2019 #VWEDU: #DTA: GAME: Any learning task in school is a game if you want it to be. Turn study into a game

Any learning task in school is a game 
if you want it to be.
Turn study into a game.

What people do in education is much like what people do in games.  Educators can use the principles of games to enhance the effectiveness of education.

Learning in a game?

Start with a puzzle

• People voluntarily work to solve puzzle games like this. 
• They learn answers to things that are of no lasting importance.
• Just because they like the game.
• Education has a more efficient system.
• Give them all the answers at the start.
• Don't let them waste time figuring things out for themselves.
• After all, education already has all the answers.
• Except how to make education as attractive as games.
• Puzzle: Finding the answers teaches something more than being given the answers
• What do students not learn when you give them all the answers?

Here is an opportunity for inquiry-based learning

• What would it take to make a course as interesting as a game?
• The Game of School

• update 2/13/2020 Kitely updates to OpenSim 9.1.1. OpenSim Fest 2020. August 28th-30th, 2020 IMA SceneGate Viewer 1.0.0 for Linux and Windows Tangle Grid SciFi Expo Feb 5-Mar.5

******************************************

Any learning task is a game if you want it to be.

• Many games have a series of subtasks that you have to learn to do.
• That is like school but in school you may not have to be able to do those things. 
• You may only need to be able to answer questions about them.  
• The focus of your evaluation is on how many questions you got wrong.  
• But in a game, the focus is on how many subtasks you have gotten right--so far

Goal:  Convince the instructors that you "know the material"

• Determine how the instructor tells whether you know the material.
• Don't just "study" the material.  Mark what you need to remember.
• Make a note of what you need to be able to do to satisfy the instructor.
• Determine the most efficient method to get able to do that.
• Implement that method.
• If you get the grade you need, you win.
• Most successful students have figured this out.

How to play the game

• Study strategies (search)
• Becoming skilled in these strategies is "Learning how to learn."
• These articles generally offer useful advice on how to study.
• Colleges offer an article and tell students to study it. 
• The students who need the advice are those who don't know how to study.
• That is good for a laugh.  But how can we help those students?
• Do people learn to play a game by studying the instructions?
• Never.  They learn by practice as with any skill.  
• But not just any kind of practice.  That is where a Digicoach comes in.

What does a coach do?

• Supervises practice and demands practice of the right skills.
• Digicoach does not advise "think of what you already know that relates to the new material." 
• Digicoach says "list 3 things you already know that relate to the new material."
• Then Digicoach presents three blank panels for entries.
• The backstory here is that the student needs help and has been assigned to Digigoach for help.  
• Digicoach probably can't evaluate the entries, but it can show them to an instructor for evaluation.
• So the student has a motive to give serious thought to the answers.  
• And the student will soon get an evaluation from the instructor.
• The way to develop a skill is evaluated practice.

Related

• Game-based learning (search)
• Educational games (Wikipedia)
• Scholarly articles for game-based learning

Educational games

• Educational games in virtual worlds
• Educational games in virtual worlds. Educator's business model: "Educator's paradise"
• Why a reading assignment is like a treasure hunt. And why it is not
• Teach a concept with a game. A use case for web-worlds.
• GAME: VWBPE immersive events, The Queen’s Heroes in the Five Kingdoms 
• Literacy game in virtual worlds. The Mythical World of Hīnātore
• Guinivere project: A Language learning game in a 3D immersive environment
• Winter safety game, serious games
• Mystery Manor (1), a game of games. Solo solving, group roleplay, scene stories
• Edugaming and the BSG project. Educators, Game designers, Content creators for 3D
• Rapid development kit for games. Available on the Hypergrid.
• The University of Idaho and the game of education
• GAME: iCivics: Do I have a right?
• Gamification 'Second Libations' Art as a game
• Beginer's building on the Hypergrid. Primland, the building tutorial game, Part 2
• Information/social games for public service web-worlds

The power of the quest

• The power of the quest for learning. Turn learning into a quest
• Problems and the seven gates to solving them. Like a game. Coincidence? Or something else?
• Problems are interesting puzzles. If you are ready. Otherwise they are stoppers
• Challenge: Hero's Journey. Game. Learning. Schools. Can you connect these?
• If they made games like the educational system, would anybody play?

Games, virtual worlds, and the DTA

• DTA Language learning in virtual worlds. What the Digital Teaching Assistant could do
• Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) can run the search game: solo, teacher's game, or team game
• A virtual world is not just 3D. It can have people to talk with and things to interact with
• Social games for social VR: A virtual match game
• Games in virtual worlds. Summary
• Quests and quizzes support in 3DWebWorldz--the three e's: exercise, engagement, evaluation

*********************************

Visit me on the web

• Drop by my web offices Weekdays: 12:-12:30 pm Central time (US)
• I am available for free consulting on any topic in this blog.
• Cybalounge and 3DWebWorldz (Orientation room)
• I will be in both places, so you may need to speak to get my attention.
• Web-worlds, 3D virtual worlds running in a browser. Summary
• And we can visit the Writer's Workshop on the Web
• Don't register -- enter as guest.  

************************

License

• Original text in this blog is CC By: unless specified public domain.
• Use as you please with attribution: link to the original.
• All images without attribution in this blog are CC0: public domain.
• Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
• Annotated screenshots made with Jing
• This blog is not affiliated with anything.   Ads are from Google.
• Selby Evans in Kitely and hypergrid, Thinkerer Melville in Second Life.