Throughout Chapter 7 what stood out was how educational software, games, and apps promote problem solving and critical thinking, but teachers need to carefully evaluate each potential resource for its quality and effectiveness as a learning experience. I think something that sounds so simple, is actually quite hard. I know students today in the school I work at use something called ABCya, which does have educational games. Although, I noticed when we allow my class to use it children tend to gravitate towards the games that have the least educational value... It makes me wonder if they notice this is what they are doing or if they just find these games more fun. I definitely want to use what I learned in this chapter and explore the games on the site and recommend to the class the ones with the most educational value and see what they think of these games.
Questions:
1. Does anyone know any games that have high educational value that they would recommend ?
2. Is it okay to allow them to play games without educational value during computers in order to give them a break from their rigorous schedule?
Throughout Chapter 8 what stood out to me was the use of social networking to communicate with a teacher or student. I think children would be more willing to ask for help if they could just shoot the teacher and email of a message on a website. I also think it is more effective, because the student could ask right then and there when they are struggling. Students won't forget their questions and they won't just leave it blank and not gain anything from it. I also think this would be helpful for parents, considering they did not learn in the style of the common core and to them, common core looks like it it is in a whole different language. I think social networking with teachers and students would also make the children relate to the teacher more. They may even think he or she is cool for being able to use such technology!
It is great that your school incorporates educational software into the curriculum. However, like you said, it is a concern that students are gravitating toward games with little educational value. I think that educational games could become a major asset to the classroom, if selected with great care and used correctly.
ReplyDelete1) I would recommend an app I came upon the other day, Memrise, but it may not be the type of game you are searching for. Although it is geared toward learning languages, the app also contains modules for subjects like math and science.
2) I think that there are educational games that students can play that do give them a break in their busy schedules, because learning can be fun and engaging in the form of a game. When I was young, I used to play adventure games in computer class that were geared toward practicing math skills, and I absolutely loved playing them. I did not feel that it was boring to learn like in math class.
I agree with your view on the importance of communicating using online tools, such as e-mail. I think that 21st century teachers must use technology to communicate with parents and students, for it is convenient and can serve many purposes. For instance, students can publish their work on a class website to share their work with other classes and their parents.
I think you brought up a great point when you recorded your observations of seeing the students gravitate towards the least educational games. While skimming your blog at first I saw your second question and immediately thought "well yea, we can give them games with no value for free time but we could also just not tell them the value." Obviously, in this case the children are smarter than me. We have to know that they know exactly what we are doing and don't fall for any of our tricks. In the world of technology we live in they know what games are which and if there is a way to make an educational game fun that is great, but they will also gravitate towards subway suffer, and angry birds.
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