During Kylie Harris’s Faculty Idea Exchange presentation on October 31st, she introduced using games and fun in the classroom. Professor Harris’s ideas are part of the gamification in the classroom in which is meant to introduce elements of games such as a sense of competition and fun in order to motivate students to learn. While there are many gamification techniques that use technology, Professor Harris had some great low-tech games that can be applied to your classroom as well. Click here to view the video. If you ever think that your students may be too old for games in the classroom, check out the video to see how much fun the participants are having.
While games are fun to play, the ultimate goal of using games is to increase learning. Through the use of active learning techniques, games can be used to increase motivation and community with the students as they are used to help them to get to know one another (Paulson & Faust, nd).
Games can also be used to review for mastery of content. Jeopardy can be used to prep for an upcoming exam. You can create your own Jeopardy games using PowerPoint (which you can do yourself or use a pre-made template) or Google Sheets.
Looking for some game ideas? Check out Thiagi’s resources or make an appointment with Dr. Stan Skrabut, and play Learning Battle Cards and develop some great ideas on the use of games in your classroom.
Paulson, D., & Faust, J. (n.d.). Questions and Answers. Retrieved December 9, 2015, from http://web.calstatela.edu/dept/chem/chem2/Active/main.htm