{"id":500,"date":"2012-12-05T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T11:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=500"},"modified":"2012-12-05T11:49:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T11:49:02","slug":"teaching-like-a-game-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/teaching-like-a-game-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching like a game designer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fteaching-like-a-game-designer%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/monopoly.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-501\" title=\"monopoly\" src=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/monopoly.jpg\" alt=\"playing monopoly\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/monopoly.jpg 500w, https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/monopoly-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All teachers and leaders seek new ways to engage their students and followers. \u00a0\u00a0Games have a profound potential as teaching tools. \u00a0\u00a0I wanted to share some of the key questions that have helped me in my quest to become a game designer. \u00a0 (I still have much to learn) \u00a0The questions serve as a checklist for designing and evaluating game designs. \u00a0I hope that they can serve teachers, leaders and innovators who seek to create teachable moments through their own game designs. \u00a0\u00a0Please keep in mind that you don\u2019t need to be a programmer or technology expert to design games. \u00a0Play is a natural part of being human. \u00a0 Some of the best games are played with no technology. \u00a0 YOU can design your own teaching games.<\/p>\n<p>I want to give a \u201cshout out\u201d to Dr. Jane McGonigal for teaching these core questions in her book <a href=\"http:\/\/realityisbroken.org\/\">\u201cReality is broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I would also invite you to review her TED talk.<\/p>\n<p>1) <strong>What is the goal of the game?<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0As educators, we want our activities to be aligned with teaching objectives. \u00a0For instance, we may want our students to learn geography. \u00a0\u00a0While this is a fine objective, many high impact games wrap the objective in mystery and story. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhere in the world is Carmen Sandiego?\u201d, the legendary game that helped to launch game based learning, challenged students to join a quest to find the infamous criminal, Carmen Sandiego, and bring her to justice. \u00a0\u00a0Players of this game learned aspects of geography on accident. (or by design!?)<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true that many games do not have a profound story(i.e. chess, checkers, spades,etc.), but designers of games should make the goal of the game clear.<\/p>\n<p>2)<strong> What are the rules of the game?<\/strong> Think about your favorite game. \u00a0\u00a0How would you describe how to play your favorite game to a friend? \u00a0As we answer this question, we probably need to address the following concerns:<br \/>\n&#8211; Players<br \/>\n&#8211; Objectives(s)<br \/>\n&#8211; Procedures of the game<br \/>\n&#8211; Resources<br \/>\n&#8211; Conflict<br \/>\n&#8211; Boundaries<br \/>\n&#8211; Space<\/p>\n<p>3) <strong>Why would someone volunteer for the work of your game?<\/strong> \u00a0We all love Angry birds. \u00a0What are the qualities of this game that encourage us to throw small little birds against buildings, bricks, and strangely colored little pigs? \u00a0As we use games to design educational experience, are we appealing to our desire for fun? \u00a0\u00a0Are we designing our game to appeal to our need to be social and collaborate? \u00a0\u00a0Are we appealing to our players desire to serve a high or epic purpose? \u00a0Are we appealing to players who like to compete against each other?<\/p>\n<p>4) <strong>How does the player receive feedback?<\/strong> \u00a0As we design our learning experiences, players need a way to know that we are winning. \u00a0Do the players receive points or badges? \u00a0Do the players receive praise for doing a good job?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nGameful educational experiences have a unique opportunity to make failure fun. \u00a0\u00a0We can design the player experience to keep the player coming back for more. \u00a0\u00a0In some teaching environments, failure is discouraged. \u00a0\u00a0In a gaming environment, we find fun ways to bring our students back into the game, provide meaningful feedback, provide corrective instruction, \u00a0and help them master the skill or topic at hand.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dE1DuBesGYM\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For fans of project based learning, consider visiting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gogamestorm.com\/\">http:\/\/www.gogamestorm.com\/<\/a> . \u00a0\u00a0What game could you use to help your class to brainstorm project ideas?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"internal-source-marker_0.07342793536372483\"><em>Photo from: http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/upturnedface\/6661061039\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fteaching-like-a-game-designer%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All teachers and leaders seek new ways to engage their students and followers. \u00a0\u00a0Games have a profound potential as teaching tools. \u00a0\u00a0I wanted to share some of the key questions that have helped me in my quest to become a game designer. \u00a0 (I still have much to learn) \u00a0The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,5,6,3,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}