To game or
not to game may be a moot question for educators. All kinds of instructional
gamification are in play these days, according to The Miami Herald.
“Educators increasingly
see digital games as a language that many students seem to intuitively
understand, so they’re trying to use that language to make playing facilitate
learning,” noted the article, reprinted on Phys.org.
Some K-12
teachers are incorporating popular online games, such as World of Warcraft,
into lesson plans to help students understand certain concepts and work
together on problem-solving. Others are using consumer games as a launching
point for teaching computer coding, fostering creative ideas, and aligning
classwork with Common Core guidelines.
One Miami
teacher discovered that Oregon Trail, a game first released 10 years ago—a long
time for video games—helped illustrate history lessons for his
special-education classes.
In tech
classes at the University of Miami, college students are developing games for
younger students, although not all are aimed at classroom instruction. A new
game called Zoo Rush, for instance, is designed to help youngsters who have
been newly diagnosed with sickle cell disease. As the players attempt to round
up escaped zoo animals, they learn about their disease and how to manage its
symptoms.
Game design
is also being taught at the high-school level, usually in magnet schools or
summer programs. Miami-Dade schools set up an online portal to enable students
to access a variety of gaming applications from home.
Parents
have gotten into the act as well, downloading games to help their kids practice
math problems or foreign-language pronunciation on smartphones or tablets.
