Learning Mechanics in The Land of Venn
A teacher needs to search for two central elements when it comes to games in the classroom: games that empower the knowledge experience and games that allow active experimenting in learned ideas. More specifically, a teacher needs to find games that are built in a way that they can serce as background screen on the classroom, in which, on top of them, teaching of ideas/concepts can be taught. In each class there could be about 5-minutes of learning until kids lose concentartation and become passive. Using a screen from a game gets 100% of a kids' attention, making the explanation more rooted in memory, teasding all of their senses. For example, in our geometry game, The land of Venn: Geonetric Defense, there are explanation screens. A teacher can pause the game and explain about the characteristics of a triangle or how to create a trapezooid, as well as invite a student to repeat successfully what he or she learned from the screen. From our experience, enthusiasm occurs at this point. A teacher also needs games that allow for practical learning of a theory that is taught in a classroom. This means that a game can enable students to go theough the thinking process related ti the learning presented on paper and in a game. For example, when experimenting with equations to find which is a preferred angle, perhaps from in a park, then test the result. This is real practice in real life.
