For Equity & Social Impact
Games for Learning
He tākaro, he huarahi ako
Blog & news
Copy Of -Copy Of -On the blog: Game design is hard. That's why your students should do it.
For the past couple of years I’ve been researching classrooms where teachers and students have taken on game design as a vehicle for learning. I've read extensive international research (and some rhetoric) on games and game design and its potential for learning. I’ve befriended game developers, and lurked curiously in their conferences and online groups, And I did the most challenging and humbling thing of all: I worked with others to design a game.
On the blog: Call for papers: set special issue on playing, gaming, and learning Primary tabs View
We've put out a call for contributions to a special issue of set: Research information for teachers on the theme of "Playing, gaming, and learning".
If you're keen to write for this special issue, read on for some tips on putting together your contribution!
Gameful Praxis meeting in Wellington
The theme for the first meetup for the year was "tabletop and card games in the classroom". NZCER Senior researcher Rachel Bolstad and co-founder of Gameful Praxis has written a blog on the meetup, full of great ideas and game suggestions for your classroom or school.
Gameful Praxis hold meetups in Wellington for talks, hand-on workshops, networking, playing and more. Register for future meetup announcements here. If you're interested in setting up a Gameful Praxis meetup in another town or city, please contact them to discuss!
Te Kura Workshops
After the conference, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu | The Correspondence School asked Rachel Bolstad, Diana-Grace Morris and Dan Milward to run a 2-day workshop with more staff, to help them kick off plans for bringing student game design into learning at Te Kura in 2018. It's shaping up to be and exciting and ambitious initiative – watch this space!
NZCER Games for Learning blog
The Games for Learning blog shares emerging findings from an exploratory research project led by NZCER researchers Rachel Bolstad, Sue McDowall, and Elliot Lawes. The project investigates the actual and potential role of games to support "transformative learning opportunities" for diverse learners in diverse New Zealand schools. The project foregrounds the intentions and experiences of New Zealand teachers and learners as game players, game selectors, or game makers, and looks at what happens in the learning environment when games are part of the picture.
April 10, 2018
Game design is hard. That's why your students should do it.
Rachel Bolstad
For the past couple of years I’ve been researching classrooms where teachers and students have taken on game design as a vehicle for learning. I've read extensive international research (and some rhetoric) on games and game design and its potential for learning. I’ve befriended game developers, and lurked curiously in their conferences and online groups, And I did the most challenging and humbling thing of all: I worked with others to design a game.
April 08, 2018
Rachel's recommended reads, views, and listens (repost)
Rachel Bolstad
We've put out a call for contributions to a special issue of set: Research information for teachers on the theme of "Playing, gaming, and learning". If you're keen to write for this special issue, read on for some tips on putting together your contribution!
October 25, 2017
Game developers on an educational mission: Dan Milward and Maru Nihoniho
Rachel Bolstad
This post is part of a short series to share highlights from NZCER's 2017 Games for Learning conference.
As I noted in my last post, it’s not uncommon to find that people working in game development want to make a contribution to education.
But it’s one thing to aspire to this, and another thing to actually do it.
October 24, 2017
James Everett on working in game design, and two ideas for discussion
Rachel Bolstad
This post is part of a short series to share highlights from NZCER's 2017 Games for Learning conference.
Have you, or your students, ever imagined working in game design or another creative digital industry?
July 31, 2017
Game-based learning: Typologies and butterflies
Rachel Bolstad
One possible challenge for anyone trying to get their head around the role of games in education is the semantics. Which words should we use to describe learning that involves games? What’s the difference between “educational games” “serious games”, “gaming”, “game design”, or “gamification”?
June 01, 2017
Digital gaming, coding, and makerspaces in NZ schools
Rachel Bolstad
There’s lots of interesting information in the report, and I encourage you to have a look at the whole thing if you have time. For this blog series, I’ve pulled out some of the “digital games-related” data that might encourage further conversation.
May 28, 2017
Digital gaming, coding, and makerspaces in NZ schools (Part 1)
Rachel Bolstad
Today NZCER released a report called Digital technologies for learning which presents some findings from the 2016 NZCER national survey of primary and intermediate schools...
September 01, 2016
What motivates game-using teachers? Ep.1
Rachel Bolstad
I’ll be sharing the game-using origin stories of some of the different teachers in our project. We’ll look at how they got started with games, and what they and their students are actually doing with games. If you’re a game-using or game-curious teacher, I wonder if any of these stories will resonate for you?
In this blog we'll meet Andrew, a secondary history teacher whose game-based learning practices are based around board games and role play.
NZCER resources for
Games for Learning
Curriculum for the Future is a set of three resources designed to stimulate open-ended conversations about learning and curriculum today and into the future. The resources can be used separately or together, and in any order.
Curriculum for the Future: The digital game
"A strangely addictive game that gets you thinking differently about education"
Curriculum for the Future: The Digital Game is designed to generate thought-provoking conversations about learning and curriculum today and in the future. It's a fun way to think about complex ideas and it's great for playing with a group of people who care about what we will learn in the future. Players get to choose a curriculum and juggle multiple points of view as they try to convince a panel of citizens.
Visit the Curriculum for the future microsite to learn more about the game or download now to your iPad or tablet from the App Store or Google Play.
