How to Find the Best Online Education Game

           During week seven of the course, the class was assigned to find the best online educational game. We worked together in our respective groups to select a game, create a rubric based on it, and put it together into a presentation. In my group (A), we were composed of mostly elementary education majors except for one linguistic major. Based on the majority, we decided to focus on finding elementary language arts games. In this blog post I will discuss the steps we took in this process of finding the best online education game.  

The first step was trying different online educational games. In order to find an appropriate and credible game, we used kids search engines. We found our game on “Kiddle," a visual kids search engine. While playing different games, I began to put myself in the perspective of a student, parent, and most importantly a teacher. I thought what kind of game would be accessible and academically challenging, yet fun for students. I also thought how I as a teacher would utilize this game. This process of searching for a game lasted two days. On the final day, we gathered in our groups and each presented our prospective games. Then we voted, and our final choice was “Magic words”. This game was a magical twist on word search and scramble. The objective of the game was developing spelling skills for 3rd and 4th grade students.  

The home page for the Magic Words game. 

After selecting our game, we began the second step of the process which was creating a rubric based on our game. In order to do this, we needed to understand the “in’s and out’s” of our game, so we created a Google document to share our experience playing the game. Based on the elements of the game we identified, we created a rubric on Google spreadsheets. We were able to comment on the parts of the rubric criteria we agreed or disagreed upon. It was an effective way to communicate our opinions and collaborate our ideas. The most challenging task in creating the rubric was describing criteria that measured the engagement, execution, and effectiveness in learning or reviewing language arts concepts. Another challenging task was clearly differentiating what was considered fair, satisfactory, and excellent for each criterion. These tasks were the most challenging because I had never made a rubric before or thought of how to explicitly measure a game’s effectiveness. However, I learned the importance of using rubrics to qualify which game is the best. It proved challenging to find a game that fit all criteria.

The rubric for our game is in green and our individual evaluations are in yellow.

The total group rating for our game.

The last step was creating a presentation of the game. We decided to use Canva since none of our group members had ever used it before, so we took this as an opportunity to explore another technology tool. I found that this tool was great for aesthetic slides, however, was impractical for presentations. There was a variety of creative slide designs to choose from, but no options to attach links on content or add music. Other than that, one feature made it distinctive from other presentation tools and that was the ability to give access for multiple slide editors.  found only Canva and Google slides out of all the other online presentation tools had this feature. This was important feature to use because we wanted each member involved in the creation of the presentation. By using this tool, we were able to create a presentation that clearly demonstrated our analysis of the game.   

The canva editing page for our presentation.

While creating the presentation, I thought of incorporating this game in my content area which is elementary education. I would use this game in my future 3rd grade language arts class for developing spelling skills. Magic words is a fun way for students to individually practice word recognition and patterns needed in spelling coherently. The game also has a time limit for both finding and scrambling words. This element of time pressure is important because according to a study by Harris et at. (2017), in teaching spelling for writing “The goal is for students to be able to spell these words correctly and automatically, devoting no obvious thought or attention to how to spell them” (p.264). This game helps students to recognize correct spelling quickly which is needed for improving writing skills.  

I would incorporate this game in my lesson plan by making it a classroom activity. The game instructions would first be demonstrated, so the students could understand how to play. Next, the class would be divided into two teams and two school laptops would be placed in front of the classroom with each team lining up behind one laptop. Each student will try out the game for themselves in the order of the line. This would be an effective method because Graham, Harris, and Fink-Chorzempa (2003) said, “Our experience in using games to support students' learning of new spellings is that it works best when students spend some time up front learning their words" (p.67). This game is a great tool to apply this method. After they have understood how to play, I would create a classroom policy that students who are done with their assignments could play the game on the school laptop. Each week in the class, I would write the high scores on a board. At the end of every month the student with the highest school would be titled “Magic Word Wizard” and be given a prize. Another way I would revise the assignment for my students is by instructing students to make their own word find using their assigned vocabulary list for that week. They would use "Discovery Education’s Puzzle Maker", an online tool for creating your own word searches to do this. Students can apply their understanding of processes in Magic words to create their own word find game. This would also be a great way to evaluate the students’ understanding of word recognition games, promote creativity, increase exposure to online educational tools, and practice spelling.   

This assignment taught me that titling anything the best especially an online education game is a long and difficult process. It takes time to understand the purpose of specific types of games like in our case elementary language art spelling games. We also had to identify and analyze the qualities that make it the best by creating criteria. Lastly, collaborating with others to gain a variety of insights for an objective rubric. From this process, I gained skills for assessing and evaluating online education games as well as adding new tools to my educational technology belt. 

        References  

Graham, S., Harris, K. R., & Fink-Chorzempa, B. (2003). Extra spelling instruction: Improving spelling writing and reading right from the start. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 35, 66–68.  

Harris, K. R., Graham, S., Aitken, A. A., Barkel, A., Houston, J., & Ray, A. (2017). Teaching Spelling, Writing, and Reading for Writing; Powerful Evidence Based Practices, 262–272. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1140216&site=eds-live