Gaming

My thoughts 

I think that gaming in the classroom is a great way for students to learn. I know for me if there was gaming when I was in K-12 it would have made it easier for me to learn. I am not the student that can just sit down and read a book. Things with Virtual Augmentation would have made it easier for me to have been engaged the material. I also think that using gaming gives students the unique ability to experience things they could not experience from a textbook. Students have the ability to experience what happened in the book by seeing it. I would also like to point out that certain types of games can help students who may have different types of disabilities. In the video School Use Games for Learning and Assessment it talks about how the games can engage students with disabilities such as ADHD. I still have questions of how these games can help students who have certain disabilities such as vision or hearing loss. It would be interesting to see how many of these games/ virtual environments are either captioned or audio described. I however, see a great use for perhaps students who have Autism. This past summer I went to National AHEAD conference to learn about how to accommodate students with disabilities at the Higher Education level. One of the workshops that I went to talked about a student who maybe has problems presenting in front of the class.  I wonder if platforms such as second life (http://secondlife.com/) where a student can attend a virtual classroom may help this student. Perhaps students with certain disabilities may be able to communicate and work online better than in a face to face environment. I will be interested to see if this changes with the new use of UTXNET at The University of Toledo.

McDonald’s the Game

This game is a simulation on how the McDonald’s corporation works. This game is set towards Middle School Aged kids. In the game you must manage the money, buy livestock and crops, manage employees and keep everything running. This effectively would teach students how to not only multi-task but how to a business is run. Student would learn how to manage a budget and perhaps would be prepared for a similar job they may have in High School. While not all students will work at McDonalds many corporations are run in the same way. According to the McDonald’s website they have been highly criticized for negatively impacting society. The game is to explain to young people “that this is a price to pay in order to preserve our lifestyle,”(2006)

http://www.mcvideogame.com/index-eng.html

Minecraft

This game is where people can build structures out of breaking and placing blocks. The structures are to protect the player from the monsters in the game. The game has grown large to included players working together to build imaginative things. This game can be played on a gaming system, a computer or a smartphone. The game was originally created as placing and breaking blocks in a 3D world. Now the game includes a multi-player mode where the world is more dangerous. Since this game is so big and had so many players the system could not handle all of the players and the servers crashed. As technology increased so did the game. The game has gotten much recognition from non-players via YouTube and Twitter. The game as it stands today allows players to make musical parody’s, hunger meters, advanced combat and is open source on Android devices. As technology continues to change the game will continue to change with it. “The rest is in the future! And there’s a lot more to cone,” (Mojang, 2009-2013).

https://minecraft.net/community

Simschool

This interactive game allows teachers to analyze student’s individual learning needs and gather data for effective teaching. The teachers can explore what parts of their instructions work and what techniques they can use to build a stronger classroom. Though this program the teachers can improve their teaching skills but also can better impact the learning capabilities of the students. They are able to dive deeper into the learning experience and see where students may be struggling. This will allow the teachers to become more engages and make the learning experience to the individual students. Simschool’s are currently being used at 115 different institutions with users in over 147 countries. These schools include both schools in the K-12 systems as well as Higher education. Some of the larger schools that are already using this program include but are not limited to Purdue, University of Mississippi, University of Nairobi and the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

http://www.simschool.org/simPartners

Benefits to using gaming technology

There are many benefits to the sites like the ones I mentioned above.  I believe the main benefit to this is the engagement of students. According to the Horizon Report this type of technology can bring learning into a student’s personal space. IT can help them understand and scale learning down into something that is easy to work with. The use of this online technology can bring learning into student’s everyday life. This technology is similar to the use of the technology in London. The London museum system is making it so that people can experience what happened in streets of London with the use of a smart phone. There is a historical overlay to the modern day buildings that helps explain the past of London. By introducing this technology into the school systems it would almost ensure that any student who learns hands-on is not left behind. McKinley Technology school is already using this type of learning in their curriculum and is having success. The school ties basic things into this type of learning such as math and history. Students can gain a better understand of what is being taught to them by sending it to them in a different way. Another reason why I think this technology is important is because it allows students to be creative. In many of these virtual environments students can create their own avatar or their own city. At McKinley Technology School students are working with game designers to create whole educational games. In one case a cancer patient’s wish was to make a video game talking about how cancer affects kids. The game allows kids to virtually fight off cancer and shows parents and surrounding people who children view cancer. This type of technology needs to be utilized not only in the K-12 and Higher Educational environment but as well as the professional environment. This could be used for doctors or nurses to learn the most effective ways for working with patients. There was in two videos where virtual simulations were used to help veterans deal with both physical and mental pain. The educational benefits of this are endless and should be used.

References

Edupotia. (Producer) (2010). No gamer left behind[Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-GVEANUEVo

New Media Consortium. (2011). Horizon report. Retrieved from http://utetpt5550.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/49357936/2011-Horizon-Report(2).pdf

New Yorker Video. (Producer) (2008). Not a game[Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6kl2BuhKmM