Game-Based Learning + Triple E Resources

Game-Based Learning + Triple E

Resource Materials:

In this section of the Resources Page you will find information about the Triple E Framework and reasons to use game-based learning in your lessons.

Learn more about the Triple E Framework

The Triple E Framework was created by Dr. Liz Kolb and is built on the belief that “effective technology integration begins with good instructional strategies and not fancy tools.” Dr. Kolb explained this in her book: Learning First, Technology Second. She explained that technology could be used to engage in learning goals, enhance learning goals, or extend learning goals. As you evaluate a tool, use this rubric to decide if a tool is a good fit with your learning goals and if you should include the technology in your lessons.

10 Great Reasons to Use Game-Based Learning in Your Lessons

1. Develops Hand-Eye Coordination – Games or apps that require the use of a gamepad or a keyboard and the mouse (or a touch screen) help to develop hand-eye coordination.

2. Beneficial Specifically For Children With Attention Disorders – Research has revealed that online games can actually help children who experience attention disorders. During remote learning, it can be especially hard to keep students’ attention… use games!

3. Skill-Building – A lot of games contain certain aspects that help students with many different specific skills, such as learning map skills when playing an adventure game or learning money management while playing a game related to financial literacy.

4. Failure is OK – Games reinforce the idea that it is okay to not succeed the first time. Not succeeding the first time, just shows that more work is needed before the skill is mastered and then the students can try the game again.

5. Students are more drawn in than with traditional teaching – Games draw students into the learning process and keep them more engaged in the content.

6. Increases A Child’s Memory Capacity – Games often revolve around memorization, sequences, and more. This can help to increase a child’s memory.

7. Computer & Simulation Fluency – Our world is dominated by technology. Virtual games can increase students’ computer fluency and simulation fluency.

8. Helps With Fast Strategic Thinking & Problem-Solving – Many games require children to think quickly and require students to use logic, problem-solving, and accuracy.

9. Games are FUN and engaging – When students are engaged and learning during games…they are also having fun! Sometimes students are having so much fun, they don’t even realize that they are learning.

10. Games are great for assessment – Games are a great way to do formative and summative assessments during traditional lessons or blended/remote lessons. Many games offer immediate feedback to both the student and the teacher.

In-the-Classroom:

Our In-the-Classroom section is where you will find ideas and examples on how to integrate the tools shared into classroom instruction.

10 Gaming Tools

Mission US

Grades 4-8

- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Mission US is a collection of free interactive games to engage students in learning US History. The missions immerse students in historical settings and empower students to make choices about how everyday people lived in the past. Players can move through the activities and meet various characters from all walks of life and different periods of history. There are currently SEVEN missions for students to play: For Crown or Glory, Prisoner in my Homeland, and others.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Read this related blog post about Mission US with countless classroom use ideas
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – Students are active learners during these immersive missions, not passively listening or reading text. Students get to make choices that emulate the types of choices that people had to make during that time period.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – Mission US scaffolds the learning through the simulations, primary source documents, and additional activities provided on the site. Students get to make decisions that they feel will yield the best results.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – The independent learning and activities required when using Mission US can help students to build skills used in everyday life outside of the classroom learning environment. They are also practicing decision-making skills.

Banzai!

- Grades 2-12
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Banzai is a free financial literacy tool for all ages. As students work through the units and activities, there are formative assessments sprinkled within the tool. There are three age levels to explore, each with different topics (Junior is for ages 8-12), Teen is for ages 13-18, and Plus is for ages 16 through adult. The students are presented with real-world problems. Students choose their own adventures (and consequences).
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Banzai is an excellent resource for any financial literacy course, or for those that don’t have financial literacy classes as an option for your school. Create your classroom account, and then provide students with a class code to sign in to their account. Create as many classes as you like then have students follow the curriculum including pre-tests, simulations of life scenarios, interactives, and post-tests. The Banzai tool grades it all. Set up student accounts and assign activities based on your state standards. Be sure to share Banzai on your class website for students to explore at home.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – Students are more motivated to begin the learning process since they get to make the decisions and are active participants in the financial simulations.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – Learning is enhanced because the activities are not isolated in workbooks or stand-alone; they are interwoven and focus the learner on the goals of the financial literacy content.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – This site could easily extend outside of the regular school day and teach students to practice life-long skills such as budgeting and other money management tools for their future.

Math Games

- Grades K-8
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Math games are completely free. Just be aware there are some basic ads that keep it free. The ads are not obtrusive though. This site doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles on the main page. You can search on the main page for topics or by grade level. The grade level option gives you a complete list of interactives, worksheets, and how many tools are available for mobile devices.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - No registration is necessary to play, BUT… if you register as a teacher you get additional features including free detailed progress reports, leaderboards, and more. Each grade level also offers students points. Students earn points for each activity completed. Earning that Star at the end is very motivational to some students. The nice thing about this particular site is that they tell you which of the activities have the app available too – so although it may be slightly different the skills being taught and reinforced are the same.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – Math Games offer very minimal distractions from the content/math activities. There are advertisements, but they are non-obtrusive.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – The built-in tutorials, games, and how-to videos help to enhance all lessons (including remote). Students use higher-order thinking skills and perseverance as they work through the activities.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – This tool, along with the other gaming tools shared, helps to prepare students for life beyond school as they learn computer skills and practice problem-solving.

iCivics

- Grades 3-10
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and encourage them to participate in the democratic process. iCivics.org provides detailed lessons designed for very specific judicial and constitutional concepts as well as for the executive and legislative branches. Some of the lessons have videos and links to other relevant websites. In addition to the lessons, iCivics features several engaging interactives on civics topics, democracy, branches of government, citizenship, elections, and campaigns, and the constitution. Several include full teacher manuals (PDF) and a detailed report of student game performance — very useful for assessment.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - As you study the Constitution or U.S. government, have students participate in the activities, stopping to write blog entries as their legal character discussing the results they have achieved in court or in their role within other interactive simulations. Students can work individually or with a partner. Share the collaborative games available for students to play together even when they are physically apart, this is a great option during remote lessons.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – iCivics helps students to focus on the content with little distractions. Students also shift from passive learners to active learners as they must make decisions in the scenarios (and learn the results of their choices).
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – This tool creates paths for students to demonstrate their learning goals in a way they could not do without technology. Rather than reading about how a bill is created, the students actually get to be a part of the process.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – iCivics builds skills that students can use outside of the classroom and in the future. Understanding governmental procedures and terms are something that many adults do not understand, empower your students to have a voice and understanding.

Tynker

- Grades K-12
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Tynker is an engaging tool for students to use to learn the basics of coding. The tool is available as a website or mobile app. While the features slightly between the web version and the app, they both offer a powerful coding tool and curriculum lessons and activities. The app version offers Tynker Junior, designed for kids ages 5-7. Tynker is user-friendly with free programs available for teachers, parents, and students (additional options are available at a cost). The free portion of the educator site includes three free coding courses, interactive games, blog posts and articles, an art studio, many lessons and activities related to the Hour of Code, and more.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Students can use Tynker to learn various skills. Students can learn and practice logical and sequential thinking. They can learn how to break down larger problems into more digestible chunks. Tynker also teaches drag-and-drop block coding, basic game design, knowledge about Python, and JavaScript. Tynker helps students to develop deeper perseverance and to engage in the engineering design process.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – When using Tynker students are more focused on the task because they are engaged in the coding activities. The students are active learners, as they work through the immersive coding courses.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – By using these coding courses, students are able to demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of coding. Tynker allows students to use technology to deepen their understanding of concepts and coding.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – Dr. Kolb describes extended learning as an opportunity for students to learn, connect, and collaborate outside of the classroom. The activities in Tynker would fit with blended, flipped, or remote lessons.

Duolingo

- Grades 1-12
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Duolingo is a fabulous world language program. There are nearly 30 languages to choose from Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Greek, Indonesian, and several others. You need to register if you want to save your progress. But you don’t need to register to just test out the site. You get to determine how many minutes per day you will “study.” They will even send you reminders each day. Students must have some basic reading and typing skills to use this tool.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Depending on the individual child, it could be useful for nearly all ages. The obvious use of this tool is in world language classes or for ESL/ELL students to learn English. Challenge your gifted students to learn a new language for additional enrichment.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – Students are more focused on the content during Duolingo because there are limited distractions or advertisements. The students are active learners as they practice seeing and saying the words in the new language, rather than just reading a textbook.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – This tool enhances learning goals by scaffolding the new vocabulary lessons with interactives, videos, and more. Any words that the students are struggling to learn will be repeated until comprehension is achieved.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – Duolingo prepares students for life outside of the classroom as they are learning a new language. By adding the collaboration piece with their peers the learning goals are extended and understanding is demonstrated in an engaging format.

Arcademics

- Grades 1-9
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - These games are a great way to build skills and work on math and language arts concepts. The activities are divided into multi-player and single-player games in such categories as “Addition and Subtraction,” “Multiplication and Division,” and “Fraction and Ratios.” There are also language arts interactives! The games are designed for 1, 4, 8, or 12 players. At the bottom of the page, click on “How it Works” to see how to enroll your students, assign games, and keep track of student progress. Arcademics uses HTML5, so you can use any device with a web browser. Find apps for Android and iOS, too. HTML5 allows students to play together from any device, anywhere; this means students can play some of the games with classes around the world. Talk about collaboration! Choose to create a new game or join an existing game. Create a private game if you wish, which requires password creation. No email address or personal information is required for these excellent practice activities.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Use these games for individual practice for students who need extra help. Instant feedback provides great learning opportunities for students and builds confidence. Group students in multi-player games that are engaging and interactive. Focus on students’ honing skills, building confidence, and working together as a group of learners.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – All of these learning activities (both independent or collaborative) are highly engaging and put students in the role of active learners, rather than passively reading a text or watching video instruction.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – Learning is enhanced by allowing students to make connections within the games with the content also being taught in lessons. For example, you could reinforce addition with Alien Addition (an independently played game).
  - Extend the Learning Goals – Arcademics extends the learning by offering the option to collaborate with peers outside of the classroom. This opportunity bridges the gap between the regular school day and real-life experiences. Students are competing, plus practicing academic and computer skills.

Oodlu

- Grades 2-12
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Use oodlu to create learning games on any device. Choose from sequencing, multiple-choice, and fill-in-the-blank. Add different forms of feedback to guide students when making incorrect choices. Share the code with students to access the learning games. As students advance through the games, they earn award badges. There is also a teacher dashboard to review and monitor student achievements. The free accounts also include an unlimited number of questions and students. You’ve got to love FREE!
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Use oodlu to differentiate learning in your classroom. Assign question sets to different groups of learners according to their specific needs. Be sure to show students how to log in and access questions, then include a link to the site on your class webpage for students to play at home. At the end of your unit, enhance learning and augment technology use by asking students to plan a multimedia presentation. Extend learning and modify technology use by having students use the Storyboard to create a multimedia presentation with a tool like Sway, reviewed here, to share their learning. Have students include text, images, videos, and a link to oodlu learning games in the Sway.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – This tool engages students because it motivates students to begin the learning process by using games for review or assessment.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – The learning is scaffolded when using oodlu because teachers can choose the exact questions to include in the game. Students can also repeat the game as they increase their mastery.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – Oodlu allows students to build skills that they can use in their everyday life. In their future courses and careers, students will need to practice problem-solving skills and computer operation skills.

Quizizz

- Grades K-12
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Quizizz is very similar to Kahoot, just a bit more “secondary level” friendly. This tool also allows for some comedic replies from presidents (past and present), minions, and more. I love the memes in between questions, sure to motivate your kids and cause a smile. You can add music, videos, and more. You need an account to CREATE the quiz, but you do not need an account to play the game.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Quizizz offers game-based learning plus formative assessment. Use Quizizz when asking questions that require a reading of a passage or a long time to answer questions. Be sure to set the time limit to the upper reaches of 5 minutes. Students can use code names or numerical screen names for anonymity if desired. Create pretests to offer to gifted students to “test out” already learned material. Use this tool often to obtain a snapshot of each student’s understanding of content.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – This web tool engages students in the content and learning because it causes a shift in students’ behavior going from passive learners to actively participate in the games on Quizizz either independently or collaboratively.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – Quizizz creates paths for students to demonstrate their understanding and mastery of content using technology. Instant feedback would not be possible without technology. Teachers also receive instant results from assessments, so reteaching can be planned.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – The tool Quizizz creates a bridge between everyday life experience and school learning. Especially during remote learning (and asynchronous), students are learning independence and how to find the answers beyond memorization.

Bamboozle

- Grades K-12
- Link to TeachersFirst Review (including tech integration ideas)
- Description
  - Play and even create games. Registration is not required to play games, but you do need to register if you want to create games. Use this tool to create a review game in any subject area. Better yet, have your students create their own game demonstrating their understanding of the content.
- Classroom Use Ideas
  - Save Baamboozle in your bag of tricks for a quick review of any content. Engage students by having them create games to share with the class when reviewing for quizzes and tests. Bring excitement to professional development by creating a Baamboozle with materials you are sharing. Be sure to provide a link to Baamboozle games on your class website for students to play at home.
- Applying the Triple E Framework
  - Engage in Learning Goals – Bamboozle engages students because it motivates students to begin the learning process by using games for review or assessment. You may even have students create their own games to further the level of engagement.
  - Enhance the Learning Goals – This tool aids students in developing and demonstrating a more sophisticated understanding of the content because of the ability for students to create their own games to demonstrate their mastery of the content.
  - Extend the Learning Goals – Bamboozle and all tools shared throughout this presentation extend the learning (especially during remote learning) as the technology allows opportunities for students to learn outside of the typical school day.