Description
Are you looking for a new way to engage and motivate students to learn?
Have you ever considered using games for that?
Game-Based Learning (GBL) is a teaching approach that incorporates games and interactive activities into the classroom to enhance the learning experience, promote student engagement and motivation, and create a more effective learning environment.
Significantly, it can be adapted to many curricular subjects as well as to promote creativity, collaboration, communication, and other interpersonal and emotional skills.
The course will introduce game-based learning and its benefits in education focusing, in particular, on 3 powerful tools for gamification: Minecraft, gamebooks and interactive fiction, and treasure hunts.
Minecraft is a popular sandbox video game that allows players to build and explore virtual worlds. Teachers can use it in education by creating engaging and immersive learning experiences that promote creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking, focusing on subjects such as history, math, and coding.
Gamebooks and interactive fictions are text-based games where players make decisions that affect the outcome of the story. They can be used in education to promote reading and writing skills and to teach critical thinking and problem-solving, among others.
Treasure hunts are games that involve searching for hidden objects or clues and can be used to make learning more engaging and fun and teach problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. Significantly, they can be created for outdoor activities but also for digital environments and learning in the classroom.
Participants will gain familiarity with each of these 3 activities and evaluate their educational potential while also discovering best practices to bring them into the classroom. They will also learn and practice how to design lesson plans to create interactive and engaging learning experiences for their students.
Notes:
- The course is intended for schoolteachers from either primary or secondary education, as well as educators, social workers, museum curators, and librarians working with groups of children, adolescents, or young adults;
- The course requires participants to bring their laptops to take part in digital activities;
- The course has been created as a part of the European project EU-TEAM: European Teachers on the Move, co-funded by the European Union. Materials of the course are freely available for school teachers and online users in the Massive Open Online Course.
What is included
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Discover game-based learning and its benefits for enhancing student engagement and motivation;
- Evaluate the educational potential of Minecraft, interactive fiction, and treasure hunts;
- Develop 21st-century skills such as design thinking and problem-solving through game-based learning;
- Foster collaboration and communication among students through game-based learning activities;
- Apply game-based learning techniques to EU-related content and other curricular subjects;
- Design lesson plans that incorporate game-based learning activities.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Games in Education: when playing has a pedagogical function
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools;
- Game-based learning and its benefits in education;
- Why teach EU-Content at school?
- Discussion forum on games in education: sharing of best practices.
Day 2 – Teaching EU-Content with Minecraft
- Minecraft in the Classroom: Between Constructionism and GBL;
- Activity: Getting familiar with the Minecraft interface and environment;
- Promoting creativity, collaboration, digital skills, and planning with Minecraft;
- How to teach EU-related content with Minecraft: case studies;
- Activity: It’s time to build! Building in/with Minecraft and sharing of results.
Day 3 – Teaching EU-Content with interactive fiction
- What are interactive fictions?
- Activity: Reading time! Getting familiar with interactive fiction;
- Interactive fiction in education: fostering reading and writing skills;
- Choose your intended educational function for interactive fiction. How to use interactive fiction to promote soft skills, creativity, design thinking, problem-solving, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence in the classroom;
- Teaching EU-related content through interactive fiction: case studies;
- Activity (individual/group): Write your first (short) gamebook/interactive fiction, and share of results.
Day 4 – Teaching EU-Content with treasure hunts
- What are treasure hunts?
- Activity: Discover analogical and digital treasure hunts;
- Treasure hunts in education: educational, pedagogical and motivational functions;
- How to teach EU-related content with treasure hunts: case studies;
- Activity: Draft a treasure hunt for your subject, and share of results.
Day 5 – Planning a lesson with Game-Based Learning to teach EU-Content
- How to design lesson plans for Game-Based Learning activities;
- Activity: Create a lesson plan on your subject with game-based learning;
- Sharing of results.
Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.
