Lindsay Peluso IDT 7062 11 April 2013 Horizon Report Reflection

The 2011 Horizon Report accredited the momentous impact that Game-Based learning has in the classroom. Educators are rapidly trying to prepare our students for the essential skills todays society demands. Gaming presents three major skills needed for 21st century: collaboration, problem solving, and communication. Research has depicted when the learner must play a game, the aspects of the game become especially engaging and appealing to the players for all ages and genders. Players will readily connect with the learning material even when the material of the game is criticized as being too serious.

Gaming is preparing our students for the job market by exposing them to the necessary skills to be successful in higher education and acquire employment post-collegiate life. Students exposed to challenge-based games, must use reason, collaboration, and problem solving, all which are skills needed to be a productive member of 21st century society. Not all gaming has to be digital, non-digital games offer an abundance of skills to proliferate a students learning. A student can obtain significant skills from a non-digital game such as writing, leadership, and public speaking. As an advocate for gaming, I see meaning in creating a disposition or stance that enhances skills in decision-making, innovation, and problem solving.

The classroom teacher can apply this phenomenal tool to any content area. Gaming has been designed to not just target one subject area, but to make the game be cross-curricular. Research has noted how gaming has been highly effective through cross-curricular frameworks.

When the game becomes cross-curricular, students make the real-world connection of how the material they are learning is applied in everyday life. Educators can readily create their own

game designed to meet the frameworks and needs for their own classroom, or refer to a copious of resources of teacher homemade games. As gaming endures to develop, game designers continue to reconnoiter novel techniques to integrate subjects and content area in appealing formats, gaming will become more beneficial and ubiquitous in higher education. Of course, it depends on how the game used. The games should be open-ended, permitting for objectives and developments that have a balanced amalgamation the personal and social. Gamificiation in education is an earnest thing.