rationale

Due to the rigorous curriculum standards that are required by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, there is not always adequate learning time throughout the day for classroom teachers to consistently incorporate 21st century skills into their daily lessons. Additional learning activities need to be incorporated into student lessons each week. Many students prefer to use interactive games rather than do projects and utilize more traditional learning methods. Different programs can be used that meet curriculum requirements and engage the students.*

Game-based learning programs engage the learners with virtual worlds while developing the much-needed skills that curriculums are trying to incorporate into their lessons. Student engagement has been determined to be a key component in student success.** Since there are many programs available, it is difficult to determine which ones are worthwhile to be used in classrooms. I have put together a selection of more readily available and widely used game-based learning programs and divided them among the six different 21st century skills that they will best enhance. Please note that many of these programs enhance multiple skills, I categorized them as to which skill I determined they enhanced the most.