Gamers know the power of ‘flow’ — what if learners could harness it too?
Gamers know the power of ‘flow’ — what if learners could harness it too?
Gamers know the power of ‘flow’ — what if learners could harness it too?
By Simon McCallum, Edward Schofield, Stephen Dobson
August 1, 2021
Summary
One of the constant challenges in education is keeping the learner engaged, motivated and connected in a world increasingly filled with distractions.
Schools relied on classrooms full of children learning the same material together, their shared attention helping to reduce distractions during focused moments of teaching.
Over time, various strategies for combating distraction have been developed, including offering students a smorgasbord of learning experiences, or cutting the length of lectures to account for the tyranny of concentration spans.
With online teaching making it harder for institutions to control the learning environment, it becomes imperative to making learning activities themselves more engaging in a screen-mediated environment.
Understanding how games grab and hold attention can help with the design and implementation of new online learning tools.
Even some politicians are learning from games and using them to engage with the public.
We need to play with distraction, work with distraction and learn with distraction.
Reference
McCallum, S., Schofield, E., & Dobson, S. (2021, August 01). Gamers know the power of 'flow' - what if learners could harness it too? Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/gamers-know-the-power-of-flow-what-if-learners-could-harness-it-too-164943