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 Gaming in the Classroom?

The benefits of gaming in the classroom include problem-based learning, collaborative learning, realistic and immersive environments, motivation and competition, interactivity and feedback, achievement and rewards and playfulness (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019, p. 179). In short, gaming can be very motivating for students as it can be fun, playful, challenging and offer rewards. 

There are some challenges that are associated with classroom gaming. One is the focus on learning versus having fun (when winning the game becomes the students only goal and the instructional value is lost in this goal). Another is the goals of some games don't correspond with learning objectives. Another challenge is that some students have difficulty transferring learning from games to nongame situations. There also seems to be some classroom barriers with classroom gaming, such as when a teacher has negative perceptions toward the games, or lack of technology equipment to run the games, or too short of class periods to finish games (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019, p. 181).

I have not used gaming in my preschool classroom, but one strategy from the text I believe would be useful is that of of using gaming to replace worksheets and exercises (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019, p. 181). Doing this would relieve teacher workload, provide valuable feedback, and provide drill and practice reinforcement on already taught concepts. 

Gaming can be inappropriate in classrooms when the games are not aligned with the curriculum, meaning they need to be chosen for their connection to curriculum and carefully incorporated into the broader instruction (Roblyer & Hughes, 2019, p 182).