12. How Games help in classroom facilitation

In DACE CU3 ID (Apply Instructional Design to create Courseware), our facilitators Darren was sharing with us on the assessment criteria of this module. According to him, I must include two of the following learning activity in the courseware we create:

·         Case Study

·         Game

·         Role play

This really made me think of how I am going to make difference in my classroom lectures. At this point I am doing a simple teacher centered presentation and my naval trainees are keep sitting and listen to me (no other choice). After spending some time researching on how learners learns moving away from classroom, I found the games are a powerful tool I must use to engage my young naval trainees in their learning. Let me explain why I should use games in my facilitation. Games follow several learning principles that make them better instruments for learning than the traditional classroom structure Games helps students to learn something that traditional education cannot provide

Games Provide Feedback and Adapt to the Learner
Another learning principle is that each student is different and, therefore, will have a different style of learning. Games allow players to customize their difficulty level or style of play. Students in the traditional classroom may feel material is too hard or too easy, and they cannot try on different learning styles or use another problem solving method without the risk of failing or receiving a bad grade.  Games make it less risky and pleasantly frustrating to fail. Players know the game is possible to beat with enough practice, and “good games adjust challenges and give feedback in such a way that different players feel the game is challenging but doable and that their effort is paying off.

Many games also allow players to win or play in multiple ways, allowing the player to take on challenges with a method that suits their strengths or try a new problem solving approach.

Games Utilize Situated Meanings

Traditional classrooms tend to focus heavily on facts, definitions and isolated events. Whereas Games act as learning scaffolds, delivering information to the player just in time when they need to use it. Game designers are constantly considering what the player needs to know for their next challenge; this helps break up content so that facts are learned as a side effect from simply participating in these challenges. Games encourages the player to experiment concepts while providing guidance and information whenever the player needs it.

Games Create Meaningful Experiences 

As players explore their game world, they also create memorable, rich experiences which can be used to retrieve and reflect upon knowledge. They are basically learning by doing, and this is also known as situated learning where people learn through active experiences and critical interpretation of their experiences via personal reflection and interpersonal discussion. Traditional classroom lectures rarely create these meaningful experiences without interactive or hands-on activities. 

Games Make Learning Socially Relevant 

Games are able to make learning socially relevant. As concepts become more difficult in school, “students no longer see science as connected to the real world and lose interest in the subject” (Honey and Hilton 2010). By participating in an immersive environment or storyline and taking on the role of a scientist or mathematician, players can watch how their knowledge applies in these realistic simulations.  Games often challenge players to take on the roles of professionals, allowing players to problem solve with a new frame of reference.

Games Encourage Interactive Learning

First of all, good learning allows the student to be a producer rather than a passive consumer of his own learning. A typical classroom has a teacher that gives a lecture while the student passively listens and takes notes without context or application. However, games are interactive; that is, “when the player does something, the game does something back that encourages the player to act again”. Their actions shape the game world around them, causing the player to reflect on their decisions and form hypotheses. Therefore, whereas traditional blackboard learning sees the learner as a passive recipient of knowledge, game-based learning allows…students to become an active member of their education.