Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom
A very interesting article that I believe would have a lot of appeal to middle and high school student these days. It showed how you can incorporate many lessons in a game. I liked Salen’s comment on how segregated traditional classes are. She said, “You go to a math class, and that is the only place math is happening, and you are supposed to learn math just in that one space.” This gaming idea makes so much more sense, when students are able to learn math in more than just one setting of fifty minutes.
Also gaming allows a lot of things that a traditional classroom deters. In a regular class students just want to learn the material and take the test and pass. In a gaming environment, the students don’t necessarily mind about failing at first. Ntiedo Etuk said, “Failure in an academic environment is depressing. Failure in a video game is pleasant. It’s completely aspirational.” Students want to become masters in the game world and aren’t as embarrassed because they are determined to capture perfection.
Publish or Perish
Everyone wants an ipad! It was no surprise that Apple is knocking off many other businesses since coming out with the ipad. It has a lot more qualities than the older Kindle. It will, though, cut down on real bookstores. I think that is something that a lot of us are concerned about. We’re going to be English teachers, so a lot of us would rather have the actual book in our hand and because e-books are becoming so popular, about 40% of users using them, regular books may soon become extinct. This leads me to wonder about our jobs as future teachers. We are so worried about the latest technology advancements and being the first to try them out, but could we be buying into something that will leave us jobless in the future? Technology is good, but it can only go so far in my terms. I’m afraid that bombarding our students with games, blogs, Nings, Facebook, ipads, and simulation is only going to leave us on the outside looking in, in the future.
I worry about the same thing in Publish or Perish. If the day comes when I can no longer buy an actual book, that will be a very sad day. I'm all for new technology and spreading reading for people who find it more convenient to just use their i-pad or whatever. But nothing will replace books in my life.
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