How Games Help Us Learn | Game-Based Learning

Summary

This video explores how games enhance learning through three primary methods: increasing engagement by making activities fun, directly teaching concepts or skills, and preparing students for future learning. It highlights various examples, including 'Kahoot', 'Math Jump', 'Was it Trouble', 'Coding Ocean', and 'Dragon Box', emphasizing the importance of explicitly connecting game experiences to learning contexts to ensure educational effectiveness.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Games can enhance learning by making educational activities more enjoyable, as seen in classroom apps like Kahoot which gamify question answering.
• 🏆 Adding elements like points, leaderboards, and badges can motivate students and make learning more engaging.
• 🤔 Gamification involves recasting tasks into game-like scenarios, such as solving math problems to keep a character alive in 'Math Jump'.
• 🐰 'Was It Trouble' uses a storyline and gamified elements to teach linear equations in a fun and engaging way.
• 📚 Games can directly teach concepts or skills, with examples like strategy games (e.g., Go, Chess) that develop strategic thinking applicable beyond the game.
• 🚀 The US military used airplane spotter cards in traditional games to educate civilians about identifying enemy aircraft during WWII.
• 💡 Game design can be centered around learning goals, integrating the mechanics with the educational content, as seen in 'Coding Ocean' and 'Dragon Box'.
• 🌱 Games can prepare students for future learning by introducing concepts in a fun way, such as 'Stats Invaders' which introduces statistical distributions.
• 🎓 Commercial video games like 'Call of Duty' and 'Civilization' can be used as a preparatory step before lectures on related topics.
• 🔗 The effectiveness of games in learning depends on making explicit connections between the game content and the educational objectives.
• 📈 Research shows that games can facilitate deeper understanding when used in conjunction with traditional educational methods, but the connection must be clear.

Q & A

What are the three ways games can help in learning?

Games can help in learning by making things more fun, directly teaching concepts or skills, and preparing students for future learning.

How does the game 'Kahoot' motivate students to learn?

'Kahoot' motivates students by turning answering questions into a competitive game where points and leaderboards make the learning process more enjoyable.

What is the purpose of the 'Math Jump' app?

The 'Math Jump' app makes solving arithmetic problems more engaging by incorporating a character that dies if problems are not solved correctly, thus adding a gamifying element.

How does the game 'Was It Trouble' make learning linear equations fun?

'Was It Trouble' gamifies learning linear equations by presenting them in a different context, involving puzzles and rescuing characters, making the task more appealing.

What is the difference between gamification and game-based learning?

Gamification involves adding game elements like points and competition to non-game activities to make them more fun, while game-based learning involves designing the game mechanics around specific learning goals.

How do strategy games like 'Go' and 'Chess' contribute to learning?

Strategy games like 'Go' and 'Chess' can teach strategic thinking and decision-making skills that can be applied in various real-life situations beyond the game.

What is the concept behind 'Coding Ocean'?

'Coding Ocean' is a game designed to teach programming by having players solve problems and direct a ship using command cards, thus learning programming concepts as they play.

How does 'Dragon Box' help in teaching math to young kids?

'Dragon Box' uses visual representations of numbers and interactive tasks to help students develop early numeracy skills and familiarity with numbers.

What is the purpose of 'Stats Invaders' in learning statistics?

'Stats Invaders' is designed to prepare students for future learning in statistics by familiarizing them with concepts like distributions and standard deviation through gameplay.

Why is it important to make explicit connections between the game and the learning context?

Making explicit connections between the game and the learning context is crucial for facilitating understanding and ensuring that students can apply what they've learned from the game to real-life situations or academic tasks.

Can a single game leverage all three approaches for learning?

Yes, a game can leverage all three approaches for learning by making the activity fun, directly teaching concepts or skills, and preparing students for future learning experiences.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Games as Motivation and Fun Learning Tools

The first paragraph discusses how games can enhance learning by making the process more enjoyable and engaging. It highlights the use of games like Kahoot, which turns question-answering into a competitive activity, and Math Jump, where solving arithmetic problems keeps a character alive. The key principle here is that the gamification elements, such as points, leaderboards, and badges, transform mundane tasks into exciting challenges. The example of 'Was It Trouble' is also mentioned, where solving linear equations is disguised as freeing cute animals, making the learning process fun and less obvious.

05:01

🤔 Games Teaching Concepts and Skills

This paragraph delves into how games can directly impart knowledge and skills. It contrasts games like Mario, which improve skills relevant only within the game, with strategy games like Go and Chess that teach strategic thinking applicable in real-life scenarios. The paragraph also touches on the use of game mechanics in educational contexts, such as WWII airplane spotter cards, where the learning is an add-on rather than an integral part of the game. The concept of designing games with learning goals in mind is introduced, exemplified by 'Coding Ocean' and 'Dragon Box', where the gameplay mechanics are closely tied to the educational objectives.

10:02

🌟 Games as Preparation for Future Learning

The third paragraph explores the role of games in preparing students for future learning experiences. It uses 'Stats Invaders' as an example, where playing the game helps students grasp basic statistical concepts like distributions, making them more receptive to related lectures. The paragraph also mentions the use of commercial video games like 'Call of Duty' and 'Civilization' as a preparatory step before learning about WWII history. The key takeaway is that games can 'plow the field' of the brain, making students more receptive to new information.

15:04

🔗 Making Explicit Connections for Effective Learning

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of making explicit connections between the game and the learning context to enhance the educational impact. It points out that simply playing a game like 'Was It Trouble' or 'Dragon Box' does not guarantee improved performance in related tests unless the connection between the game and the learning material is clearly established. The paragraph underscores the need to bridge the game experience with real-world problem-solving to maximize the game's educational value.

Keywords

💡Game-based Learning

Game-based learning is a method of education that utilizes games to teach knowledge and skills. In the video, this concept is central, as it explores how games can be designed to facilitate learning in various ways. Examples include 'Kahoot', which gamifies the process of answering questions, and 'Coding Ocean', where students learn programming by solving problems within the game.

💡Motivation

Motivation is the drive or desire to do something, which is a key factor in how games can enhance learning. The video discusses how games like 'Kahoot' and 'Math Jump' motivate students by adding elements of competition and fun, making the learning process more engaging and enjoyable.

💡Competition

Competition is a common element in games that can stimulate learning. The video script mentions how dividing a class into groups and having them compete in answering questions, as in 'Kahoot', can make learning more exciting and encourage participation.

💡Gamification

Gamification refers to the application of game design elements in non-game contexts to make activities more engaging. The video distinguishes between gamification and game-based learning, using 'Kahoot' as an example of gamification where points, leaderboards, and badges are used to make answering questions more fun.

💡Skills

Skills are abilities or competencies that can be developed through practice. The video discusses how games can teach both specific skills, like strategic thinking in 'Go' and 'Chess', and broader skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

💡Concepts

Concepts are abstract ideas or generalizations that can be understood and applied. The video script highlights that games can be designed to teach specific concepts, such as linear equations in 'Was It Trouble', and programming in 'Coding Ocean'.

💡Strategy Games

Strategy games are a type of game that involves strategic thinking and planning. The video uses 'Go' and 'Chess' as examples of strategy games that can teach strategic thinking, which can be applied outside the game in various contexts like military or business strategy.

💡Preparation for Future Learning

Preparation for future learning is a concept where games are used to set the stage for deeper understanding of a subject. The video mentions 'Stats Invaders' as an example, where playing the game prepares students for a lecture on basic statistics, enhancing their comprehension.

💡Connections

Connections refer to the explicit linking of game experiences with learning objectives. The video emphasizes the importance of making these connections clear to students, as in the case of 'Was It Trouble', where understanding that the game involves solving linear equations is crucial for effective learning.

💡Dragon Box

Dragon Box is a suite of educational games designed to teach math skills. The video script uses 'Dragon Box Numbers' as an example of a game where the mechanics are closely tied to the learning goals, helping students develop early numeracy skills through engaging visual representations of numbers.

💡Explicit Connections

Explicit connections are the deliberate and clear links made between the game and the learning objectives. The video stresses that making these connections is critical for the effectiveness of game-based learning, as it helps students understand the relevance of the game to their education.

Highlights

Games can enhance learning through three distinct ways and a key principle that applies to all types of games.

The first way games aid learning is by making educational activities more fun, as demonstrated by classroom apps like Kahoot.

Games can motivate students by incorporating points, leaderboards, and badges to traditional tasks, increasing engagement.

The app 'Math Jump' gamifies arithmetic problem-solving by adding a character that 'dies' if problems are answered incorrectly, making learning more engaging.

The game 'Was It Trouble' teaches linear equations in a fun way by casting the task in a different context, making the learning process enjoyable.

Games can directly teach concepts or skills, as opposed to just making activities fun, with examples including strategy games like Go and Chess.

Every game teaches something, whether it's relevant outside the game or not, and the learning can be both conceptual and skill-based.

Games like 'Coding Ocean' are designed with learning goals in mind, making the game mechanics and learning intimately connected.

The game 'Dragon Box Numbers' uses visualizations and interactive elements to develop early numeracy skills in children.

Games can also be used as preparation for future learning experiences, priming the brain for deeper understanding of later information.

The game 'Stats Invaders' is designed to prepare students for learning about basic statistics through an engaging gameplay experience.

Commercial video games like 'Call of Duty' and 'Civilization' can be used to enhance students' understanding of related lectures on history.

Games can be categorized into gamification, which adds game-like elements to activities, and game-based learning, where the mechanics are connected to learning goals.

Making explicit connections between the game and the learning context is critical for the game to be effective in facilitating learning.

Games can leverage all three approaches of making activities fun, directly teaching concepts, and preparing for future learning.

The effectiveness of games in learning is enhanced when the connection between the game experience and real-world problem-solving is made explicit.

Highlighting the importance of bridging game experiences with external contexts to maximize the game's power in facilitating learning.

Transcripts

there's basically

three ways that games can help you learn

and there's one principle that comes up

over and over and over again for

improving

how well games teach something so we're

going to talk about those three ways and

at the end of the video i'm going to get

into this key principle that i think

applies pretty much across the

board

to games of all kinds

the first way is that games make things

more

fun

right so the first way is just to

motivate people to do something that is

going to teach them something and you

see this in the wildly popular classroom

app

called kahoot now if you're not familiar

with basically it's a

way of answering questions

and you get points for answering

questions in a classroom you might

divide the class into two groups and one

group is answering the same questions as

another group and then whichever group

answers more questions correctly they

win the game now in this kind of setup

the basic task remains the same right

students are just answering questions

that a teacher might ask anyhow just as

like a random question that you might

ask a student during a class discussion

but in this setting the students are

getting points for

answering that question correctly and so

it's the points and the kind of

competition aspect that make the

learning process more fun so people are

going to spend more time with it they're

going to be happier playing kahoot

rather than just answering questions all

by themselves it's a good app i don't

know what else to say about it but

adding points and leaderboards and

badges

this isn't the only way to make

something more fun let's look at another

app real quick this is an app that i

downloaded a little while ago it's

called math jump it's not a very

sophisticated app basically the idea is

that you solve arithmetic problems

quickly and correctly

or your character

dies

so you have a little character it's

running along these different paths and

then as long as you keep solving

problems it'll jump at the right time if

you're just solving equations on a piece

of paper people find that boring but if

you're watching this little character

you know jump and where you you have

some responsibility to this character to

keep it alive

you're you're kind of adding this

gamifying element to make it more fun

but there's another example and maybe a

better example of this approach is a

game called was it trouble it's also a

math learning game and basically the

idea is that you are trying to free

these little cute animals called wazits

from their

prison i guess they've been imprisoned

somehow and

to do this you have to solve these

little puzzles that involve different

kinds of gears you've got some game

elements here that are similar to points

which

are the gems and i think the stars that

you get from solving problems correctly

but then you're also freeing these

little characters so there's a little

bit of a storyline

but they've added another element to

make it fun as well which is the

cast of the problem they've recast the

task into something different was it

trouble focuses on teaching linear

equations and solving linear equations

and actually that is what students do

they solve linear equations in the app

but they might not even realize they're

solving linear equations because it's

presented in a very different way

than

they would be presented in a classroom

context more on was it trouble

a little bit later so first way first

way the games help they can make things

more fun

interesting but not earth-shattering now

the second way is that games can

directly teach

concepts or skills there's a few

different ways of doing this so i want

to walk through some examples so that

you can see how different games

accomplish this but before we get to

that it's important to recognize that

every game teaches you something and

that includes both concepts

and skills for instance when we play

mario we get better at things like

jumping at the right time and avoiding

enemies at collecting coins right these

are all skills that mario players will

get better at over time and we also gain

knowledge from playing mario

what do these different kinds of

mushrooms do or mean how does a red

shell turtle differ from a green

shell turtle the bigger question isn't

whether we're learning something but

it's what

we are learning if you spend 100 hours

playing mario you're going to get pretty

darn good at playing mario and jumping

at the right time and collecting all the

coins and finding the secret levels and

all these things

but

all those skills and that knowledge that

you gain from playing mario is not

necessarily going to be relevant outside

of the mario

game so

if the skills that you learn are not

relevant outside of the game then

usually that's not the kind of learning

that we're interested in when we're

talking about game-based learning we're

usually talking about a game that is

helping us learn a skill that is outside

of the game itself let's look at some

examples strategy games like go and

chess have been used for a long time to

think about

strategic thinking outside of those

games so for instance there is a proverb

in go that says

attack from strength so if you attack

with a weak group that's a bad thing

because you're liable to get

counter-attacked very easily or the idea

that you need to take more risks when

you are behind

you might learn that in a game but then

apply that to a military setting or

maybe a business setting or something

like this with strategy games and some

other games what we're thinking about is

kind of

using the game as an analogy

for some other

uh domain that we're interested in but

let's look at another example here in

world war ii the us military developed

these uh airplane spotter cards for

civilian volunteers as people played

their normal card games as people played

poker or spades or hearts or whatever

they would be using cards that had axis

planes and ally planes on them so that

you know if i don't know some german

plane came flying over the american

countryside uh they would they would be

able to recognize that plane and report

that plane to the military or the

government in this kind of scenario in

this kind of setting the game mechanics

don't really have anything to do with

the learning you're just going to play

the game that you play

and you know the learning the supposed

learning that's going on here which is

you getting familiar with different

airplanes and air types that's kind of

just tacked on to the side with a

strategy game like chess you invent the

game and then it's up to the players to

figure out how to apply principles of

the game outside of chess with the plane

spotter cards the learning is bolted on

after the fact it's kind of just a

little addendum to help people learn

something while they're playing the game

but there is another whole way of

designing games for learning and that is

to think about the learning goal first

and then design the game

around that learning goal so that the

mechanics of the game the actual

decisions that you

make and the moves that you play as you

play the game those are

also learning events like the game and

the learning are intimately connected

this game for instance it's called

coding ocean

and it is it is a game designed to teach

students

how to program they have a little

map here you have a little ship these

cards are commands

for your ship to go and so basically you

have to solve these little problems

where you lay out cards

uh to direct your ship to go to certain

things or accomplish certain tasks find

treasure avoid whirlpools and this kind

of thing as the levels increase the game

introduces things like conditions and

loops

and

uh recursion in essence the students are

writing programs

as they play the game so this is an

example of a game where the mechanics

and learning goals are kind of

intimately

connected another example is a game like

dragon box the specific game that i'm

talking about here is called dragon box

numbers but they have a whole suite of

different games for uh teaching math to

young kids and the idea here is to get

students familiar with numbers and and

kind of develop early numeracy in kids

to do this they've built visualizations

of the numbers with like sounds and

these little monsters and students have

to do various manipulations and build

shapes with it they get money which they

have to spend and of course the money is

another reference numerical

representation and so students get

better at say paying for the things with

the money they develop and so

the whole idea behind

the dragon box suite of games is that

the learning goal comes first they

decide on what the learning goal is and

then they develop mechanics around that

game i have to take a little bit of an

aside here because a lot of researchers

and developers they use the terms

gamification and game based learning in

uh two different ways so gamification is

kind of like the games i was talking

about in the first part of this video

kahoot for example is an example of

gamification game based learning is more

like these examples that i'm talking

about now where the game mechanics are

intimately connected to the learning

goals and they are developed around

those learning goals so uh coding ocean

that i just mentioned and

dragon box

the other one that i just mentioned

literally 30 seconds ago so if you ever

run into someone that's like that's not

game based learning that's gamification

you know now you you know why they're

saying that but there's another way that

games can help you learn which i haven't

even gotten to yet and that is that

games can prepare

students for future learning what i mean

by that is that the game doesn't really

directly teach you anything but what

happens is that

to to use a metaphor here

the game

kills the field or plows the field of

the brain so that later on when you do

get that lecture or that information or

you read that chapter you understand

more deeply of what's uh what's

happening because you're kind of prepped

you're prepared to understand that

information so let's look at a few

examples of this approach this is space

invaders which is an old game that i

played for many hours

as a kid

and this is a screenshot from stats

invaders now stats invaders is basically

inspired by space invaders but it was

designed as a preparation for future

learning experience so the way it works

is that alien ships drop down from the

top of the screen and you're on the

bottom of the screen you're trying to

like

you you're trying to uh

destroy these alien ships because i i

think the aliens are trying to destroy

you i don't think they're friendly

aliens and in the game you have to

decide what distribution

matches the way that the aliens have

been coming down so if a bunch of aliens

are just coming down like straight down

straight down all the time and only a

few are coming in on the side maybe

that's a normal distribution or if you

have a binomial distribution that's the

one with two humps on the side

maybe you get a lot of aliens coming

down here but not as many on the outside

this game

is not really meant to teach something

on its own but what it's meant to do is

be paired with instruction

on basic statistics so uh mean standard

deviation uh different kinds of

distributions and the research on this

shows that yeah hey this game does help

it does

get students more familiar with the

basic concepts so that when they do read

more about standard deviation or listen

to a lecture on standard deviation they

get a lot more out of that lecture so

there's a researcher who basically did a

whole dissertation on how to use

commercial video games as preparation

for future learning experiences the

games that he used were call of duty and

civilization the basic idea was the same

as stats invaders you have students play

these games initially

for a number of hours and then they hear

a lecture on the material so they play

call of duty which has to do with world

war ii and then they

hear a lecture on certain certain

aspects of world war ii or maybe world

war ii battles the students here they

don't get anything out of playing the

game directly if you give them a test on

the history of world war ii after they

played the

uh call of duty they're not gonna

magically know stuff about world war ii

what happens is that a group of students

who plays call of duty first before

getting that lecture they end up getting

a lot more out of that lecture than a

group of students who has not had that

preparatory experience beforehand i have

an old video about preparation for

future learning i'll put that in a link

at the top of the video and i'll also

put that in a link in the description

before we get to this key principle that

i referenced in the beginning i want to

be clear that uh it's not like a single

game falls into one of these categories

a game can leverage all three of these

approaches for instance was it trouble

it uses gems and it uses kind of

gamified elements to make the play more

fun that's one thing it also is focused

on teaching skills and concepts and it's

it's a kind of classic game based

learning example because they had

learning goals that they started out

with and then they designed the game

around those learning goals and it could

also be used as a preparation for future

learning experience if

you know you put

the game in a classroom context and have

students play the game and then give

students more practice at solving these

linear equations there is one critical

thing

that

makes games effective for learning and

it's something that people tend to

forget about when they start to

incorporate

games into learning experiences and that

is to make explicit connections between

the game and whatever

context or whatever situation that you

want students to learn about if we had

students play was it trouble for five

hours and then we gave them a test on

linear equations they are not going to

necessarily perform that well on the

test they actually might not even know

that they've been solving linear

equations yeah but if you have students

play was it trouble and you talk

explicitly about how the game is

re-representing linear equation problems

then

you've got a recipe for

success this has happened in some of the

research on dragon box for instance

where students they've reached very very

high levels in solving algebra problems

in dragon box but

then when you actually give them say a

standard algebra test they don't do any

better than students who haven't played

the game now the problem is not that

dragon box wasn't teaching them things

it's that the students didn't make the

connection between the game experience

and the problem solving the actual

algebra problem solving the more that

you bridge the game experience with

experiences outside of the game or in

other contexts the more powerful that

game is going to be for facilitating

learning if this has helped you

understand

how games impact learning

i would really appreciate it if you

liked this video so that it could spread

to other people and if you have good

game-based learning examples

leave one in the comments i know that

there are some really amazing learning

games out there and there are also some

truly

astonishingly terrible games out there

as well for more videos like this well

you know what to do

thanks everyone