EVOLVING THE CLASSROOM HOW GAMES CAN CHANGE THE WAY WE LEARN

BACKGROUND AND USAGE Serious Games “Serious games are simulations of real- world events or processes designed for the purpose of solving a problem. Although serious games can be entertaining, their main purpose is to train or educate users, though it may have other purposes, such as marketing or advertisement.” “Games are a part of everyday life in the 21 st century” – Jordan Shapiro US Government sees potential in utilizing games to teach courses, especially in younger children. How have games been used in the classroom? (Patrick Klepk article – Intro to GLaDOS 101: A Professor’s Decision to Teach Portal What it means to be human Successes and Difficulties

HOW TO TEACHERS USE GAMES AS A TOOL Interview with Aaron Trammel “In my classroom I don't necessarily use games to teach specific skills, but how we can use these games as catalysts for conversation, not only around what a game does but also around cultural topics and the places where these games are embedded into our culture. The sort of stuff I teach about games is the sort of stuff you would find in English courses, but I don't think that most students today read books like they did or for most English courses the way that they were designed. I feel like games give that same experience of reading a book and understanding a story, but have a more engaged participatory audience.” How games dictate his syllabus and curriculum. Why he feels games are a valuable learning tool.

DIFFICULTIES AND WHAT DOESN’T WORK? Barrier of entry.  Many teachers and educators are not familiar with games and the games they are familiar with are the most popular games that include violence and gore.  Classrooms may not be the properly equipped to utilize games and the traditional classroom setting does not create a space for the level of engagement games provide.  Time: Games take longer to learn and engage with than other artforms and learning tools. Simply gamifiying the learning experience. Many agree that this is not an accurate depiction of games and uses the worst aspects of game design to entice players

GAMEIFICATION 1.When does it work? Scott Nicholson – Meaningful Gasification Game studies – “Do you look at a game for play, or for it’s story?” 2.When does it not work? More often then not, gameification does not work and lacks the ability to add any real aspects of gameplay to the coursework. By failing the gamification portion, some educators are further turned off by the idea of using games in the classroom.  Interview with Fanny Ramirez  “Gamification in itself is an ugly word. It doesn’t represent why people are attracted to games and why they keep coming back for those experiences.”

THE FUTURE? With the push for more Serious Games, classrooms will begin to adapt to the ever changing world that game play and experiences have introduced. The idea of games as only entertainment needs to go. The idea of games adding to violence needs to widely be debunked. New research is needed to prove both as most of the research is from the early days of games. Classrooms will change to accommodate gameplay instead of ideas in games.