BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

STUDENTS will soon find learning at schools more interactive and engaging as education institutions will soon incorporate “game-based learning” in the curriculum.

Teachers would be encouraged to create digital games as an education tool and get students more interested and enthusiastic about learning.

According to the Ministry of Education (MoE), digital games have proven to be an effective medium for teaching and learning new skills and practices.

It said pervasiveness of games authoring tools and access to digital media platforms by students and teachers, make game-based learning an important element in any “21st century programme”.

A total of 25 teachers and MoE officers are currently involved in a five-week training programme for game-based learning at MoE’s Media In-Service Centre (MiSC).

Model schools will be the first to initiate game-based learning among teachers and students, and the schools will become the centres of excellence for game-based learning in Brunei.

The MoE said while research has convinced teachers of the effectiveness of using games in classrooms, games are currently expensive for schools to adopt.

Therefore, the ministry has brought in relevant partners to collaborate and develop a social, play-enabled virtual classroom platform that allows schools to embrace game-based learning on the go.

The platform provides tools for teachers to build Maths and Physics games, and even more complex topics such as economics in a 3D virtual environment.

In a press statement, the MiSC said the training aimed to equip teachers with the skills in gamification to better engage students in classrooms.

Teachers were trained with cognitive skills, adopting industry best practices in problem based gamification techniques in game based learning.

The MoE said creating games for different subjects and levels is a big task, which is made more challenging as gaming technologies and students needs’ are always changing in this knowledge-based economy.

It added that they will continuously source for and provide the best-in-class training programmes for teachers so they can prepare children for the future.

Piloting game-based learning is only the beginning towards an important step in embarking on a large scale adoption of digital games as part of teaching and learning here, the ministry added.

The Brunei Times