So, this is late. That's real. That happened. But oh well man, life happens and what not. Sun goes up, sun goes down. You can't explain that.
The readings and videos we had to do for class gave me a lot to think about from a pedagogical standpoint. It's awesome that there are teachers out there who try to stay current concerning technology and its practical usage in the classroom. In reality, I utilize technology in my daily life to a degree that may be considered unhealthy. There are some days where the only realistic marriage I ever see myself having is to my cell phone. Basically, I love the internet more than I love most things in life. More generally I love technology and how much easier it makes my daily life. With that being said, why shouldn't or wouldn't I utilize these tools in my classroom? The students I'll be teaching are not much younger than I am and we share many of the same interests when it comes to entertainment. If we share so much common ground in this respect, it should be explored. I liked our assignments because they demonstrated how creative we can be with things that we usually only value as entertainment. If we can use things like "Angry Birds" as a viable and effective teaching tool, why shouldn't we?
I found it interesting how beneficial video games can be to our cognitive processes. Students use problem solving skills in games like world of warcraft, which help them thinking about tactics and traits their characters need. This could be transferred to a classroom environment, by creating a similar setup within the classroom with real world applications. For example, government could be very applicable to such a game. Maybe even have them set up accounts for the game, and make them practice real world exercises within the game in order to prevent wars, or engage in them. Maybe have students practice international relations and treaty situations by having their guilds represent countries. Students could do secret alliances, explicit alliances and treachery in order to achieve a certain goal, while secretly having one group work against those common goals.
Gee talks about students willingness to try new things in video games. If we can transfer that mentality to the classroom, students may be willing to exit their comfort zone in order to learn new things. The fear of failure in real life does not transfer to video games. Video games allow multiple attempts and maybe we should allow the classroom to as well. If students can have redo's on certain assignments, with the goal of trying to exit their comfort zone, maybe students would be more willing to apply their creativity to assignments. Thus, even if we do not directly apply technology in the classroom, we could apply things that video games teach us in order to create a more successful classroom.
Do you think that you would have appreciated being able to learn through video games when you were a younger student? I have never been a gamer, so I have a lot of questions about how it could be adapted for more informative educational purposes rather than racing or shooting as they seem, from my very distant perspective, to be focused on. I really like your idea about applying a government lesson to a video game lesson. How could you differentiate this to be engaging for all students, not just those that have a lot of practice with gaming?
ReplyDeleteI would have been really excited as a younger student if my teacher had incorporated video games, however, I can see how this could also be a distraction. There are certain aspects of a gaming assignment that could be counterproductive. The activity has positives and negatives. I think the best games incorporate not only problem solving but deep and intelligent stories that are on par with the best films and books. I had never thought about the unskilled gamer before, but working in teams and maybe changing the difficulty could allow all students to be on an equal playing field. The other option is flash games that allow anyone to pretty much pick them up and play (like angry birds). I'm sure there are games out there that could pertain to our respective fields if we looked. I had never thought about the challenge of the students' different gaming abilities. That was a great question.
ReplyDeleteI like the example you drew with World of Warcraft. Considering the games global popularity and influence, it would obviously be prudent for us as to teachers to identify the redeeming values inherent in such a game so as to appeal to our own students in the same way. Just as kids can become increasingly obsessed with their Warcraft characters, we must encourage them to seek out value in our lesson plans and interactions. Holding a students attention is harder today than it ever was before, but borrowing across spectrum's from sources like video games can do a lot to overcome such obstacles.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hussein's post, especially that holding a student's attention is extremely difficult, especially in today's world. With the constant stimulation that children get (no pedo) from video games and television you almost need video games to educate today's youth so that you can compete with that level of stimulus. Kids today are used to so much immediate rewards and satisfaction that planning for the long run and understanding delayed rewards (a key component of succeeding in the classroom) can be extremely difficult for them. I think this is an issue that we will be struggling with for some time to come, perhaps until virtual reality takes over the world since putting a kid that plays 4 hours of modern warfare a day into a lecture based classroom will put him to sleep in about 15 minutes. can't explain that.
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