Pre-Service Teachers’ Responses to Quest-Based Learning in a Mandatory Communication Technology Course
Abstract: Integrating technology in education is a never-ending task, beset with barriers through its introduction and implementation. Likewise, training pre-service teachers to integrate technology into teaching and learning is a challenging and complex task. Each year, our student population becomes more and more diverse. Students come with diverse technology skills and increased personal responsibilities. This paper reviews students’ responses to a quest-based delivery of a mandatory communication technology course. The course was designed to be more self-directed and offer opportunities for instructors to personalize student learning--making the course more meaningful for each student by honoring the individual skills and backgrounds of our students. A total of 63 quests were created, each assigned Experience Point (XP) ranging from 0-100. To pass the course, students were required to complete all Mandatory quests (typically assigned 0 XP) and 400 XP from Exploratory quest. This paper outlines our students’ responses to using that approach in a mandatory Communication Technology course.