In this article, dive deeply into the top 7 advantages of game-based learning within the classroom, understand what differentiates it from gamification, and discover which types of games are better for today’s kids.
(more…)Awakening by Legends of Learning isn’t just a game; it’s a revolution in educational experiences. This immersive, multiplayer world offers a treasure trove of curriculum-aligned math and science content, all wrapped in a captivating and fun package.
The new version takes things a step further, introducing exciting features designed to supercharge student engagement and academic achievement. But before we delve into the new additions, let’s explore the core of Awakening’s success: the power of game-based learning.
Traditional education often relies on rote memorization and passive learning, which can leave students feeling disengaged and uninspired. By incorporating game-based learning principles, Awakening transforms learning into an active, dynamic experience.
This approach taps into the power of emotions in learning. When students experience enjoyment, a sense of accomplishment, and a healthy dose of friendly competition, they become more motivated to explore and learn.
The latest version of Awakening builds upon its core strengths, offering innovative features that enhance the learning experience:
Streamlined Assignments: “Teacher Quests” and “District Quests” are now seamlessly integrated into the game world. Students can easily access, complete, and revisit assignments within Awakening, eliminating the need to switch between platforms.
Enhanced World Exploration: Beastie riding and customizable trails add a layer of fun and personalization to navigating Awakening. These features provide additional motivation for students to collect Beasties and explore all corners of the game.
Expanded Learning Content: Exciting new minigames broaden the learning horizons within Awakening. Students encounter fresh, engaging learning experiences that complement the existing curriculum-aligned content.
Accessibility for All: Text-to-speech functionality on message popups ensures that all students, regardless of their reading level, can fully participate in the game. This feature fosters inclusivity and ensures no student is left behind.
Personalized Support: Just-in-Time Learning promises to be a game-changer. Students struggling with specific concepts will receive personalized recommendations from their in-game guide, Tuto, directing them to relevant learning materials. This targeted support will help students catch up and solidify their understanding.
So why wait? Head over to Awakening today and unleash the power of game-based learning in your classroom!
The impact of Awakening extends far beyond the virtual world. Teachers and students alike benefit from its innovative approach:
Detailed Reporting: Data-rich reports provide educators with invaluable insights into student performance on specific topics. This allows teachers to tailor their instruction and identify areas where students might need extra help.
Curriculum Alignment: Awakening offers a vast library of curriculum-aligned games, ensuring that students are practicing and mastering relevant math and science concepts.
Multimodal Learning Support: Awakening empowers teachers to create engaging multimodal learning experiences, blending classroom instruction with multimedia educational assets, and curriculum-aligned game-based learning tools.
Unlimited Options: Students have access to over 2,000 curriculum-aligned math and science games, fostering a love for learning both at school and at home.
Personalized Learning: Students can customize their avatars, adding a playful element to their experience.
Learn at Their Own Pace: Awakening allows students to progress individually, ensuring they fully understand each topic before moving forward. This personalized approach fosters confidence and a deep understanding of the material.
Embrace Productive Struggle: Awakening provides a safe and rewarding environment where students can tackle challenges. Through engaging gameplay, they’ll develop valuable problem-solving skills and celebrate their achievements.
Boost Cognitive Function: Studies show that Awakening enhances cognitive function and learning comprehension. Interactive games stimulate the brain, fostering a love for learning that extends beyond the summer months.
Explore Unforgettable Experiences: Awakening goes beyond textbooks! Students embark on virtual adventures, conduct simulations, and explore fascinating topics, all while strengthening their math and science knowledge.
Motivation and Competition: Leaderboards and quiz games inject a healthy dose of competition, keeping students engaged and motivated to excel.
Awakening’s commitment to innovation and its focus on student engagement have earned it well-deserved recognition, including the 2023 Parent Teacher Choice Award.
Furthermore, research-backed effectiveness and unique features make Awakening one of the top educational tools of choice in digitally-enabled classrooms.
Students Playing Legends of Learning Show Higher Test Scores!
Awakening is a powerful tool for transforming classrooms and making learning enjoyable for students of all ages. Feel free to explore Legends of Learning’s website to discover all about the exciting ways it can transform students’ learning journey!
Fulton, MD, April 3, 2024 – Legends of Learning has been selected to partner with Impact Florida, a non-profit, non-partisan organization advancing excellence in classroom instruction, and WestEd, a national non-partisan leader in research, development, and service focused on education and human development, to examine the efficacy of game-based science instruction in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS).
An $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant program will fund a five-year study to explore how a standards-aligned, game-based learning (GBL) experience will impact student performance on the fifth-grade state standardized science test. The study will include a year-long randomized controlled trial (RCT). Several prior studies of the Legends of Learning platform have already shown significant positive correlations between game platform usage and improvements in test scores. With WestEd leading data collection, analysis, and insights, this study will build upon an established body of evidence.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Impact Florida to test the impact of Learning Universe, our evidence-based, rigorous, game-based learning curriculum, with educators in the state,” said Legends of Learning CEO Dr. Vadim Polikov. “Students are struggling to stay engaged in school, especially post-COVID, and this has led directly to lower test scores in math and science. Games have the power to change that.”
Innovation in delivering education is of paramount importance given current proficiency trends in science education. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted teachers’ ability to engage students in attentive learning experiences. During this period, proficiency scores were negatively impacted, as Florida fifth-grade science performance fell from 55% proficiency in 2018 to 47% in 2021.
In response to pandemic-induced instruction challenges, teachers scrambled for instructional tools to engage a student population that shifted to more screen-based engagement for learning, social connection, and entertainment. Interactive content has become the norm: 6 out of the top 10 content sites used by teachers and students in the 2021- 22 school year were gamified or used games to teach.
“Impact Florida is thrilled to help support research on the potential impact of innovative tools like Legends of Learning and to work with Florida educators in doing so,” said Impact Florida President Mandy Clark. “Increasing engagement is important to student academic growth, and we’re eager to see how game-based learning can tap into students’ existing interests.”
A prior study of the Legends of Learning platform by WestEd showed up to a 23-percentile point improvement in science achievement scores with usage of the GBL platform. “This RCT will reveal the direct impact of the Legends of Learning platform on science achievement, building upon our prior findings of a positive association on science achievement with increased usage of the platform,” said Taunya Nesin, Director of STEM Networking and Partnerships at WestEd. “The methodology and scope of this study will help us learn more about best practices for implementation and use of GBL in elementary classrooms and the impact it can have on learning.”
The study will be conducted in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, one of over 300 districts across 49 states that have partnered with Legends of Learning. Reacting to the award, Dr. Jose Dotres, MDCPS Superintendent, said, “We pride ourselves on building networks that collaborate to maximize the potential of every student in our district. That collaboration extends to studies like this, which can provide us with insights that help accelerate student performance. We’re excited to participate in this research.”
Approximately 280 science teachers and over 6,000 students are projected to participate in the study. The U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program will provide a grant of $7,997,993 to support the research, which will be matched by an in-kind contribution of more than $800,000 from Legends of Learning.
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To request an interview with Legends of Learning CEO Vadim Polikov, contact Jose Ramos at (925) 261-8586 or jose.ramos@legendsoflearning.com
To request an interview with Impact Florida President Mandy Clark, contact Trey Csar at (415) 215-4994 or trey@impactfl.org.
To request an interview with WestEd staff on this project, contact Gretchen Wright at gretchen.wright@wested.org.
If you are on Twitter and you like game based learning (GBL), you’re in for a treat. Starting on Monday, April 2nd at 8pm ET, we’re launching our monthly Twitter chat, #LegendaryChat!
Taking over the Twitter account that night will be Legendary ambassador Amanda Glover (she’s also on Twitter and has her own EdTech blog). Get in on the conversation simply by using the hashtag #LegendaryChat.
For the inaugural #LegendaryChat, our topic will be Intro to Game-Based Learning. This chat is ideal for educators from all over the GBL spectrum, from classroom gaming experts to interested teachers who have never used game-based learning at all.
Participants will learn:
In the meantime, there are tons of other education-related Twitter chats you can check out! Here are some of our favorites:
Do you have another Twitter chat that you love? Let us know in the comments section.
Save the date and spread the word about #LegendaryChat on Monday, April 2nd. We can’t wait to see you online! And don’t forget to follow us at @legendlearning.
By Caitlin Unterman, 8th Grade Science Teacher, Forest Middle School (VA)
Most in the education world believe that enrichment is the most important goal of a classroom. Teachers focus on creating opportunities that simultaneously enrich and engage students. However, many fail to recognize what is actually enrichment, and what is simply reinforcement.
Enrichment, by definition, is “the act of making someone wealthier.” I like to think this is wealth in the form of knowledge. Do a simple Google search and you find another definition of enrichment: “improving or enhancing the quality or value of something”.
Both definitions apply to our classrooms. And there is no better way to enhance the value of “something” than by adding what kids love best: games.
Another simple Google search can find you the EdTech definition of game-based learning: “Generally, game based learning is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.”
Put enrichment and game-based learning together by definition, and you would get “Generally, game based learning is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world, while improving or enhancing the quality or value of education.” As an 8th grade Earth Science teacher, that sounds pretty sweet.
Like the majority of teachers, my enrichment efforts are based on data. Strands of weakness and complex learning concepts take priority as I work to innovate and plan creative units to convey the concepts better. Try teaching radiometric dating and half-life curves to a bunch of 8th graders who were put into a High School Credit science class… That is quite a challenge.
Game-based learning has become the Aleve to my headache in that regard. Students are far more interested in their phones than any piece of paper I hand out. So, I moved towards digital learning.
Using the game-based learning platform Legends of Learning, I created a pre-test playlist on geologic time, added an assessment pack at the end, and downloaded my students’ performance data. After highlighting the weaker strands (subcategories within the topic), I made a new playlist. I taught the concepts per usual, emphasizing the weaknesses shown in the pre-test playlist data, and then launched the playlist again after my normal teaching lessons. (For an example of how to track student performance, check out the Hall of Knowledge here.)
Much to my surprise, weak strands were no longer categorized as “weak”, moreso, “improving”. Take a look at the Vanderbilt study conducted in partnership with Legends of Learning, and it speaks for itself. Weak strands can become enhanced strands through game-based learning enrichment.
Some may think, “All of this is great, but where do I start?” Game-based enrichment isn’t something you just wake up and decide to implement one day.
Instead, consider doing some critical data analysis, at least once, before jumping right in.
The data analysis portion of the Legends of Learning platform allows you to break down each learning objective by student performance.
From this, identify the weak strands. Your definition of “weak” may differ from mine, but usually I emphasize those showing 50% mastery or below. Think about those weak strands in terms of what I call the 3 Vs: Volume, Value, Vocabulary. Let’s break those down:
On average, how much time do you spend emphasizing a strand? One day? One week? Strands that are only the focus of one day of class may not be as crucial as larger units you spend weeks on. Take out the strands that are “one-dayers”.
Are the skills presented in this weak strand going to affect later learning objectives? Place an educational value on the learning objective. Is the concept crucial or supplementary?
Is the learning objective heavy on vocab? If so, take a look at the overview and curriculum for each game. Find the key vocabulary needed, pack the playlist, schedule the playlist to run over the weekend as “homework,” and collect data on Monday. You should see improvement.
The key to game-based enrichment is finding the value in the innovative learning that is taking place. Don’t just plug in games that are fun and engaging. The games need to emphasize weaknesses within the content in order for enrichment to be successful.
What are your experiences with using GBL for enrichment?
A handful of game-related terms get thrown around the EdTech sphere. Two big ones are gamification and game-based learning, or GBL, just check out their hashtags on Twitter: #GBL and #Gamification.
What exactly is the difference between gamification and GBL? Many confuse the terms, but one is not the other.
It’s an innocent mistake, one that I have made, too.
Last Spring, just before my first day at Legends of Learning, a friend asked me what exactly we do. Ill-versed in EdTech buzzwords, I did my best to explain, and he said, “Oh, so you do gamification. We talk about it all the time in education consulting.”
To my uninitiated mind, “gamification” was a pithy explanation, and I wondered why the term had never come up in previous conversations with the Legends team. It turns out, gamification isn’t what we do.
To show an example of gamified learning, let’s turn to our friends at Classcraft. I met these folks at ISTE 2017 in San Antonio, and they’re great — they even wrote a blog about us! Classcraft defines the principle of gamification as “applying game principles to non-game situations.”
Basically, Classcraft is an experience, and it works like this:
Teachers deploy their own learning materials that they’ve created—think worksheets, quizzes, and videos—as different destination points within a “Quest.” Students work through these materials to advance through the Quests at their own pace. As they complete their work, they travel across a map, from one end of an island to another.
This is a fun way to visualize progress, and it uses the principles of an adventure game to capture students’ interest while they learn. That’s gamification.
The learning itself is done through traditional classroom assignments, not a game. That would be a different story.
Unlike the traditional classroom assignments that persist in a gamified classroom, GBL is exactly what it sounds like using games to introduce, enforce, or enrich learning concepts.
The idea is that learning through gameplay can be more engaging than more traditional methods like lectures, textbooks, and worksheets. When students are more engaged, their brains are more capable of absorbing new information. This makes for better subject matter retention, leading to higher test scores, as demonstrated by research.
Games are often more engaging than traditional learning tools because, of course, they’re fun. But beyond this highly unscientific assertion, how does GBL achieve higher engagement from an educational theory standpoint? GBL guru Dr. James Paul Gee attributes it in part to the principle of “Performance Before Competence.”
In his essay “Good Video Games and Good Learning,” Dr. Gee explains that students playing a game “can perform before they are competent, supported by the design of the game, the ‘smart tools’ the game offers.” This differs from more traditional learning methods, which often require students to read a text and become competent before they can start trying to perform tasks related to the new knowledge. For many students, these methods are far less effective than the “learn by doing” approach that GBL allows.
Engagement is the ticket to effective learning. Keeping that in mind, let’s look at how gamification and GBL are similar, and why so many people tend to think they’re interchangeable.
GBL and gamification are guided by the same overarching principle: morphing a traditional classroom task into a more engaging, competitive activity.
Take for example the Interactions in Ecosystems learning objective on our site. It is home to ten mini-games, ranging in length from 5-25 minutes. Each game interweaves specific science concepts — in this case, how ecosystems work, as delineated by the NGSS — into the gameplay.
In “Deep Sea Adventure,” you start out as a tiny shrimp, eating plankton and avoiding predators, ultimately growing into a fish, a jellyfish, a turtle, and a shark. In “EcoKingdoms: Interactions,” your role is park manager, making decisions to balance the flora, fauna, and finances that are crucial to the park’s operation.
Other GBL experiences feature competition amongst students. They compete with one another and motivate each other to perform at a higher level in the game. Some learning games even have leaderboards so students can compete against players all over the world.
Have you ever tried to get small children to help clean up their toys after making a mess? One effective strategy is to say “I bet I can clean up more toys than you… ready, go!” Nine times out of ten, the child will go whizzing around their bedroom trying to beat you in the new “clean-up game” you just created. That is gamification at work.
Competition is a motivator, and can make any task — whether cleaning the playroom or learning science — a lot more fun. So if GBL and gamification share this core similarity, why is the distinction so important?
Gamification alters significant structural aspects of the learning experience, breaking from the norms of lectures and worksheets. Teachers gamify their classrooms for a fresh new approach to a complex concept.
GBL is a component that can be flexibly plugged into a traditional classroom, interchanged for other tasks like worksheets, without altering the way the classroom runs overall.
Next time you talk tech in the teacher’s lounge, see if your colleagues know the difference. Let them know you’re not playing around!
A recent EdTech Magazine article advocates for the rise of AI in the classroom. Often dubbed “bots” in social media circles, these subtle software programs are using algorithms to help teachers measure student performance.
The article marks the inevitable use of AI and bots in the classroom. The education AI movement extends beyond the edtech sector and includes some of the industry’s biggest content providers, like McGraw-Hill.
Uses for AI extend across diverse subjects and tasks. Whether it’s assessments or grading or recommending next levels of content, AI can help a teacher make smart decisions about how to guide a student and/or a classroom.
Of course, the EdTech Magazine article closes with an almost mandatory, semi-comforting phrase: “We will always need teachers and human interaction in the classroom. Anything else does not compute.”
But if that’s the case, how does AI work with a teacher in the classroom?
IBM launched its Teacher Advisor with Watson AI program to help educators. The program was developed in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers.
With tests in more than 1000 classrooms, the program aims to save elementary school teachers time through formative assessment, lesson planning, and other actions. In essence, Teacher Advisor is the digital equivalent of a teaching assistant.
We like AI teaching tools like this because we know how overburdened teachers are, particularly public school teachers. Whether they have 30 students in elementary school or 120 in high school, personalizing lessons for individual students or small cohorts is challenging.
That is particularly true not just with class and non-class hours, but also during personal time. Teachers are spending as much as five to seven hours per week just looking for new and interesting content. Then they have to assess, integrate, and launch this content. Not to mention their actual grading and teaching work.
If we consider any relief or assistance to be useful, AI can make a teacher’s life much more reasonable.
But can it replace a teacher? Isn’t that the great fear?
Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk classic The Diamond Age picks up this very subject. In the book, three young girls are all given the same nanotech primer to help them learn and understand subjects as well as life skills.
How does the AI primer work out for these girls? As you might expect, it works very differently for each individual student.
In fact, it doesn’t matter that the AI alters itself to meet the students’ needs. The students are unique and make different decisions based on their perspective.
While educational, the primer cannot coach the girls well or help them change their life perspective. In some ways, The Diamond Age illustrates the failure of technology to influence our humanity.
In the end, teaching is more than imparting knowledge upon students. A teacher delivers a very real human perspective, either intentionally or through abstract experience. When given the time to focus, teachers perceive a students’ needs, needs that may not be expressed through performance data.
This human interaction may never be replicated by AI. Perhaps this is why we will always need a teacher’s perspective.
What do you think?
Teachers are constantly searching for new science resources and content to diversify their lessons and engage students. Surfing the Internet is a great way to find what you’re looking for, but the Internet is a big place. That’s why some teachers spend as much as five to seven hours a week browsing for content.
If you are looking for more than games, jumpstart your search here. These seven sites can help make it a little narrower.
Share My Lesson is a fantastic database of science resources, featuring lessons from early childhood through high school. As the name implies, teachers log on and share their own lessons and resources. To date, those total more than 420,000, including more than 11,000 for middle school science alone! They’re all free, and searchable by grade and standards.
You’ve probably heard of Teachers Pay Teachers by now. Much like Share My Lesson, TpT hosts lessons crowdsourced from educators. Boasting an even bigger library of more than 2.8m resources, some free and some paid, it’s a fantastic tool for bringing together the genius of teachers everywhere. When you’re searching, you can sort by grade, subject, resource type, and price, or check out the trending topics on their homepage.
The UC Libraries STEM Education page links to a bunch of juicy STEM content across the web. These include science websites, lesson plan libraries, student research databases, educational videos, curriculum resources, and much more. Dig in to this wealth of material, vetted by a major research university.
If you don’t know Getting Smart, you should. They publish articles about every education topic from policy to personalized learning. Their “Smart Lists” blog series features resource lists with different themes every month. Find lists of education blogs & newsletters, parent resources & homework help, music & art, and more. Start by checking out this STEM & Maker Resources list from September.
Teaching Ideas is a British site that lists an eye-popping amount of resources for teachers. Along with science, teachers can find inspiration for English, “maths” 😉 , computing, art, music, history, PE, you name it — so go ahead and share it with your non-science colleagues! If you’re looking for lesson plans, projects, videos, games, it’s all here, with a search functionality and many levels of filtering.
Tes is an education giant, claiming “the world’s largest online community of teachers” with almost 8 million registered users. Like Share My Lesson and TpT, Tes hosts a marketplace where teachers can share all kinds of resources, free and paid, from pre-K through high school. Their marketplace also features a bunch of discussion forums, as well as resources for exploring the teacher job market (focused on the UK). They also publish a magazine, and publish tons of education-related news. Talk about a go-to education site!
Out of the University of British Columbia, CWSEI mainly focuses on research related to science pedagogy in higher education. However, their site lists a wide variety of resources, including tools that can be used in the classroom, but also a plethora of reference books and articles for everything you want to learn about education. The Initiative’s stated goal is to build “a more scientifically literate populace… able to make wise decisions, informed by scientific understanding, about other complex issues” — a mission we can all get behind!
If you’re looking for new science resources, this list is a good place to start. These websites complement the depth and breadth of the thousands of science games and assessment items teachers find on the Legends of Learning platform.
Earlier this month, Legends of Learning took home first prize at the Amazon Web Services EdStart “pitch day” in New York City. AWS brought in ten EdTech startups to present their products in front of over 100 industry leaders. Legends of Learning Founder Vadim Polikov and Co-Founder Josh Goldberg made the trip to Manhattan.
In a five minute presentation, Vadim and Josh showed attendees the look of the LoL platform and detailed our standards-based approach and commitment to equipping teachers with detailed data analysis. They fielded questions and took feedback from fellow EdTech experts, who submitted collective scores for each of the presenting companies. The audience was very impressed with the Legends pitch, ultimately awarding the company first place!
There were several other companies present. One company, Cell-Ed, presented their mobile software for teaching adults basic skills they need for the workforce, and won third place. Another, Learnmetrics, took second place when they showcased their powerful learning analytics tool designed to bring out the full potential of students and their schools.
Our team came back to Washington, DC with a few prizes and more than a few ideas for how to keep improving Legends of Learning for students and teachers. They were inspired by all of the bright minds around them, who share the goal of improving education for learners everywhere.
We would like to thank Amazon Web Services for hosting the AWS EdStart pitch day, and supporting Legends of Learning. You can read more about the event on their blog.
Adults love games. Kids love games. Both groups of people work in classrooms. So why aren’t classrooms filled with game-based learning? Keep reading and discover the five key reasons to teach with games!
Some teachers have resisted gaming because they see it as a chance for students to goof off rather than focus. In their minds, games do not truly teach content and thus do not provide educational value.
Over the past few years, learning games have evolved to include content of real value. Meaningful learning games are now easily accessible for teachers. Legends of Learning offers 900 science curriculum games for middle school.
Take it from this teacher. Game-based learning is not only fun for students it makes teaching easier.
1. Students Love Games – Most students already spend free time playing games online with friends, watching other gamers play on YouTube, and bragging to each other about who’s the best gamer.
Introducing games into your class is a natural extension of what your students already like. With so many games available that teach content, it’s the perfect fit for your classroom.
2. One-on-One Time with Students – Imagine getting to walk around a room of 30 students and having meaningful one-on-one conversations with each of them. Because students are so engaged, off-task behavior with gameplay is minimal, in turn giving you time to work with the students who need your help most.
3. Curricula Games Mean Learning – Games are effective because students have so much fun playing the games they don’t even think about whether learning is taking place. When students are engaged, they learn significantly more content and remember more of what they learned. This leads to higher test scores and more confidence in taking on complex tasks in the classroom.
4. Struggling Students Feel Included – When students struggle, they often stay quiet or act out. Because games are fun and teach content without shame, struggling students engage and learn at their own pace.
It’s common to see organic conversations about content crop up during class. Students who never raise their hands show eagerness to participate. Games remind you that all students want to learn, they just need the right vehicle.
5. Personalized Learning – Games let students take control of what they learn. Students teach themselves new material or review existing knowledge via engaging gameplay. Teachers facilitate learning, gently guiding students through game play, and helping them think critically about decision points. This is the 21st-century classroom.
As you consider your lesson plans for the school year, imagine the possibilities games offer as an everyday part of your instruction. Simply put, game-based learning can transform your classroom. Want proof? Try Legends of Learning science games for three weeks and watch student achievement take off in your classroom.
Aryah Fradkin is Manager of Teacher Outreach and Engagement for Legends of Learning. Before joining the Legends, he taught middle school for six years in Baltimore City Public Schools.
