This week in our class, we learned about coding and gaming in education, and got to play some games to practice coding on our own. I chose to play a coding version of flappy bird, called flappy code. In this game, we are given prompts and options for different actions to happen. For example, the prompt “when hitting an object,” I chose to select “end game.”
This is what you earn when you finish the coding game!
This is what the game setup looks like, suitable for grade 2+.
Because coding is becoming a large part of education, it makes me wonder if computation thinking can help learners become better problem solvers? As we discussed in class, certain games can help students develop skills such as problem solving, identifying patterns, and critical thinking. We can use resources such as Hour of Code , where there are suggested grade levels, as a tool to help students learn these skills in a fun and engaging way.
Along with this, gameplay can be used to as a tool to make traditionally less popular topics engaging for learners because they are actively engaged, learning through mistakes and intrigued by intrinsic motivation. Often times, people are more engaged in online games of visuals, the way they tell a story, and people are often motivated by rewards such as point systems and levels. Especially with websites like we used today, there is a vast amount of different games, and people can choose something that they are interested in, or personalized to them.
Taking all of this into consideration, gameplay is a great and engaging way to teach students, but could present some equity issues. Depending on school funding, technology may not be accessible. Along with this, many games may not resonate with certain beliefs or may be biased. For myself as a future educator, I will be useful for me to have this tool where students are able to create their own games, such as the one above.