Here is a great article from Business Week about using gaming as an instructional tool.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_08/b3972100.htm
The concept is not new, educators have long known that keeping the students interest is a great way of "selling" the lesson. What is new is the use of computers to deliver the lesson.
This quote from the article struck me as pretty interesting;
"Game developers estimate that at least 10% of the classrooms in the
nation's 2,500 major school districts use mainstream titles for learning, up
from only a handful five years ago."
One of the reasons they give for the sharp increase of the use of games, is that the younger teachers are coming to work having grown up with computer gaming so it is a natural extension to use them int he classroom.
So now how do we get the experienced teachers in on the "game". Well it comes back to professional development. Do anyone know of any school districts that use gaming as part of their professional development program? It sounds to me like an interesting approach.
Let me know what you think,
Mike
Posts
I found an interesting paper on the difficulties teachers face in trying to do this.
ReplyDelete"Six factors that hinder teachers' use of games in the classroom were discovered: Inflexibility of curriculum, Negative effects of gaming, Students' lack of readiness, Lack of supporting materials, Fixed class schedules, and Limited budgets."
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2008.0127
Yes Nancy, my guess would be there are even more than six. I guess a lot still depends on the teacher and where they are teaching.Thanks for the article.
ReplyDeleteDo video games work as teaching tools? The lady in this blog asked a simpler question for her research.T She asked: what are some practical tips that teachers can use to boost the odds of success? She then summarizes the results. She believes that "over time, if games deliver as promised, we expect educators to become more comfortable with in-game assessments". There is also a link to a very nice White Paper. The URL is http://www.educationbusinessblog.com/2009/01/best_practices_for_using_games.html
ReplyDeleteThis blog, called the Education Business Blog, is way cool.
"Game developers estimate that at least 10%..."
ReplyDeleteCome on??? 10%? One out of every ten rooms. I seriously doubt that, but I'd love to stand corrected. Of course, game developers wouldn't have
a vested interest in inflating that number, would they? haha...
Dr. Ferdig, do you have a appoximation?