The past two weeks we’ve explored the benefits and underlying theories of presentation/content delivery technologies and games.
Presentation and Content Delivery, Otherwise Known as Digital Storytelling…
One key to effective presentations is telling a story. Stories are familiar and accessible to everyone, and connect with the audience’s emotions (Jamison, 2014). Digital stories enhance spoken/written text with multimedia, making them engaging and a good fit for classrooms, where there is a wide range of learning strengths and preferences (Frazel, 2010). Digital storytelling can be motivating and engaging, because students already telling own stories with web 2.0. The images at left give a sample of the multitude of digital tools available for presentations. This medium also motivates reluctant and struggling readers and writers (Morgan, 2014). However, a presentation, no matter how beautifully done, may not be the best method for delivering your content. A more interactive approach may be more appropriate. Teachers need to consider the standards, curricular goals, and their students before deciding on a presentation or lecture-style activity. This video gives an overview of the development of a music-learning game website, and is a good example of games being used to meet particular curricular goals (in this case, for music teachers).
The same caution holds true for game technology – before diving in and creating/buying/using games as a teaching tool, give serious considerations to other Minecraft is a popular online game that teachers are more often including in the classroom.methods (Kapp, 2014). Games offer many benefits for teaching and learning, and align well with project- and problem-based learning (Sorenson et al., 2011). Games that are well aligned with curriculum offer students all the benefits of play: action, challenge, reification (cycle of creating, producing, and experimenting), socialization, achievement, self-interpretation, and pleasure (fun!) (Sorenson et al., 2011). Any time we teachers can make learning more fun, our students benefit. Games also bring a sense of agency, even to students who don’t consider themselves gamers. By watching their peers, trying out their actions, failing, and adjusting their technique, students gain a sense of achievement, agency, and competence (Sorenson et al., 2011; Kiang, 2014).
My Observations and Questions…
The biggest obstacle I ran into this time was the various system limitations and lack of tech support for game development programs, specifically Quandry2. It is a nifty little maze creator – think Choose Your Own Adventure – but it only works on Windows. The final product is exported as an .htm, so PCs or Macs can play the maze, but only Windows PCs can create the mazes – a real bummer for my all-Mac school.
Game development programs take time to learn – something teachers have little of to being with. How do we balance the desire to make entertaining, interactive games aligned with our curriculum with the time we spend on collecting and analyzing data, planning, and going to meetings?
The take home…
- You don’t need to play games to have game dynamics (Kiang, 2014)! Therefore, I can (and should, according to my older students) include more game elements in my intervention groups. We us Class Dojo as a behavioral tracker, and the kids love seeing the “+1” pop up with their avatar.
- I can incorporate digital storytelling beyond presenting information to my groups. The students themselves can create a short presentation, using any of the tools in the images above, to show off their learning.
- It is ok to have lectures! Sometimes a presentation to fill in gaps in background knowledge or give learners an overview of what is coming is the best thing to do. Just keep it short!
Frazel, M. (2010). Digital storytelling guide for educators. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
Jamison, J. (2014). EDU625 unit 4 presentation [Prezi]. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/kusbq5-y_lml/edu625-unit-4-presentation/
Kapp, K. (2014). 10 Best practices for implementing gamification. Retrieved from https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Learning-Technologies-Blog/2014/02/10-Best-Practices-for-Implementing-Gamification
Kiang, D. (2014) Using gaming principals to engage students. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-gaming-principles-engage-students-douglas-kiang
Morgan, H. (2014). Using digital story projects to help students improve reading and writing. Reading Improvement, 51(1), 20-26.
Myers, S. (2012, March 22). TEDxTokyoTeachers – Steve Myers – Music games in the classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO2Jk6kZHy4
Sørensen, B. H., Meyer, B., & Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S. (2011). Serious games in education : A global perspective. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.