The discussion of video games in classrooms is still very much on my mind. I was thinking over the weekend about how many students there are that become very good at video games, but have felt very little success in school. And instead of integrating their skills at video games into school curriculum, their parents and teachers forbid them from playing video games unless their grades improve. No wonder so many kids exhibit such little passion for their education! Similar to the way the Morrell article we read in 402 proposed using pop culture as a context for improving literacy, couldn't we use video games in a similar way? Think of how much better students who perform poorly in traditional academic assessments may feel about themselves if they could begin to recognize the sort of higher order thinking skills they use in successfully playing video games.
Monday, July 26, 2010
yeah! I did a podcast!
I was really impressed with myself for figuring out the GarageBand podcast software while still in class last Friday. Usually, new stuff like that requires me to work on my own after class to really "get it". But I figured out how to record myself, add in the jingle track and post it to a wiki page all before the end of class.... yeah! I look forward, now, to working on the podcast assignment for this Friday. And I even went out and better an external microphone to play around with.
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What podcast assignment for Friday? Why do I never know what is going on...
ReplyDeleteI feel like it really depends on the game. I don't think very many of them have much educational content. I mean, what does killing people or landing a perfect 900 have to do with school?
I'm speaking of the "I Believe" podcast assignment. You have to like in the course syllabus at the end of the summer section (it took me a while to find it).
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree that there's not a lot of direct educational content, in terms of factual or conceptual knowledge, in most video games. I'm thinking more in terms of the higher order cognitive processes that gamers are using, but aren't aware that they're using. If we could help students unpack these processes and apply them to actual Science content, then video games have a place.
I like the idea of trying to bring video games into education, the only question now is how to do it in a way that actually contributes something. :) Like Bill said, some games do require a certain level of higher order thinking (managing resources in an role playing game, analyzing situations and applying strategies in a real-time strategy game...) Gaming doesn't go very far beyond simply exercising those skills, but perhaps there is something to say for that practice.
ReplyDeleteHow did you like your microphone purchase? I find that it makes a big difference but didn't want to require that you buy one until you decided if you liked the tool or not. (Of course, I'm glad you liked it!)
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