Image taken from https://goo.gl/images/gDiBb7
One of my favorite areas to look at in education is the use of technology in the classroom. If you look in that direction it is hard to miss that Gamification is the future. We may one day be seeing students playing online games in and outside of the classroom. Just like many new innovations in the world, we may be initially be resistant to it, but we may adopt it due to the following reasons:
i) Learning through experience
ii) Learning while having fun
iii) Learning in a collaborative manner
Image taken from https://goo.gl/images/kJmdfK
As such, this was my proposal for a class project where a computer game takes center stage in an English writing class. This is set in a classroom where the students are at least 14 years and above as children of a younger age may be overly stimulated through the lesson.
Introduction:
In a computer lab, the students will load up Sid Meir's Civilizaton 3. This game is a turn-based strategy game and was intentionally chosen because it is slow paced, requires collaboration and has some historical figures that can become important teaching points. This game is also currently free on Steam (Not Steemit, the other Steam).
The teacher first lays down the gound rules for the lesson, which are:
- Respect each other, no swearing, shouting or any inappropriate language.
- No chats, talk to discuss your strategy out loud.
- No quitting midway through the game.
In-game screenshot of Civilization 3 image taken from https://goo.gl/images/6nAczE
Activity 1
A time limit is set for the students to complete an objective set by the teacher. The class will be divided into groups of four and can form their alliance as they wish. In terms of winning the game, I would give the win to the group with the most territory after half an hour.
Do take note that this game can go on for hours, so setting a time limit with an objective will help in managing the class.
As the students are playing, the teacher will go round to record and assess how the students collaborated and planned their strategy. This record can be later reviewed and serve as a catalyst for the students to discuss and write in the next activity.
Activity 2
The teacher ends the session, awarding the win to the group that has the most territory. The teacher will then give the next task. For this task, the students are required to write a short essay on "How I conquered the known world today."
The teacher will review a few instances on how the students collaborated and provide some opinions on how this can be used in writing their essay.
The teacher can also require the students to do short presentations on what they have written down, depending on how long the class hours are supposed to be.
Conclusion
The teacher can recap a few important points with the class before ending the session.
This is a concept lesson that I have been developing and have yet to iron out any problems that may occur. I do appreciate any comments on it. My goal one day is to incorporate well known games such as mind-craft, counter-strike, Halo and Dota into education.
Now, if you don't mind I'm signing off now to do some "game-evaluation". =)
Image taken from https://goo.gl/images/Ngt4Vf
Civilization, especially Civilization II, consumed many a summer of my life!
I often think that a completely immersive learning game would be quite similar to what we now experience as life. Who knows, maybe we're in a game, whose goal is to teach us things! :P
Well, Elon musk thinks so, maybe it is so.. He seems to be doing really well at the game though.haha
Probably using a cheat code ..
Great post - I love giving my kids games to play from which they can also learn. Nobody just wants to sit in class listening to the teacher droning on and such a great insentive If your work is done you may play a game
That's so true, unfortunately there's still a negative perception towards games in classrooms. Hope that changes one day
I love the idea of learning from games! There are a lot of edtech companies out there trying to bring technology into the classroom, but I find they tend to be pretty gimmicky. They slap on nice images onto apps that are essentially just glorified flashcards. It makes sense that teachers don't trust them.
But I do think there's potential to improve the quality of the games. One of my favorites as a child was Treasure Mathstorm. It was simple and taught math, but as a kid I didn't think of it much as an "education" game -- it was just something I played for fun. And that was in 1996 - imagine what we could do now! We need more of those out there.
That's so true, a lot of games are also money making businesses. Nothing wrong with that really, but only if they spend a bit more time on the education instead of the money part, that would've been better.
Yeah, nothing beats old games. I know graphics are nicer these days, but games those days were fun and educational to a certain extent.
Hmm..very interesting indeed. My bf (hopefully future husband) is a gamer so probably its a good thing for our future kids..? hahaha of course depending on the nature of the game i suppose
It likely would be games that are not overly stimulating. Hopefully, we get to see that day =p
I'm not a teacher but I do work with youth and this is something that crosses my mind from time to time. A lesson plan is a great reference!
Thank you, I try to write my lesson plans to be applicable to a wider audience. Feel free to look through them and adapt any of them to your needs. I work with youths too (outside of the classroom). A good energizer/activity to start off is always good to keep them excited and interested. As such, I try to make my first activity as fun as possible.