Forget Gold Coins and Badges: The Real Value of Video Games for Learning

"Game-based learning is not gamification!" exclaims Jordan Shapiro, author of FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss.

"We don't need gamification if gamification is about competition and commodification of learning," Shapiro says in this talk at the Global Education And Skills Forum in Dubai. "There's no need for more commodified motivation. We don't need more gold coins or badges."

So what can games do? Game-based learning can help teachers scaffold "emptiness." It can introduce systems thinking in a way that allows kids to want to solve problems and master new systems, even if they don't know the first thing about it -- yet.

Check out Shapiro's fascinating talk, in which he addresses the pitfalls of ed-tech, the value of inquiry learning, and more here.

What's the Real Value of Video Games?VideoVideo games teach critical thinking, problem solving skills, and perseverance while building metacognitive skills. Game-based learning can provide systematic, data driven teaching in a way that forces creative problem solving rather than rote memorization. And video games can do that in a way that is replicable, scalable, and increasingly affordable enough [...]

via Forbes