Enliven Your Classroom with
Game Shows
March 11, 2010
8:30am – 9:30am
Who Are We?
Montgomery County Community College
Blue Bell, PA
 Marie Hartlein
Associate Professor, Computer Science
mhartlein@mc3.edu
 Linda Moulton
Professor, Math and Computer Science
lmoulton@mc3.edu
 Patricia Rahmlow
Associate Professor, Computer Science
prahmlow@mc3.edu
http://faculty.mc3.edu/prahmlow/Presentations/index.html
Today’s College Student (Class of 2013)
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They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
Text has always been hyper.
They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
They have always been able to read books on an electronic
screen.
 There have always been flat screen televisions.
 There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
Beloit College’s annual mindset list
http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php
Today’s College Student (Class of 2013)
"Millennial students have grown up in a
world that is fundamentally different
from that of previous generations." 1
Instant messaging, instant information,
instant entertainment
How can we, as teachers, compete?
1
Michael D. Coomes and Richard DeBard, eds., Serving the Millennial
Generation: New Directions for Student Services (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2004), 87.
Why Games Work
 "The idea of embedding academic learning in
an entertaining format is centuries old,
because it works,” 1
 "A game show is a stress-free and fun way to
learn that doesn't diminish the importance of
the subject matter" 1
Ten reasons for using classroom games
http://www.thegamegroup.com/article1.htm
1The
Learning Brain by Eric Jensen
2http://www.learningware.com/LearningCenter/WhitePaper1.html
Options for Including Games in Your Course
Purchase
Free resources on the Web
Develop your own
Gameshow Prep
Gameshow Prep / Pro lets you use your own content to create an
unlimited number of game shows in six familiar TV-style formats
Categories
Classroom Feud
Tic-Tac-Toe
Final Answer
Wheel of Knowledge
Question Bowl
Gameshow Prep
 The software allows you to introduce and
reinforce content while engaging students with
collaboration, competition and FUN!
 LearningWare studies have shown that
knowledge retention increased from 54% with
oral reviews to 88% using this software.
 LearningWare web site
http://www.learningware.com/
 Game demonstration
Gameshow Prep: Benefits and Challenges
Benefits:
The software provides an easy template
to create games and deliver them.
Slammers can be used to contribute to
the game show atmosphere and keep
track of which team responded first.
Students love using the software!
Gameshow Prep: Benefits and Challenges
Challenges/Limitations:
It takes time to enter the question pool
Minimal classroom setup
Cost
Limit of 10 slammers (teams)
No tracking of individual student
results
Technical concerns
Gameshow Prep: Contact Information
LearningWare web site
http://www.learningware.com/
Bob Berentz
(866) 433-5139 / bob@learningware.com
Current Cost
 GameShow Pro Software $200-795 (based on
quantity)
 Slammers $495 for first 2 and $150 each
additional slammer
Low-Cost / Free Game Resources
 Classroom Game
Templates and More
http://www.murray.k12.ga.us/tea
cher/kara%20leonard/Mini%20T
%27s/Games/Games.htm
 Quia – Costs instructor
$50 per year
(Provides 16 generic Game
templates such as hangman,
battleship and scavenger hunts and
online quizzing capabilities)
http://www.quia.com/subscription/
Free/Inexpensive Game Resources
 Go Animate
http://goanimate.com/
 Language Games for ESL/EFL learners
(Grammar of Doom, Quality Control --spotting misspelled words)
http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/gamezone2.htm
 Algebra Game
http://mathplayground.com/algebra_puzzle.html
 Hot Potatoes (freeware)
(Suite includes six applications to create interactive multiple-choice,
short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and
gap-fill exercises for the Web)
http://hotpot.uvic.ca/
Develop Your Own
 PowerPoint based games
 Manual games
 Musical reinforcement
 Professor Joe Dougherty from the Computer
Science Department at Haverford College
advocates using songs, magic whatever will keep
the students engaged.
 Here is a sample of his work:
http://www.haverford.edu/physics/songs/infiniteloop.htm
Discussion