- Have students play in class – ABC News

PC Games can provide better education. Pupils learn more. Teachers get a better overview.

Professor Alf Inge Wang, Super Mario on my office wall, and spend a lot of time to consider many different video games at work. This might seem somewhat unusual, but an important part of his job is to find inspiration. The aim is that video games will become a bigger part of the teaching in schools around.

– Technology in Education can provide more motivated learners, make them more involved and get them to learn easier, says Wang, who works Department of Computer and Information Science at NTNU.

New technology, the emergence of smartphones and social media provides new opportunities for teachers to teach their students. These opportunities apply it to intervene.

Wang suggest that leading research groups within the game and pedagogy work together to create a game based learning platform. He suggests that NTNU, GUC, games network JoinGame, games researchers and others who work with computer games is with. Moreover must creative firm that already has specialized in game-based learning are invited.

PC Games have been used in teaching since the 1980s, but with widely varying results. It applies to engage students, and games that do not measure revealed quickly. Shiny graphics can never compensate for repetitive and tedious tasks.

Wang has seen a lot of bad. But games professor even managed to hit at least one game. He had the idea for Kahoot!

Smartphones changed everything

Efforts Kahoot! began in 2006, but the publicly available version of the game was not finished until 2013.

As a teacher held Wang even quiz for students in the classroom long before that time.

Smart phones have changed the rules for what is possible. Photo: Thinkstock

Some of the first to ask competitions were made by combining a creatively broken hand control with some inexpensive purchased bells that students could press. But only a few can participate at a time. The dream was to get the whole classroom.

Technical and practical limitations stopped. Friends were also invited to similar sessions.

Smart Phones gave several opportunities. When they emerged, had Wang and his group already ideas clear, and adapt them the new technology.

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That seems Kahoot!

Teachers can use Kahoot! in several ways. They can for example easily create a quiz with questions from teaching. Then they can quickly check how things are with the knowledge among the students.

Questions appear on a screen in the classroom. Students answering their phones. There will also be a competition between students, where the results are displayed instantly on the screen. Many students find it a fun way to learn, and it motivates to follow.

The teacher will know what the students have been joined and not, thus also advise on what topics might be repeated later or submitted in another way. Students can simultaneously consider the actual quiz with character and any recommendation. When the teacher knows when something should be done a little differently. Discussions and surveys are other ways to use the program on.

Hooray! Right! Photo: Kai T. Dragland / NTNU

At last check had Kahoot! more than 23 million users, and daily 1 million of them stop the game. Pupils do not have to give up personal information under your login.

Wang has been instrumental in developing NTNU varied focus on games. For example, learning to program, researching the social aspects of gaming or compose and customize music and other audio to the media.

But NTNU has sold its Kahoot !, and Wang’s role is not as central longer. Skilled people driving development forward. Wang will continue to think up other games and teaching methods.

Read also: Sold entrepreneurial success Kahoot!

Tried several games

He works closely with several master’s students . They have partly tried to teach history in Trondheim by sending people around town on a treasure hunt, perfectly physically.

All utilities were allowed. Track participants solved using mobile phones led them from one task to the next. This was combined with GPS data and scanning of QR codes, which could confirm that the participants, or at least their cell phones, had reached a place and were ready for the next task.

A similar method they used to send students around the university area looking for virtual items that could help them. This was a sort of parody of traditional RPGs where swords and armor were replaced with Bic pen and windstopper, and where participants could fight each other if they were in the same place.

Both games worked. But so far none of them have been a hit.

A third game took place in the biggest cinema in Trondheim, where dozens of people could play together simultaneously on the big screen. Here lies opportunities, but some Kahoot! -like Success have not been.

Variation necessary

One of the keys to success is probably to give teachers a platform that can work on multiple ways. It must be a starting point for several different games that can be easily customized according to needs. It can be quizzes, but also word definitions, mathematical expressions, terms sorted by importance and so on. Interested must also be.

One such platform can be used within such mathematics, language and science. But also within as hygiene, nutrition and personal finance, which makes this even more useful in developing countries. Many developing countries already have a very high density of mobile phones, also smartphones. This provides even greater opportunities.

Alf Inge Wang. Photo: Kai T. Dragland / NTNU

Several different game must be developed to provide more variety. It comes games that can be played at home or in the classroom, along with others or alone.

– It is important to offer games that can be used without you online internet. It makes it possible to use the technology even in areas with poor infrastructure, says Wang.

Good content must be rewarded. It must also be easy to translate content between different languages ​​and cultures.

New technology makes it so clearly also possible for teachers to share good ideas quickly with people worldwide. It makes the through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Here there is a great potential to revolutionize education globally, says Wang.

Vision 2030

Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education has requested input from educational institutions and others to improve health and education globally. This happens through a program called Vision 2030. Therefore, Wang, on behalf of NTNU, submitted their proposals to the government.

Several suggestions for Vision 2030 will be presented at a conference in Trondheim 2nd and 3rd March .