As games become more of a mainstream form of entertainment, communication, and education, gaming falls into the category of professional development too.You can increase your teaching skill set by embracing a game you think will engage, motivate, and immerse your students in learning. Here are two recommendations.

SimCity

I promised that I would share my favorite educational games and next on my list is a game I grew up with.  SimCity has been hailed for being a game rich in a wide range of learning experiences from balancing complex budgets to studying the impact of pollution on fragile ecosystems to planning interstate transportation systems.  Really, the impact of this game on my development as a citizen of an urban metropolis is amazing.  I have more of an interest in urban planning than I ever would have had with strong feelings on zoning laws, architecture, mass transit, and environmentalism amongst other game-inspired frames of reference.

I started playing SimCity classic and progressed through each rebirth of the game until Simcity 4.  Each game became more sophisticated and required deeper, high order critical thinking and problem solving skills than the previous version.  By the time SimCity 4 came out, some of my peers gave up because they said the complexity ruined the fun.  Not I.  I looked at each city as a masterpiece.  I often wished others could enjoy what I made as much as I did but they usually looked at my creation for a second and said, "That's nice."  That's nice?  Don't you see I created a whole state map worth of fiscally balanced, artistically designed cities that took me months to make??  (OK, I'm backing away from the pain)

So in preparation for this post, I decided to buy the latest in the SimCity series: SimCity Societies.  Put simply:  I'm lost.  This game has added a completely different twist -- something on a sociological angle where cities are powered by creativity, authority, knowledge, or spirituality.  Completely unexpected but not without the initial learning phase that comes from the hands of game designers eager to draw me in.  In order to get me to understand how to play this version, I am greeted with tutorial maps and step by step directions with explanations of how to play.

So it's easy to learn, right?  But it still requires an understanding of a new complex system which I can tell is going to cost me hours of game play.  As I ponder the return on investment of my time, I'm encountered with a taste of my own medicine.  I advocate that educators explore and play video games in order to fully understand the impact they can have in the classroom.  Now I am experiencing what many of you will -- the steep learning curve involved in acclimating to gameplay.  Yet, considering the state of gaming in education, avoiding this form of professional development isn't really an option.  Every week we find new articles pointing toward the efficacy of gaming in teaching and learning (great article: Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills).

As games become more of a mainstream form of entertainment, communication, and teaching, gaming falls into the category of professional development: things we do to become better educators.  You can increase your teaching skill set by embracing a game you think will engage, motivate, and immerse your students in learning.  Choose your game wisely based on recommendations, then spend as much time with it as you would with other professional development experiences.  You'll learn, you'll see how games teach, and you'll have fun.

DimensionM math game

I love how candid kids can be.  When I told a group of students I was working with that I had a new exciting educational game I wanted them to play, they said, "educational?", and let out a groan.  While I laughed at their honest sentiment, I wasn't at all surprised.  If the truth really be known, I felt the same way until I was introduced to Tabula Digita's DimensionM.  This week, let me share about the hottest new educational game on the market that is redefining the gamescape of the edtech industry.  I SHOULD say IMHO (in my humble opinion), but let me tell you why that is so, and why DimensionM is at the top of my list of educational games.

DimensionM is an online multiplayer 3D immersive game that covers the pre-algebra and algebra units.  Let's discuss what that means.

Online multiplayer.  As opposed to offline, online games mean you can play in collaboration with a real person in real time anywhere in the world.  This has made for some fantastic synergy throughout the gaming world and it's the reason why games like World of Warcraft are so popular.  When children are stuck in front of a computer alone for hours, they aren't really alone -- they are collaborating with people all around the world.  In DimensionM, kids play against each other or team up to solve complex math equations toward the goal of winning the round for their team.  Their talk is accountable, their cheat tips are strategies to solving math problems very quickly, and they employ social skills, leadership, self-direction, initiative, and other 21st century skills.  Ask the kids and you'll quickly learn that offline single player gameplay is so last season.  Nobody really wants to sit in front of the computer alone and play with themselves for hours, it's boring.

3D immersive environment.  With the proliferation of powerful graphic cards, 3D environments have become the defacto standard for today's video games.  Here's where many educational games fall short.  In DimensionM's beautiful 3D environment, students are transported to an exciting tropical world with a storyline that goes something like: learn to solve complex algebraic equations and the world will be saved from a terrible virus.  In "regular games", you open doors with a sequence of keypresses.  In DimensionM, the door cannot be opened until you find all the prime numbers (or some other real math exercise that reinforces skills).  For educators, the immersive environment gives students a place where they can practice what they've learned in a world that reflects human systems but gives them a second chance if they fail.  Building on the excitement that comes from fantasy game play, students are tremendously motivated by the ability to be in a world where all they have to do to win is be really good at math.  This is a tempting proposition -- an escape if you will -- from a complex real world where they, like us, don't always win or get another chance to try again.

DimensionM covers the pre-algebra and algebra units of math study for 7th and 8th graders.  It comes with an amazing educator's guide that lists what standards are covered in each mission.  It also describes what the students need to do in the mission and what skills are being covered.  Assessment is reported through an online educator's portal where each student is listed and information like what they've played (what units they've covered), time on task, and percentage complete is shown.

Like most good modern games, DimensionM comes in two formats: the campaign (which they call single player) and the multiplayer.  In the campaign, students are led through a storyline with a virtual narrator (apprenticeship model) that teaches them the math they need to know in such a manner that the students barely realize they're learning math.  Each mission builds on prior knowledge.  True to constructivist form, the content can be taught solely by playing the missions.  After you've mastered the math, you can play the fast paced high stakes multiplayer version where your new skills are reinforced in a competition format.

Implementing this is a breeze.  It works on PCs and Macs and if you want to make sure it works on yours you can download the demo from their website first.  Logistically it can be used as an academic intervention tool, an afterschool enrichment tool, or a bonafide addition to your standard math curriculum (homework anyone?).  We tried it in all forms and found success in each where success included positive feedback from teachers, students, and parents, and testimony from educators that they've noticed improvement in scores, attitudes towards learning, and attendance.  This of course is anecdotal observation -- I'm looking forward to some masters program student writing a thesis to get quantitative statistical data on the impact to standardized test scores.

With their national multiplayer educational gaming tournament entering it's second year at NECC this June, Tabula Digita is showing their dedication to the genre of gaming and its new position in future education as less of a fringe supplement and more of a must have, must do learning strategy.  This post comes on the heels of an eSchool news article highlighting Project Tomorrow's national survey?  What did they find?  Students want to learn more with games.  For it's powerfully focused learning objectives, its dynamic and vibrant immersive gameplay, and its pure student allure, DimensionM tops my list of favorite educational games.

by Jim McDermott
From the Digital Learning Environments Blog