This group is doing research on gaming in education. It is important that more groups start this. Gaming is often still looked upon in a negative way. Yet through games, students are learning, engaged, and solving problems. I believe it is important to learn ways to reach our students, and gaming can be a way to do that.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Wk 3 Free Choice Post - Gaming in Education
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Gaming in education is a topic that I also find fascinating. I’ve been curious about their application possibilities in education since the 80’s when I took a college course called Gamed Simulations. Until recent years we were limited to board games and classroom simulations. Now we have technologies that open fantastic possibilities for the use of games in education.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Coordinator of Technology Education Robert Appelman that we want to be able to give content assignments that have the same attraction and immersion found in games. My current fascination is how big social networks like MySpace and FaceBook use game applications to enhance their websites. I know that my interest in visiting FaceBook and interaction with my friends have gone up since playing the games. Lessons to be learn for eSchooling.
I agree with you. My view on the importance and affect of using games to enhance learning changed after taking the gamming class too. Games had always been viewed as an entertainment tool or method, and placed under the category of fun and amusement. However, the rapid development of technology raised popularity of online education, and it increased the number of Internet users. These things put games into a new category, one of enjoyable learning. The possibilities in using games to enhance learning are on the rise, and different professions are depending on games to enhance learning, such as in the US army.
ReplyDeleteGaming in education IS fascinating! A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a child who is in first grade and has been diagnosed with Aspergers. He was telling me how he has been playing a game called Age of Mythology. This young boy could tell me more about Greek Mythology than I have EVER known in my whole life. It was amazing. He told me all about the game and the purpose of what you needed to do in it. But the best part.....was when he made the following comment to me:
ReplyDelete“Kids can learn so much from playing games, WHY DON’T TEACHER UNDERSTAND THAT?!?”
haha - He said it with such passion. All I could say is, I understand and that there were many more like me out there. :-)
Gaming in education is interesting, but I like the trend that the Wii is going with and Microsoft is piloting. Its fascinating to watch these technologies mature. The real interest for me is the technology used in movies like The lord of the rings where the character movements were made by a human using a sensor suit. Mixing that technology and the wii technology would take hands on activities to the next level.
ReplyDelete