August is on its way out, Filafolks! We hope the first week or two of school went swimmingly for any of our readers out there who are educators or students. To commemorate another back-to-school season come and gone, we’ve gathered up all of this month’s resources on game-based learning for K-12 students. These resources provide all sorts of ideas to enhance your virtual, hybrid, or remote classroom with educational games. If you’ve been wanting to integrate immersive, meaningful, and playful learning into your lesson plans, here’s everything you need to get started!
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In this research round-up, we gathered 5 recent and pertinent studies related to K-12, STEM, and game-based learning. This blog includes details on a study on augmented reality and physics education, a meta-analysis of studies on game-based learning and chemistry education, a study on how serious games helped primary school students increase their mathematical fluency, another study on how serious games helped high school students increase their programming proficiency, and a meta-analysis on game-based learning and student STEM achievement. Whew, that was quite the sentence. Don’t be intimidated, though – we break down and explain each study so you can best understand the findings of each!
Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or even a K-12 student yourself, you can never have enough high-quality educational games in your arsenal! This roundup features games on a variety of subjects and for a variety of ages within the K-12 range. Teach your high schoolers about media literacy with “Culture Overlord,” or add to your natural science lesson with “Mission to the Mesozoic.” From math to social-emotional learning, there’s a learning game out there that suits any student’s educational needs. This list also contains several games that are free and work on a web browser and/or mobile device. Accessible, educational, and high-quality? Check, check, and check. We would never steer you wrong when it comes to game-based learning!
Even if you’re not someone who keeps up with all of the latest news on gaming, we bet you’ve heard of esports! Esports aren’t exclusively for adult professionals that compete nationally. Over the past several years, competitive gaming has been on the rise in K-12 schools too. If you’re wondering how to put together an esports league at your school, or if you’re curious about how esports impacts students, this is the perfect read for you! Most young people are interested in gaming, and esports leagues in schools are a great way to combine their passion for gaming with meaningful learning. Not only can students improve their technological literacy by working with esports equipment, but participating in competitive gaming can increase student interest in STEM, and help students develop soft skills such as leadership and collaboration. Win-win!
It’s no secret we love digital learning, and we write about its benefits every single Monday and Wednesday here on the blog! A lot of that digital learning takes place online, and just like in any place, online citizens need to practice safety, etiquette, and respect. In this article, we define digital citizenship, cover why it’s important, and provide some game-based resources for young learners to practice their digital citizenship skills. Games are tools, and if used responsibly and ethically, they can be positive and even transformative experiences for K-12 students! With digital citizenship learning, students feel empowered when it comes to cybersecurity, media literacy, and being proactive members of online communities.
Earlier this month, our CEO Dan White joined Christopher Lind of Tech Sharks for a Learning Tech Talk, an interview that took place live on LinkedIn. Their conversation contains all sorts of insights on edtech and what we do as an educational game developer. This interview also happens to be very relevant to anyone in the K-12 sphere, since Dan spoke about topics such as “scaffolding” learning material in games, and RoboCo, our upcoming sandbox robotics game for adolescent learners. If you want to know what sets game-based learning apart from gamification, or how simulations can provide an ideal learning environment for learning new skills, tune in to the full episode!
Though it’s been over two years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools are still operating with virtual or hybrid classrooms. If you’re looking for educational resources that meet your students’ needs and keep them engaged from afar, this is the blog article for you! In addition to motivating students to learn, games can be great community-building tools too, and can make your class feel more connected. Teach science, math, English, and even social-emotional learning virtually with this roundup of game-based learning and gamification resources.
Virtual reality is yet to be a widespread technology used in schools. In this article, we detail how VR is being used in schools right now, what challenges remain in implementing it at scale, and how it can uniquely benefit K-12 learners. We also investigate the future of this relatively nascent technology, and how it relates to the burgeoning educational metaverse! Learning tools as immersive as VR can be an asset to remote students, as it allows for safe “travel” to all sorts of learning environments. Currently, several companies are working hard to try and make VR more accessible to all classrooms. You can learn more about them, plus all of the educational VR resources Filament has to offer, by checking out the full article!
Last but not least, we covered the latest and greatest trends in K-12 edtech! Brush up on educational technology of all kinds and learn more about the shape of the classrooms of the future. Learn how commonplace edtech is across a variety of school districts, and how technology is preparing students for the workforce they will eventually graduate into. From artificial intelligence to cloud computing, discover how technology is keeping students safe and connected, no matter where and how they learn in today’s ever-shifting educational landscape. Our favorite K-12 edtech trend has got to be game-based learning – it’s just so versatile, fun, and effective! What’s yours?
As we dive into a new school year, we hope you take a chance on game-based learning and other edtech tools to enhance your K-12 students’ education. The above resources should get you started and then some! From definitions of key terms, high-quality titles, and ideas on how to implement game-based learning, the Filament Games blog always has your back. We’d also be ecstatic to support you if you want to create an educational game of your own. Send us a message and let’s chat about your vision!
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