GAME GENERATION

    With the advent of digital game-based learning and its increased popularity, today’s ‘‘Net Generation’’ or ‘’Digital natives’’ have really become disengaged with traditional instruction. Kids are different today. They are active, operate at twitch speed, privilege graphics and animations over text, prefer connectedness, see play as work and view technology as life, not a separate activity. They require multiple streams of information, frequent and quick interactions with content and visual literacy skills.

We should always bear in mind that when we say games are effective and powerful tools for learning we do not mean that all the games are good for all learners and for all learning outcomes.

Games are effective not because of what they are, but because of what they embody but what learners are doing as they play a game. Thus, learning that occurs in meaningful and relevant contexts is more effective as the learning takes place within a meaningful context.

Games provide forum in which learning arises as a result of tasks stimulated by the content of the game in which knowledge is developed through the content of the game and in which skills are developed as a result of playing the game.

As TEFL professionals, we need to know when, how, with whom and under what conditions games are engaging and how we can integrate DGBL in the classroom and how can games fit into schools.

We need to know how DGBL will look like at the institution, gather DGBL resources by creating map of what you will need to implement DGBL. Certain criteria have to be met in order to successfully implement COTS games into formal language learning contexts. The game itself has to be fully motivating and provide clearly defined and spaces goals. We must find appropriate content which ideally provides rich and meaningful narratives providing their users a feeling of choice. I, myself, really enjoyed playing games and when playing I already notice and become aware that video games have a great potential in offering high intrinsic motivation, rewards, feedback and meaningful language use.

I played the game ‘’Coffee Shop’’ which I liked a lot.  This was a good example of business plan about coffee shop. Players(like me and my peers) are really motivated as they make their own business plan of how to make great deal of money within 14 days and ,meanwhile, use the language much when reading all the instructions and when making their own version of the coffee by selection ingredients that will bring them a benefit.

Obviously, based on all the readings and the potential of games, computers in the schools will revolutionize learning, as kids are different today and computers are more motivating that traditional way of learning.