"Emotify" Book Review
Stephanie Barnes
Director of Strategy & Knowledge Management | Expert in Driving Digital Transformation, Innovation, & Process Improvement | Empowering Global Organisations to Achieve Operational Excellence
These are a few of my thoughts on the book, "Emotify!: The Power of the Human Element in Game-Based Learning, Serious Games and Experiential Education", by Dr Michael J. Sutton and Kevin Allen.
Context: Dr Michael Sutton asked me to read/review his book, "Emotify!: The Power of the Human Element in Game-based Learning, Serious Games and Experiential Education". He is a business associate, and a couple of years ago he gave me my first opportunity to be published in an academic journal. I also believe in gamification and using games to engage and teach people, whatever the situation/ environment. I have used game/gamification concepts in my consulting practice since 2012, and have taken an online course in gamification so that I would understand the benefits and challenges. I don’t consider myself a novice with these concepts, and I don’t see myself as an expert either, I’m somewhere in between.
Michael gave me the PDF of the book to read so that I could share my thoughts with you, my network, as something you might find helpful, and indeed, some of you might, even though I don't think I am in the target audience for this book.
If you are interested in learning something about the background of games and gamification in the context of learning/teaching, this would be a good place for you to start.
In particular, I liked the chapter on immersive games, because it reinforced my thinking on using AI/VR in language learning, and it also talked about the need to reflect after such experiences, as a way to reinforce the learning. Taking the time to reflect is something I believe deeply in. The chapter also provided a personal rubric for reflection journalling, which I liked too, and will consider including something similar in my workshops (with appropriate credit, of course).
This book is for you if you are new to games-based learning, serious games, and experiential learning and want an overview of the history and concepts surrounding these ideas and concepts.
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