Technology in the Classroom

Games to connect with students

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Table of Contents

•Video Games in the Classroom 3-5

•Education Arcade ? 6-8

•Meeting Criteria 9-11

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Video Games in the Classroom

“Tapping the potential of using video games in the classroom, in such varied fields as physics, Revolutionary War history and environmental engineering, is the aim of a new project being led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is working on ways to connect to students through a popular out of school activity, video gaming.

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"Gaming technologies have improved and diversified to engage a much wider range of interests and abilities," says Klopfer, who received his doctorate at UW-Madison. "Students are interested and ready to play, and we are providing the technologies and curriculum."

Video Games in the Classroom

"These games tend to require more thought than students are used to," he says. "A good game will make you fail and lose. We've had students say, 'Whoa! This is hard.'"

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Video Games in the Classroom"Kids spend more time playing games, generally, than watching TV," Squire says. "We want to help teachers, parents and policymakers understand the role of games in education."

I believe it is important to reach students with their interests, and if they’re interests are playing games, then using games in schooling is necessary. It would change up the routine and give students something to look forward to when coming to class.

http://wistechnology.com/articles/513/Back Next

The Education Arcade?

Part of using technology in the classroom has led to using simulation type games for students to learn from. These include games that deal with different times in history, whether union strikes or wars.

This can be a very useful way of teaching students what was going on in these times. It can put the student in those situations and make them experience it in a new way.

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The Education Arcade?“Simulations help students to- •Process information quickly•Determine what is and not relevant.•Familiarity with exploring non linear information•Familiarity with exploring non geographically bounded networks of communication.•Improves skills in communication, problem solving, and various number related skills.”

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The Education Arcade?

I believe that these simulations could dramatically help in getting students to interact with the activities and to learn the information much better. It would show them what is going on or what happened during that time period. It also has been proven to help with problem solving skills which is very important.

http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf Back Next

Meeting Criteria With Games

“Playing and studying are not incompatible activities. A team of researchers from Madrid's Complutense University (UCM) looks to integrating virtual graphic adventures into online education platforms and analyzes the educational and technological aspects that they should have to promote expansion.”

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The final important element in designing educational video games is standardization; that is, "packaging the content so that it can move from one platform to another, launching it without problems", the experts explain. This characteristic must also make the technical difficulties as transparent as possible, enabling the teacher to concentrate solely on preparing the content.

Meeting Criteria With Games

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Meeting Criteria With Games

The only problem that I have with using games in the classroom is that it would be tough to meet the criteria and keep the students on task. That is why the teachers need to be able to determine which programs to use, and which to not. I think it is important to use as many types of technology as possible, as long as it is necessary for learning.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090210134746.htm

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Back End

In Conclusion…I believe in using as much technology in the classroom as possible. I think it is important to implement things that students think are interested in and connecting with them on their level. Video games are popular among most students, so I don’t know why it wouldn’t be a good idea to use them in the classroom, so long as they are meeting criteria needed for the classroom.