Stephanie Wössner is innovation team leader at the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg. She is also a freelance consultant and speaker for future-oriented learning. Her areas of expertise are Extended Reality (XR), Game-based Learning (GBL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as design and futures thinking and the Metaverse.
Let‘s play! Future-oriented learning with games
FROG 2022 – Talk
Digital devices have become increasingly popular in classrooms and come with a great potential of transforming learning. Nevertheless, teachers continue to prepare “lessons” and implement them instead of letting Gen Z and Gen Alpha become agents of their own learning and taking on the role of learning partners. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that neither the use of devices per se nor good lesson planning and implementation are a guarantee for “learning success” and learner motivation – or a good future. But how can this be explained?
In a nutshell: future-oriented learning requires us to reconsider everything we take for granted. Therefore, it is time to leave the familiar paths and come up with ideas on how we can support learners in learning the things they will need for their future as responsible (German, European, world) citizens in the digital age and provide them with the skills that will enable them to shape their (and our) future.
Game-based learning is of particular interest in this context because learning opportunities can easily be designed using games. It is of utmost importance that learners actively create and share content in cooperation with their peers.
After a brief look at the world we live in, we will consider a few future-oriented pedagogical approaches anyone can use to design learning experiences and adventures. We will then focus on three concrete examples:
- Designing a sustainable future with Minetest
- Making sure democracy will prevail by approaching This War of Mine from different angles (e.g. analysis, game design, creative gaming)
- Experiencing gender and diversity through the Sims 4
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