Blog Post No. 5

Active and Passive Learning
Passive learning refers to passively transferring knowledge to the learners where active learning motivates learners to actively engage in their learning. Most university lecture classes use passive learning and sometimes embed activities that require the student to participate in the teaching process. In my opinion, passive learning and active learning cannot stand alone, but to use both methods at the same time to facilitate the best learning outcomes. The teacher passively transfers knowledge to students, then students absorb the knowledge and apply them to real life.

Game-Based Learning & Gamification
Students usually hard to focus on boring lecture classes, where game-based learning and gamification are great ways to interest students in the knowledge. The purpose of game-based learning and gamification is not to distract students’ attention to things not relevant to the course, but to apply what they learned into practice. These games motivate students to learn the knowledge. My high school Spanish teacher has used various small games in the class to facilitate our learning, such as bingo sheets and “snakes and ladders”, which I find helpful to my learning in Spanish. I have also experienced teachers use Kahoot this type of quiz game to test our understanding of the concepts taught in class. However, I find professors in university do not usually use game-based learning and gamification but more in-class discussions and quizzes.

Here is a youtube video talking about games that can be used in any language classroom which I find really interesting.