Sixty-five students entering 6th grade this year at the New Roads Middle School in Santa Monica, California are experiencing a gamified education program sponsored by GameDesk. With funding from AT&T, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Motorola, Samsung, and others, PlayMaker is a program that not only uses games as instructional tools, it also gamifies the greater school experience.
via PlayMaker Gamifies Middle School Experience | Purple Pawn.
Use of games by elementary and middle school teachers in the U.S. is on the rise, according to a short article on GOOD Magazine’s website that points to an interesting study that was just released:
About half of elementary and middle school teachers say they use digital games at least twice a week with students, while nearly 70 percent say that games help students who are struggling with reading and math and 60 percent say gaming helps them personalize their instruction and meet the needs of all students.
The study was undertaken by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, and full results are available on their website. One item that I found particularly interesting concerns barriers to implementing games in the K-8 classroom:
The number one obstacle teachers cited to integrating digital games into the classroom is cost. The second most reported obstacles cited in the survey are lack of access to technology resources and emphasis on standardized test preparation.
Hat tip@tiltfactor; photo credit Judy Baxter
A 6th grade teacher turns his classroom into an RPG and has some amazing results. Read on:
Samurai Yetis and Ninja Werewolves: How One Teacher Turned Sixth Grade Into an MMO.
