Games During Training: A Necessity or A Challenge of the Time?

The main educational event of the month is the International Education Forum NewEdu: Tech in Focus which didn´t go right past us.

Outcome: a lot of positive impressions, acquaintances and a fascinating topic from Olesia Ulianova – gamification.

Games during training: the need or challenge of time.

How to make a lesson or training a productive game?

Interestingly, these principles apply to both children and adults. The only difference is the complexity of the game.

So:

 

Stage 1: Work out the plot.

You need to turn on imagination and make up a plot in order that a lesson will become a game. All other elements are strung on it. It can be a fascinating story, a world, or even a quest.

 

Stage 2: Define the goals.

Modern children constantly ask adults the question: “Why should I do this?”. Participants must clearly understand why they should do what is proposed within the game.

 

Stage 3: Distribute the roles among the participants.

Moreover, the team should consist of different people. If these are children, “A” students and “B” students should work together. There have been many cases where students in the game open themselves up from a completely unexpected side, and this may predetermine their choice of a future profession. But not only children, but also adults can see new opportunities in themselves, trying on themselves a new role for at least an hour.

Anyway, don’t be afraid to experiment.

 

Stage 4: Make up the rules, the challenges in the game.

The main thing is a fascinating context, it can be modern, historical and even fictional. Each challenge must become a condition for moving forward, and this can be any math problem, experiment in chemistry, rebus, charade or language anagram.

Hunter Davies is a well-known educator, who pleases children with his classroom games based on different plots, for example, to calculate a safe route, to leave the epicenter of zombies, and not to become a prey.

 

Stage 5: Use the device capabilities.

A mobile phone is an excellent tool for quickly finding information, as well as a tool for completing quests. QR codes, maps, routes – a million possibilities.

 

Step 6: Check the game mechanics.

If some participants quickly get levels or overcome stages, others find themselves in outsiders, it means the game world is somewhere incomplete. The facilitator needs to follow the balance.

In a word, games in education are exciting and useful. A person remembers best of all what caused his emotions, and any strong impression will forever remain in our memory.

The main thing is not to play too long. It is worth remembering that study is work, and game is a sweet dessert that you can’t overdo.