Small, browser-based games can be great in your language classes because of their manageable scope, shallow learning curve, and their accessibility. Fitting into a single lesson, they can create conversation opportunities and prompts. For instance, the 20 questions game, derived from a traditionally non-digital game, provides an always present conversation Read more…
My article titled “Selection Criteria for Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Video Games for Language Learning” was published in the IALLT Journal yesterday. The journal is open access, so you can just click on the link and start reading. Link to article Link to the PDF Version
There’s an annual competition and price in Germany for pedagogically sound games, called the “Pädi.” Not all these games are good for language learning, of course, but it’s an interesting list to look at. There are two age categories, one for children and one for teenagers. One social game I particularly liked Read more…
Quest for the Rest is a great little browser game that lends itself for one language class and that I’ve been using for quite some time now, so I thought I’d share my thoughts. The game free and easily accessible here without any downloads. There is no text in this brief Read more…
For several years now one of the most versatile game I’ve used in the language centers at Pomona College and Rhodes College is a PS3 game called Buzz. Here’s how it works: up to 8 players each take a wireless controller, which sports 4 brightly colored buttons and a large “Buzz” button. Read more…
In my last two posts I wrote about applications that are located between games and digital storytelling: Dear Esther and StoryLines. Today’s post is about the Story Wheel iOS app, in which multiple players spin a virtual wheel. There are several animated pictures on each wheel, and they are thematically related (the Read more…
Last week I wrote about the narrative game StoryLines. Today’s pick is arguably not even a real game, but more like an interactive novel: Dear Esther. There aren’t really any goals that have to be accomplished. No tasks or choices, no levels(there are “chapters”), no upgrades, no overt rewards other than Read more…
I just finished revising a book chapter I wrote on new forms of narratives, which includes several applications that are neither games nor digital storytelling software in the traditional sense. So I decided to write about one of those applications in this post (StoryLines) and a few others (e.g. Dear Read more…
A while ago the Goethe Institut released a mobile Game, Lernabenteuer Deutsch – Das Geheimnis der Himmelsscheibe, to Practice German. I played through much of the iPad version, but other platforms are supported as well: iOS (iPhone, iPod touch), Android, and a browser-based version. All versions are free and worked flawlessly. Read more…
It was great to see the increased interest in gaming and language learning at this year’s CALICO conference. The most promising actual uses of gaming were built on a free platform called ARIS, which combines gaming and storytelling elements by using a location-aware iOS app. I had played around with Read more…