Gaming in the Classroom

https://watch.liberty.edu/media/t/1_etgk3diw

Considering how much students love gaming, it is a useful technology for educators to leverage in the classroom. Some of the benefits of gaming include the collaborative classroom environment which some games can create, the atmosphere of fun that is fostered through gaming which Halverson et al., refer to as “bait for future learning”, and opportunities for formative assessment as educators observe game play in real time (Halverson et al., 2020, p. 467). According to Hughes & Roblyer, some challenges that can be associated with gaming include achieving digital equity, ensuring critical consumption of online content, and ensuring the appropriateness of content for learners. (Hughes & Roblyer, 2022).

In my eighth-grade classroom, I have found the trivia-quiz style game Kahoot to be an effective educational technology tool. Students enjoy that they can choose fun or silly names and avatars, interact with one another between questions, and track their progress through the leader board displayed at the front of the class. Digital equity must be considered for some of the neurodivergent learners since questions are timed and must be read within the time allotted to be answered correctly.

I have a few strategies which I employ to be effective as I facilitate Kahoot gaming on the Chromebook for assessment for learning. I aim to provide equity for neurodivergent learners by reading some of the questions aloud as they come up and considering the reading difficulty level of questions for those learners when I set the timer for each question. For formative assessment I listen to peer collaboration as students debate their answers in the seconds between when they have entered their answer and the correct answer appearing on screen. If a considerable number of students answer a question incorrectly, then I can dig into why we have not mastered that area of transfer. I also post the Kahoot link to our school LMS so that students may access it during their study hall period or at home on their devices.

According to Hughes and Roblyer, gaming can be inappropriate when it portrays historical inaccuracies, reinforces biases, or has traumatic content. (2022, p. 411). Halverson et al., point out that gaming can be inappropriate in the classroom when it does not fulfill district standards. As educators it is incumbent upon us to ensure we employ safe, equitable, and effective use of educational technologies for instruction.

References

Halverson, E.R., Jordan-Douglass, A., Nixon, J., Schindler, E. (2020). How Educational and Communications Technologies Play a Role in Arts and Humanities Teaching and Learning. In: Bishop, M.J., Boling, E., Elen, J., Svihla, V. (eds) Handbook of Research in Educational Communications and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/10.1007/978-3-030-36119-8_21

Hughes, J. E., & Roblyer, M. D. (2022). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (9th ed.). Pearson Education (US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9780137544622