Completing missions for rewards is a core mechanic in many video games, including best-sellers like “World of Warcraft,” “Grand Theft Auto,” “Fallout” and “Skyrim.” Quests are diverse and optional, and players can undertake them on their own schedule.
A good quest-based curriculum meets the needs of many students by offering a multiplicity of choices that cover standards
We began looking for ways to meta-game curricular activities,” said Haskell. “We built 3D GameLab to allow us to deliver any curriculum with game-based mechanics
When he first waded into quest-based learning, Isaacs created one central quest path that his students followed at slightly varied paces, and he added some optional side quests that could be completed for extra credits.
“Reluctant or disenfranchised students are very likely to demonstrate renewed interest and engagement when presented with the game-infused option,” she said. “Once the kids were granted some agency in the trajectory of their learning, they really wanted to succeed.” But she also recognizes that games may not be for everybody.
the power of VR goes beyond simply recruiting. The University of Michigan uses the technology as a learning tool, and by instituting a virtual reality “cave” they’ve allowed engineering students to interact with virtual structures as they “come together, buckle and collapse.” Instead of relying on physical models—which tend to be large, expensive, and slow to build—a student using the MIDEN VR cave can fly around a virtual structure to study mechanical connections.
“Technology can amplify great teaching, but great technology cannot replace poor teaching.” As such, it is imperative that we provide teachers with ongoing and relevant professional development to improve and refine their skills.
Technology integration that is student-centered and evidenced based takes planning, training, collaboration, and time.
New Technology Allows Breakout Sessions for Large Online Video Classes
Zoom Breakout Rooms will allow instructors in video classes as large as 200 students to break into as many as 50 smaller groups. ByMichael Hart 12/01/15
Exploring innovative service learning activities for online classes is the goal behind How Can I Create anOnline Service Learning Project?, the 20-Minute Mentor video from Magna Publications, now available for purchase.
Online classes pose a special problem for faculty wanting to do service learning. These students expect greater flexibility and the ability to fulfill assignments at their computer—conditions that are not particularly conducive to traditional service learning opportunities.
How to structure a call to action activity and how to guide online students in choosing topics that stimulate them. Particular emphasis is given to coming up with a topic that ignites student ambition, but which can be realistically executed in the allotted time. You learn how to help them establish sensible schedules, prepare interim updates, and submit a final report.
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign.
Twain, M. (2006). The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Chapter 2.
