Gaming in Education

I have a dream list of resources to improve my classroom. On that list are games. I already use some games in my classroom; the board game RoboRally is an excellent tool in my computer science class, and games of chance (physical or virtual) go hand in hand with statistics. But I envision students utilizing Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet in my classes. It hasn’t happened in my classroom yet, but sandbox games like those can provide an invaluable resource to educators.

Or better yet, if there were more focused games that supplemented my curriculum or sparked a great discussion in my class, I would use it in a heartbeat. Gaming can provide a great avenue for gaining student interest and providing concrete examples of class topics.

Right now, I’m lucky enough to be spending my Saturday at the White House Education Game Jam. I have been spending my day walking around and talking to teams from MIT, Carnegie Melon, Ubisoft, Rovio and Disney (and many many more). These teams have 48 hours to design and create a fun game that can be aligned to educational standards.

I have heard great ideas for games ranging in topics from programming to math to neuroscience to World War I. The energy is high, and every team has sought and accepted feedback for their ideas. They’re all coding away right now, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

#WHGameJam