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Josip Matos Primary School is a primary school for students with special needs (intellectual disabilities, autism, cerebral palsy). Students age are 7 to 21 years, and usually classes are 5 to 9 students. I work as a school psychologist with students (individually and in classes). I work on social and emotional development of students. For this task I choose a class with 9 students with mild intellectual disabilities, speech problems and learning problems, one girl is with autism spectrum disorder. Age of students is 13-14 years, 7th grade.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 5.2. Game on

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 5.2. Game on

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The role of teacher is to prepare everything for gamified lesson, and to guide students and give them support if they need it. The role of students is to taking active part in lesson. Possible challenges are adjusting a tasks to all students (e.g. if there is a student with special needs; student with disability or gifted student), because different student need different approach. Also, good planing is important, sometimes we need to take consider that students are not always motivated for this kind of work in the school. I like idea of competition and rewards, but here is need to be careful, because competition between the students can be sometimes not so good (the goal of student can be just to win the competition and nothing else). Also it need to take in consider that student who doesn't accomplish the final goal of lesson get help and support on time and to earn a diploma for his/her work.

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Games are commonly structured for players to solve a problem. They promote communication, cooperation, and even competition amongst players. A primary component is also the rich narrative that spawns creativity and imagination in its players. Games are useful for educators because of their ability to encourage players to make mistakes and persist when they fail. The authenticity of the game’s tasks and the embracing of emotions are also paramount elements of games.

Gamified teaching takes the above elements and brings them into the dynamics of the lesson. It can thereby support a more personalised learning, as students are usually given the freedom to choose their own pathway in order to better customise their learning.

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In this module you will:

Recognise how active learning and games are connected

Analyse the case of a school and a classroom that embraces games for learning

Identify various gamification techniques

Develop a gamified lesson plan

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Competition can be motivating, but only if student compete with them self and in the purpose of trying to develop skills or knowledge. If only purpose of competition is to be 1st, then it can be damaging, because students will compete just to win, not to learn something from that. I use competitive activities sometimes (who will guess the right answer, or who will collect more smiley), but the price for best result is candy (thereby all students get a candy, and the best one get 2 candies) or possibility to pick which kind of candy he/she will take.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 4.3. Game design Tools

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 4.3. Game design Tools

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I don't have experiences in game design tools. I used Scratch in the previous module for creating a short story. But I used kahoot and mentimeter for teachers meetings. I don't have enough knowledge in using programs for game design, so it need to be simple to use, with a simple explanation what and how to do it.

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Various game design tools allow us to develop games that captivate player attention and hold it for lengthy periods of time, as players learn to master game complexities and accomplish objectives. These tools provide a learning environment where students engage core principles using gameplay, solve problems collaboratively, and use gaming systems in place of standardised textbooks.
How to use Scratch: https://youtu.be/Ex1ktxOxVgI

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 4.2. Game design

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 4.2. Game design

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I never used design thinking during my classes, but I can in the simple way (as in the video for 1st grade students), especially if it is connected with creative activities.

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Design thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. When used in school, design thinking is an approach to learning that focuses on developing students’ creative confidence. Design thinking helps them develop a growth mindset and important problem-solving, analytical and spatial thinking skills.
Five-phase model proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design seems to fit well in educational settings for game development:
1. Empathize
2. Define
3. Ideate
4. Prototype
5. Test

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 4.1. Creating games with students

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 4.1. Creating games with students

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I have been using games during my classes, because it is easiest way for my student to understand the topic that we talk about. I never think about game design with students, but now I think I could do it in simple way (my students are with intellectual disabilities), wit my guidance and support all the time. I will probably need a lot of time to prepare materials, and to apply in the classroom.

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Game design is a great way to develop various skills and competences. Game design and development broaden the learning perspective while underpinning creative problem-solving, developing digital skills and collaboration and inviting informal learning in the classroom.
Game design incorporates a lot of elements from a project-based learning approach and really allows students to explore a range of subject domains and skills.

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4. Modele- Emerging into the world of games

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4. Modele- Emerging into the world of games

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Creating games is not just about programming or the technical elements of game design – it is equally much about creating engaging narratives, storytelling, character development, visual arts, constructing puzzles, and many other elements which you might not normally associate with game design.
Learning objectives for this module:

Identify the art of game design and its importance

Recognise design thinking as a method for creative problem-solving

Analyse the mechanics of games, considering how these affect the player experiences

Reflect on how you could use game design for your own teaching context

Recognise how game design serves as a foundation for gamification and find a way to move from an idea to its actual implementation.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 3.5. Challenge brake

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 3.5. Challenge brake

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I never think about it, at the time, I think I could use awards like badges and stickers that the students made for themselves and for each other, or prepare exhibitions in the class or in the school to show other students what they did so others can also give them awards (badges or stickers) .

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 3.4. My Scratch project

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 3.4. My Scratch project

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I make my first Scratch project for my students (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/310777067). I will use it for starting conversation with students about playing games and importance of following the rules during playing.

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We would like to examine the concept of coding. There are plenty of coding tools and activities that approach the topic in a playful manner and let students, in the process of learning to code, create something new: Scratch is the best-known example of this, it is a simple visual tool that allows young people to understand the principles of coding in the process of creating something new.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 3.3. Real learning in virtual world

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 3.3. Real learning in virtual world

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I never used Minecraft in my classes, but I used some simple video games. I can use simple folders in Minecraft to develop team work and cooperation by students, or to learn my students (students with intellectual disabilities) to follow simple steps or paths to accomplish a goal.

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One of the most popular games of the last decade, which has at its heart the process of creation, is Minecraft. Minecraft can offer students a virtual canvas for creating nearly anything they like using pixelated building blocks. It is a recognised learning tool, used by teachers around the world to teach Maths, History, Art, Physics, or nearly any other subject and an excellent tool to generate engagement in students.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 3.2. Make movement moving in classroom

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 3.2. Make movement moving in classroom

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We create with students they one storybooks (student choose a theme, write a simple text and make a drawings). Then we use those storybooks during classes. They enjoy in that because they can be creative and they can make a story about anything they want. We use a web application for that (https://eslikovnica.hr/), application is made for the purpose of Erasmus+ project. Here is an example of storybook (it is on Croatian language, because my students doesn't learn foreign language)

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In the context of getting students to be creative – by creating something in a game-like context – it is important to consider the maker movement.

The maker movement is an educational/social movement that emphasizes the ability of anyone to be a creator, thus empowering new innovators. It promotes an informal, networked, peer-led, and shared learning by providing a platform where people get together to create things. The maker movement has resulted in hackerspaces, makerspaces, and fab labs. In the school context, a makerspace can be any space where students and teachers come together to create, invent, prototype, design, tinker, explore, discover, code, build, craft, draft or draw.
DIY (coming from the acronym Do It Yourself) is a free online community for kids (6-16) to upload, share and view pictures and videos of projects they create, to learn new skills and find friends around the world who share their passions.
The Tinkering Studio, located inside the Exploratorium, the museum of science, art and human perception in California, motivates aspiring makers around the world to generate new ideas. Check out some of the projects here.

At European level, the Tinkering EU strategic partnership aims to implement tinkering as an innovative pedagogy by creating a Europe-wide community of practitioners and encouraging the exchange of expertise and practice between formal and informal learning institutions.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 3.1. My creative classroom

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 3.1. My creative classroom

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Yes, I try. When I work with my students on some topics (e.g. emotions, understanding themselves and others, team work, cooperation, solving conflicts, ect) the best way for them to understand some topic is to play games where they need to find solutions (in a simple way). For example, I use games where they need to finished task in a way they think is good for them or in a way they feel in this moment.

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Play influence on our ability to think creatively (Holmes et al., 2015). Playful activities put us into a psychological state where failure is accepted and even promoted and “what if” musings are encouraged. These are exactly the conditions which facilitate creativity.

Creativity is seen as a key skill required for the modern workplace, developing creative capacity in our students also improves their confidence and responsibility. Other benefits such as physical and psychological health improvements, improved resilience in the face of difficulties, and even lower levels of aggression (Richards, 2007, p.9).

In the revised version of Bloom’s original 1956 taxonomy by Krathwohl (2002), the process of creation – a key element of creativity – is included, and is in fact placed above evaluation as a higher-order thinking skill.
Play is the cornerstone of creativity. It provides an authentic place to be fearless and experiment, to collaborate, to raise questions and to try to find solutions that you would otherwise not have conceived of, because the imagination runs free.

Creative learning and game activities need to respect Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. That means that if students are not used to being asked to demonstrate creative habits and skills, they need to be guided, and as with all habits, creativity can be encouraged or discouraged.

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In this module:

Define the relation between play and creativity

Understand what the maker movement is and what its benefits are for learning

Recognize coding as a useful approach for matching creativity with play

Identify how creativity and play are combined in virtual worlds.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 2.5. Challenge break

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 2.5. Challenge break

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My students make a homework in a school (we have a extended stay after school with teachers), so I can use simple games, like puzzle or on-line educational games that can help them to practice what we learned in the classroom.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 2.4. Games for thematic learning

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 2.4. Games for thematic learning

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Games like "Man does not get angry", dominoes, puzzles, outdoor games. memory games, playing cards (uno, black peter, ect).

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Almost any game can be used in a thematic learning context. This means that games can be used to explore or illustrate a certain dynamic, situation, action or topic. For example, at a very basic level, one can explore the theme of probabilities in Maths by playing a dice-based game like Ludo or  Yahtzee. Or at a more comprehensive level, use Civilization as a starting point to learn about the exploits of Charlemagne or Saladin
How to use Civilization in the classroom, see this video
Sample of lesson plans of Civilization used in the classroom, see here.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 2.3. Real life adventure games

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 2.3. Real life adventure games

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I didn't used Escape rooms in classroom, but I participated in one and I like it (I plan to make an Escape Room game for my teacher, and a simplify version for my students). I used only treasure haunt games with my students (but in a simply way).

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Escape Room-inspired puzzles and challenges can encourage critical thinking, teamwork and communication skills, along with reinforcing subject matter expertise. Escape Rooms generate an  intrinsic motivation to learn. High-order thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation) are required to tackle the challenges, meaning that students have the opportunity to solve problems that engage them in a deeper level.

The main ingredients of an escape room in the classroom are:

A purpose – there is always a mystery to be solved or a goal to be reached

Clues – a series of puzzles or questions to solve that lead you to the goal

Time limit – the time limit drives motivation and focus.

Geocaching is the world’s largest Treasure Hunt, using a handheld GPS. You can create an account on the website and find them.
If used for educational purposes, Educaching encourages children to use a handheld GPS, explore and find hidden content that has real curriculum value. Geocaching also provides a nice means for thematic learning, as you can introduce elements of geography, place, space and distance in your various lessons.
Tools like Flippity help to create virtual locks.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 2.2. Serious games

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 2.2. Serious games

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I used serious games only few times with my students (for Internet safety day and when we learned about European union), but they need my support all the times, because sometimes those kind of games are to hard for them.

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Serious games can be defined as games in which education is the primary goal, rather than entertainment (Michael and Chen, 2006).

Examples of serious educational games for young people and for teachers: UNI! The Regions Game, a role-playing game which helps educators and 10- to 12-year-old students to learn about the European Union while playing, ‘Partners’ web doc is an investigation game with a full complement of multimedia tools which takes you to 6 regions of the European Union, Aqua Republica, a serious game to raise awareness of the importance of managing water and ecosystems in a sustainable way, PeaceMaker challenges you to succeed as a leader where others have failed, and WolfQuest, a science-based game, lets players learn what it’s like to live life as a wolf in Yellowstone National Park.
Serious games can be very effective, and can positively affect students’ knowledge and behavioural change.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 2.1. Game based learning

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 2.1. Game based learning

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My students (students with special needs) like games, they enjoy in games because they think we are playing, not learning (and they love to play). Beside didactic games, I usually use games that I made for them (for example, I adjust some familiar games like monopoly or dominoes), or use games that my colleagues prepared for they students, depending on goals and outcomes that I want to achieve.

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Game-Based Learning (GBL) describes an approach to teaching where students explore relevant aspect of games in a learning context designed by the game or their teacher. Teachers and students collaborate in order to add depth and perspective to the experience of playing the game. Game-based learning can occur with the use of digital or non-digital games.
This approach is the simplest form of using games. The students “consume” the game, and it is our job as a teacher to contextualise and develop the learning which has happened as part of playing the game – for example, by discussing the game’s themes in class.
Questions to evaluate a game’s learning potential:

1. What is your goal and how does this fit with your curriculum goals? For example, are you aiming to cover content or develop a skill by using the game?

2. What are the game mechanics? Do they promote experimentation? Do they offer progression? How “free” is the player to find different solutions/paths?

3. Is the game engaging for students?

4. How much time does the game take to play? Does this fit with your lesson or homework time? Does it fit with your curriculum timetable?

5. What thematic links can you make to the game’s content?

6. What skills do students need to succeed in the game?

7. Can students customise the game? Does a possible customisation impede the student from achieving the goals you’ve set? Does the process of customisation develop certain skills?

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Learn about game-based learning

Describe the role of the teacher during game-based learning

Identify serious games

Understand the potential of physical adventure games for learning

Explore games for thematic learning

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.6. Gamifying the grading 

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.6. Gamifying the grading 

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I work with students with special needs (intellectual disabilities), so they have a problem to understand grading system, but they like to get an "A" grade (in Croatia we use numbers from 1 to 5, number 5 is best grade). I use badges in form of smiley (happy smiley if they for fill tasks and followed classroom rules; neutral smiley if they are so-so, and sad smiley if they not for fill tasks and doesn't follow classroom rules). They like it, because, they get smiley after each activity (immediately feedback, like prizes in usual games), and sometimes they even give smiles to each other and to themselves (they learn how to evaluate in a simple way themselves and each other). At the end of class, they can replace smiles with a small prize (candy, clip art, or similar).

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Gamification, meaning adding the elements of a typical game and not the game itself, may work as a smoother first step to bringing games into the classroom.

During the challenge breaks of each module, we will try to find ways to gamify different parts of school life.

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Sometimes we are focused on for filling curricula, and we think that we don't have enough time, equipment or something else to implement games in classroom, but I think each Teacher should have autonomy to create learning process in his/her classroom (like Vesna from Demir Kapija wrote) according to students needs, conditions in classroom and his/her preferences.

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1. The lack of a digital infrastructure at school might impede us from actually using them.
2. Traditional assessment mechanisms and timetable structures can make the use of games – which often require a more prolonged engagement – difficult to implement in our day-to-day teaching.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.4. Creativity abd games

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.4. Creativity abd games

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Make a stimulating learning environment, for example, more open type tasks, so students can finished in their one way, then stimulate divergent thinking, stimulate self-evaluation and developing executive functions (planning, critical thinking, problem solving, ect.). Games can help develop creative habits, because games encouraged all that in classroom. Games have some rules, but in the same time, games let the players to be creative to achieve a goal of the game.

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Creativity can be understood as "a process typically of imagining possibilities, creating something new, and reflecting upon and modifying what is being created. In a broader sense it is a way of interpreting and acting upon the world" (European Council Recommendation on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning). Creativity is associated with characteristics like "curiosity (or inquisitiveness), use of imagination, critical thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance (resilience or persistence) which includes positive risk-taking".

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 1.3. How the games impact dynamics

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia- Task 1.3. How the games impact dynamics

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Classes in my school are small (5 to 9 students), so I am all around them. I am walking from student to student, follow their work, give them extra explanation if they needed, give them feedback what they doing correct, or where they need to find another way to solve task, ect. I use games most of the time during my work (I am school psychologist, so games are the best way to interact with students), so my role will be almost the same.

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Games  may promote a student-centred pedagogy that facilitates a more personalised learning approach. Games usually set players on different paths depending on the actions and decisions they take. Crucially, we educators need to grow into a new role when using games in the classroom: the role of facilitator of learning. Teachers as facilitators provide their students with resources, opportunities and guidance, as students take on agency for other aspects of their learning. They are flexible, and support students in taking charge of their own growth and development. Games can provide an important stimulus and context for such change.

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.2. Gamification

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.2. Gamification

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I work in the school for students with special needs (all of them are students with intellectual disabilities), so we use lot of games during classes. For example, we use music that student choose instead of the school bell (e. g. we have Christmas song during December, ect), and different games for learning riding and writing (on-line games like find 1st letter that is missing under the picture, make a puzzle with a numbers or letters, ect. For older students, who know how to read or wright we use READ program with guinea pig (they think they read a short story to the animal on the floor, with the animal in the lap, but they really practicing reading).

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1. Interaction and feedback: Games are interactive experiences and every action of a player provides some form of feedback.

2. Risk-taking and failure: Feedback in games is non-threatening because it is “risk-free”. Negative feedback (e.g. dying in a video game) is not perceived as a big issue because the player can easily start again or load a previous saved game.

3. Customisation: Many (video) games have different difficulty levels, thereby allowing the player to customise their experience.

4. Ownership: Most games allow for multiple strategies to succeed, giving the player ownership of the path to take.

5. System thinking: Games require the player to understand a system’s rules and relationships, rather than focus on isolated facts, events, or skills. A player must consider their strategy in the context of the system

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.1. How do we learn with games?

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Dejana Varnica, Croatia-Task 1.1. How do we learn with games?

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When I was a child I loved puzzle (I still do), especially a puzzle that had a lot of pieces (1000 and more). Through this game I learned to be patient, to be concentrate, to understand relation between piece and whole picture, and to develop strategies for success. The puzzle game seek from person all those things, from the beginning, when you have just a bunch unrelated pieces, to the end when you get a very nice picture, as a result of hard work and fun.

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1. Serious games – games designed specifically for learning a certain topic or skill (Module 2)

2. Games for thematic learning – using games not specifically designed for learning but for entertainment to engage students in learning about a certain theme or topic (Module 2)

3. Games as tools of creation – developing key skills and creative capacity through the process of creating a product or output with a game (Module 3)

4. Designing games – using the process of game design to develop key skills and creative capacity (Module 4)

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Hello! I am Dejana Varnica, and I am a school psychologist in primary school for students with special needs. This is first time for me to learn using MOOC, and I am happy that topic are games, because I use lot of games in my everyday work.

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Discover practices and methods to make learning more engaging;  Learn from the experiences of educators around Europe