Reflections for GBL

From playing games these few weeks, I thought of how games affected me when I was young. One game that I played alot in primary school was Nintendo Super Mario (one of the first versions) and the first few times I played I died over and over again. It was a painful and tedious experience as there were no save points (like now in PS or Xbox games) so when I died in the middle of the round, I had to start the round over again. But I kept going over and over again, learning tricks and traits along the way, where enemies pop out, how to get over narrow ridges, until I got over that round.

Thinking as a student teacher now, I guess that is where I got my determination from, and it applies to all faces of my life, in sports and in studies. Of course I also learnt to manipulate this determination and added in respect for others when I played sports, and added in resourcefulness when I was studying but my main drive was determination.

Viewing Appelman and Gee's video on gaming for education really consolidated my thoughts about how gaming affected me. Appelman suggests that since students are already playing games 30 hours a week, using gaming for education is really a logical thing to do. Students learn skills from games like formulating strategies, working hard, putting basic skills together and collaborating with one another. Failure in gaming is inevitable and does not stress the students as they can try again and again. These skills and attitude towards failure is very valuable in learning as well.

There are other aspects in gaming as pointed out by Gee that can be transferred to learning and teaching. In gaming, students explore the game before learning the technicalities of it. They learn better when they explore the games first. There is no clear distinction between learning and assessment. They apply what they learn immediately in the game. There is lots of feedback from the game whether they have learnt the skills well or they have done badly.

How does all these affect me as a student teacher or as a teacher in the future? It will change how I want to teach from frontal teaching to putting more games into my lessons. I will let them explore the topic first and tone down the concept of tests and assessment. I can try to bring video games to life by dividing my lesson into stages and of course a boss stage if possible. Rewards and penalties will be put in place to provide feedbacks.

I am not a technology-savvy person, so as Gee mentioned, I can learn along with the students when using technology. Of course there will be many restrictions when I become a teacher in the future, whether I can apply my ideal game-based lesson is still a question mark. But I will keep this idea as my basis of teaching just as I have kept determination as a basis for my life-learning.