The discussions on AI, VR, AR, and other serious games in education are always interesting. I always have high interest in technology for education as I believe that technologies can improve the learners’ engagement, help learners meet learning objectives, and increase the accessibility of learning. All the emergent technologies discussed in weeks 10 and 11 soon will be used and integrated into learning in the digital era to make learning more accessible, immersive, and interactive.
The emergent technologies that caught my attention in weeks 10 and 11 are serious games and mobile learning.
As a result of the digital era, mobile learning (mLearning) is becoming prevalent. We, in this course, are using it right now. We access our learnings through the internet or network using personal mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones anywhere and anytime. It makes our learning more convenient and accessible.
Serious games make learning more engaging and intuitive education which can improve motivation (Bates, 2022). It is a very interesting emerging technology; however, I can imagine that it requires advanced skills, high costs, and time to design serious games. I do not have the skills and resources to design them yet, but I have integrated a few gamifications such as Kahoot, quizzes, and badges. Based on my experience, we need to know how to use and design the games and requires time to design the gamification that is right for our course and learners’ needs.
I found that the resistance from the instructors and IDs to use gamification can be a challenge as many instructors and IDs lack the commitment and interest to implement new technology in their practices. Motivation and commitment from instructors, IDs, and institutions are required to start designing gamification, game-based learning, and serious games in education specifically instructors’ commitment and interest. The support from educational institutions will help in fostering the commitment and motivation of instructors and IDs in integrating emergent technologies into education.
I have incorporated gamification, social media, and OER into my teaching and ID practices as I believe that these technologies and OERs can be used as optional tools to represent the instructional materials to be compliant with the UDL framework. However, I am not prepared to incorporate serious games in my ID practices yet as I have no knowledge of them and lack of cost resources. However, I would promote them to my institution.
Aside from the reflections above, I am wondering how we as an instructor and IDs can keep up with all the emergent technologies including knowing how to use and design them for mobile learning.
Bates, A. W. (2022). Serious games and gamification. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (3rd ed.). Tony Bates Associates. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev3m/chapter/8-7-emerging-technologies
Van Eck, R. N., Shute, V. J., & Rieber, L. P. (2017). Levelling up: Game design research and practice for instructional designers (PDF). In R. A. Reiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed., pp. 277–285). Pearson. https://myweb.fsu.edu/vshute/pdf/levelingup.pdf