John McLear

It looks like 2010 may be the year of Game Based Learning. With new commercial products such as Manga High hitting the shelves and already established community built sites such as Primary Games Arena it is becoming clear to me that educators are climbing over the mountain of scepticism towards using games to learn and embracing it with open arms.

I do wonder how sites like Primary Games Arena will embrace the new curriculum. Currently games are themed and have some strategy/game play built around that theme. IE you could have a Viking counting game but you couldn’t turn that game from a Viking counting game to a Tudors counting game.

What are your thoughts on using games to learn?

My thoughts on this is that games could have a new approach, building the logic separate from the theme, allowing users to specify their own style and context but keeping the challenges fun, educational and relevant.

How would you approach this change? Would you begin categorizing games based on a theme?

I expect I will get the usual response of, “Game based learning has been relevant for years”. I don’t disagree with this but the momentum and availability behind gaming is certainly increasing.

Have you been able to find the right game for your lesson?

My recommendation (because im biased) is to check out:

You can join the Primary Games Arena Google Group here if you want to request a game or contribute to the community.