Many games today are created and it has been discovered that they can be used in the educational setting and meet different standards. It gives students the ability to learn about different concepts and ideas in varying forms. One example of this is a student was struggling with doing the typical diorama that was assigned. The teacher decided to ask the mother what her son was interested in doing and found out that he enjoyed Minecraft. When the teacher heard this he suggested that the boy build his model in Minecraft and video it. The child was able to do the assignment but in a way that he understood and could actually learn more (McCarthy, J., 2014). This gives students the opportunity that there is more than one right way to reach an answer, what makes sense for some students might not make sense for others, “that’s something you can’t teach kids-they need to have the opportunity to experience it” (Ossala, A., 2015).
Video games allow for intrinsic motivation as the levels are tiered for students to get progressively more difficult (Echeverri, J., & Sadler, T., 2011). Students can get through the “easier levels” quickly and then work on the more difficult levels while some students may take more time on the “easier levels” (Willis, J., 2011a). This makes the job for the teacher to provide differentiated tasks to all students a lot easier and less time consuming because school is no longer just working on worksheets, they are doing something that they enjoy doing even at home (Willis, J., 2011b). Most students are motivated because they want to get to the next level which relieves some pressure off the teacher of keeping students on track with their lessons. Students are continuing to stay motivated, which means they are willing to spend more time on concepts and learn a lot more (Echeverri, J. & Sadler, T., 2011).
Games also allow for differentiation because students are easily given more choices because there are multiple games on the internet that teach the same concepts. A lot of these different games give immediate feedback, progress reports, and assessments. Teachers can easily see what students are not understanding and be able to fill those gaps in different ways. While teachers are meeting with students about understandings and misunderstandings, students can come up with goals to achieve via the games they play to create ownership of their learning (Willis, J., 2011a). These goals can be easily analyzed along the course of the year and be easily changed as needed.
Gaming also allows for skills not learned in a book. Students can learn about digital citizenship and internet safety by having specialists come in and talk to them about how to behave online. Now we are able to take students into the computer labs and teach them about how to properly communicate with people they are working with (which could include typing) as well as what to put on the internet and what to not put online. Students must know about the responsibility that comes with using the internet and if they can practice with their classmates in a safe environment they are able to learn the skills in an effective but safe manner (Stiff, H., 2015).
No longer is school about the “traditional” paper and pencil work while reading a few books along the way. We can incorporate other cultures by working with schools that are in different cultures. We can incorporate banking by having students have online bank accounts. We can literally teach anything in the curriculum with technology as a basis. Anything we want to find is at our fingertips, or if we are really tech savvy, we can create it for our students. Gaming really allows for all the different facts of differentiation in a way that doesn’t stress the teacher out during the year. Smith and Throne (2009) put it best when they said, “Differentiated instruction powered by technology assists us in our endeavor to meet the physical, intellectual, and emotional challenges and needs specific to middle school learners” (pg. 39) (or any age learner in my opinion).
Bibliography
Echeverri, J., & Sadler, T. (2011). Gaming as a platform for the development of innovative problem-based learning opportunities. Science Educator, 20(1).
McCarthy, J. (2014). Learner interest matters: Strategies for empowering student choice. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-learner-interest-matters-john-mccarthy
Ossala, A. (2015). Teaching in the age of minecraft. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/teaching-in-the-age-of-minecraft/385231/
Smith, G., & Throne, S. (2009). Differentiated instruction and middle school learners. In Differentiating Instruction with Technology in Middle School Classrooms (pp. 29-39). Eugene: ISTE.
Stiff, H. (2015, January 1). Monforton teacher instructs coding to kids. Retrieved from http://www.belgrade-news.com/news/article_6716d926-ae2a-11e4-959b-13ebce844c1c.html
Willis, J. (2011a). A neurologist makes the case for the video game model as a learning tool. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neurologist-makes-case-video-game-model-learning-tool
Willis, J. (2011b). How to plan instruction using the video game model. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-plan-instruction-video-game-model-judy-willis-md