Educational games: Grounded in research or fun and exciting? Wayne Holmes Co-founder of zondle. DPhil candidate, University of Oxford.

DPhil research A design-based investigation of a prototype game for children who are low-attaining in mathematics; Grounded in educational research: Principles of an effective numeracy intervention; Bruner’s ‘modes of representation’ and ‘spiral curriculum’; Behaviourist and constructivist approaches to learning; Developed through design-based research: Three cycles of design, intervention, analysis and reflection; Researched in real classrooms; Outcomes: A game might be most effective when it functions as an artefact that both supports individual learning and stimulates, scaffolds and mediates dialogue-based collaborative learning.

zondle A web and mobile platform that enables teachers and students to create and share games to support teaching and learning; zondle aims to address the fact that most games-based learning: adopts a traditional top-down publisher model; prioritises being cutting-edge and exciting over the needs of real classrooms; ignores high-quality education and neuroscience research. zondle enables teachers to use games as they want to use games: to help motivate and engage children; to teach whole-classes and promote learning; to help children consolidate what they’ve been taught; for children to use as homework; to help children prepare for high-stakes tests and exams.

The zondle approach 5,000,000 + content / game combinations Database of educational content Database of short-form games zondle interpreter 1 million + questions 50+ games (web and mobile)

zondle Team Play zondle Team Play applies a game-based approach to teaching whole classes; Grounded in three years of neuroscience and educational technology research by Paul Howard-Jones at the University of Bristol; Developed through design-based research: Five cycles of design, intervention, analysis and reflection; Low-fidelity prototype, grounded in the literature; Researched in a variety of school classrooms and developed iteratively; Final version integrated with the zondle platform.

zondle Team Play

...in summary GBL is all too often grounded in anecdotal evidence (rather than in educational or neuroscience research); GBL all too often prioritises being fun and exciting over learning or addressing the needs of real classrooms; GBL can be grounded in, and developed through research AND can be fun and exciting.