Jane Mcgonical gave an excellent TED Talk several years ago where she discussed the power of games and how we can harness their power and create game environments to help create a better world.

Watching this led me to think about the question, “What role does acknowledging progress play in successful gaming and is their transfer to education?”

Another term used to describe progress play is feedback loops. This is important in games and in education. You put the effort and time in to accomplish a task, and feedback is important so the player/learner knows how they are doing and whether to keep going or make some changes along the way so they can be more successful at the end goal, whether it be defeating a boss or turning in a final paper.

Having loops of feedback where the learner shares their work, the teacher or peer reviews it and provides timely feedback is so important. Waiting for feedback for something I wrote on Monday for a few days or even longer can be so deflating, plus it takes you out of the moment. Taking home 30 notebooks over the weekend to read and provide feedback to your students is so time consuming for the teacher. None of these things need to happen anymore and shouldn’t. Teachers need to tap into this element of “progress play” and make use of tools such as Microsoft Office and Google Docs to take advantage of the opportunity to provide their students with feedback in real time. It is much more useful to get that feedback while there is still class time left and I can keep writing and make those changes in real time. Just like in a game if you are away from it for several days there is probably some re-learning time before progressing, the same thing happens if you go several days without receiving feedback on your work, especially for a 10 year old.

If you enjoyed Jane’s TED Talk and want to learn more about her work, you can visit her website.

The Tech Integrator