Just two days until I will host a workshop about game based learning at this year’s Digital Shoreditch Festival. During the workshop I want to explore ways of how any game can be used to get students interested in topics like software development, technology, science, maths and arts.
My approach to game-based-learning is not about playing serious games or “edutainment” games. Instead I think that ANY game can be used as a tool for teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
Learning by playing games
The purpose of playing games is to learn. By playing a game we train various skills. Games like “Civilization” teach a lot about decision making and how to balance complex systems – and by doing this players learn interesting historic facts within a meaningful context.
Being a guild member or leader in World of Warcraft will teach you a lot about management and leadership skills and effective team work.
Learning by deconstructing games
Although it might be controversial whether or not playing computer games make people better in performing tasks in real-life, once you start to reverse design a game and to break it down into its components game-based-learning enters a whole new dimension.
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