Have You Heard of Digital Escape Rooms?
One of the things that I have fallen in love with on my digital teaching journey has been digital escape rooms. If you don’t know about escape rooms, they are a fun activity where a group of people are locked in a room. They must solve a variety of puzzles and find clues to get a key and escape the room. In digital, or virtual, escape rooms, students answer questions to solve a riddle or escape a virtual scenario. They can be used for any content area or objective. Use them to introduce a topic, review concepts, or as an assessment. I love a good theme and try to design my digital escape rooms around them. One of the best things about such a resource is the level of student engagement. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep students focused and interested in their independent or group work. Assigning an escape room activity takes a boring assignment or worksheet and turns it into a challenge that students are eager to take on. They become so excited as they solve clues and get closer to “escaping”. Sometimes the content may be more complex than a traditional worksheet or activity, but it doesn’t have to be. Escape rooms can be assigned as independent or group assignments. The teacher can facilitate while the students are responsible for determining how to solve each challenge. Digital escape rooms are great for fostering higher level thinking skills and when completed in groups, students can enhance their communication and collaboration skills. Click here to purchase my digital escape room for calculating area aligned with the Common Core third grade standards.
