My experience with simulations, games and game design has been fairly limited. Although I have studied simulations, I have no teaching experience with them. In my second grade classroom, game use was limited to CD-ROMs such as those from the Reader Rabbit and Jumpstart series. The game design I have enjoyed in my graduate program includes a WebQuest and a Power Point electronic lesson. Once I Iearned how to use hyperlinks in Power Point, I created multiple trivia games for students I tutor. I also have used a jeopardy template a WSU classmate shared to create several jeopardy games for the students I tutor.
I envision using simulations in my classroom so that students can role-play and experience that which they are learning. Access to quality educational games will improve my students’ learning by increasing their motivation and appealing to their learning styles. I hope to implement game design to create more educational games which I can customize for my students and the curriculum. Upon completing the reading, I realized there is more to game design than I had previously considered. Acknowledging this, I would like to increase my students’ learning by giving them an active role in game design. Having previously approached game design from an instructionist standpoint, I am hoping to balance this with the constructionist perspective. I do believe learners can gain knowledge from both. I think it was in this class, IT 6140, that one of the readings or videos made a comment about moving away from students consuming knowledge and toward students producing knowledge. I do believe this is the future of education. With my limited experience with games, simulations, and game design, one thing I do know is that I want to incorporate these resources in a manner which allows students to be active, rather than passive, participants in their learning process.
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7 comments:
I agree with the statement that students need to move away from consuming knowledge and towards producing knowlege.
One of the reasons my nephew is now being home schooled is that he was coming home reciting facts (he has quite a memory) but wasn't adapt at articulating writtenly or verbally anything beyond that.
Now, part of his curriculum includes cumulating projects that spans across discipline and that he creates and presents himself. I can say that not only is he excited about creating those projects but he actually understands, retains, and can communicate more about what he learns.
kathleen,
I really liked your idea of having your students role-playing the content they learn in class. I never thought of that idea, I might keep that one in mind when I start integrating games and simulations into my own classrooms.
Your are just like me, I've also had limited access with those resources, so I too look forward to using them as well.
Tre,
I hope that I can create the type of learning experience for my students that you nephew is gaining from his home schooling. It's odd that so many districts are still using such traditional types of instruction. It's interesting to note the use of "old school" games as you mention in your blog post can be incredibly effective without high-tech bells and whistles. I was surprised to realize we will be using old-fashioned game boards and pieces in our own PowerPoint game creations.
Hi Kathleen,
I'm one of the facilitators assigned to your group. Your story had an interesting twist. When I initially read your topic sentence I assumed it was going to be about social studies and locations across the US. Will the winner of the telecaster position have the most points? What happens in the event of a tie? Consider how many english objectives you want to cover. Sentence structure? vocabulary? subject/verb agreement? This will be dependent upon the grade level. It may be easier when designing your game to focus on just one or two objectives. Look forward to seeing the prototype.
Ashara,
Thanks for your feedback. The winner will have the most points, and I suppose, in the event of a tie, students would secure the position as co-anchors. I used grade 3 Grade Level Content Expectations (see below) to develop my story. If I were to limit my objectives, I would focus on the Grammar and the Vocabulary portion. Is this too broad? Thanks!
Conventions
Students will…
S.CN.03.01 use common grammatical structures correctly when speaking including time relationships, verb tenses, and causal and temporal relationships.
Grammar and Usage
Students will…
W.GR.03.01 in the context of writing, correctly use subjects and verbs that are in agreement; verb tenses; nouns and possessives; commas in a series; and begin use of quotation marks and capitalization in dialogue.
Vocabulary
Students will…
R.WS.03.08 in context, determine the meaning of words and phrases including synonyms, homonyms, multiple meaning words, content vocabulary, and literary terms using strategies and resources including context clues, concept mapping, and the dictionary.
Kathleen,
It seems we share a limited experience with games and simulations as teachers. However, when I worked as a tutoring program coordinator, I did my best to bring in a lot of the software games we had to assist students who were struggling in certain areas academically. I believe thse games motivate so many students to learn because there's a competition factor involved. We always used Number Munchers, Reader Rabbit, etc. with the elementary students. Unfortunately, we didn't have any games for the high school students (the middle school students didn't mind playing elementary games). However, even for the ESL high school students, the elementary games came in really handy! So, since I've seen how effectives games can be in learning, I hope that you and I both get the chance to create/design games and implement their use in our classrooms!
Sincerely,
Duaa
Duaa,
Thank you for reading my blog and posting a response. I value your input, and I will reiterate the use of drill and practice software with the parents of my tutees. It's frustrating, because I consistently share with parents the value of various games and software. It seems my suggestions are to no avail, as the students are not encouraged to participate in these activities in my absence. However useful drill and practice activities are, it’s a waste of our tutoring time for me sit by idly while students use this type of software. How did you handle this type of situation when you were working as a tutor coordinator?
Thanks,
Kathleen
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