Playing Games At School – Understanding the World of Games for Learning

This article originally appeared in “Net Assets,” a journal of the National Business Officers Association, a solution-oriented community focused on the financial and administrative success of K-12 independent schools. NBOA develops, delivers, and promotes best business practices to advance independent schools.View Website >

When new pedagogical models come around, we are often wary of them. This sentiment can be valid! Often, the implementation of practice is costly, from training new teachers on the model of learning, to purchasing critical materials that are needed to ensure effective implementation. Then, of course, there is the ongoing support and continued purchasing of materials.

So when Game-Based Learning (GBL) and Gamification are touted as new and innovative ways to teach, it is not a surprise when they are not instantly embraced—indeed, they have not yet taken hold. This is made even more complicated by the fact that there are many models within the umbrella of Games for Learning.

In the Games for Learning topic, there are sub-topics that are all viable in the classroom. One, Game-Based Learning (GBL) is defined as a branch of serious games that deals with applications that have defined learning outcomes. Generally, they are designed in order to balance the subject matter with the gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world. Serious games, by relation, are games designed for a purpose other than pure entertainment. So what does this look like in the classroom? This is where things get a bit complicated, because it is all about contextualization.

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