I started the class mentioning that I was no gamer, this carried on to a reflection of remembering the initial game I played back in the ’80. Continuing this class was a great experience knowing that the modern education system user’s technology to impart education and game-based learning successfully improve both learning and teaching. Students have different personalities, capabilities and learning preferences. With technology advancement, living within a digital environment educators need to find ways to grab student’s attention and engagement through a variety of activities, surprises, rewards, and humor. Finding a new way to grab this attention of learners and engage them in the learning process will be a great reward as an educator as well as to our society.
The three main classified learning theories are Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism. Behaviorism assumes that if the learners are given the correct motivation to learn then the learner will respond correctly as stimuli provoke reactions and responses (Ertmer, 2013). Cognitive learning outlines the change in the mental processes and influences the way things are learned. On constructivism, learners generate knowledge in the form of meaning, based upon their experience and biases
One continuously evaluates how activity is helping them grow, how it turns and how it functions and being aware of the existing knowledge and new knowledge and becoming “expert learners” that challenges them to keep learning which forms cognitive and constructive learning that best fits the current digital era, the process of teaching, learning and changing minds (Schrader, 2015). The knowledge and skills acquired through game-based learning are retained longer than information from other learning methods. A good design of an educational game could combine the learning objectives and game-based learning would play an important role in teaching students to collaborate, interact, communicate and work in teams and improve the function of the brain. Games also create dynamic that inspire learners to develop skills and build an emotional connection to learning
Immersive experiences help us to understand where we belong, what we gain and what we need to give back to the next generation to create a lasting change. Having been in the technology field for more than 30 years training users, analyzing, designing, developing and automating manual work so that users work would be easier within the commercial sector and in the UN. I am so happy that being a lifelong learner has made me learn the new immersive environment and to gain the tools to bring the prior environments that I have worked in to make advances to where I am now. This has open out many ideas of having research interest of bringing virtual reality and curriculum development to the most vulnerable people in the world the refugees and the incorporation of games for student learning and teacher training in immersive environment as professional development plus a way to help the busy educators to make way to have technology in their classrooms, once I complete with my masters.
Immersive learning is still emerging, with the ability to bring in-gamification into learning it will be leading to a fruitful learning environment. Having most of the students hooked on to gaming, the traditional reading atmosphere has been neglected, Due to the advancement of technology and excessive play the world of education has put down on these games as a destructive warning to quality education. Without drifting both education and gamification apart, the system of education is becoming more gamified pulling them together bringing components of gaming-scores, rewards into the classroom which has brought another way of thinking. Immersive learning and gamification utilizing technologies like VR can be fun and when the students are engaged and interested this will lead to better retention, prompt feedback, independence build up and achievement as they move on in a transformative way.
I joined the class with an idea that if I am not going to play games and thinking of what the future holds me with this class, after recognizing the reason, how learning happens through games and the advantage of student’s information retention. I made a 90-degree shit to learn the most out of the class. On a personal note, I have always objected my son playing games although he excels in his studies and always wondered what could be the reason. Studying games brought me to my senses behind the reason for excellence. The game design through scratch was challenging and through other peer presentation I realized how much game development can be improved for the better advantage of students, Having the idea of being an instructional design technologist in the future this class opened up many ideas for my future endeavors and how I could incorporate the future with games, simulation, and virtual world.
Reference
(n.a), (n.d) The Importance of Game Based Learning in Modern Education, https://theknowledgereview.com/importance-game-based-learning-modern-education/
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism: comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. performance improvement quarterly, 26(2), 43-71. doi:10.1002/piq.21143 https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:4060/doi/abs/10.1002/piq.21143
Lynch, M. (2018) WILL GAMIFICATION BE THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION?, https://www.thetechedvocate.org/will-gamification-be-the-future-of-education/
Schrader, D. E. (2015). Constructivism and learning in the age of social media: changing minds and learning communities. new directions for teaching & learning, 2015(144), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20160
Blogs 