Discover how digital gaming can improve learning and prepare students for successful futures. The authors-both experienced educators and enthusiastic gamers-contend that students of the 21st century communicate and learn differently than previous generations. By incorporating digital games into lessons, student learning will more accurately reflect the interactive, engaging reality students experience outside the classroom and better prepare them for college and careers.
Benefits
- Explore learning theory and research that supports why students of the digital generation require different learning and teaching methods than previous generations.
- Discover the benefits of classroom gamification for educational and professional development purposes, which include making students active participants in their learning.
- Gain consistent, clear definitions for terms related to gaming in education, and learn how to incorporate digital games into lesson design.
- Access lists of suggested digital games, and learn for what purposes the games are most useful.
- Consider how digital games can address students' diverse learning needs and can be used for assessment.
Contents
Foreword by Ian Jukes
Introduction: The Gamer in Us All
Chapter 1: From Entertainment to Education 3.0
Chapter 2: The Arcade of Education
Chapter 3: Learning Theory and the Attributes of the Digital Generation
Chapter 4: How to Find and Evaluate Digital Games for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Chapter 5: Lesson Design Using Digital Games
Chapter 6: Digital Gaming and Assessment
Chapter 7: The Nine I's of Modern Learning
Chapter 8: Beyond Linear Presentations
Chapter 9: Takeaways
References and Resources
Ryan Schaaf is an assistant professor of educational technology at Notre Dame of Maryland University and a faculty associate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education Graduate Program. He has more than eighteen years of experience in the field of education. Before higher education, Ryan was a public-school teacher, instructional leader, curriculum designer, and technology-integration specialist in Maryland. In 2007 he was nominated as Maryland Teacher of the Year.
Ryan has published several research articles related to the use of digital games as an effective instructional strategy in the classroom in
New Horizons for Learning and the
Canadian Journal of Action Research. His first book,
Making School a Game Worth Playing: Digital Games in the Classroom, which he coauthored with Nicky Mohan, was published in 2014. He also authored
Using Digital Games as Instruction and Assessment Tools, a title included in the Solutions for Digital Learner-Centered Classrooms series published by Solution Tree Press. His third book,
Reinventing Learning for the Always-On Generation: Strategies and Apps that Work, was coauthored with Ian Jukes and Nicky Mohan.
Ryan enjoys presenting sessions and workshops about the potential for gaming in the classroom, the characteristics of 21st century learning, and emerging technologies and trends in education.
To learn more about Ryan s work, contact him on Twitter @RyanLSchaaf.
Nicky Mohan is the cofounder and managing partner of InfoSavvy21, an international educational consulting firm. She has been a classroom teacher, school and university administrator, instructional designer, business-sector manager and trainer, and international speaker. At the University of Waikato, New Zealand, she designed and delivered courses and workshops based on research of best practices in teaching and learning.
During the last ten years, she has made hundreds of presentations in more than a dozen countries. Sharing her time between Canada and New Zealand, Nicky worked as the director of curriculum for the 21st Century Fluency Group, leading a team of international writers, and the creative force behind the designing of lesson plans. At InfoSavvy21, her focus is on developing real-world, just-in-time teaching and learning experiences that are relevant to both teachers and students. Nicky is the coauthor of Making School a Game Worth Playing: Digital Games in the Classroom and Reinventing Learning for the Always-On Generation: Strategies and Apps that Work.
To learn more about Nicky and her work, follow her on Twitter @nickymohan.
To book Ryan or Nicky for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.
