Location: Multiple computers (Computer room /class set of laptops, etc.)

Skills focus: Reading

Game: Harry Quantum Episode 1: TV Go Home (point-and-click adventure)

Time: 20 minutes+ Learners will probably need 30-40 minutes to finish, but they can always finish the game at home (a great way of giving them reading homework without them thinking of it as homework!).

Preparation:

Harry Quantum is a game that requires little preparation to take advantage of. Tell the learners they are going to play the part of a private detective and take on a case which they will have to solve by finding clues – the game revolves around finding different objects, combining them and then using them at various points of the game.

The learners will need to have two browser tabs active – one with the game and the other with the walkthrough.

The teacher should play at least part of the game before asking the learners to do so – this way you will be able to better help them if they get stuck. Play with the walkthrough and you will see how easy it is to play when you use these instructions. This way, the game acts as a reading comprehension.

Play: 

The learners are introduced to the story and have to read to understand their objective (to find some missing TV programmes). As the game progresses, they will find it increasingly difficult to know what to do, which is where the walkthrough comes in.

The walkthrough that the game developers provide is a series of scenes labelled with vocabulary and written instructions that give just the right amount of information for the player to complete the puzzles, but not too much that the game becomes uninteresting.

The text is compressed (see screenshot from the game walkthrough, on the right) and the learners will have to understand the instructions if they want to continue.

If one pair of learners get ahead of the others, you can always ask them to stop and to help the others by telling the whole class what they have to do next to get to the same point as them. Otherwise, you can let them get on with it and you can go and help the ones who are trailing behind.

Post Play: As the game has a story to it, you can always ask the learners to recreate the story when they are back in class, and then to write their own version of it. To make it more interesting, you can have them write from different characters’ points of view.

The first of the series looks at what is perhaps Digital Play’s favourite genre: the escape the room game.

Genre: Escape the room

Description: A point-and-click adventure game where players have to escape from imprisonment by exploiting their surroundings. Sometime they are called simply escape games, because not all of them involve a room!

Reason for using: What makes escape the room games good for language teaching is the fact that they are puzzles that have an inbuilt information gaps. The puzzles are usually very difficult to solve, unless you have a walkthrough (i.e. the solution to the game, presented in order). fortunately for teachers, whenever a game is popular (i.e. a good game) there will be a walkthrough to it that players have produced and posted on the Internet.

Tasks: Escape the room games make good live listening (i.e. listening comprehension when the teacher speaks) activities. This is the easiest way of exploiting the game for language learning, and it requires very little preparation. All the teacher needs is the walkthrough to the game. You read the clues out to the students, grading the language to suit the level of the class, and check comprehension by noticing which students move on in the game (if they were listening to you and understood, then they know what to do next).

There are, of course, plenty of other ways of using these games for other skills work, or for practising vocabulary or grammar. You can see examples of these below.

Examples with lesson plans:

• MOTAS (lesson plan), Mystery of Time and Space. Perhaps the most popular escape the room game, created in 2001, with 20 levels increasing in difficulty. The puzzles are varied, and involve collecting objects, moving parts of the room, deciphering passwords, etc. A joy to play and one which works very well with students.
• The great kitchen escape (lesson plan). An example of an escape game that can be used to help learners with kitchen vocabulary, and with describing objects.
• Escape the plush room (lesson plan). This time, the escape the room game has been used to help students with short answers and prepositions.
• Room fake (lesson plan). Give the students the numbered walkthrough and this game becomes a reading comprehension.

This week, the ‘Teaching and Language Learning through Gamification‘ TESOL EVO session comes to an end. It’s been an enjoyable 5 weeks, with some great live sessions from special guest speakers and lots of sharing of ideas and enthusiasm in the Moodle forums. The TLLG Moodle won’t be around for long, but the highlights of the course will be archived on a wiki,http://tllg.wikispaces.com , which we also hope will be a place that people can share links to lesson plans for online games they have used.

During the EVO session, there also seems to have been evidence of an increased interest in games for language learning and teaching. Apart from the fact that 304 people signed up to be members of the TLLG Moodle, a figure much higher than we thought we’d have, we’ve also spotted the following:

• Leo Selivan shared his experience using Spent with a group of upper-intermediate learners, who were enthusiastic about the game and found it useful. Leo mentions that a couple of the learners were over 60 as well, proof that some computer games can appeal to a wide age range.
• A reflection on using Interactive Fiction was shared on the ESLNotes blog. The teacher, based in Paris was inspired by Joe Pereira’s live session for TLLG and also by Joe’s blog, IF Only.
• This post by Joe Pereira maps the educational qualities of IF to ‘learning techniques found in video games’ posited by Marc Prensky (2001). Part 2 (coming soon) will do the same with the literacy-based ‘learning principles of good video games’ in James Paul Gee‘s book ‘What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy‘  (2003).
• CALL specialist Vance Stevens, has been playing MOTAS and has shared his lesson plans here http://tinyurl.com/motaslessons
• The Teacher James Taylor blogged about some of the Dogme-ish lesson ideas that can be found in the Digital Play book and we were thrilled to read James say “it’s a great book, passionately and convincingly arguing for a place for video games in the ELT classroom” and “I think this book will go a long way towards persuading more and more of our fellow educators to incorporate them in their own lessons.”
• A very interesting academic paper has been published comparing Computer Game and Language Learning Task Design Using Flow Theory by Stephan J.Francis. The conclusions include the following: ‘computer mediation can make task environments more dynamic and more responsive to individual learners’ needs to an extent that would be difficult to accomplish with conventional activities‘ and that there are ‘strong arguments for incorporating computer games into TBLT coursework to some extent.’
• James York has some great ideas for turning the classroom into a role-playing game on his blog. This follows on from the initial idea (some great slides featuring images from Minecraft, which James would like to use in class at some point in time) and the first class ‘battle’.  James’ ideas come partly from the book ‘The Multiplayer Classroom – Designing coursework as a Game‘ by Lee Sheldon, which I’ve also been reading, and love. There’ll be a guest blog post by James on Digital Play soon, so watch this space.
• In James Paul Gee’s latest post ‘10 truths about books‘ , he mentions that ‘ lots of people who understand games, don’t understand books and lots of people who understand books, don’t understand games‘ and then goes on to write 10 ways in which books and video games are the same. He finishes by mentioning some of the special properties games have that set them aside from books: i) ‘Games are based not on content, but on problems to solve. The content of a game (what it is “about”) exists to serve problem solving‘ ii) ‘Games can lead to more than thinking like a designer; they can lead to designing‘ iii) ‘Gamers co-author the games they play by the choices they make and how they choose to solve problems, since what they do can affect the course and sometimes the outcome of the game.’ iv) ‘Games are most often played socially and involve collaboration and competition.’ It’s this last one that is least widely recognised, I think – at least the first part of it.

So, lots to read and think about there – and it’s only February. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year brings in this widening field.

Similar in concept to a Tamagotchi, but on the Web, it can be used in the young learner language classroom successfully, but the teacher has to be careful because not everything in the game lends itself to language learning or practice. When I started using the site I also found that Moshi Monsters quickly became the only thing my 9-10 year-olds would ask for, so I decided to limit our use to ten minutes and during a specific section of the class (just after the break).

Moshi Monsters works well in the Primary language class, especially if you have a connected classroom (i.e. a computer with Internet and a projector) and is best used if it forms a regular part of the class routine.

You can set up the account with the class, choose from one of four monsters and give the creature a name – all of this works very well when done with the class as it helps create a sense of ownership and it’s a great way to promote a spoken discussion.

Just like the Tamagotchi, your Moshi monster needs regular attention or the mood will turn sour (as in the picture above – now the class is over, nobody is looking after poor Panchito!) and so be warned. When I first started using the site, I only logged in during classtime and this meant our mosnter was always sad or grumpy, which affected the mood of the class, and meant that it was difficult to increase his level. I fixed this by giving the password to the learners, so they were able to look after the monster during the week. This went well for a while until most of the learners ended up creating their own Moshi monster.

The Moshi monsters world (left) is full of interesting places to visit, with shops where you can buy food, furniture and clothes. Most of the places you can visit with your learners, but there are a few areas that are only open to premium (i.e. paid) members. However, these can easily be avoided.

Apart from talking about the monster, making sure he/she is happy, buying food, eating, shopping, and visiting places, there are a number of activities that are worth doing and which include language practice.

The first of these involves making new friends. You can ask anyone you meet for friendship, visit their house and leave notes on their pinboard. This means you can involve the learners in writing as in the example (left).

If the learners in the class end up getting their own monsters, then you can make friends with them, visit their homes and send notes to them, which is what I ended up doing in my class.

It is worth mentioning that You may have to talk to the parents of the students to explain why you are doing this.

Moshi Monsters offers an interesting combination of games and education.  The best of the games is found at the Hall of Puzzles (below), where you can choose from a variety of puzzle games to play. Winning puzzles earns virtual rewards called Rox, which you can use in the shops. It’s also a way of increasing the good mood of the virtual monster.

Most of the puzzles of the day require knowledge of language to complete (such as the one on the left), and apart from the puzzle of the day, you can choose other ones to play too, which allow for more practice about colours, numbers, the alphabet, shapes, etc.

In summary, Moshi Monsters makes for a fun addition to any Primary classroom and offers a safe environment for your young learners to interact with each other (if you encourage them to open their own accounts), allowing for a fun and interesting extension of the classroom.

The look and feel of this community is cute and will appeal to young learners from about 4 or 5 years old up to 10 or 11. Pre-teens will probably find the look and feel too childish.

If your answer to any of these questions was ‘Yes’ then why not play it again?  Maybe you can’t.  Either you or your parents sold on your console or simply at some point it broke and never got replaced, became obsolete or you just moved on.  Nowadays, though, you don’t need to dust off an old piece of electronics from the attic or scour ebay to relive those digital days gone by.  Use an online emulator.  Here is a list of a few online emulators that allow you to play those games from years ago:

1 ZX Spectrum

If you owned a spectrum in the 80s or 90s then this is the site for you. This site has a listing of spectrum games through the golden years from 1982 to the mid 90s. What’s great about this site? Well if the errrr-eek sound of a loading spectrum game cassette holds a lot of nostalgia for you I’m afraid this site has got rid of that. However, if you get misty eyed at the mention of Manic miner or Elite then both these games and more can be played online and for free. Get playing now!

2 Atari

Remember those clunky cartridges you had to shove in the machine at the top? Well, whether it was the Atari arcade games or one of the home cartridge games that you used to play then one of these sites is for you. Do you remember staring at awe at the amazing graphics? Well goggle no more if you’ve played any game from this decade.

3 Commodore 64

I only knew one kid with a commodore 64 at school which may say something about the PC system or not. Nevertheless, I got the impression that Commodore owners were very much a minority. No doubt this debate is continued by our young learners with the xbox versus playstation debate. What’s the commodore equivalent then? If you had this system or would just like to see what all this fuss is about then play one of their games and get misty eyed with ‘paperboy’ or ‘ghosts and goblins’.

4 Apple

Apple design has certainly got sexier over the years. Anyone remember this little number? Possibly not but for those of you that do then why not play a few of their old timey games on the virtual apple site.  Can anyone spot the similarities between this (picture on the right) and the new ipods and ipads? I don’t!

5 80s 90s arcade games

Maybe you spent a lot of your misspent childhood playing or hanging around game arcades. I know john Connor in Terminator II did. Maybe you played Missile Command or After Burner like he did in the film. If you didn’t and another title was the joystick/roller ball of your choice then check out this 80s arcade game site – it lets you play your favourite 80s arcade game.

6 Gameboy

Over 20 years old now and superceeded by a whole generation of different handheld gaming platforms. Still, at one time you may have been that kid on the bus/train/ waiting room/ playground (delete as appropriate) and may want to see some of those Gameboy games again. You may have to configure the keys before you ‘Load ROM’ (the game you want) but I’m sure it’ll be worth that little inconvenience.

Now you have to ask yourself:

• What would your learners think of you playing these games?
• What would they think of the games themselves?
• How do they differ to games nowadays?
• What do they think of the look of the hardware itself?
• Can they name 6 differences between the consoles and games of then and now?
• How have the specifications changed?
• How has gaming changed for them over the years?

1  Point and click

These games rely on you moving the cursor around the screen and clicking the mouse.  By printing off a written walkthrough or by using a video walkthrough, a large variety of language activities can be generated.   Try a relay dictation using either a written or video walkthrough or simply use either of them yourself to dictate game play.  Alternatively check out these games – the anti-bullying Dixie the Nerd, a selection of ten point-and-click games and their walkthroughs or Windosill.

2 Escape the room

A sub genre of point and click games where typically you have to find and possibly combine objects in a room or house to get out through a locked door.  As previously mentioned above, with a written walkthrough or a video walkthrough a large variety of language activities can be generated.  You could also get learners to write out their own walkthroughs as they play.  Alternatively check out these games – MOTAS, Kitchen Escape or the scary reader for the the zombie game I Remain.

3 Arcade

Arcade games generally rely on reaction speeds rather than logic or puzzle solving skills. Passing to the next stage usually means completing a simple task within a specific time limit. The next stage and subsequent stages usually require the player to complete the same task but with an increasing complexity or in a faster time. Language generated tends to be quite simple and repetitive.  Some of these games are great for drilling the language of directions (pacman), colours (sveerz) and spelling (Alphaattack and Type ‘em up).

4. Puzzle Games

These games tend to be quite abstract and typically involve arranging geometric forms to achieve a goal (e.g. Tetris). Puzzles usually involve solving rather simple problems. Problem solving games generally test a players awareness of patterns and/ or short term memory.  Language generated tends to be isolated to individual language items such as object vocabulary, instructions and prepositions.  Puzzle games include spookymatch or Orbox.  They are great games to play as a reward for good work or behaviour as they are generally over very quickly or can be paused and returned to later.

5 Strategy Games

This is a game in which the gamer is presented with a number of possible choices in game play which will effect how they progress in the game. Try the games stop disasters, 3rd world farmer or Age of Empires.  The first two provide a context for some interesting discussions when used in a classroom while the last one takes place over a longer time frame and provides writing practice and an opportunity for learners to report on the game and progress in class time.

6 Adventure Games

Adventure games are a sub genre of point and click games but usually differ in that the game has got strong narrative elements.  There is usually a central character, a storyline, objectives to be achieved, an enemy and an outcome at the end.  Games covered in this genre on this blog include Morningstar (a sci-fi story), The Miller Estate (a spooky mystery), Hetherdale ( a jungle adventure) and Avalon (a fantasy text based adventure game) to name just four.

7 Casual Games

These games are aimed at a mass audience of people who tend to play games on a casual basis.  These games have been brought into the news recently with their rise in popularity on social network sites such as facebook.  Games such as farmville, mafia wars, scrabble like game, word games and puzzles can all be included in this genre.  Why not ask your learners if they play any and if they play any in common then get them to describe and compare their game playing.  Here’s a list of 10 casual games on facebook.

8 Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs)

Is a computer role playing genre in which a massive number of players interact with one another within a fictional virtual world.  The player assumes the role and takes control of the actions of a fictional character.  There are a lot of MMORPGs out there but one we have looked at already on this blog is Astro Empires.  The most famous MMORPG is probably World of Warcraft.

9 Alternate Reality Games

Sometimes abbreviated to an ARG.  These games consist of an interactive narrative that is based in the real world.  Typically they often use multiple media and game elements, to establish a narrative that the gamer can affect by either contributing ideas or taking actions.  Two ARGs we’ve already looked at on this blog were Smokescreen and Urgent Evoke.  We have also done a spotlight on ARG developer Jane McGonigal.

10 Virtual Worlds

This is a computer based simulated environment which has a strong online community element.  A virtual world such as second life has generated a lot of interest in education.   Here is a post we did on a Robin Hood learning Quest in Second Life.

Spent is a very different type of text adventure. It’s not interactive fiction – firstly, because it deals with a very serious subject : poverty. It is also primarily composed of written text, unlike Inanimate Alice.

Here’s a handout for Advanced students to support the game in class (If you prefer, you can download a printable version here)

http://playspent.org/ is an online game that hopes to raise awareness about what it’s like to be extremely poor in the USA.

Before playing the game, let’s look at the premise of the game.

A) Before playing

1) What do you think will be the most difficult problems of your month of poverty? How will you solve them?

2) Find expressions in the text above that mean the same as these:

• the condition of being extremely poor
• a building protecting you from danger or bad weather
• less than the minimum level of income necessary for an adequate standard of living
• not having enough money or food
• own very little or have little money

B) While playing

Now let’s play the game. While playing, tick any of the following words and phrases that are used during the game. If you don’t last a month, try playing again and changing your choices.

C) After playing

1) How do you feel about your answer to question A 1) – were your predictions right?

2) Which of the words and phrases did you come across while playing? Do you remember how they were used and what they mean? Try to explain the meaning to your partner using other words

Answers

A) Before playing

2) Expressions

One definition of gamification is the use of features usually found in games in areas of life which are usually game free. Only time will tell if this buzzword becomes the next big thing as some people are predicting, but meanwhile, sites such as Chore Wars can help you make a game of some of the most uninteresting but necessary tasks of life.

Chore Wars

Although Chore Wars has been designed to turn housework into an adventure game, the site is flexible enough to let you customise adventures, which means it can be converted for use in the classroom.

Let’s look at this through an example.

I have a class of teenagers studying for the Cambridge First Certificate in English exam and in order to prepare yourself for this exam, you have to do a lot of practice tests. The problem is that doing these tests frequently becomes routine and repetitive, which is where Chore Wars can help.

Getting Started

I started by setting up an account on the site and creating a number of adventures. You can then create a number of adventures from scratch, which is what I did. I

I made each part of the exam an adventure that when claimed, earns the player XP (experience points) , gold coins and the possibility of finding treasure. The learners (players) can see the scores of the others too, which adds an element of competition to doing practice tests. I also made the rewards on the more difficult parts of the exam higher to motivate the learners into doing them.

Introducing Chore Wars to Students

The idea is to encourage the students to do more exam practice tests by making it fun. After I’d set up the adventures, I introduced the learners to the concept in the classroom and then we went to the computer room.

There, they created their characters, choosing what they looked like and giving themselves a name.

Joining the Party

They then joined my party of adventurers. The best way to do this is to give them the link to join on a simple webpage. I used http://pen.io for this, which lets you create a webpage instantly, without any need to log in. You can see the page I set up here: http://chorewars.pen.io/.

Adventuring

Once they’d joined the party, I asked them to start doing some practice tests on a site called Flo-Jo, and as they finished, they claimed the adventure on Chore Wars.

Student Reaction

Another reason why I chose to use Chore Wars was because I have a number of students who play online adventure games, and so the concept of XP, collecting gold coins, etc was familiar to them and they needed no introduction to the idea of turning the FCE exam into an adventure. It went down well with them and they happily ploughed through a number of practice tests and started to claim the adventures.

There are other students in the class, however, who do not play these games, and it was more difficult for them to see the point of the game. They seemed a little bit bemused by the concept, but I hope and trust this will change in time, as they become more familiar with it.

Managing the Adventure

I am the Dungeon Master (the game controller) of the FCE Ninjas Chore Wars adventure, which means I have control over what adventures to set, etc. I can change the number of XP, gold coins and possibility of treasure of each adventure. I’d do this to encourage the students to do part of the exam they are reluctant to do.

It’s early days, but I have already seen a potential problem that I have to deal with that could spoil the game if I am not careful: cheating

Cheating

Chore Wars is based on a trust system. Players claim an adventure and this relies on their honesty. However, I could see that some of the students were very interested in knowing how the game worked, and have just spotted that one in particular wanted to see how it was possible to increase his level and XP.

Look at the screenshot below and you’ll see that this student (abaairenjy in the game) logged in and continued playing after class. I know that by looking at the times he claimed the adventures. We were in the computer room for 20 minutes, from 6.00-6.20pm and he did two practice tests while we were there. But, he also logged into Chore Wars at home, at 10pm and played the game, increasing his XP and level from level 1 to level 3. I know that it’s impossible he did 9 practice tests in this time (10 minutes!) and so will have to call him on it next class.

The good news about this activity is that he’s interested enough to do it at home to see how it works, but this will destroy the game if his cheating is allowed to continue. This is what I have decided to do now:

• I will draw the class’s attention to the cheating next time we meet. I’ll do this and ask them to decide how to deal with it. We’ll do this through negotiation and it’ll make for an interesting class discussion on honesty and what everyone thinks about cheating and of obeying the rules of games.
• I have left a comment for Alejandro, so he knows I am onto him (see screenshot below)
• I am going to suggest that all the class does what Alejandro has claimed, in the same order. That way, they too can claim them too, and they will get similar XP, treasure, and advance in levels. If they don’t like the choice of exercises, they have Alejandro to blame!

I hope this strategy will work. There are other things you can do, as Dungeon Master, to allow you to manage your adventures, which are particularly interesting if you want to manage the adventures in the classroom.

Classroom Management

You have various options with characters, giving players permissions to create their own adventures, etc. I have changed the role of the players’ characters to NPC (non playing character) which means that I can claim adventures on their behalf (see screenshot below). This means that the learners won’t have to log in to be able to claim XP, etc. When we do a practice test in the classroom, I can quickly run through the character list and claim points for everyone there and then. I am also planning to claim adventures only for those students who actually pass a particular practice test.

Final Thoughts

How successful Chore Wars is with my class remains to be seen, but I think the potential is there to increase the interest my students have in FCE practice tests, turning the completion of them into a game, and hopefully motivating them to do more homework (not just the tests I assign them). Whatever happens now, it’s already proving to be an interesting adventure for the teacher!

Level: Pre-intermediate +

Location: Connected classroom

Language focus:  Wh- (QASI) forms

Game: Peter Answers

Preparation

Ask learners to write down three questions.  there are three rules:

1. The answers have to be the names of people in the room.
2. They should try and use about 45 characters (punctuation or spaces or letters = 1 character)
3. They should be questions that have got answers only people in the room know.
4. Learners write their questions while you monitor.

Play

Explain that you are going to ask the questions to an online virtual Tarot reader.

Point out that you first have to type in Peter, please answer the following:

Point out that you then type in a learner’s question and then press return and you will then get the answer.

NOTE

The secret is that in the petition box you first put a full stop before writing the answer to the question you are going to type in.

This is a trick program that simply means that if you start the petition with a full stop you can then write the answer to the question you type in next without anyone realising.  While you write, for example, “.Who is wearing a red t-shirt . . . ” on the screen you see “Peter, please answer the fol (lowing:).

Your learners will be amazed.

Post activity

Learners say a question they want to ask ‘Peter answers’.  If the question is not grammatically correct simply say “I’m sorry.  Peter only accepts grammatically correct questions.”  This encourages either the individual or the class to review and correct the question.  If the answer isn’t immediately apparent then make excuses.  e.g.

Learner “What’s the name of my mother?”

Teacher “If the screen can’t see the answer, I’m afraid Peter can’t answer that.”

Be careful choosing to tell your learners the secret because you may want to use the game in another class.  If you do use it in class again it may be the case at least one of your learners went home and found out the secret to Peter answers.  You can generally find this out by keeping an eye and ear out next time you bring the game up again.  If there is a learner who knows the secret then they can come up and type in the questions.

Location: Computer room

Topic: Revision & test of course book vocabulary.

Language focus: Reading

Game:  Blockbusters

How to play

Your learner plays the single red team against the computer (the two blue guys).  The aim of the game is to make a white line across the board from top to bottom (or the other way round) by answering questions to which the answers start with the letter in the hexagon.

This game is actually designed to challenge native English speakers so may prove particularly hard to English language learners.  However, playing the game gives them a very quick way to learn how to play the game.  You could get them to play in pairs and predict the instructions.  They then read the instructions (button on the bottom right) to see if the were right.

Now they have a better understanding of what the game blockbusters is they can now have a go at writing their own powerpoint version.

Blockbusters Template

You could ask learners to only use their coursebooks to find vocabulary items.  This makes the activity a fun revision activity while the actual playing of the game becomes a fun test.   Make sure they read the instructions on slide 3 carefully.  I find that it usually takes a little bit of trial and error to figure out what to do but once someone in the class has figured it out they can always explain it to others.

NOTE

There’s no reason why you can’t use the Blockbuster Template with much lower levels.  Unfortunately the online game is too difficult for lower levels.  It would also be good if the game paused for bigger intervals and there wasn’t a time limit between being given the question and having to give the answer.  If there was that would be a great opportunity for a dictionary race.  They could read the question, identify the answer in their own language, look it up in a translation dictionary and give the answer in English.  Oh well!