Implications for Education

This first aritcle I read, Good video games and good learning by James Paul Gee, had some interesting ideas.  As an avid gamer myself I've often thought about implications gaming can have on education.  The impact doesn't necessiarly have to come from within the classroom, but outside the classroom where games are traditionally played.  Gee suggests that there is more to gaming than many first percieve and that they shouldn't be written off so quickly.  There's no denying that many games are non-sensical, violent escapes from reality, but those games do not define the entire medium.  Gee points out what he calls "learning principals" found in a variety of games that promote cognition, creativity, and ingenuity.  We should look to incorporate more of these ideas into our classrooms.  Gee mentions that retaining facts is simply not enough to help students become problem solvers.  A combination of critical thinking activities (often seen in games) and fact retention will help to create a more complete student.

Gee's other article, Welcome to our Virtual worlds, brings up some of the same issues as in the previous one.  At first he mentions the drop out rate of high school students, a staggering 50%, and then goes on to explain why this might be happening.  Our students are growing up in a digital world, but our schools don't always relfect the world they live in.  Gee says a way to better connect with studnets may be through video games.  He sites Sim City as a way to learn to manage fincances, get organized, and create a whole world from nothing.  The 21st century learning needs something more.  They need (and want to be) digitally literate in a word that expects nothing less. 

 

      

Jeopoardy.....We meet again.

A few years ago, as a student teacher, I used Jeopardy as a means to review before an exam.  My class was reading "The Color of Water" and we had just reached the half way point.  I thought a review of the book would help students re-visit some of the key plot points and characters from the novel.  This book in particular is a little jarring because it leaps forward and backward in time introducing many characters and places in the process.

When I decided to use the Jeopardy format, the first thing I thought of was integrating a SMART BOARD.   It seemed like a natural fit for something like this.   My classroom was not outfitted with one unfortunately so I had to improvise.  (Even if there was a SMART BOARD, the Jeopardy program I checked out today probably wouldn't have even been available back then.)  Anyway, I ended up using a million notecards and hand writing every question and point amount.  It was tedious to say the least.  Not only that, but I also had to tape each card to the black board for each class. (Other teachers used my room so they had to come down in between periods). The actual game went fine, but the setup and preparation was unnecessarily tedious.

This is where the Jeopardy Template comes into play.  You can check it out here.

http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=806ef19a-f06f-4143-8828-1f8462070e50e


Everything is laid out for you.  Just enter the data (questions, answers and such) and you've got a quick game of Jeopardy.  What I love about using this as review (for any subject really)  is that its engaging.  What I noticed last time I did it was how excited student were to be in competition against one another.  A traditional review is flipped on its head and not only do students learn (many exceeded my expectations on the exam) they have fun in the process.  It's a good combo.