Games in education for exciting and creative learning

Our kids go to schools to prepare for the future – but none of us can quite imagine what that entails. A good teacher needs to nurture the skills that will be useful regardless of how the world transforms. “We as educators have the responsibility to help develop the skills children will need to succeed in their lives and make the world a better place,” says Kyriakos Koursaris, an expert on educational technology, a passionate teacher, and a Minecraft Global Mentor. We’ve talked to him about what it means to be a modern teacher, guiding children in their learning process, and the immense potential of games in the classroom. 

Kyriakos, you are an epitome of a modern teacher. What do you think are the most crucial qualities and skills that teachers will need in the future?

Traditionally, the role of a teacher has been the transmitter of knowledge and skills. One of the learners has been that of passive recipients. However, technology progress, amplified by the pandemic, has been contributing to the change of pedagogy from teacher-centered to learner-centered approaches. That’s proof that it is no longer enough for teachers merely to impact content knowledge. They must shift from the role of “sage on the stage” to one of “guide on the side”. As a result, they will accompany their students better and promote deep and meaningful learning.

The notion of “teacher” will change significantly in the future. In the traditional, one-size-fits-all learning model, teachers are responsible for everything that happens in the classroom. As distance and hybrid learning grows, students will experience multiple learning modalities from various sources. Sometimes they will connect with a teacher online to learn, and other times it’ll be in person to understand a certain concept. This creates opportunities for teachers to specialize, particularly in schools where they work in teams in the same learning environment. In the future, we will see educators choose among a variety of options- They could pursue the path of a content expert, small-group leader, mentor, evaluator, and data expert.

These new roles demand that teachers have strong critical thinking and troubleshooting skills. They also need high levels of initiative and flexibility. On top of that, they should strive for excellence, work both independently and collaboratively, and adapt to change, challenges, and new territory. But above all else, teachers need to be inspiring. Children require guidance, but even more so, inspiration. This enables us to reach out to each one of them in a deeply personalized way.

The pandemic showed us that education could happen even at home, in front of the screen. On the one hand, we implemented innovative tech with less resistance. On another, kids reported demotivation, loneliness, stress, and even health issues. Walk us through the good, bad, and ugly of schools during the pandemic.

The pandemic and subsequent shift to distance learning served as a wake-up call for schools, educational institutions, and governments around the world. On one side, our capacity to improvise, adapt and overcome was put to the test. We all did our very best to try and move the class from school to home. We had to innovate and anticipate technologies, digital tools, and online systems by ten years in the future. And we had to do it in an extremely short time frame. Schools and organizations that had a plan in place achieved great things in such a short time. 

However, this was not the reality for many others. The shift exposed their biggest flaws and gaps across all educational, administrative, and operational processes. In these cases, and there were many of them, the first to suffer from lack of support and guidance were the students. Subsequently, it was the families that had to take a more direct role in their children’s education. This is not to say that they did not eventually bounce back and improve; many did as they were trying to figure everything out on the go. But it took its toll on the students. It continued to do so even after all processes were ironed out. Students started to realize that they were mostly missing their social-emotional connections and experiences. 

A successful child is integrated into its social groups and plays an active part in the societal simulation that schools offer. When that is taken away, the digital experience can try and fill in some of the gaps. However, it is impossible to replicate it consistently for long periods. On the other hand, this exposure brought a new wave of awareness. It turned into one of the most important aspects of development for schools to focus, nourish and support.

What about the toll that the situation took on teachers?

As for teachers, a tremendous amount of responsibility was on their shoulders. Many would struggle to maintain a consistent and healthy learning environment across all their students. Even though the tools in place definitely helped reach every student, personalized support and learning were impacted negatively. That contributed to the pressure and anxiety of everyone involved in the learning process. We all learned a lot, and in my opinion, we all did the best we could under the circumstances. We all recognize that the child here is the center of all supportive efforts. However, I am not looking forward to going back to distance learning. No matter how well we can manage it, there is something irreplaceable in physical classroom environments.

You use games as skill-building exercises in your class. What are your observations about students in such an innovative classroom?

As I mentioned many times before, I am not trying to turn my students into gamers. I am trying to turn these gamers into students. The benefits of game-based learning have been studied and proven by many studies in the past years. One study in particular from 2016 highlighted many educational benefits from the use of Minecraft in a classroom setting. First of all, it brings a positive learning environment, peer support, and help in overcoming obstacles during gameplay. It also contributes to increased determination when met with challenges. Lastly, kids show an improved ability to produce high-quality work. 

During my time with games in the classroom, I have observed those same effects on our students and teachers. It turns classes into a two-way communication experience. Everyone is learning with and through each other.

Moreover, for the past two decades, it has been proven again and again that one of the most effective ways to nurture the 21st century’s trademark skills—creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration—is by creating opportunities for kids to do what kids do naturally: play. The likes of Minecraft put creativity and problem-solving at the forefront of the interactive experience. Such games promote learning by trial and error, which in turn engages the player. It also allows for deep and meaningful learning to take place.

Games, in general, can introduce goals, interaction, feedback, competition, narrative, and fun learning environments. These elements can increase learner engagement and sustain motivation. Also, games maintain a positive relationship with failure by making feedback cycles rapid and keeping the stakes low. On the other hand, in traditional teaching methods, the stakes of failure are high and the feedback cycles long. Students have few opportunities to try, and when they do, it is high stakes.

There are many parents out there who worry about their little gamers. Can you explain how to benefit from games? What should parents consider when agreeing on gaming ground rules with their kids?

For parents at home, it is important to understand that video games are not nannies. We can’t assume that children can stay on their own accord for hours upon hours immersed in virtual worlds. Like everything in life, moderation is key, as well as a consistent schedule. Parents need to make sure that kids are gaming in the right place, at the right time, and for the right reasons. This requires their active involvement in this process and awareness of what their child is consuming. 

This does not necessarily mean that parents always have to be playing alongside their children. But they must make an effort to understand what their child is exploring and why they find it so compelling. They should accompany their children in this activity because it strengthens the relationship between a gamer, game, and observer. As a result, children feel they are being noticed. It means a lot to be appreciated for the time and effort they are putting into interacting with virtual worlds.

In your TEDx talk, you talked about Minecraft in the classroom. Can you give us examples of some of the coolest projects that Minecraft has enabled?

There are hundreds of amazing projects and examples done by incredible educators and their students worldwide using Minecraft: Education Edition. It is tough to choose the coolest ones since everyone brings something new to the formula. Minecraft, being such a flexible and immersive tool, can be applied across the whole spectrum of curricular subjects and projects. The only limitation is the imagination.

One of my favorite projects that I have contributed to has been constructing the ancient city of Lisbon, Olisipo. 5th-year students used Minecraft: Education Edition to recreate it in Roman times, on a one-to-one scale. The project was inspired by the Portuguese documentary “Fundeadouro Romano em Olisipo”. It was completely integrated into the subject’s curriculum standards. Another project I helped put together has been the live-action recreation of a fictional novel by Portuguese writer Afonso Cruz. The challenge was to read and interpret the artist’s work by recreating the book’s short stories inside Minecraft. Students had to design sets and outfits and act and film their parts to bring these unique characters to life.

Another notable project created by extraordinary educational teams is Sustainability City. It’s a world for exploring aspects of sustainable living, from forestry to wastewater, recycling to clean energy, and more. Microsoft itself used this world to publish its annual sustainability report for 2021. As a result, the report turned into something interactive that students can explore and learn about sustainable development and the environment.

I also had the privilege to help shape the “Sustainability Shuffle”, considered the world’s largest Minecraft class ever. This project had the same Minecraft world travel around the world. Students from different countries and schools would demonstrate their understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by constructing possible solutions for the goals they would decide to work on. Once a group was done, the world would then be shared with the next group elsewhere. They would download it and continue adding to the same world.

We’re teaching kids to prepare them for the future. However, the world is transforming so rapidly that the jobs they’ll have probably don’t even exist yet. How do you teach children to think about thinking?

The late Sir Ken Robinson, one of the most brilliant minds of the century regarding educational transformation, argued that “creativity is as important now in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement, and we cannot underestimate its importance. 

Indeed, we are currently living in a world where 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. We as educators have the responsibility to help them develop the skills they will need to succeed in their lives and make the world a better place than it is today. We are responsible for teaching our students how to memorize facts and reflect on them in abstract terms. The children need to apply critical and computational thinking and explore content through an artistic and empathic lens. For this reason, learning must become more personalized and engaging. It needs to focus on collaboration, give students a voice, and allow them to resolve real-world problems through immersive and engaging experiences.

What would you pinpoint as crucial qualities to develop when the future is so unpredictable?

Creativity is the one skill that glues everything together and provides kids with a framework to develop as citizens of an ever-changing world properly.

With creativity being treated as a skill with the same importance as reading, writing, and arithmetics, we can be certain that children will have the confidence and proper head start to develop other crucial skills. Among them are critical thinking and problem-solving, collaboration, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, and of course, curiosity and imagination. 

These skills will take them places, allow them to look at the world and its problems with a positive attitude, and do their best to make it as good as possible.

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Kyriakos Koursaris

Kyriakos Koursaris holds a Music Education & Didactics degree with a Masters in Choir Conducting from Charles University in Prague, as well as a Port-Graduate Specialization Course on Technologies and Robotics in Primary Education from the University of Lisbon.

In 2008 he discovered his real passion, which is educational technology. He works as the Learning Innovation & Technology Integration Specialist at United Lisbon International School in Lisbon, Portugal, where he administers and facilitates technology-rich teaching and learning, guides collaborative curricular innovation as well as faculty and staff training/support, and ensures system service, reliability, and consistency.

Kyriakos previously taught the IGCSE Computer Science course in Y9-10 and has worked as a music teacher for a decade in grades K-7. He has been honored to participate as a speaker in national and international forums such as the BTF21 EDU Day, the Hacking Future Skills webinar organized by the European Schoolnet, BBF EDU Day ’20, LGW 2019 International Gamification Seminar, Code Week 2019, TEDxLarnaca 2019, the parliamentary conference “Tecnologia e Pedagogia: O que ensinar? Como ensinar?” at the Assembly of the Republic, EDU Day ’18, the #MakeWhatsNext: Changing the Face of STEM regional event, BETT 2018, the Annual EUDojo17 Event held in the European Parliament in Brussels, as well as the ECIS Annual Educators Conference 2016.

Throughout his career, Kyriakos has successfully implemented the use of Minecraft in school curriculums across the country and has pioneered the platform’s educational utilization at a national and international level. For his contribution to connected and game-based learning, he was recognized as a SingularityU Portugal Faculty, an advisory board member for Lisboa Games Week (Educational Services), an MIE (Microsoft Innovative Educator) Expert and Fellow, a Microsoft Certified Educator, a Minecraft Global Mentor, an EU Code Week Leading Teacher, as well as a Google Certified Educator.

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