I believe that educational value can be in gaming if the appropriate educational games are played. I liked several of the games we have found on websites when doing WEAVE and feel that the ones where the students are practicing educational skills would be very beneficial. Children react positively to interactive activities on the computer. I feel that is due to the technological age they are growing up in and computers are all around them. I think that games on websites have to be monitored though because some of the games I found were just fighting games or animals doing like an Olympics but I feel that these had no educational value. Most of these games were minigames. The more complex games can have educational value as well as long as the teacher carefully selects them. Games such as as Oregon Trail could be fun for students and I think that they could learn a lot. I remember playing Oregon Trail when I was in elementary but we did not have computers then so there was lots of paper work. It was fun but a little more confusing. Having this game on line I think would be more fun because the game could be saved in a more organized way and the game also gives extra information for the students to learn by giving better description that I did not receive when I played. My biggest problem, even with the minigames, is that time that they consume. Even an hour is a long time for the minigames. If you were to do a complex game I think it should be in connection with a unit such as Oregon Trail would be. The minigames I feel would be best used in extra time the students had after completing work or during free time they may have to reinforce skills they have already learned. Once again, in the school setting I feel that they should be games that reinforces skills and not just fighting games or games that do not have any educational value. If possible, I also feel that using games on CD Rom would be beneficial because it protects the students from the dangers of gaming on line and the safety issues when communicating with strangers on line as well as cyber-bullying that may occur.
A value I could see in children developing their own minigames is that it could help develop their creativity as well as help develop and reinforce their knowledge on a topic. This type of assignment would challenge the students to come up with ideas on what their game will be about as well as having to use the knowledge they have learned to develop their storyline, characters, and levels of the game. They will have to incorporate the knowledge they learned about the topic into the game which will help reinforce what they learned. They may also have to look up more information on the topic to develop certain parts of the game which would extend their knowledge. An issue I have with this is the same issue I have with any topic involving games. The book says it may take 2-3 hours to develop a minigame which I feel to have educational value it may take the students longer. The complex games it says could be incorporated as a semester or year long assignment because of the length of time it takes to create. I still feel that classroom time is precious and slim and with all the other distractions beyond your control, such as assemblies, or other valuable educational activities, such as field trips, it may take up to much time. I do not think there would be a high educational value to creating the games and to give up the limited time available to teachers for this acitvity would not be worth the sacrifice of this time.
I am not sure the intention is that these games would necessarily be played during class time. Many could be played over a period of time as "homework," if the students who choose to do this have the computers and connectivity to do it outside of class time. This is part of the "student-centered options" one may lay out in accomplishing a particular educational outcome.
ReplyDeleteThanks!