“I could not believe how tenacious students were. They would try and try again …”
There’s still some debate about the effectiveness of game-based learning but there is now plenty of proof demonstrating the power of play. The global market for mobile games continues to grow – Newzoo predicts the mobile segment of the overall video game industry will generate $30.3b worldwide in 2015 – as does the market for educational games, which may reach nearly $3b by 2017. But more importantly, research suggests that when students treat learning like a game, they learn faster and retain more.
Teachers in K-12 classrooms have long used play with a purpose to engage students and appear to be adopting mobile gaming as one more classroom tool. The study Empowering Educators: Supporting Student Progress in the Classroom with Digital Games found that 57% of teachers use digital games weekly or more frequently in their curriculums and 18% use them every day.
Gaming Grows Gray Matter
Proponents of bringing gamification and mobile gaming into classrooms have science on their side. One German study found that playing a half hour of video games each day, whether those games were specifically educational or not, had a positive effect on brain growth. Participants in the study had more gray matter in the parts of the brain responsible for the formation of memories and strategic planning. Even fast-paced action games, which some might argue have little value beyond distraction, have been shown to have brain boosting power in studies. They promoted faster learning and better data retention in some participants.
by MindMake via MindMake Blog
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