Currently reading Jane McGonigal‘s book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How They Can Change the World and am amazed at how it mirrors the work I have been doing recently in Assessment for Learning.
Areas of commonality for both games and assessment for learning are:
Control – gamer/student is at the centre of the experience
Rules – gamer/student operates in a system where there are rules to follow/obey
Goals – gamer/student needs clear goals and actionable steps to reach those goals/targets
Feedback – positive feedback mirrors back to gamer/student what they’ve accomplished and is both qualitative and quantitative
Visible results – gamer/student needs & wants to see results directly, immediately and as vividly as possible
Is this why the Assessment for Learning work has resonated so strongly with me?
Or
Is this why games based learning has held my attention for so long as the way forward?
Probably Obviously a combination of both!