A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool The popularity of video games is not the enemy of education, but rather a model for best teaching strategies. Games insert players at their achievable challenge level and reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of incremental goal progress, not just final product. The fuel for this process is the pleasure experience related to the release of dopamine. Dopamine Motivation The human brain, much like that of most mammals, has hardwired physiological responses that had survival value at some point in evolutionary progression. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, when released in higher than usual amounts, goes beyond the synapse and flows to other regions of the brain producing a powerful pleasure response. No Pain, No Gain The survival benefit of the dopamine-reward system is building skills and adaptive responses. Awareness of Incremental Goal Progress Individualized Achievable Challenge Game Entry Point is a Perfect Fit Through Pre-assessment and Feedback
Teaching like it's 2999 The Self-Imposed Challenge I've often experimented with assessment in my classes. I once--somewhat masochistically--asked students to come up with questions for me to take as a midterm. (The point of it was to turn the idea of a midterm on its head, not to find out what students know, but what they don't know, and why. It's a very effective way of finding out gaps in their knowledge and be able to fill it quickly. It was a small class, fortunately, and I changed the format the next time round, asking the students to make their own midterms for each other.) For all the talk about games-based learning and gamification of the classroom (not sure about the latter yet, will blog about it in due time), I'm surprised the question of assessment hasn't come up as often as it should have. Generally speaking, there are two common forms of assessment used in schools. Interestingly, games often assess players in ways similar to schools, using letter grades, numerical or percentage scores, and ranking. Self-Assessment
The Dr. Oz Show All Fun & Games? Understanding Learner Outcomes Through Educational Games Over the past several years, there has been tremendous interest among educators in the use of digital games as serious learning. Advocates of game-based learning for K-12 students cite the value of digital games to teach and reinforce skills that prepare students for college and career, such as collaboration, problem solving, creativity, and communication. Not as often discussed is our ability to use students' in-game actions as evidence for the assessment of skills and knowledge, including those not easily measured by traditional multiple-choice tests. The Potential of Games as Invisible Assessments Traditional assessment methods often require teachers to interrupt classroom learning and administer tests. In contrast, invisible assessments make use of technology to record information about the ways students interact with learning material in a seamless manner, without interruption. Game or Gamification? A Look Toward the Future
Game-Based Learning Units for the Everyday Teacher Game-based learning (GBL) is getting a lot press. It is an innovative practice that is working to engage kids in learning important 21st century skills and content. Dr. Judy Willis in a previous post wrote about the neurological benefits and rationale around using games for learning. Myths About Game-Based Learning First, let's clarify a couple things. Gee refers to teachers as "learning designers," and I couldn't agree more. Inspired by the work I've seen, here is an overview of components and structure for the everyday teacher to implement game-based learning Overall Structure: Individual Quests and Boss Levels A game-based learning unit should consist of both smaller quests and more robust boss levels. Boss levels are more rigorous missions that require students to synthesize the content and skills learned in the quests. Overall Theme You may have already noticed that all the quests are related under a thematic idea of question. Need to Know Incentives Avatar
A role for exogenous games? Last year, I was offered to teach a class on grammar and structural linguistics, which I accepted with some hesitation because I considered it a bit outside of my comfort zone. I've taught sociolinguistics and communications courses before, but this is hardcore linguistics, requiring knowledge not just of grammar but also of how to analyze the underlying syntactic structure of sentences using grammar trees. What made it even more intimidating was that these were four hour courses, and I had to make it interesting to the students. I had always like Kurt Squire's (2006) differentiation between "endogenous" and "exogenous" games, where endogenous games are games that marry form with content, such that by playing the game and learning its rules, you are also understanding the content of the game. I would've loved to design an endogenous game for the linguistics class, but there weren't enough students. In my first class, I had them play some board games. References
Autism Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication, and by restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behavior. The diagnostic criteria require that symptoms become apparent before a child is three years old.[2] Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood.[3] It is one of three recognized disorders in the autism spectrum (ASDs), the other two being Asperger syndrome, which lacks delays in cognitive development and language, and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (commonly abbreviated as PDD-NOS), which is diagnosed when the full set of criteria for autism or Asperger syndrome are not met.[4] Characteristics Social development There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. Communication Repetitive behavior Causes
Ian Livingstone applies to create 'gaming' school 9 October 2014Last updated at 10:20 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News Ian Livingstone is known to some as "father" of Tomb Raider Lara Croft British games industry veteran Ian Livingstone has formally applied to launch a free school with lessons built using video gaming. Mr Livingstone told the BBC he wanted to use games-based learning rather than relying on "relentless testing". "I'm passionate about children who have been born into the internet. The school, which could open in 2016, would be based in Hammersmith, west London. The application to the Department for Education, submitted this week, was backed by Mr Livingstone's several trustees including Barnaby Lenon, former headmaster at Harrow, and Marion Gibbs, head teacher at James Allen School for Girls in East Dulwich. Also on the board is David Cramer, who owns international rights for the Rubik's Cube. "The application process is very competitive and all proposals are rigorously assessed before they are approved."
Virtual Worlds, Avatars, free 3D chat, online meetings - Second Life Official Site My problem with "just-in-time" learning "Just-in-time (JIT) learning" is the newish buzzword you hear often in association with video games and learning. It's a deceptively simple idea suggesting that learning is better when it is "on-demand." You encounter a problem, you're given the information to solve it, and you solve it then and there. No need to memorize a set of facts ahead of time that you may or may not use in the future, no need for abstract concepts that have no bearing on the immediate demands of the situation, no need for decontextualized facts and figures. As far as I know, this concept is assumed to be right and I have never seen the concept criticized before, but I'm going to go ahead and say: I have a problem with JIT learning on two levels: 1) It's overly vague and 2) It often doesn't work. JIT is a concept that originated in the business world, specifically in operations management. (There are problems with JIT, even within the business world context. Overly vague Often doesn't work