Using randomness better in learning experiences: Or, how to go beyond simple dice, spinners and card draws
Using randomness better in learning experiences: Or, how to go beyond simple dice, spinners and card draws
Using randomness better in learning experiences: Or, how to go beyond simple dice, spinners and card draws
By Terry Pearce
November 1 2023
Summary
How you implement randomness - or whether you use it at all - can make a big difference to a learning game or playful learning experience.
Here's a practical low-down on the different kinds of randomness and uncertainty and how you could introduce them into your learning game, or playful learning experience.
Randomness provides helpful uncertainty in your learning game Chess would seem to stand as an example of a successful game without randomness.
Randomness adds tension, and simulates the randomness of real life.
Randomness is just one kind of uncertainty Before taking a dive into different random elements ask yourself whether it's really randomness you need.
This kind of randomness can leave players at the mercy of unlikely or unfair-seeming results but some argue that it creates better tension, with a better 'story'.
Think about other ways to decide things Remember that most of the time, randomness is a way of deciding something - how many squares somebody will move, whether they win a battle, how much a certain resource costs next turn.
Reference
Pearce, T. (n.d.). Using randomness better in learning experiences: Or, how to go beyond. Untold Play. https://untoldplay.com/blogs/untold-play/using-randomness-better-in-learning-experiences-or-how-to-go-beyond-simple-dice-spinners-and-card-draws