1. Choose wisely.
2. Think small (sometimes).
3. Educational games don’t always equal entertainment games.
4. Put learning and game play first.
5. Find the game in the content.
6. Break the mold for where educational games are played.
7. Harness the “soft skill” learning from games but connect it with content.
8. Don’t ignore, nor be limited by, teacher training and readiness.
9. Play everywhere and anywhere.
10. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
11. Define the learning goals.
12. Forge partnerships.
13. Don’t ignore or be too constrained by academic/state standards.
14. Not just who but what, where, when, and why.
Click here for a more detailed list of recommendations.
Ntiedo Etuk, chairman and CEO of Tabula Digita, the company that created Dimension M, takes issue with MIT’s report. In an interview with eSchool News, he pointed to evidence of DimensionM‘s success and said the MIT researchers were dealing with a different issue than his own game’s objective.
“MIT is talking about ideal design objectives and what would be a game that could teach the subject matter entirely. This is not what we do,” Etuk said. “For example, if a teacher were going to teach fractions that week, we’d tell her to have her students play the game first, and then as they need help or don’t get problems right, that’s where the teacher comes in to actually teach. We designed our games to lead up to the teachable moment. We help students with the concept and practice and help teachers with assessments with our assessment tool.”
Etuk said his company has completed multiple studies on what makes an educational game successful, and “with games that wanted to teach the whole subject, many teachers needed extensive professional development so that they could play the game as well. In a large school system, that’s just not scalable,” he said.
The difference of opinion reflects the fact that researchers are still in the early stages of trying to determine what works and what doesn’t when it comes to educational gaming design.
Where to go from here?
As researchers begin to build the pieces of what makes a good educational game, and why and how gaming affects learning, the Joan Ganz Cooney report has a set of recommendations to jump-start a national “game-changing” action plan that addresses gaming in education.
- #4: 25 education trends for 2018 - December 26, 2018
- Video of the Week: Dealing with digital distraction in the classroom - February 23, 2018
- Secrets from the library lines: 5 ways schools can boost digital engagement - January 2, 2018