This week, we explored whether educational games could be an effective tool for learning. We started by evaluating the criteria for what makes a good educational game, which included that its level of difficulty should be challenging but not overwhelming, which is very similar in principle to Lev Vygostky’s concept of the zone of proximal development, which states that students learn best when exposed to material or skills at a level that is just beyond their current knowledge or ability. This theory component is very much in line with my own thoughts on game development as I developed activities during my career in child care and writing my book of original games for kids.
Today we tried out two educational game activities. The first was a game entitled “Bad News” from getbadnews.com, and the second was a virtual escape room using Google Classroom, in which the puzzle we needed to solve in order to escape was based on questions about Bad News and other educational game resources, such as Minecraft.
Bad News was very interesting, fun, and creatively put together with a lot of great humour, and therefore really seemed like an excellent means of getting students interested in learning about the fake news industry and keeping them engaged as they develop online media literacy and critical thinking skills. The game pokes fun at Twitter, Partisan News networks, bloggers, President Trump, and conspiracy theories and anti-science rhetoric in a way that is both educational and funny. I think I would like to try having students play this game, others, or maybe even similar games I make myself!