Research Report

Guide: Developers Could Focus on Helping Teachers Incorporate Games

The Mindshift Guide to Games + Learning is available for free from KQED.

The Mindshift Guide to Games + Learning is available for free from KQED.

One of the themes that emerges from the recently published guide to using games in the classroom is that for it to work games need to be welcomed and championed by the teacher. In surveys of teachers it is clear that they are the ones who will either make effective use of a tool or relegate it to the sidelines of teaching.

The guide notes, “In order to facilitate this, teachers need to be comfortable, too. You should be comfortable not only playing the game, but also integrating it into your curriculum. Make sure that you remain in the curricular driver’s seat. Don’t allow the game to dictate the curriculum, nor the assessment strategy.”

These are words of caution for any developer. Simply building a fancy or fun game that appeals to students will not ensure success in the school marketplace. The guide urges teachers to explain why they chose a certain game and what they want students to get out of it.

Developers can help by offering clear and concise explanations of the role of the game in covering a topic and how teachers can use the game within a curriculum. It does not necessarily need to dictate all of what that lesson plan contains, but helping a teacher understand and explain what the game can do could help encourage its use in class.

 

Getting Found

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Whenever you talk to a developer about marketing their digital game the issue of discoverability almost always comes up – be it a story about how Apple chose to highlight an app or a struggle to stay in the critical top part of a list of games.
Getting found by teachers is no different, but the guide does help tip off producers to some of the critical sites teachers are using to find games to include in the classroom.

It’s also a problem for teachers. Thirty-four percent of teachers surveyed reported that it’s hard to find games that fit the current curriculum.

Still, the guide highlights two resources that can help:

logo-2Graphite: Graphite is a free service from nonprofit Common Sense Education designed to help preK-12 educators discover, use, and share the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula for their students by providing unbiased, rigorous ratings and practical insights from our active community of teachers.

 

imgresEducade: Educade is a website that offers a vast library of free, ready to use lesson plans integrated with 21st century teaching tools. Teachers, parents and students will find hundreds of apps, games, and hands-on activities that align to Common Core and Next Generation standards. Search for lesson plans by grade level, subject matter, and technology type, making it fast and easy to use.

 

These two sites offer some ability for learning game developers to be evaluated and their games ranked and recommended by teachers and professionals.

Developers who want to know more about what teachers are struggling with or talking about, read the full guide, The MindShift Guide to Games + Learning.