Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Education Graduate Students Conference at UBC, where I participated in many thought-provoking sessions. One session that stood out was a workshop on Game-Based Learning in STEAM education hosted by a UBC Geering Up outreach program representative. At one point, I was asked my opinion about using a commercialized computer game in my math classroom. It really got me thinking.
As an advocate for technology in education, I appreciate the value digital tools can bring to learning. I even gave a guest lecture on exactly this topic for UBC’s math teacher candidates last semester. One of my favorite learning activities is Marbleslides in Desmos. The challenge is for students to use math equations to create slides to collect all stars with marbles.
However, I find myself more hesitant when it comes to using commercialized digital games in the classroom. A commercialized digital game is designed for entertainment, and to use it in the classroom, we’ll need to repurpose it to fit our learning goals. On the other hand, a learning activity like Marbleslides is made more engaging by adding game-like elements. As a practicing teacher, I find usage of the latter much easier to implement. It keeps the focus on the math in the classroom while making learning enjoyable. Moreover, I have observed increasing concerns about screen time and game addiction among our high school students in the past few years. While digital games can offer interactive learning experiences, they often contribute to the already overwhelming amount of screen time. Thus, unplugged alternatives such as board games, card games, and hands-on activities are much more appealing to me.
In addition, concrete, hands-on experiences can potentially make a difference in learning. A few years ago, my supervisor challenged me to create a “coding in the garden” workshop. Coding… in the garden? At first, I had no idea what that would look like. After some brainstorming, I eventually landed on an activity using sticks and rocks to represent binary digits 0 and 1. The audience of this workshop was teacher candidates from various specializations, and it was interesting to hear non-math teacher candidates share how having the rocks and sticks made the concept more accessible and meaningful to them. As a math teacher, math has usually made sense to me in its abstract form, but this workshop was a good reminder that not everyone thinks this way. It reinforces the idea of how using something tangible in math classrooms can support learning.
Game-based learning, at its core, is about meaningful interaction and engagement in learning. GBL undoubtedly has its place in the classroom, but we need to be more intentional about using it. There is great potential in leveraging offline games to create dynamic and collaborative learning experiences without adding students’ screen exposure.
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