Skip to main content

Game Approach for Improving Student Learning Performance - Best School Kumbakonam

Matriculation School in Kumbakonam

Game Approach for Improving Student Learning Performance
Previous research has highlighted the potential benefits of mobile devices and digital games for educational purposes. However, few studies have evaluated the use of mobile games in class, especially regarding science education in the Hong Kong context. This paper presents some details of a preliminary implementation of learning activities employing a popular Mobile Virtual Environment Game, Minecraft, in a Hong Kong international secondary school Integrated Science class. Indications are that the introduction of the mobile virtual environment game may indeed contribute to learning improvements and some other enhanced “soft” outcomes. Possible implications of the findings and future research are considered.

A. Game-based Learning (GBL) 
Game-based Learning (GBL) was popularised by Marc Prensky, who suggests that digital games, have six key characteristics which make them suitable as a platform for GBL: rules; goals and objectives; outcomes and feedback; conflict/competition/challenge/opposition; interaction; and the representation of a story [2]. Digital games could play an important role in education [2] and GBL may be a “perfect future method” to transform the educational environment [3, p.E126]. A number of arguments have been made supporting the use of games in teaching, including: the use of “action instead of explanation”; creation of “personal motivation and satisfaction”; accommodation of “multiple learning styles and skills”; reinforcement of “mastery skills”; and the provision of “interactive and decision making context” [1, p.1729].  

B. M-learning and GBL in the “Post-PC” era 
The Hong Kong government guidelines on education recognise m-learning – the pedagogical application of mobile technologies to enable learning – as an important trend [4]. Due to the proliferation and growing popularity of new mobile devices, “Post-PC” devices [5] such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab are drawing ever greater attention to the potential of m-learning with such devices. With the increasing availability of Post-PC platform games, including those with an educational theme, a new phase in the evolution of GBL, Mobile Game- based Learning (mGBL), is anticipated.

C. Minecraft 
Minecraft is a popular game that simulates a highly immersive virtual space in which players are able to build creative structures using provided textured cubes [6]. The game  features a survival mode in which players are challenged with tasks that they have to complete in order to advance in the virtual space exploration, and compete with other players [7]. From an educational perspective, as Kebritchi and Hirumi [1] argue, experience may take place equally in a real, or in an artificial, virtual environment. The simulated universe of Minecraft could allow experiential learning [8], where emphasis is on knowledge construction rather than transmission, to more easily take place through experiencing and interacting with the environment [1]. Recognising the educational potential of Minecraft, some teachers have started to incorporate it in their classes [9] [10]. 

The successful use of Minecraft for science classes in this pilot study seems indicative of current trends in educator adoption of mGBL: with appropriate pedagogical design, mobile virtual environment games may have the potential to help students to learn more effectively. It should be noted that there was only a small number of participants in this study, and the investigation was of a short duration. Future work will include extending the size and duration of the study. The potential application of mGBL in other disciplines is also an area worthy of further attention. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Enjoy a high-quality, future-ready education - Best School Kumbakonam

Enjoy a high-quality, future-ready education - Best School Kumbakonam Top 10 cbse schools list in Kumbakonam The international community has been much more able to recognize the need for pedagogical change than to address what the pedagogical approaches actually are. This report lays the foundations of what the pedagogical choices are (see the six clusters of innovative pedagogies figure and their key enablers). We focus on teacher learning and the need to develop the foundations for quality teaching, as well as on widening the profile of educators as integral to pedagogical and system transformation. The complexity of the 21st century and the demanding nature of professionalism call for hybrid learning environments and for the scaffolding of coherent educational models and complementary support materials. Transformation demands scaling as deep change in cultures of collaboration. The report argues the pivotal role of the “missing middle,” or “meso,” level—of networks, cha...
Post a Comment
Read more

PRIMARY SCHOOLS USING MUCH MORE OF THEIR BUDGETS - Best School Kumbakonam

PRIMARY SCHOOLS USING MUCH MORE OF THEIR BUDGETs - Best SChool Kumbakonam Best matriculation girls schools in Kumbakonam Primary schools are using their budgets much more. Last year the school boards had 5.9 million euros of their budgets left over at the end of the year. In 2017 it was just over 106 million euros, Trouw reports based on figures from education executive agency DUO. Schools' tendency to not use their complete budget led to criticism last year. Ministers Ingrid van Engelshoven of Education, Culture and Science and Arie Slob for Primary- and Secondary Education called the left-over amount remarkable, given the fact that the education sector was demanding extra money to lower teachers' workloads. "Saving must not become a goal in itself", the Ministers wrote in a letter to parliament. "After all, it involves money intended for education." The Education Inspectorate wrote a report stating that school boards are far too conser...
Post a Comment
Read more

Behala primary school upgrade to meet demands for English - Best School Kumbakonam

Behala primary school upgrade to meet demands for English - Best School Kumbakonam Best matriculation girls schools in Kumbakonam A  61-year old primary school run by a Christian missionary voluntary organisation will be upgraded to a full-fledged ICSE school to meet the demands for English medium education among residents of Behela. The voluntary organisation comes under the Calcutta Diocese of the Church of North India (CNI). St Joseph’s Primary School, which shares its campus with Oxford Mission on Diamond Harbour Road was converted from a Bengali to a English medium institution four years ago. Since its inception in 1958, the medium of instruction was Bengali and the school catered to the 160-odd boys of an orphanage run by the mission on its 60-acre campus. The school now has close to 250 students, a CNI official said. The school’s board of governors recently decided to upgrade to Class XII because of the demand among people of the area. “We...
Post a Comment
Read more