Tuesday, April 12, 2011

“Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds” – James Paul Gee & Michael H. Levine

I really enjoyed this article because it’s actually something I have been saying for a while. Every time I see my younger cousins or friends kids playing these video games I seem to complement them on the complexity of it all. As I watch, I always seem to be in amazement that they know exactly what to do, and where to go, and how to solve the task at hand. There is a large amount of thinking and problem solving involved in these games, and it’s great to hear that this is an issue coming to life.  I know for me, I’m always most interested in hearing about the things in the classroom that are of actual interest to the students and that can really get them excited and engaged. I tend to think that the most learning occurs when students are excited about something. It’s like going on a field trip; students always tend to remember what they learned because they were excited and interested in doing it. The same seems to go with video games. Let’s face it…most children spend a lot of their time playing these games, so why not really embrace this, cultivate it, and begin to incorporate it into our everyday classroom.
It’s funny because the article actually makes specific reference to an older game, “Oregon Trail”, which I can remember playing in my computer class which we had once a week during elementary school. I can remember not only me, but the class being so excited when it came time to move downstairs to the computer classroom and play. We were actually excited to learn! What did we need to make it to Oregon? Were we going to get sick? How do we budget our Funds? If we are having students learn while enjoying themselves, then I think we’ve done something special.
Another part of the article that I thought was interesting and feel the need to address is the idea that in order, “To leverage the potential of digital media to transform classrooms and motivate students, teachers must become tech savvy”. This is so true! We need teachers to be comfortable and open to new technologies so we can have things such as more educational “video games” in the classroom. We are in an age where students are so tech friendly, and we need to begin to get the teachers on the same page. I firmly believe that more teach professional development sessions in the schools should be focused on technology and beginning to make the teachers more acquainted with it so they aren’t scared by it. We need them to begin to embrace it little by little so that things such as video games for classroom learning will become more prominent. There is such complex thinking and problem solving necessary for these games and I see them as a very essential part of our students’ educational futures.

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