KSP684 - Ed Got Game: #18: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Using Commercial Games in the Classroom

Game-based learning - commerical, off the shelf game - not targeted at education.

• SimCity for teaching geography.
• Need to stay current - almost any game can be used in education.
• Challenges:
• Political culture - administration and parent perceptions - work is work, games are play
• Fun v. historically accurate - teach must understand the game in its entirety.  Must develop lesson plan around game to overcome any misconceptions that exist in the game.
• Pre-teaching content.
• Teachers must play the game to understand what its shortcomings are
• Latest and greatest is not always best - contact the company to get discounts on older games - or the OK to install it on multiple computers for education
• Economically challenging
• Console games require consoles
• Console games can be played using STEAM in Schools - games can be played on browser
• Good-old-games - another website
• Valve - Portal
• World of Warcraft
• When using a game for education you may lose what the game naturally does - Teacher creates constraints, activities, and challenges for students - changes 1:1 dynamic of game
• Building game from ground up would be ideal but it is expensive and time prohibitive to teachers
• Repurpose media
• Changes lense through which students see the game - they think about different things while playing.
• Games as assessment tool - they are a continuous cycle of learning and assessment - the question is: What are they assessing.
• Benefits of games: what educational principles are already part of the game?  Many!!
• How do I measure what the student is doing in the game along with what addons I use to supplement it?
• Games lend themselves to formative assessment
• The true value of the games is not motivation - it is the skills they learn and strategies they use while playing.
• Competency-based learning marries well with game-based learning.