John Riley • 28/07/2022  •  3 min read

gamification | pedagogy | technology

Students love games, and often spend their free time obsessively playing them. How can we as educators harness this power of student motivation for gaming to our instructional purposes?

We will touch on self-determination theory and intrinsic motivation, exploring what factors are involved, how they can be transposed into the online classroom, and their crossover with Project and Enquiry-based learning. Much of the discussion will be based on concrete situations and examples where Game-based learning can be an integral part of the student learning experience.

How to use Game-based learning for:

• concentration
• focus and classroom management
• as formative and summative assessment
• to teach specific skills or achieve specific learning outcomes
• to support or reinforce educational content, or even where games themselves are the educational content!

Let’s investigate the concept of Gamification across an entire curriculum, course, or class. This too offers many insights into classroom management, and new and more engaging ways of achieving learning outcomes.

Finally we will spend some time on the technical and creative aspects, asking questions like:  what makes a good game?  What are the differences between digital and analogue games?  How can we use the features of video platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet to support Game-based learning and Gamification?

About the Host

John Riley – Teaches Cambridge IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences at IOANID Scoala in Romania. Before returning to a career in teaching John Riley worked for 20 years in the media industry, winning multiple awards in film, advertising and game design. John brought this rich knowledge of story-telling back to the classroom, with a special focus on Game and Project based learning.  Although his main focus is Science and STEM teaching he has worked across numerous subject areas, including Language Arts, History, Art, Theater and Film.  John is a Mindlab instructor, Model-UN mediator and qualified World Peace Game facilitator, running multiple games in Romania and beyond. John is also a founder of Scientifica, a prominent NGO in STEAM activities and Science communication, and a lead partner in the development of Romania’s first ever Science Center in Cluj-Napoca.  He is currently working on a manual for  game-based Learning in the classroom.

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