Game-Based Learning

Gory videos make the dangers of bad driving real, but driving simulations help students learn from virtual experiences without causing harm. Online games can expose participants to different types of misinformation and guide them through the skills required to make informed judgements about information .Simulations are powerful because they select from complex environments to provide cues and outcomes that reinforce the aspects students need to become aware of. A “choose your own adventure” offers choices and paths that train the user in the logic and values embedded in the text.

While some teachers can call on “Dungeons and Dragons” backgrounds to improvise simulations or create CYOAs with Twine, it is hard to compete with a well-designed and rich simulation that provides students with situations and information to respond to, accessing the skills and strategies they have developed as gamers. Games can provide experiences for forming concepts and skills, or for demonstrating their attainment. Nature published a large-scale study of one such game, Bad News, that improves the ability to spot and resist misinformation.

Games are also uniquely motivating and absorbing for today's students. An ideal educational simulation for inclusion in Fake News Fitness would:

1. Have clear learning targets that position the game within an intentional sequence of lessons

2. Include pre- and post- tests to measure achievement of learning targets, including skills, knowledge and attitudes.

3. Meeting adolescent needs for social connection, self-efficacy, and fun.

However, we believe games should not be used as standalone learning. Students do not trust that simulations reflect the real world and can prepare them for it (they know it’s “only a game”). Even if there are immediate post-game impacts, the "staying power" of these lessons should hook in to intrinsic motivation in the context of developing civic identity.