Digital Play

Even though we're always looking for new games to use with our students, I feel we're not used to working with computer games though it could be very appealing for kids and teenagers. By feelig that they are in "their element", students will tend to become involved in the activity and they may feel motivated to contiue playing (and learning) outside the classrooom if they have acces to the game at home. Playing games could be also the starting point for other tasks, for example students could write reviews for a specialized magazine and give tips to the reader in order to improve their performance, they could record videos to share via youtube while they play as they provide an oral explanation of what they are doing or some advice on passing difficult levels.

Food for thought. Consider the following quotation from  Digital Play by Graham Stanley

Can computer games really help people learn a language? Given the hopefully convincing arguments we have been defending, this is in many ways the wrong question to ask. The question is: How do computer games help people learn a language? A game does not act alone. As we have seen, to be useful for language learning and practice, games need to have a context, which is usually provided by a task. The role of the teacher as facilitator is also crucial.

Now YOU are invited to think how to use computer games to help your learners....

I tried Dicken's game (from BBCi). I've found it very interesting because it has a lot of information for students to read and it could be used with a cross curricular purpose (History, Geography, Literature). In addition, many other tasks could be established after using the game (Writing, investigation, presentations, etc)