{"id":4857,"date":"2014-09-09T03:45:18","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T10:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=4857"},"modified":"2014-09-08T16:50:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T23:50:43","slug":"digital-games-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/digital-games-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Games in the Classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>This post originally appeared on the <a href=\"http:\/\/yalsa.ala.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/02\/digital-games-in-the-classroom\/\">YALSA blog<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>A new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamesandlearning.org\/2014\/06\/09\/teachers-on-using-games-in-class\/\">survey<\/a> from the Games and Learning Publishing Council sheds light on just how commonplace games have become in today\u2019s classrooms. Among the findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Among K-8 teachers surveyed who use digital games in teaching, 55% have students play games at least weekly<\/li>\n<li><strong>72%<\/strong> typically use a desktop or laptop computer for gaming<\/li>\n<li>Nearly half believe that low-performing students benefit the most from digital games<\/li>\n<li>Word of mouth is the biggest influence when selecting games<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what can librarians and educator innovators take away from this data?<\/p>\n<p>First, it\u2019s important to think about what\u2019s not in the report. The survey only included K-8 teachers, but gaming is a huge part of many teens\u2019 lives. As the YALSABlog <a href=\"http:\/\/yalsa.ala.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/16\/study-released-about-teens-video-games-and-civic-engagement\/\">reported<\/a> in 2008, a Pew Research Internet Project <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/2008\/09\/16\/teens-video-games-and-civics\/\">report<\/a> found that fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play digital games. Those teens were using computers, but nearly half were also using a mobile device.<\/p>\n<p>As schools relax restrictions on mobile devices in classrooms and laptops and tablets become as common as calculators and pencils, how can librarians support the gaming needs of teachers and students? Whether we\u2019re in school libraries or programming for teens at public libraries, where does gaming fit into library services?<\/p>\n<p>The Games and Learning report reveals that many teachers let their own gaming experiences and preferences guide them when it comes to using digital games with students. I can certainly attest to that; when I first introduced gaming nights at my high school, I brought my own consoles and games, then joined forces with another teacher to expand our selections. If you\u2019re new to gaming with teens, you may be more comfortable starting with a familiar game or selection of games.<\/p>\n<p>Erin Daly, Youth Services Coordinator at Chicopee Public Library, puts it this way: \u201cWe probably need to spend some time playing games ourselves and thinking about how to incorporate games into our classrooms and libraries. We really don\u2019t know what works until we play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many teachers cite time as a major obstacle when it comes to using games in the classroom. Just as teachers rely on librarians for readers\u2019 advisory when matching books to teens, they need our help with games. And they\u2019re listening! 48% of teachers surveyed cite other teachers\u2019 opinions about a game as a factor in their decision-making process. Here\u2019s Daly again:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cGaming, like everything, requires curation: we need to pick the best, most interesting things to share. Good thing that\u2019s pretty much what librarians do best. (Gamers\u2019 advisory, if you will). In a classroom, \u2018the best\u2019 includes the way in which the game is relevant to the curriculum standards. In the public library \u2018the best\u2019 is the game that engages the player\u2019s interest and makes them think.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What does gaming look like in your library? Are your teens addicted to apps or playing Halo on consoles? Have you used <a href=\"http:\/\/yalsa.ala.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/02\/digital-games-in-the-classroom\/prezi.com\/drthgc0wytkh\/minecraft-in-the-library\/\">Minecraft<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/yalsa.ala.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/02\/digital-games-in-the-classroom\/scratch.mit.edu\/\">Scratch<\/a> to explore programming and designing?<\/p>\n<p><i>By mk Eagle<\/i><br \/>\n<i>Photo credit: By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/poughkeepsiedayschool\/\">Josie Holford<\/a>, originally posted by Games and Learning, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 <\/i><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared on the YALSA blog. A new survey from the Games and Learning Publishing Council sheds light on just how commonplace games have become in today\u2019s classrooms. Among the findings: Among K-8 teachers surveyed who use digital games in teaching, 55% have students play games at least weekly 72% typically use a [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":4900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,11,16],"tags":[87,104,121,565],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4857"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4905,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857\/revisions\/4905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}