Most of things I learned from this course was like a whole new world for me since I never experienced in the classroom where plenty of technologies had been used. I felt great to learn more about different types of technologies and how they could be applied in the field of education and used for students in and out of the classroom. Chapter 7 provides us abundant information and resources of educational software and web tools and illustrates how can educational software promotes problem solving and inquiry learning, meaning that we should be clear that students are not supposed to merely know how fascinating technology is but to reinforce their ability of critical thinking, problem solving and inquiry learning.
Seems like we are all familiar with Word or Excel, but the example of the Excel spreadsheet program reminded me that there are more functions for us to explore even in those standard composing and calculating programs which are daily used in our computers. Besides building, inventing and creating software, I found visual thinking and concept mapping software is more effective that can visually benefit students in different levels. Visual thinking and brainstorming software can promotes students thinking and instrumental learning.
Undoubtedly, students will find so much fun when learning engaged with computer games and some people believe that video games may develop the conditions for deep learning. However, I still doubted that if video games can promote learning and problem solving or not. At last class, we watched a video of Minecraft applied within a classroom, I was interesting to hear that during the "live phone interview" with a kid who is obsessed with this game. But I felt a little shocked that he said the point of the game was to kill. The fact was that few things could really benefit students with thinking or learning. So I think we as teachers should seriously consider how to teach our students learn with games.
At the end of this Chapter, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are shown to be effective in improving student learning. The best thing I would say about ITS is the collaborative learning models, which provides practices so that students can cooperatively work in groups and learn together.
Questions:
1. Are games supposed to be frequently used in and out of classrooms? If so, how can we control their time on those games?
2. Can you list some games that you use in your classroom which you find them appropriate and effective?
Lily,
ReplyDeletei don't think games should be used frequently or for a long period of time. i think games can be used as a reward for the class or something that can be used for an ELL student. if it is within a computer class that the students are playing games every class i wouldn't think that's so bad. but within a regular classroom games shouldn't be the prime resource for the teacher.
Hi Lisa,
DeleteI like that you pointed out games can be used for ELL students. During my observation in an ESL classrooms, I saw students find it interesting to play games while practice literacy.
Great post Lily! I do not feel games should be used as the "meat" of a lesson. It should be used as a motivator and an extra something to make the lesson complete as a whole. I think it is great if children want to engage in playing learning based games outside of the classroom over ordinary games with no educational value. Overall I believe time spent on electronics in general should be monitored and have controlled time constraints due to the fact that I often see that Digital Natives chose to sit inside rather than playing outside and getting fresh air and exercise on a beautiful day.
ReplyDeleteHi Alexa,
DeleteI totally agree that games can only be used as a motivator within classroom to make a lesson more interesting, while the time spend on games out of the classroom should be well monitored. For the purpose of health, outdoor games are more important than sitting in front of the computer playing video games.
Lily I agree with Lisa and Alexa. I think games can be used frequently. teachers should use it alongside a well planned lesson which gives students a goal. time on a game should be thought out wisely and should correlate with the lesson that you want to teach your students. teachers can plan out a particular game and expose them to it for a sufficient amount of time. it should not take a whole 45 minutes.
ReplyDelete