Games in Learning

Games for Learning

 

Modern times need modern methods to solve contemporary issues. Likewise, our community is changing, our children are different from what we used to be and how we used to behave. Students are different in terms of behavior, manners, and attitude. The world is filled with plenty distractions. The first thing being the television, and the second the internet has changed the way students learn and think. Students are nowadays involved in many activities outside their regular classroom. And keeping that in mind and comparing our classroom activities and learning it is obvious that student find it difficult to part take or find interest in anything happening in the classroom. While we can find many ways to ignite students’ interest in what is being done in the classroom, games are one of those ways we should not fear to explore and exploit in our classrooms. Playing games can add important educational value in a classroom. It can encourage communication and cooperation among the students. Games are not only a mode of entertainment but also can help our brains relax.

Many learning theories support the use of games to promote learner engagement. Some of the theorists are, Vygotsky, Gardener, and Keller. Gamification can help increase student participation in the classroom. Gamification is one of the alternatives to conducting traditional class lectures. Traditional lecture maybe noted as transmission of the lecturer’s knowledge from his notes to the students notepad. However, this does not undermine the importance of traditional lecture. Traditional lecture has its own benefits. But it cannot be the only dominant method of teaching and learning. Gamification can promote learning and solve problems. Motivating students to participate and engage in classroom learning is gamification. It is a new tool for improving quality of teaching and learning. It arises motivation in the students.

Games in learning is not only for primary level students but it can be used for graduate-level learning as well. According to the former U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell H. Bell the three most important things to remember about education is; one – motivation, two – motivation, and three motivation. Educational games work as an external stimuli for learners. Some benefits of games in learning:

1.    1.  Learning through the process.

2.    2.  Engaging opportunity through context.

3.     3. Helps the students use their creativity

4.    4.  Can be used to introduce new information.

5.     5. Build community spirit.

6.    6.  Opportunity for social interactions.

 

Educational games in learning can address multiple intelligences either separately or collectively. For example, games like scrabble, catch phrase, trivial pursuit, etc. can help in linguistic intelligences. Visual games like Pictionary can help in spatial intelligences.

 

Malone analyzed and figured out that challenge, fantasy, and curiosity are the three most important catalysts that make games so addictive for people. And so, including these basic ideas into our traditional learning could help make learning something that the students like to come back to or look forward to doing. Applying these ideas we can make our learning have clear goals that students find meaningful, a scoring system to provide students with feedback on their progress, levels of difficulty to adjust students’ skills, etc.

            According to John Keller there are four aspects of learners’ motivation.

1.   1.  Attention

2.   2.   Relevance

3.    3.  Confidence

4.    4.  Satisfaction

These all four components can be included in games for learning.

 

References:

https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/reasons-to-play-games-in-the-classroom.shtml

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1136528.pdf