Monday 2 June 2014

Learning is Playing

This must be one of the most inspiring posts that I have had in a long while. How nice would it be if learning is playing? And playing is all about learning? What if your students actually tell you that lessons were fun?

What better way to learn game algorithms than by playing the game '2048' yourself? Inventive thinking at its best.

At the very same time, I sourced this as I went through some ETD digital publications.
DIGITAL GAME-BASED LEARNING

Have fun trying them out and some of them are really addictive. There's a whole load of listings cutting across subjects such as English, Mathematics, Biology, Physics and Geography. Some are even inter-disciplinary and multi-subject based games.

One of the very promising ones that I tried my hand at was EnergyCity where players are presented with real-life situations of a natural resources depletion and are required to come up with an urban energy portfolio that is sustainable. As they play, they are challenged to keep the energy metrics of the city going. It is funded by National Geographic and titled the Jason project. This game reminds me of the SimCity game where I used to play decades ago. I remembered my settlements used to burn on fire because I had no defences against natural disasters.

EnergyCity
Another interesting game on linear equations was Save the Zogs. A very simple game to teach beginners x-axis and y-axis plotting.

I think DGBL is here to stay and a force to be reckoned with.





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