Week 5: Utilizing Games in the Classroom

With the availability of technology increasing at rapid rates, so is the ease of creating and using such technology for applications that can entertain, educate or both.   Today’s teachers have a seemingly endless list of choices in how they can implement new technology in their classrooms to engage students in a new topic, enhance instruction or assess student academic knowledge.   Games are just one way educators can bring technology to their instruction.  For example, simple computer games can help young students develop logical sequencing skills by having them organize pictures, numbers or words in a certain order.  One effective use of computer games can help students master English language arts (ELA) concepts like vocabulary terms, parts of speech and spelling.  Teachers can gain important data on each of their students as they play the games.  This real time information can help teachers perform quality assessments and guide their instruction.

As a future educator who is comfortable with technology, I look forward to incorporating games in my instruction with a particular focus on assessment.  Not only will students surely be engaged by using familiar technology, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) can be a critical component in measuring academic achievement as tomorrow’s young students are increasingly exposed to digital interactions.  From the perspective of students who have grown up in a home environment where ICT is commonly used to read, learn, communicate and transact, the use of computer-based games can be an effective measure of their academic knowledge.  While teachers should continue to assess students with a variety of methods including observation, discussion and traditional paper-based examinations, they can gain a more complete assessment of their students’ knowledge by differentiating their assessment like their instruction.  By utilizing games, teachers benefit from real time feedback which can guide their instruction.  The students’ performance will help teachers understand where more instruction is needed or which concepts need reinforcement.  More specific data will indicate which particular students need additional instruction or clarification.  With such immediate information, a teacher can address these instructional needs immediately.

Teachers can utilize numerous platforms like Gamestar Mechanic to develop games for use in their classrooms.  I found another platform which can be customized specifically to help students master ELA concepts and teachers assess student knowledge as a whole class or individually.  Openminds.io, recently acquired by Edmodo, offers an easy-to-use platform with several built-in games that utilizes ELA concepts that the teacher inputs.  For example, the teacher can manually input a current list of vocabulary words and their definitions.  Students can then play games where they match up words with their definition, select the correct word to complete a phrase or identify properly-spelled words.  As students play these simple and engaging games, their teacher can use real time data on how the students are performing relative to their mastery of the content.   Not only can this valuable data adjust the pace of instruction immediately, it should be added to other forms of assessment so the teacher can better determine the knowledge of the students.

See a video tutorial here on using OpenMinds:  http://screencast.com/t/jFaf489QrDv