Connecting Learning and Playing

Connecting Learning and Playing PDF Author: Zhichun Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Over the past decade, there has been increasing attention devoted to the use of digital games in education. However, prior studies on game-based learning have found mixed results in transferring in-game performance to other scenarios. One plausible explanation for these findings is that learners' performance is often assessed at a far transfer level at posttest, which is very different from the learning context. If learners fail to recognize the similarity between the learning context and the transfer context, the learning transfer is not likely to happen. Another possible reason is that learners are not solving game problems systematically. Instead, many learners rely on trial and error to complete various tasks in games. Hence, they do not learn the underlying concepts from the game-based learning experience and are not able to apply the concepts to demonstrate the far transfer. This study used an experimental design to address this problem. A total of 79 students from two schools participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. The control condition received basic game supports while the treatment condition received additional cognitive supports (e.g., modeling and advice) in Penguin Go, an educational game that teaches computational thinking skills by tasking students to control a penguin's movement with code blocks. The supports aimed at facilitating in-game problem-solving and improving learning transfer after gameplay. Participants were assessed at both near and far transfer level. In addition, participants' perceived enjoyment and perceived learning were collected at the end of the study. Results showed that after two hours of gameplay, students' CT skills improved significantly on near transfer with medium effect size, but not on far transfer. Between the two conditions, students performed equally well on near transfer. The control group outperformed the treatment group in terms of far transfer significantly. Further analyses revealed that accessing general game supports voluntarily (id est, digital almanac on game mechanics) significantly predicted the near transfer performance while accessing level-specific supports voluntarily (id est, game tips that facilitate goal setting and provide partial worked example) predicted the far transfer performance. In addition, adding additional cognitive supports did not decrease the enjoyment of the gameplay. At the same time, it did not increase students' sense of perceived learning.

From Play to Practice

From Play to Practice PDF Author: Marcia L. Nell
Publisher: National Association of Education of Young Children
ISBN: 9781928896937
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 123

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Book Description
Describes play workshop experiences that give educators a deeper understanding of play-based learning and illustrate the power of play.

Connecting Learning and Playing

Connecting Learning and Playing PDF Author: Zhichun Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the past decade, there has been increasing attention devoted to the use of digital games in education. However, prior studies on game-based learning have found mixed results in transferring in-game performance to other scenarios. One plausible explanation for these findings is that learners' performance is often assessed at a far transfer level at posttest, which is very different from the learning context. If learners fail to recognize the similarity between the learning context and the transfer context, the learning transfer is not likely to happen. Another possible reason is that learners are not solving game problems systematically. Instead, many learners rely on trial and error to complete various tasks in games. Hence, they do not learn the underlying concepts from the game-based learning experience and are not able to apply the concepts to demonstrate the far transfer. This study used an experimental design to address this problem. A total of 79 students from two schools participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. The control condition received basic game supports while the treatment condition received additional cognitive supports (e.g., modeling and advice) in Penguin Go, an educational game that teaches computational thinking skills by tasking students to control a penguin's movement with code blocks. The supports aimed at facilitating in-game problem-solving and improving learning transfer after gameplay. Participants were assessed at both near and far transfer level. In addition, participants' perceived enjoyment and perceived learning were collected at the end of the study. Results showed that after two hours of gameplay, students' CT skills improved significantly on near transfer with medium effect size, but not on far transfer. Between the two conditions, students performed equally well on near transfer. The control group outperformed the treatment group in terms of far transfer significantly. Further analyses revealed that accessing general game supports voluntarily (id est, digital almanac on game mechanics) significantly predicted the near transfer performance while accessing level-specific supports voluntarily (id est, game tips that facilitate goal setting and provide partial worked example) predicted the far transfer performance. In addition, adding additional cognitive supports did not decrease the enjoyment of the gameplay. At the same time, it did not increase students' sense of perceived learning.

Families at Play

Families at Play PDF Author: Sinem Siyahhan
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262552639
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
How family video game play promotes intergenerational communication, connection, and learning. Video games have a bad reputation in the mainstream media. They are blamed for encouraging social isolation, promoting violence, and creating tensions between parents and children. In this book, Sinem Siyahhan and Elisabeth Gee offer another view. They show that video games can be a tool for connection, not isolation, creating opportunities for families to communicate and learn together. Like smartphones, Skype, and social media, games help families stay connected. Siyahhan and Gee offer examples: One family treats video game playing as a regular and valued activity, and bonds over Halo. A father tries to pass on his enthusiasm for Star Wars by playing Lego Star Wars with his young son. Families express their feelings and share their experiences and understanding of the world through playing video games like The Sims, Civilization, and Minecraft. Some video games are designed specifically to support family conversations around such real-world issues and sensitive topics as bullying and peer pressure. Siyahhan and Gee draw on a decade of research to look at how learning and teaching take place when families play video games together. With video games, they argue, the parents are not necessarily the teachers and experts; all family members can be both teachers and learners. They suggest video games can help families form, develop, and sustain their learning culture as well as develop skills that are valued in the twenty-first century workplace. Educators and game designers should take note.

Connected Play

Connected Play PDF Author: Yasmin B. Kafai
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262019930
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
How kids play in virtual worlds, how it matters for their offline lives, and what this means for designing educational opportunities.

Resonant Games

Resonant Games PDF Author: Eric Klopfer
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262037807
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Principles for designing educational games that integrate content and play and create learning experiences connecting to many areas of learners' lives. Too often educational videogames are narrowly focused on specific learning outcomes dictated by school curricula and fail to engage young learners. This book suggests another approach, offering a guide to designing games that integrates content and play and creates learning experiences that connect to many areas of learners' lives. These games are not gamified workbooks but are embedded in a long-form experience of exploration, discovery, and collaboration that takes into consideration the learning environment. Resonant Games describes twenty essential principles for designing games that offer this kind of deeper learning experience, presenting them in connection with five games or collections of games developed at MIT's educational game research lab, the Education Arcade. Each of the games—which range from Vanished, an alternate reality game for middle schoolers promoting STEM careers, to Ubiquitous Bio, a series of casual mobile games for high school biology students—has a different story, but all spring from these fundamental assumptions: honor the whole learner, as a full human being, not an empty vessel awaiting a fill-up; honor the sociality of learning and play; honor a deep connection between the content and the game; and honor the learning context—most often the public school classroom, but also beyond the classroom.

Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds

Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds PDF Author: Llyween Couper
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351130900
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
Play is critical to children’s well-being and development. All students should have access to and adequate time for positive play experiences every day. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds invites parents, teachers, principals and education administrators to take another look at their school playgrounds as spaces crucial to learning, well-being and development. This book combines research findings, commentary and the authors’ personal experiences and observations together with the views of teachers, principals, parents and students related to play and play spaces. Key content includes consideration of the role of adults in the school playground, the influence of technology on play, the challenges experienced by children transitioning to new school environments and consideration of strategies to support students’ access and participation in the playground. Cases are presented to illustrate the use of an audit tool to enhance school playgrounds. The future of school playgrounds is also considered through the reported hopes and dreams of adults and students and a range of recommendations are made for the review and development of schools’ outdoor play spaces. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds is written with a sense of urgency, calling for the recognition of positive play experiences as invaluable to children’s education. It includes important and challenging insights to inform and guide decision-making and will be an essential resource for all stakeholders who share responsibility for children’s participation and learning during school break-times.

Families at Play

Families at Play PDF Author: Sinem Siyahhan
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262344580
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
How family video game play promotes intergenerational communication, connection, and learning. Video games have a bad reputation in the mainstream media. They are blamed for encouraging social isolation, promoting violence, and creating tensions between parents and children. In this book, Sinem Siyahhan and Elisabeth Gee offer another view. They show that video games can be a tool for connection, not isolation, creating opportunities for families to communicate and learn together. Like smartphones, Skype, and social media, games help families stay connected. Siyahhan and Gee offer examples: One family treats video game playing as a regular and valued activity, and bonds over Halo. A father tries to pass on his enthusiasm for Star Wars by playing Lego Star Wars with his young son. Families express their feelings and share their experiences and understanding of the world through playing video games like The Sims, Civilization, and Minecraft. Some video games are designed specifically to support family conversations around such real-world issues and sensitive topics as bullying and peer pressure. Siyahhan and Gee draw on a decade of research to look at how learning and teaching take place when families play video games together. With video games, they argue, the parents are not necessarily the teachers and experts; all family members can be both teachers and learners. They suggest video games can help families form, develop, and sustain their learning culture as well as develop skills that are valued in the twenty-first century workplace. Educators and game designers should take note.

Connected Learning: Origins, Opportunities, and Perspectives of Contemporary Educational Design

Connected Learning: Origins, Opportunities, and Perspectives of Contemporary Educational Design PDF Author: Henning Schoenenberger
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303137813X
Category : Study Aids
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
This book offers a unique, machine-generated overview of the current state of research in Connected Learning, Networked Learning, Digital Badges, Micro-Credentials, and Lifelong Learning. The concept of Connected Learning picks up learners where they are, and that is no longer just the classroom or seminar room. Connected Learning seeks to understand the context of learning and the motivation of learners in order to design a more contemporary and effective learning experience. Central to this is the understanding that Connected Learning is collaborative and takes place in peer-to-peer networks, that it is based on participation, problem orientation and application, and that the more personalised the learning, the more interested learners are. This volume condenses and synthesizes research from a large variety of English-language articles into a concise yet comprehensive overview. Readers will benefit from the selection and synthesis of articles that allow them to get a quick understanding of the research area, while also being able to click through to the original sources to dive deeper into any particular topic. This volume is a key source of information and insight for those interested in the current research, as well as serving as an inspiring starting point for their own research.

Building and Connecting Learning Communities

Building and Connecting Learning Communities PDF Author: Steven Katz
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1452272727
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
"Taking your school from great to greater—this compelling book gives you tools to use with staff for reflecting on and refining professional practices. You and your team will find tools for taking learners to the next level of improvement!" —Lynn A. Kaszynski, Principal Harrison Street Elementary School, Sunbury, OH Networked learning communities: A powerful school improvement strategy for school leaders! Ideal for school leaders and superintendents leading change efforts, this book describes how separate professional learning communities can be linked across schools by common instructional and learning issues to create dynamic networked learning communities (NLCs). Drawing on their work with schools throughout North America and England, Steven Katz, Lorna M. Earl, and Sonia Ben Jaafar show how participants in NLCs can share professional knowledge that ultimately improves performance at the school and district level. Through a sample school narrative, the book illustrates how NLCs can significantly enhance instruction, increase student performance, and empower local professional learning communities. This resource examines: Collaborative inquiry as a process that challenges teachers′ thinking, generates new learning, and fosters trusting relationships The development of formal and informal leadership roles in NLCs How NLCs support systematic data analysis and accountability Demonstrating how NLCs—small or large, local or statewide—can promote critical reforms while strengthening the work of individual professional learning communities, this invaluable resource reveals how educators can join forces across school and district boundaries to generate deep, meaningful, and sustainable change.

Connecting Learning Across the Institution

Connecting Learning Across the Institution PDF Author: Pamela L. Eddy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118883470
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
Most research on learning tends to occur in silos based on stakeholder perspective. This volume seeks to break down these silos and draw together scholars who research learning from different perspectives to highlight commonalities in learning for students, faculty, and institutions. When we understand how learning is experienced across the institution, we can develop strategies that help support, enhance, and reinforce learning for all. Exploring what it means to bridge learning across the institution, this volume provides a roadmap to improve learning for all. Both scholarly and practical, it advances the knowledge about the ways we investigate and study learning across and for various groups of learners. It also: Collects thinking about learning in its various formats in one location Provides a platform for synthesis Outlines key questions for thinking more deeply about learning on campus. Instead of thinking of learning as discrete depending on the stakeholder group, this volume highlights the commonalities across all types of learners.