GameUp- A Very Good Tool for Integrating Game-based Learning in Your Teaching

November 1 , 2015
In his classic, ‘What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy’, James Paul Gee highlighted the importance of incorporating principles of game-based learning into mainstream education. Gee analyzed a number of popular video games and came up with a list of learning principles that he attributed to the success of such games among teens. Here are the first 6 learning principles he talked about:

1- Active, Critical Learning Principle All aspects of the learning environment are set up to encourage active and critical, not passive learning.
2- Design PrincipleLearning about and coming to appreciate design and design principles is core to the learning experience
3- Semiotic PrincipleLearning about and coming to appreciate  interrelations within and across multiple sign systems ( images, words, actions, symbols, artifacts, etc.) as a complex system is core to the learning experience.
4- Semiotic Domains PrincipleLearning  involves mastering, at some level, semiotic domains, and being able to participate, at some level, in the affinity group or groups connected to them.
5- Metalevel Thinking about Semiotic Domains PrincipleLearning involves active and critical thinking about the relationships of the semiotic domain being learned to other semiotic domains.
6- Psychosocial Moratorium PrincipleLearners can take risk in a a space where real world consequences are lowered. ( Pages 41,64,68 )

There is a wide variety of web tools and mobile technologies to help teachers  integrate the ethos of game-based learning in their classroom instruction. You can see examples of these tools from this page. To these resources we add this excellent gaming tool from BrainPop called GameUp.

GameUp is a portal where teachers and students access a collection of over 100 top quality educational games collected from leading game publishers such as MIT Education arcade, Space Science Institute, iCivics and many more. GameUp makes it easy to integrate game-based learning into the curriculum. Each game comes with a number of supporting resources that include :lesson ideas related to the game, standard aligned lesson plans, game guides, tutorial videos and related activities. Using 'Game Quiz' feature, students can take a quiz about the concept and skills explored in the game. There are also several other important features

Watch the video below to learn more about GameUp

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