In class on Tuesday, someone brought up a good point, do we employ games in the classroom for the sake of the game? Gamification and the idea of employing games to help the learning process is a really interesting concept, one that we have been covering in detail in class, but I do have wonder and agree with this individual, do we use games for the sake of games?
I would agree with the literature that we have been exposed to thus far that argues games help people learn. I would also argue that utilising games for education, is just one style of learning that some students will be more drawn to than others. Often we talk about education, as a one size fits all, but like everything some people are more drawn to certain ways of learning and I don't think gaming is an exception. In my undergrad I took a course in Drama in Education and the idea that concepts from dramatic arts can be applied to any subject. History is an obvious subject that works well with this, because history lessons are easier to re-enact, but in the course we also covered science and math. How can drama be applied to these subjects? Part of it was looking at how can we create worlds in our classroom where multiple subjects can be explored at the same time. If you want to teach science, then perhaps you have to create an alternative universe where students are astronauts and have to figure out distance, space, and calculate this, while dealing with social issues of their planet and conflicts and building a government. Multi-disciplinary approach. While I think games, for game sake is something important to look at, I also think that like this Drama in Education, gaming can offer us an opportunity to teach across different disciplines at the same time, because ultimately this is what students will face when they enter the real world. I have never met an accountant who doesn't have to work with people or a writer who doesn't have to consider budgets....
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AuthorHigher Education professional, with a passion for student affairs and educational events. Currently working towards my M.Ed. Archives
November 2016
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