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Eclectic Technology
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Tech tools that assist all students to be independent learners & teachers to become better teachers
Curated by
Beth Dichter
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Game designers have mastered certain tricks that make games so addictive that people can’t stop playing them. Here are the top five secrets that game designers know, and some tips on how you can use these same game dynamics to make learning in your classroom as addictive as gaming.
Beth Dichter's insight:
As teachers what can we do to make our classes more exciting for students? We know that many will sit in front of a computer or game console and play for hours, and when they do not succeed the first time, or the tenth time or the fiftieth time they keep trying. How do we get them to perservere in the classroom when they are not successful? This post explores this, providing five "secrets of game design" that might make a difference in your classroom. The five secrets are listed below but click through to the post to learn more about them. * The Appointment Dynamic: Be Here At This Time, Get a Prize * The Failure Dynamic: Fail Early, Fail Often * The Flexibility Dynamic: Provide Multiple Paths to Success * The Progression Dynamic: Scaffold and Recognize Progress * The Construction Dynamic: Build Something That Matters 
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"The success and popularity of Minecraft in and out of classrooms is no surprise. It’s one of the best examples of the potential of learning with games because it embraces exploration, discovery, creation, collaboration, and problem-solving while allowing teachers to shepherd play toward any subject area."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out a selection of games that will help students explore, create, collaborate and more. The six games discussed are: * Garry's Mod - learn physics as you play * Kerbal Space Program - another physics game * Sound Shapes - designed for PlayStation this is a "puzzle game set to a rich musical soundscape" * DIY - Find instructions to build a wide variety of items and a community that will support you * STENCYL - learn to program using "blocks of code" that you may snap together and create games that may be played on a variety of platforms * CodeAcademy - learn a variety of programming language for free Do you think students should learn to code? If you do then some of these games will provide them with this skill as well as others that we know are part of gaming. You may want to try some of these with your students.
Jo Blannin - The Know Tech Teacher's curator insight,
November 21, 2013 12:48 AM
Great ways to use game-making in education - I love using MineCraft with the senior primary students. It really brings maths into engineering and science! 
Kristina Cook's curator insight,
November 21, 2013 10:56 AM
I chose this article because my partner likes minecraft. It relates because it entertains my partner.
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"There are six adventures in the series including the CSI adventure. Each of the adventures is appropriate for middle school or high school use. In each adventure students take on the role of scientist to solve a crime, conduct experiments, and learn about scientific methods and processes."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Richard Byrne shares six science games that are available online through Rice University. The games include: * CSI Adventure - six adventures that allow students to become forensic scientists and solve a crime. * Cool Science Careers - students may explore five STEM-based careers. Students take an interest survey and their adventure will be guided by their interests. * MedMyst - learn about microbiology with a focus on infectious diseases and how they spread. * Reconstructors allows you to "gather evidence and data to solve drug-related cases." (3 games) * Virtual Clinical Trials - become a research scientist and help develope treatments for spinal cord injuries, depression and brain injuries. * N-Squad - "investigate the effects of alcohol on the digestive, circulatory, and nervous systems." These games are geared to middle and high school students and these adventures are also available in Spanish!
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"There seems to be a perception that online gaming has a detrimental impact on children’s development. Nothing could be further from the truth, and there are countless–and complex–reasons for this, but it also makes sense at the basic benefits of game-based learning."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Can games increase a child's learning and development? It appears that answer is yes. Below are six benefits and additional information is available in the post. * Increases A Child’s Memory Capacity * Computer & Simulation Fluency * Helps With Fast Strategic Thinking & Problem-Solving * Develops Hand-Eye Coordination * Beneficial Specifically For Children With Attention Disorders * Helps Children With Particular Skills (e.g. map reading)
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Beth Dichter's insight:
This infographic comes from We Are Teachers and provides information from a survey on game based learning in the classroom. You might also want to check out their website for more information on game based learning, including sections on: How Game Based Learning is Different; Games for the Interactive White Board; Make Game Based Learning Work; and Games and Technology. The link to the resources listed above (and others) is http://www.weareteachers.com/hot-topics/topics-in-education/game-on. ;
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"In his book, 'Outliers: The Story of Success', Malcolm Gladwell hypothesizes that 10,000 hours of practice at something makes someone an expert, and if they can get those hours under their belt ahead of others..." If this is true, many young children today will have reached the expert level when they are 11 or 12. One question to ask, what does game based learning teach us? Think 21st Century skills. This post discusses the following skills and how game based learning helps to meet them. * Critical Thinking * Problem Solving * Collaboration/Communication * Digital Citizenship * ICT Literacy (defined in the post)
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When reading about education these days the term gamification comes up often. What is gamification and why are we discussing this in education? This post explores the concepts behind gamification, games, and simulations, discussing what they are, how they may be used and some pros and cons.
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Online games from the Getty Museum - explore works of art with educational games.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Allow students to play games and explore images from the Getty Museum. Four games are available at this website. They are: * Detail Detective - There are four images on the left side, but which one comes from the picture on the right. The clock ticks as the seconds count down for you to find the correct image. Four games to play. * Match Madness - A memory game where you have to match two items, perhaps a word and an image, or the top half and bottom half. Four ways to play. * Switch - Compare two images and find the difference...but be aware the clock is ticking and you may find yourself out of time! Four subjects to choose from. * Jigsaw Puzzle - Solve the jigsaw puzzle. Twelve works of art. You choose the number of pieces: 16, 25, 49, 81, or 144 * Plus 3 activities that you can do at home You may also visit the Getty at Whyville from the site. Based on playing games these games are probably best for students in upper elementary through middle school. The site also links to the Getty Museum at Whyville, also designed for middle school students.
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"Mission US is a multimedia project that immerses players in U.S. history content through free interactive games. In Mission 3: “A Cheyenne Odyssey,” players become Little Fox, a Northern Cheyenne boy whose life is changed by the encroachment of white settlers, railroads, and U.S. military expeditions. As buffalo diminish and the U.S. expands westward, players experience the Cheyenne's persistence through conflict and national transformation."
Beth Dichter's insight:
"A Cheyenne Odyssey" is the third mission from Mission U.S. This interactive game will teach students about the Cheyenne's experience. There is a teacher guide available for this game (as well as the first two: Mission 1 - For Crown or Colony? and Mission 2 - Flight to Freedom). Each guide provides an overview, background information, standards alignments, activites, primary sources and there are videos to help provide guidance for teachers.Two additional games are set to be released in 2014 and 2015. The games are geared to students in Grades 5 - 8.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
PIXELearning offers this visual that discusses why games are good for learning. In the visual you will find information on the following areas: Play, Rewards, Mastery, Engagement and Flow Theory as well as Laws of Learning.
Ryan McDonough's curator insight,
July 7, 2014 8:19 AM
Self explanatory visual on the benefits of gaming as a means of learning. Outlined are the rewards, mastery, engagement, intensity, exercise, readiness, and competitiveness. These types of graphics need to be displayed in the classroom. There's always parents who are unsure of how gaming qualifies as teaching. Can't they just sit their kid in front of an iPad all day at home? Well, in the appropriate setting, with the right direction and guidance, games are certainly good for learning. Some people just don't know that from experience yet.
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The Knowledge Guru team knows how effective serious games and game based learning are, that's why we've developed an entire learning game engine focused on making game based learning easier to impleme...
Beth Dichter's insight:
This infographic shares why games should become a part of your classroom. Sections include: * It Really Works - providing data from a number of studies that show significant increases in grades after using game based learning. * 3 Great Reasons to Use Games (check out the reasons on the post!) * But Why Do Games Work which looks at essential elements required for learning and shares how each of these elements may be matched in game based learning * The Role of Game Playing Unlike many infographics this one provides links to sources which are easy to read. Are you interested in learning more about game based learning? If so, check out this post.
Florence HENCKE's comment,
August 9, 2013 3:10 AM
Thank you for this infographic and the sources you used, the importance of having fun while learning seems to increase in education. Good news !
Ines Evaristo's curator insight,
August 21, 2013 6:53 PM
Una buena infografía que resume estudios con resultados del efecto de los videojuegos en el aprendizaje de la educacion superior, cosa que no habia visto mucho. Además, el inicio es bastante claro, hacer un videojuego "serio" o educativo es doble reto: lograr los objetivos de aprendizaje propuestos y diseñar un gameplay igualmente divertido, motivador, estimulante... es la diferencia entre un videojuego educativo de un juego didactico. 
Taryn Coxall's curator insight,
October 8, 2013 10:24 PM
This article gives great insight into the upcoming phenominon of "Game Based Learning".Although i have never seen it in my practises, after reading abit about it, i believe game based learning is something i would incoperate into my own classroom. Game Based learning provides a stimulating and engaging way of learning for children on a wide range of educational areas and topics. It is proven through this approach to learning students aremore likely to become motivated to learn, become increasingly engage and excel in their learning. great resource which has iven me great insight.
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This post begins "Starting the year off with ideas on the best ways to use technology to support learning, Larry Ferlazzo collected an invaluable list of criteria last year from educators" and then shares MindShift's contribution as well as linking to Ferlazzo's work).
Beth Dichter's insight:
MindShift shares four areas: * Games and group work * Learning Latin * Reaching Students * Creativity Play Games and group work looks at what happens when a teacher brings in a wide range of technology incorporates game playing as part of the class. You may be quite surprised by the results! Learning Latin uses an online video game to teach Latin with great success. Reaching Students looks at how cell phones may be used in a classrom Creativity Play provides a look at how teachers are using Minecraft in the classroom).
יפה בן-דרור- Yaffa Ben-Dror's curator insight,
January 9, 2013 1:01 AM
MindShift shares four areas: * Games and group work * Learning Latin * Reaching Students * Creativity Play Games and group work looks at what happens when a teacher brings in a wide range of technology incorporates game playing as part of the class. You may be quite surprised by the results! Learning Latin uses an online video game to teach Latin with great success. Reaching Students looks at how cell phones may be used in a classrom Creativity Play provides a look at how teachers are using Minecraft in the classroom). 
cpeyronnet's curator insight,
January 9, 2013 2:39 AM
MindShift shares four areas: * Games and group work * Learning Latin * Reaching Students * Creativity Play Games and group work looks at what happens when a teacher brings in a wide range of technology incorporates game playing as part of the class. You may be quite surprised by the results! Learning Latin uses an online video game to teach Latin with great success. Reaching Students looks at how cell phones may be used in a classrom Creativity Play provides a look at how teachers are using Minecraft in the classroom).
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Digital educational games, interactives, virtual labs are excellent resources to assist learning and raising interests for inquiry or investigation. To visualize concepts or to do experiments on computers are cost-effective and efficient. Some games even use role-playing techniques or story lines. Some games create a virtual journey which is impossible to have in real world. We just featured Zombie Plague recently and thought we should give a review on all those quality sources of science learning games. Most sites are from education institutions, non-profit organizations or sponsored by grants, they are free to play. (Simulations are not included in this post, we’ll try to make another post for them) Games for kids of all ages are listed. A great resource to help students explore science.
Cynthia Mosley's curator insight,
June 30, 2015 6:20 PM
This site provides digital educational games that provides visual concepts along with experiment activities.
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What are the 21st Century skills? According to this post, which defines them based on the Serious Play conference, the skills range "from Virtual IQ, empathy, leadership, and ethics, to collaboration, communication, innovation, entrepreneurship, global perspective, and critical thinking." The next question to ask might be how do games support these skills? This post explores these issues in more detail. After looking at 21st Century skills a breakdwon of "essential competencies for a student in the Information Age" is provided, which looks at: * Ways of thinking * Ways of working * Tools for working * Skills for living in the world For more information on this click through to the post.
Bryan Kay's curator insight,
October 22, 2015 8:31 PM
I hope this article provides insight on how to confront student issues as an educational leader.
Engaging students in their own learning is so motivating and meaningful.
As a leader I want to allow my teachers the ability to try new things and attempt to connect with their students as much as possible.
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"There are several big movements underway that are worthy of debate and possible consideration as we look to help education become the 21st century, user-centered, on-demand, engaging, technology-centric activity that it has not been for much of its existence. Game-based learning (GBL), or gamification, is one of the models that commonly gets touted as a cure-all for the problems with education because of the popularity of gaming in our society (New Media Institute). While there are problems with the gamification movement as it currently stands, the model has several areas in which it differs sufficiently from traditional education to make it an intriguing possibility. Here is a look at several of those differences." Topics discussed include authenticity, student engagement, creativity and innovative thinking, and cost, as well as a discussion on the debate that exists over game based learning.
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Mission US has just released a new mission: City of Immigrants. This game allows learners to learn about issues of immigrants ad they become Lena Brodsky, a 14 year old immigrant from Russia. During the game learners meet people in Lena's community, gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of immigrant communities. Throughout the game learners will need to make choices, which are not necessarily easy.
These games are geared to middle and high school learners. The other games found at Mission US are:
* For Crown or Colony (1770)
* Flight to Freedom (1848)
* A Cheyenne Odyssey (1866)
You will also find teaching materials on the website.