning process. The report is quite extensive – in it, the results show…
- A great deal of educators and learners are accessing games through Interactive Whiteboards, PCs, laptops, and tablets. Although ChromeBooks were low in this survey, they have since started gaining some traction in the edtech field. They are quickly capturing more and more of the market share.
- There are numerous ways to find a good game in the vastness of the digital landscape. Most educators still use the word of mouth method to spread the benefits of a new game or strategy. Teacher-to-teacher collaboration tends to be the most popular method, along with teachers that are parents, and simple marketing campaigns that reach their audiences. We have all heard the famous proverb – it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it also takes a village to help us grow as educators. Professional or personal learning networks share ideas and resources. Follow game-based learning practitioners on Twitter. This conference is the perfect opportunity to find those folks. The unconference part of Serious Play should prove to be just as rewarding. Next, there are dedicated PD networks dedicated to game-based learning – Games4Ed, ISTE’s very own Games & Simulations Network, and EdWeb.net have wonderful, active communities that provide content, PD, and other game-based learning resources. Finally, good old fashioned research may work – use Google to search for a game that might work for your learner’s academic needs.
- Here are some of the traditional subjects in schools with three standards-aligned games identified underneath each of them. Take a few minutes to research the game online – try to determine what the game teaches or assesses in the subject area. This research was done in a matter of minutes.
- Here is a hands-on task – Step 1 Brainstorm a topic you wish to teach using digital game-based learning. Step 2 Conduct a search using Google, or search the App stores. You can also research a game you have heard of at the conference. Step 3 Vet the results GIVE THEM A FEW MINUTES TO DO THIS. Step 4 If you have found a game on the platform you have available, evaluate the gameplay to ensure it aligns to the topic or academic standards you want your students to explore.
- Goal #2 provides criteria for examining the potential of using a game during a learning experience.
- Turn and brainstorm with your shoulder buddies and list the characteristics of a good learning game.
- I created a checklist to assist educators in analyzing a game and its potential for the learning process. While keeping student learning outcomes in mind, play available digital games and reflect upon the questions in the checklist below to determine the ideal game for integration. Learning Outcomes & Pedagogy • Does gameplay support learning objectives/outcomes? • Can you use multiple games during instruction to address more or all of the standards? • Is gameplay realistic and does it involve skills that are useful in the real world? • Will the game challenges evolve with better player performance? • Is the game fun, engaging, and challenging for players? • Is one game better aligned with the expected learning outcomes than the others? • Will gameplay address other learning outcomes to obtain a multi-disciplinary experience for the students?
- As for instructional assessment practices, Does the game contain assessment tools or performance measurements to provide users and instructors with player feedback? • Can the game-based facilitator incorporate reality-based assessment strategies, measuring knowledge attained during gameplay? • How might the game be incorporated into classroom instruction or assessment? And finally, technical aspects must be scrutinized… Is the audio-visual presentation of the game clearly visible, audible, and does it provide an appealing aesthetic experience? • Are there enough game stations to promote a low enough student-to-game ratio? • Are appropriate peripherals and accessibility tools provided to each game station for the gaming experience? • Is the game control or manipulation transparent, intuitive, and logical for players? • Is the digital game content appropriate for the students’ academic and/or maturity level? I am providing this checklist for free to anyone that wishes to have it. I will share how at the end of the workshop.
- Please, turn and talk to your neighbors - What other criteria do you look for in a game if you are considering using it during the learning process? Please, brainstorm and we will share some ideas in about two minutes.
- Goal 3 shares numerous ideas for integrating games into instructional programs. In essence, games are a collection of systems – some simple, some complex. Instructional design is the same way – a collection of systems – some simple, some complex. How games are integrated into instruction depends on the game, how it is used, and the complexity of the content, skills, or disposition players must gain or develop. Here are several examples…
- First, short form games – ones that are played in a short amount of time and are very easy to integrate into learning - they have their value. Educators must take into account the length of time it will take a learner to play these games. Conversely, game designers must also think about how learners play short-from games in schools – in many cases they have to fit it into an instructional block. Games can be used for a traditional warm-up activity, they can be played and explored as an instructional event in a traditional lesson plan format, they can be used as review for previously explored content, they can take on the form of formative assessment – assessment that informs the learning cycle and diagnoses if learners “get it”.
- Games can also be used as a station or stations in a workstation activity. They can be used as learning centers, enrichment activities (both during or after school), even homework assignments.
- For long form game, obviously time is less of a factor, because learners will need to experience the game over multiple instructional blocks. That is why playing a long-form game usually involves creating a unit – gaming and learning with these games takes time. Time well invested. That is why my game-based learning colleagues like Steve Isaacs, Paul Darvasi, Peggy Sheehy, Lucas Gillespie, and so many more select a game and develop extensive and immersive curriculums around it. Playing Minecraft in the classroom? Let’s explore dozens of academic concepts and standards in one package – math, science, even social studies are framed around gameplay and explored by the learner. Playing Gone Home? Paul develops essential tasks for his learners to complete throughout gameplay. How about World of Warcraft? Peggy and Lucas explore creative writing and language through gameplay and the learning activities that occur outside of the game. These long form games promote game play, mastery, and instructional artifact creation – all while packaged in a situated learning environment.
- Here is another hands-on task. Oregon Settler is a game that is a cross between the original Oregon Trail and Farmville. You develop your town, take care of its characters, collect rent, build businesses, raise livestock and crops, and weather historical phenomenon including the great plagues of old. What instructional subjects, activities, or topics might this game be linked to? Take 3 minutes to brainstorm some ideas and we will share a few.
- Disruptive innovation has impacted just about every facet of our society – we communicate and collaborate differently, we buy goods differently, we are entertained differently, and arguably the most important change - we learn differently. The gaming industry is no different– we have seen the power of innovation in gaming – we now play games on our mobile devices and we have seen waves of cultural acceptance in games such as Minecraft, Pokemon Go, and now Fortnite. But for digital games to truly disrupt learning, I forecast some predictions and identify some serious needs in regards to the future of digital games and learning.
- Digital games must continue to transcend their proprietary nature. A learning gamer should be able to enjoy learning games on whatever device they have. Digital games will integrate more VR and AR – the technology is becoming cheaper and better – we have seen the success of Google Expeditions in the classroom – immersive games will experience a similar surge. Digital learning games must be curated into a large-scale searchable database. Teachers want to have ready-access to games, but they don’t have the sort of time it takes to research games. Common Sense Media and blogs are great, but there must be a better system. Digital learning games must have a “popcorn at the movies” mentality. When you go to a movie, you never only buy a ticket. You buy the over priced bladder-buster soda, the butter-soaked popcorn, and the Goobers. Digital learning games must come with guides, suggested lessons, or even entire communities to support game-based practitioners. The extras! Digital learning games need more research. Digital games still have many barriers and stigmas associated with them. We must continue to push for more research into their efficacy in regards to learning to truly quell the voices of the naysayers. Finally.. Digital learning games will never replace good teachers. They may evolve or transform a teacher’s role in the classroom, but they will never truly replace a good teacher. If you are a teacher that can be replaced by a game, then you probably should be.
- Please, turn and talk to your neighbors - What other forecasts, disruptions, or needs does gaming and learning need to address to build momentum? Let’s share a few before we move on…
- Finally, we must enlist more educators to use gaming to reach their learners. More and more educators see the power and buy-in of games with their students –but some of them need our support.
- We must take to the digital landscape and support each other in our instructional pursuits. Share games, ideas, and resources. Mentors must offer support to the newbies. With the help of an experienced digital game-based learning facilitator, more and more educators will adopt the practice of gaming in learning. Try something new with learners – never feel afraid of failure. Instructional planning with games is a creative frontier, so use some creative licensing. Share your experiences through blogging, commenting, and professional reflection. Finally, Network, mingle, and unconference as much as you can here at Serious Play, ISTE, Games4Change, and FETC. These experiences can prove just as valuable as sessions.
- Here are some of the games I have either demoed or companies I have worked with recently that are potentially powerful resources: Amplify has relaunched games with Reading – an early literacy suite with fun, engaging games. TeacherGaming – is a suite of games developed specifically for learning. The graphics and gameplay are spectacular and each game comes with lessons and resources for educators. RubyRei fills an oftentimes overlooked student demographic – English Language Learners. RubyRei includes natural language learning in its gameplay. Finally, Dig It games produces Social Studies games. The one I have seen is Excavate Rome -a middle school social studies game exploring the life of children in Ancient Rome. WHAT OTHER GAMES ARE OUR FELLOW COLLEAGUES CURRENTLY PLAYING?
- As promised, I wanted to provide some time for questions or sharing
- I have included a link to a massive collection of my resources on gaming and learning. I have curated them over the past six years. Research articles, studies, blog reports, white papers, integration ideas – the list of resources goes on and on. It is like receiving a free book. http://bit.ly/GamingEvernote Please enjoy it – free on me.
- If you are interested in any of my books, then feel free to scan the QR code or visit http://bit.ly/RyanLSchaaf
- Thanks again and I look forward to chatting with you at the conference.