Case Studies:
Teacher Quotes
Educators who took part in the case studies in Spring 2014 provided valuable insight into game use in the classroom and formative assessment practices. Below is a sampling of their comments.
On the Use of Points, Scores and Stars
“My only surprise is how engaged they were… instead of having a tantrum [when they did not succeed], they went back to try and gain stars…. [Students were] engaged with each other. There were kids that were not sharing a computer that were actually helping each other out.”
“I did notice [the points], and the kids noticed it. I thought that I didn’t understand the relationship between the points earned and the task that the kids were performing to earn the points…. It seemed like the points were kind of an afterthought…. If there isn’t a [clear] rationale behind the points, it can give the impression that the whole enterprise is somehow fraudulent or fake….”
 On the use of other forms of Player Feedback
“One of the biggest problems was that the feedback was one size fits all, it did not have intelligent feedback.”
“In-game assessment features were less useful for gathering information on student understanding because I can’t be everywhere at every time.”
 On the use of Dashboards
“A game [where] the teacher can’t track what the kids are doing does not help us teach.” |
 On the use of Screen Capture/Annotations
“[SnapThoughts™ are] what I was using to follow the students’ comprehension because I’d be able to see which cases they won and which ones specifically they lost.”
“I can just go on the computer and take about 20 minutes. Look at everyone’s snapshots and I can tell more or less if they understand it or not.”
“I want to make sure the kids are doing it, they’re not just telling me yeah, yeah I did it. The snapshots they can send to me, so even over the weekend, before I come into class, let’s say Monday morning, check my e-mail, check that everyone did it. For those who didn’t do it, I can just tell right away and can use as formative assessment as well.” |
 On the use of Essential Questions
“I kind of like to adapt and change things for me, I don’t take anything verbatim from that. I need to make it reachable for my kids. I do want them to gather and understand domain-specific vocabulary but I have to build into it.”
On the use of Review Questions
“I would love for them to spend more time, but they just wanted to move on.”
On the use of Quizzes
“It gives me a general understanding of how well students grasp the concept. A student got six, so she did it again. It told me to reteach.” |
On the use of Less prominent assessment features:
 replayabilty
One teacher noted that students playing one of the games “noticed that every time they would go back it would have different numbers, so it’s not like they can just do process of elimination, they actually have to do the mental math in order to get the three stars.”
“I love the fact that the kids never knew what was coming next because all of the cases came in different orders.”
 ability to unlock levels
“I would unlock the three levels on level one and they can get practice on it. Then the next day, I can unlock level two and they can do it for homework. If I can unlock it by section, it’s easier for them to play the game multiple times. If students can unlock themselves, they will go home, play it once, then come here and they’re already experts on it, not knowing that it’s not the learning process, it’s more like memorization.”
 graphic organizers
“The first sheet from the student activity packet asks them to write out their claim. To help me understand whether or not the students understood their task, I would need them to come up with a reasonable claim for or against the ban on T-shirts.” |
