Episode 56: Exploring the Power of Games in Enhancing Education

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today. Welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microdiscriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing using gamification in the classroom to enhance learning. Engaging students is important for capturing their attention when learning educational concepts. The more creative the approach to engaging students, the more they participate in the learning process and the better they retain information. I examined the research on this topic which will provide the background on gamification. I then highlight specific actions that you can take that pertain to your kids learning through the use of games at home. I'll subsequently wrap up with a summary of today's key points. Sound good? Let's get started. First, let's basically identify and define what gamification is. Gamification describes the process of using games like strategies in a context that typically doesn't feature games. Student engagement is a critical piece of academic success. One of the ways to engage students in elementary school and beyond is through the use of games and game design that is interwoven into the curriculum and pedagogical approaches. It's still up for debate about whether gamification and education actually improves learning in the classroom, but the research is gathering on the positive outcomes that come from using gamification in the classroom. Student response systems are helpful for for both teachers and students because of its ability to integrate gamification in the classroom and engage students. An example of a student response system is Woo Clap, which can be utilized when a teacher polls the classroom on the information being taught. The gamification part of the platform is presented in the competition mode. A common feature of the competitive mode is that it distributes points to students who get correct answers and then displays a scoreboard between every question. This tends to bring out a student's competitive nature during class, causing the student to dedicate his or her undivided attention to the question in order to try to achieve the highest score in the class. Students tend to not only pay more attention in class, but also seem to retain the information better. Access to most student response systems is through the use of a tablet, a laptop, or a smartphone. As long as the game is based on class material, the key points of the lesson are reinforced, especially when the teacher goes over any information that was missed the most among the students using gamification has been shown to utilize different parts of the brain with when faced with the task. Typically, students only use their working memory when listening to a presentation, which isn't very effective when trying to retain information. The fact is that today's kids are quite savvy on basic computers and mobile devices when they arrive at their first organized school experience, typically kindergarten. Research, however, suggests that once the younger learners are centered in the classroom, learning through tech games seems to all but disappear. There are four facts to keep in mind about gamifying K12 classrooms. 1 Educational games are mostly marketed to parents, not educators. 2 Money is the major issue when it comes to gamifying the classroom. Many times, the issue of slow Internet speeds and low bandwidths also prevent the implementation of these learning games in the classroom. 3. Regulations are another issue to consider when it comes to quick implementation of learning technologies, including games and four. Education games improve decision making and encourage self expression in children. So while the general consensus seems to be the screen time negatively affects young children, several researchers actually found benefits for their young minds. Clearly, children with access to gaming technology at home are at an advantage for those who do not have access to to this technology. Parents that can afford educational technology are better able to prepare their children for the classroom and academic success, furthering a socioeconomic achievement gap through educational technology that's readily available to consumers, the advantaged become even more advantaged and the disadvantaged fall farther behind. An example of an educational game that teaches math is called Math breakers, which is a virtual math playground that takes topics as simple as counting and as complex as calculus and puts them in a gaming environment. Players are in control, help in the story with unfolding how the story goes as they make decisions along the way. There are different scenes, a variety of conquests, and even virtual monsters to battle. This is just one example of a math game that allows players to be creative with math and use it in a world environment where one choice informs the next. Math is part of every single move or interaction in the game. Each level builds on the next and uses a variety of mathematical skills like multiplication or functions in order to give students an in depth learning experience that is disguised as fun. This game is targeted at grades one through six. You may remember playing Oregon Trail when you were in school. This educational game helped millions of school children discover the hardships of westward expansion, learned geography, and died of dysentery along the way. Through the game, students could immerse themselves in the environment and gain a personal experience with a historical event. The ability to control variables provided tremendous value in these types of simulation based games. Guided play can help preschool children prepare for reading and math better than free play and direct instruction alone. According to an article in the Phi Delta Kappen in May of 2015, children who play more have better social skills, demonstrate better self regulation, and tend to be more creative thinkers. This tends to suggest that play has value for the development of well adjusted creative individuals who will be prepared to solve 21st century problems. However, not all play is created equal. For example, free play may not be the best way to achieve educational outcomes. Guided play is the best way to incorporate into the curricula without compromising educational goals while at the same time allowing children to enjoy school. Guided play is a blend of adult initiation and child direction. In guided play, it's important that children direct the action because this gives them the autonomy to make decisions about what to do in any given moment. Children don't just perceive that they are in control in guided play, they truly can decide what what to do next and how to respond. This is an important feature of guided play because even children are sensitive to the difference between circumstances when they lead and those where they are given an instructional experience disguised as play. Guided play incorporates an element of adult structuring of the play environment, but the child maintains control and in that environment the teacher structures the play environment with certain toys or games that children can explore. Research indicates that balance between freedom and structure is what makes guided play a successful teaching tool for a range of educational outcomes. If you tell them, children will learn, but if you guide them, children are more likely to to actively explore and learn more. Here are some action steps that you can take to implement gamification at home. There are a number of ways to use gamification in daily life. You can make a game out of collecting various objects while playing on the playground or walking through a park. From this, you could explain different shapes and sizes, colors and textures. You could also make a game out of a grocery store shopping trip where you could have your children participate in choosing various produce items, explaining the differences between various vegetables and fruits. They could count how many different varieties of vegetables they see or how many colors of certain fruit that they see. You could take it up a notch by having them cite the vegetables or fruit in alphabetical order. The winner gets to choose what's for dinner that night. There are also games that you can play inside your home, especially those that center on nighttime routines. If you have more than one child, the child who puts his or her toys away and brushes his or her teeth first before getting into bed gets to choose the book to read for a bedtime story. You get the idea. And these are just a couple of simple ideas that you could incorporate to make these outings or activities at home A Learning Opportunity that children will find as Fun, which is the whole point of gamification Using games as a strategy in a context that doesn't feature games yet allows for expanded learning opportunities. It's important to make these games interesting and fun because the best games are the ones that make you want to play. Here are today's takeaways. Gamification describes the process of using games like strategies in a context that typically doesn't feature games. Games for young children and older children help them engage in critical thinking, collaboration, and strategy development. Play in the educational context, games offer an opportunity for students to collaborate and experience content in novel and constructive ways. Unlike books or worksheets, games provide students with active social opportunities that require choice, problem solving, and decision making. Using gamification has been shown to utilize different parts of the brain which when faced with a task, typically students only use their working memory when listening to a presentation, which isn't very effective when trying to retain that information. Student engagement is a critical piece of academic success. One of the ways to engage students in elementary school and beyond is through the use of games and game design that is interwoven into the curriculum and and teaching approaches. It's still up for debate about whether gamification and education actually improves learning in the classroom, but it does show promise. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you're listening to this Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a A rating A review or a comment on apple stitcher or podchaser. You can also rate my podcast@ratethispodcast.com if you like my podcast, the best way to support me and help me grow it is by leaving a review. This helps my rankings and entices other people to listen to the show and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. You can always connect with me on Instagram or Facebook using the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle now. Be sure to stay tuned on the next episode. I'll be discussing what students need to succeed in school. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day. Love my show. Consider being a regular subscriber. You can subscribe for as little as $3 per month. Just go to HTTPs://forward/tinyurl.com forward/podcast support there's no contractual obligation. You can cancel at any time. If you choose to subscribe, I'll give you a special shout out thanking you in an upcoming episode. Remember, that's tinyurl.com podcastsupport to subscribe.