This final chapter looks at co-design of game-based learning and gamification for enhanced learning outcomes within the curriculum and beyond. We consider how we can collaborate with all our education community including our senior leaders and parents. Let us first explore how we might work with subject teachers.

Collaborating with teaching staff in a game-based approach to Learning

Collaborating with teachers to deliver everyday structured lessons can be a tough challenge for librarians but when we add a game into the mix it can cause further reticence. It is a big ask for a teacher to move away from their traditional didactic role to an approach where they may become more of a facilitator. The teacher must fit the game into the curriculum, the library environment, and be confident with the school technology, while also connecting to the playful world promoted by the game. Because teachers expect to have a positive impact on student learning through student interaction, it is difficult for them to allow game play without feeling they should intervene and ‘earn their keep’. These are some common scenarios that arise:

• ■ Teachers give too much instruction and advice, disrupting the flow of the game.

• ■ The teacher does not play or understand the game themselves and so students become demotivated.

• ■ Teachers may not have the time to become proficient in taking on the roles of technical administrator and game administrator, designing preand post-activities to transfer knowledge from the game to topics students need to learn.

• ■ When there is deviation from the original plan, teachers often do not have the time, game skills or coaching skills to keep students playing and learning.

We can include practical issues that could arise – games might contain extra expensive purchases, there may be poor technical equipment and support, difficulties in identifying games that fit curriculum assessment criteria, lack of time to prepare the lesson and just a general fear of risking a different approach. Molin (2017) suggests that for game-based learning to be adopted, teachers’ professional identity, sense of purpose and agency needs to be supported by providing tools and skills that evoke confidence in practical pedagogy.