Learning with Games

Katie Salen on Learning with Games

• Play is a very important part of developmental growth. Young children must play to learn!
• Games create learning environments and experiences that allow students to practice collaboration, teamwork, and identity forming.
• Kids need more forgiving environments to learn within! They need to know its okay to fail and make mistakes.
• Games work in a way that good teachers work. They have reachable challenes, scaffolding, and differentiated instructions. Both games and teachers are always thinking, what can I do to help my players or students be successful, and what will they need next? There is a close parallel!
• Because there is a close parallel, it only makes sense that classrooms should look a little more like games. Good leaning is happening in games! Games and learning can be brought together.
• We are not trained to look for the learning in games, so it can be seen as simply a leisure activity or a waste of time. Games are a great way to measure metacognition. Gamers always have complex ideas and strategies in their heads and by asking what is going on in their minds while they play or how they thought about a certain game, we are better to understand how they think and how they learn.
• Do not think that the game itself has to be the holder of all content. Rather, the game is a part of a much bigger learning experience that is giving students practice in something, activating parts of their brain that goes unused, or lets them connect ideas to other things. Games enhance deeper thinking.
• Game designers always think about who is on the other side of the game they are creating. When kids go into a game, they are often very motivated simply by the fact that they know this game has been tailored and scaffolded for their ability so that they CAN succeed at it. Students need to start seeing the classroom as a place designed for their success.
• Gaming is actually incredibly social. It creates a community where learning is more robust and rich. It is especially incredible when parents or teachers sit down to start playing with their children. The kids can guide and tell how the games are meaningful to them. It can give adults a glimpse into the media world of kids.  
• How can we assess game learning? Instead of formatively or summatively assessing, you are getting constant feedback from the game through points, player comments, and power ups. By completing the game, you show you know enough content to win the game!
• Kids becoming teachers to other kids on playing the game is another great way to assess. They have to know what they are talking about in order to teach it to someone else.
• Testing is very ingrained in our culture. However, the idea that testing is the only way to measure a child's knowledge is very dangerous. Some of Katie's models that she is working on are developed in a more diverse way. She believes that students' intelligence can be measured in many different ways - games being one of them.