As an education model, game-based learning allows students to achieve the acquisitions identified in the education process by means of games. In this model, the students are active and guide the students. There are two main themes that are common in the development of educational games namely:
1 The desire to harness the motivational power of games in order to ‘making learning fun’. 2 A belief that ‘learning through doing’ in games such as simulations offers a powerful learning tool (Kirriemuir & Mcfarlane, 2004).
As a part of game based learning environments, digital educational games use digital technologies to motivate, engage and equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills in respective teaching domains. These interactive learning environments support the development of various significant skills such as strategic thinking, planning, communication, negotiation, decision-making and data-handling.
Source: https://www.baamboozle.com/
BAAMBOOZLE
One of the most popular online platforms (https://www.baamboozle.com/ ) for organizing quizzes and fun learning activities, Baamboozle allows the development of games to motivate students, to teach or review topics and engage students in the classroom. Custom lessons can be prepared with Baamboozle and the Games section (https://www.baamboozle.com/games) allows users to play ready games prepared by other users as well.
How to find and play games:
- Go to the main page and click on games: https://www.baamboozle.com/games. You will find an immense collection of games in many different topics and formats. On the left of the page, you can search for the specific game)s) you need and you can also select language.
- When you select a game, you will see study, slideshow and play options. While you are teaching in class, students do not need their own devices and you will use the interactive board for the whole class. When you teach online, you can just share your screen. You can use the study or slideshow options to review what you have studied. In the play option, you will need to form teams. You can split the class into 2 or 4 teams. You can use different methods to create teams such as assigning a number from 1-4 to students and placing them in 4 teams. Before the game, lay the rules as well.
- Play.
How to create your own games:
- Sign into your account and go to “My Library”.
- Click ‘+ Game,’ and add a title, a description, and lots of funky images and gifs.
- Your game will be immediately added to our existing database.
- You can even create a game by importing directly from a Quizlet or Kahoot URL!
A study conducted with primary school students studied the effect of using Bamboozle on developing students’ multiplication skills. It was concluded that the game-based learning model assisted by the application of "Bamboozle" significantly affected student learning.
Rahayu I. R., & Rukmana, D. (2022). The Effect of Game-based Learning Model Assisted by Bamboozle on the Multiplication Skills of Elementary School Students. Primary: Jurnal Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar, 11 (3), 806-815. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33578/jpfkip.v11i3.8964 .
The tool is free and easy to use but many of the images cannot be selected in the image gallery in the free option. The students do not need access to any of their own devices and can join in the class or online. The platform offers millions of games with different ways to play each game (https://www.baamboozle.com/games). Baamboozle is not very well known as other platforms and since it is exclusively a gaming platform, it does not offer all features seen in Kahoot or other gaming applications. If teachers select to upgrade, they have unlimited folder options along with many other fun features.