With 86% of 5-7 year-olds and 90% of 8-11 year-olds playing games on a regular basis, it is important for teachers to understand the basics and how they can enhance their lessons through game-based learning (Ofcom, 2011). This week is all about the games that children play on their devices, consoles and laptops which contribute to their own learning. As well as discussing these games, I had the chance to explore the world of Minecraft to see its educational benefits and also see from my own perspective what skills could be acquired through playing a game. I also focussed on answering and speaking out in front of the class and now have many personal reflections to share with you.
So firstly, I need to explain what game-based learning is and also how can it enhance the classroom. I would define game-based learning as games on an interactive device which provide the children with educational benefits. An important point is that we need to ensure any games that we chose to use are age appropriate for the classroom and that they truly can teach children something meaningful which can continue to help them through their school career. Marc Prensky (2003) states that game-based learning can be ‘motivational’ and can also help our learners to be interested in school. This is because these games can be cooperative and result-oriented. This helps to support their digitally native needs (Prensky, 2001). It is also thought that if we use the games properly within the educational setting and have good teaching and learning, the child can be impacted greatly. However, in many primary school settings, technology is used for reward and entertainment, we must remember to use them for learning and to make our classroom more interactive. (Bray, 2012) Games based learning also has many benefits for the child. These include:
- Increasing the child’s mental capacity
- Increasing strategic thinking and problem solving
- Developing hand-eye coordination
- Helping children to concentrate especially those with additional support needs
- General skill reading (TeachThought, 2017).
These benefits are excellent, especially for cross-curricular subject areas. We could combine a problem-solving game with mathematics which could help the child have faster strategic thinking. I think we also need to remember that as time goes on, authorities are putting a large emphasis on play-based learning. These games would support their aims. We could allow children to use these games in class as long as we remember to tell them the aim of our lessons so that they don’t go off on a tangent (Beauchamp, 2012). I think this appeals to me as I quite enjoy playing games such as the Sims (which could be argued to be educational) and I do see where there could be benefits in the classroom environment. My only worry is in previous placements I have seen children whose behaviour was not at best receive “computer time” when it should not have rewarded and I hope that I never fall into that trap. I cannot wait to use games in my classroom as it will be more interesting for the children.
This weeks task allowed us to explore Minecraft: Education Edition as we had to use the game to see how we could use it for educational benefits within the classroom. I was able to have more knowledge on this subject compared to others in the classroom as I have played it in my previous years and knew a lot of the controls. I had never played the education edition though, however, I have heard a lot of good feedback surrounding it. Recently, they have created a 30-hour curriculum called coding with Minecraft (Mojang, 2019) This allows children to take 30-45 minute lessons in coding which would tie in with the CFE technologies curriculum. I thought this was so clever as it also shows how game-based learning can unify a group of individuals. I was actually shocked at how much more was available in this edition as it had many educational benefits. However, before I started to explore these educational inputs, I had to play a game and decided to make a house while having 2 dogs to keep me company!
To name a few, children could explore the periodic table as all elements were available to construct in the game. The children can access a lab table, element constructer and compound creator. In the element constructer, it lets the child explore the making of an element. They input the electrons, protons and neutrons needed and an element will appear. Once they have made these elements they can put them in the compound creator to combine them. They can then use the lab table to explore what happens when they combine compounds. I think this is genius! This makes chemistry fun!
Other benefits include being able to use a compass properly, survival skills and also how plants are grown to be made into the food that we eat today. This is also a collaborative game as multiplayer mode is available which is a great idea for a class activity as children will be able to play together to work on the same task.
Our task was to get into groups and make a mind map of ideas and then put our ideas into a lesson planner where we would explore the cross-curricular activities available in the game. To create our mind map, we all just put our suggestions onto the paper and then further discussed where this could be seen in the Curriculum for Excellence. We divided our ideas into the curricular areas and began to look at the principles of learning and tried to make some connections.
Once ready, we went onto our lesson planner where we decided to choose 4 different activities which we were willing to talk to the rest of the class about. We decided to focus on Maths, Social Studies, Language and Science. For Maths, we decided on an activity that deals with fractions. The children would be given questions such as “Give 3/5 of the sunflowers to your friend” and they would have to collect 3 of the 5 sunflowers from the garden and give them over. This could be done with any Minecraft item and as fractions is a hard concept to grasp, this could make it slightly more interesting. For social studies, we decided that the class could be studying Scottish histories such as Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle. They would then need to go into Minecraft and build their own castles and implement features from their topic to show their understanding. This could be really creative for some children and you would receive a variety of work. The language was next and we decided that it could be a basic storytelling activity. The children would have to play some Minecraft and then do some story writing on what they achieved or what they wanted to do next. This again would get a variety of responses which allows the children’s imaginations to flow. Finally, we did science. I really liked the chemistry equipment that I found in the game and thought about how players in Minecraft have to dig to find the elements to help them progress. We thought that the children could find the ore and then they would need to use the new science materials to enter the protons, neutrons and electrons, create a new compound and show their creations. This would help them to have a better understanding of where elements such as iron come from and it would be fascinating to see which children have sufficient problem-solving skills. These are activities I will definitely use in my classroom and will adapt as the game develops.
In terms of CFE outcomes and experiences, I think it’s fair to say that there are many that could be used for the game as a whole. I think the outcome that emphasis’s Minecraft is ” I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts” – TCH 1-01a. This is appropriate as there are many subject areas to explore within the game. I hope I get to use this game in my future career.
The presentation was a moment of realisation for myself. I usually don’t like to speak in front of the cohort due to how shy I am and how I usually stumble my words. When our group went up to present, we decided I was doing the talking. Of course my mind went into overload and I began to panic as we were first. I was so happy with myself as I was able to talk about our entire lesson plan and explain my concepts well enough for the class to understand. I need to improve my confidence when speaking but I think this can be worked on. I also want to mention that in the future, I will prepare what I am saying in advance as trying to work it out while at the front was not the best strategy. I also proved myself wrong about speaking out as I was able to offer feedback to my peers without worrying about panicking. Trust me, this is progress since September where I usually don’t give a lot of answers. This is not the class that I thought I would develop this skill but I am pleased that I have made this progress. I also want to comment on the teamwork this week. After last weeks stressful animation session, I can conclude that smaller groups are definitely better for myself to concentrate but to also give my own thoughts and opinions. I will continue to work on all of the above.
I really enjoyed this weeks session as it opened my eyes to game-based learning. Before I finish this blog, I would like to provide a link to some lesson plans which Minecraft have published themselves which dive into many different subject areas for their education edition. This is: https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/lessons/ (Mojang, 2019). I really cannot wait to be qualified as this is a resource which I will definitely be using in my own classroom to make lessons more motivational and interesting.
References within this blog:
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.
Bray, O. (2012) Playful Learning: Computer Games in Education. [Online] https://www.slideshare.net/Microsofteduk/playful-learning-computer-games-in-education [Accessed: 6 March 2019].
Mojang. (2019) Download the Computer Science curriculum from Minecraft: Education Edition today. [Online] Available: https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/coding-with-minecraft/[Accessed: 6 March 2019].
Mojang. (2019) Subject Kits. [Online] Available: https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/lessons/[Accessed: 6 March 2019].
Ofcom. (2011) Children and parents: media use and attitudes 2011. [Online] Available: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/childrens-parents-media-use-attitudes-report [Accessed: 6 March 2019].
Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants MCB University Press.
Prensky, M. (2003) Digital Game-Based Learning. ACM Computers in Entertainment.[Online] Volume 1(1) pp1-4. Available: http://www-cgi.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/Web/People/smrobert/SAMpapers/game_learning/gamebased_learning.pdf[Accessed: 6 March 2019].
TeachTought. (2017) 6 Basic Benefits of Game-Based Learning. [Online] Available: https://www.teachthought.com/technology/6-basic-benefits-of-game-based-learning/ [Accessed: 6 March 2019].
