Game-based learning may be one of the bigger buzzwords of the year along with the likes of project-based learning and MOOCs. We’re starting to get a picture of how teachers, students, and others feel about PBL and MOOCs thanks to some pretty extensive press coverage.
But what about game-based learning? We covered it in one of the first issues of Edudemic Magazine and it’s been going strong ever since. So how do you know what teachers really think about the popular trend of deploying gamification and games to enhance retention and learning? We Are Teachers conducted a survey of their fellow teachers and came up with some interesting results.
See Also: How 10 Colleges Are Using Game-Based Learning Right Now
They put together this handy visualization and came up with some key facts. For example, roughly 2 out of 3 teachers surveyed use traditional and digital games in their classroom. However, about 22% say they simply don’t have time to deploy game-based learning. About half (56%) say they simply don’t have access to the computers needed for digital games.
Would you try out game-based learning in the upcoming year?
As mentioned elsewhere by me, the punchline to this graphic is wrong. We teachers don’t need more technology, we need more time!
Games don’t have to involve computers or gadgets! Consider Treasure Trails’ 1000+ local interest treasure hunt games. Although we’ve adapted some of our Trails as smartphone apps they work just fine as pen-and-paper exercises and allow teachers to tackle numeracy, literacy, local history, geography, business, design, project management and teamwork and a host of other soft skills. Oh – and they get students outside and appreciating their community too. Great basis for a cross-curricular exercise and can be geared around most age groups from year 2/3 upwards.