OUP Webinar: Using Games for win-win learning

Attending webinars from the comfort of your own home is a fantastic experience!

 Image courtesy of google images

This morning I attended an excellent OUP Webinar presented by John Hughes, called 'Using Games for win-win learning'.  You can read all about it in this informative OUP blog post here:

https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2018/01/25/using-games-win-win-learning/

You can register to attend the same webinar repeated on Thursday February 15th.  Details from the OUP website are here

I enjoy playing games with my learners and in this webinar I learned more about the rationale behind using games for learning, and most importantly of all, the presenter offered many practical examples of varied types of games.  It was an interactive session with interesting polls, text chat opportunities and games such as charades, being played. Handouts were made available at the close of the session, and these will be invaluable for future lessons.

The important thing about games is that they can be used with every type of learner, and used judiciously, games can make language points and vocabulary more memorable.  They are indeed a hidden type of repetition drill and if the students are engaged and 'in the flow,' they will not notice that behind the fun, there is a serious element to learning going on.  Gamifying teaching in a pedagogical and meaningful way can lead to more learner engagment and motivation.

The book Games for Language Learning, by Andrew Wright et al. was mentioned in the session. I have had this book in my personal collection for a while.  It is a rich resource, full of fantastic and easy to implement ideas for games.  According to the author, games as drills form a 'living communication', and this is an interesting point to note.

During the lively session, attended by over 300 teachers from around the globe, I learned about the 5 'C's that are vital components for a good and enjoyable game:

Some interesting links included one to Gareth's Short Story Blog

In the article,  the focus was on 'Rory's Storytelling Cubes'.  I will need to investigate this resource, which looks fun.

The notion of 'FLOW' during a game is important, and the book called 'FLOW- The Psychology of Optimal Experience' by Mihaly Csikszent  was referred to in the webinar.

The use of QR codes in games such as treasure hunts was also mentioned inthe slide presentation.  This article QR codes: A treasure hunt, by Nicky Hockly, Director of Pedagogy of the renowned Consultants-e Edtech training website, contains an excellent post about how to go about organizing a treasure or scavenger hunt using mobile phones and QR codes.

I was so engaged in following the presentation and doing the activities and adding replies in the text chat box, that the one hour session flew past!

I would like to take this opportunity to say ..........

 ........ to OUP for this exciting series of  practical and worthwhile webinars, and to John Hughes for the inspirational presentation today!!