I have gone easy on myself this week and the article I have chosen was only 6 pages! Even though it was a much shorter article than the others I have read so far for class, it was just as beneficial. This article was titled, “Augmented Reality Game(ARG), 21st Century Skills and ESL classroom.” A few things popped into my head as I read the title. One, I love augmented reality games, so I’m sure students will too. And two, I haven’t heard 21st century skills pop up in my PD sessions on inservice days in a while. It seems that while we are still teaching students the skills to be a 21st century learner the buzz word might be fizzling out.
The Summary:
In the Article Karmila Rafiq and Harwati Hashim talk about the success ARG has with ESL students. The article discussed an example of ARG which was Pokemon Go. The authors explain that games like these allow the user to gain real world skills by using maps, books, and tools. The article discussed the lack of real world skills people had when leaving school, and the need there is for less strict content learning, and more skills based learning. I came across the following quote which resonated with me. Rafiq and Hashim state, “This shows that using ARG can cater to better retention of knowledge in ESL because the fun nature of ARG lowers the anxiety in students learning a second language. Their article explains that through the combination of motivation and fun students can retain more of what they are learning. This can lead to ELL students acquiring language skills better and faster.
My Take:
This article makes me think about the games I play in my classroom. I don’t play Pokemon Go or any ARG in my classroom, because kids aren’t allowed to have their cellphones in class. However, I do play different games like: Blooket, Quizizz, Kahoot, Quizlet, etc. Sometimes I think to myself, am I spending too much time playing this game with my students? I think not. I play Blooket before we take tests or quizzes in my class. I look at the analytics of the game, and I can see how the kids did answering the questions, and pretty much predict how they will do on the test. I have found a lot of success in using these gaming tools because students remember more. They would rather play a Blooket 4 times than go through a stack of flashcards 4 times. I also enjoy playing the games with the students because then they have even more fun trying to beat me(which they do...on occasion). I try to do things that will bring joy to my students and me, and I would genuinely argue that my students have learned more from continuous Blooket games, than they have doing different classroom activities.
For the reader:
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend playing Blooket with your classes. There are random ones you can play, but you can also create your own! It is a great way to boost classroom morale, and have a little fun!
I think that real life experiences and examples are extremely important for students. Gamification is 100% the new and upcoming trend, therefore it is important that we all start implementing it into the classroom. Games like Kahoot and Booket can be beneficial when it comes to practicing for a test. I find that I try to add games to my stations/centers. I find that once you teach the students a specific game they are able to play them independently. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Sam,
ReplyDeleteI love that you wrote about Augmented Reality and gamification in education. I teach a coding class that involves Minecraft for Education. Students use a block coding language called MakeCode to program events in the game. Additionally, they can build and export their models from Minecraft and import them into a Virtual Reality program. It's really neat to see them tour structures they built in 3D! It's my favorite class to teach! :)
Melissa