Making School a Game Worth Playing

Digital Games in the Classroom

Ryan Schaaf, Nicky Mohan

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781483359601
• eBook ISBN: 9781483320083
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Technology

Integrate game-based learning for 21st Century skills success!

Kids today live in a digitally connected world. Prepare your students for the new global economy by leveraging the technology they love and understand best. This straightforward, easy-to-follow guide helps you build essential 21st Century skills using digital video games. Ryan Schaaf and Nicky Mohan provide a cutting-edge, research-based approach - built around time-honored instructional practices. Step-by-step strategies help you easily find, evaluate, and integrate digital games into your existing lesson plans or completely redesign your classroom.

This practical guide helps teachers use well-designed game elements to: 

• Promote meaningful student buy-in
• Create student-centered, collaborative learning spaces 
• Teach and assess 21st Century Fluencies aligned to Common Core State Standards
• Address multiple intelligences using research-based strategies  

Includes a detailed implementation outline, a revised Bloom's Digital Taxonomy oriented to game content, summarized notes, and a reading list for engaged, adventure-filled learning!

"This book is easy to read, offers strategies that are easy to implement, and inspires a sense of urgency for educators to modify our teaching techniques to include more gaming in our classrooms. It is useful for teachers of all experience levels."
—Carrie Trudden, Educational Technology Teacher
Howard County Public School System, Clarksville, MD

"Schaaf and Mohan  present gamification as a powerful tool for engaging learners and for the development of 21st-century fluencies, organized in levels as in the games it describes. This book is rich in resources for finding, evaluating, implementing, and designing classroom games."
—Danea A. Farley, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Technology
Notre Dame of MD University

Table of contents

• Cover
• Acknowledgements
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Dedication and Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• 1 Digital Games as Learning Tools? Game On!
• 2 It’s All About the Game and How You Play It
• 3a The Need for the 21st Century Fluencies
• 3b Gaming’s Influence on Developing 21st Century Fluencies
• 4 Finding and Evaluating Digital Games for the Classroom
• 5 Digital Games and Instruction
• 6 Designing and Creating Games: A Liberal Arts Experience
• 7 The Gamification of Learning: Gaming Without the Game
• Bonus Level The Future of Gaming and Its Impact on Education
• Index
• Publisher Note