When I first stepped into the game room on friday morning, I gasped aloud and was overwhelmed with the number of IT gadgets in the room! It felt as though I had been teleported to a whole new world of high technology and it seemed like time had been fast forwarded to 20 years later. Everything seemed futuristic indeed!
I was fascinated by the QR (quick response) codes which were pasted around the room. We began our lesson with the first two groups' presenting their demo projects; introducing possible ICT tools which we can incorporate in our future lessons. I always feel that we can use the first presenting group as a benchmark as to how we present in future and I had a clearer idea of what it was required, rooms for improvement and what had they done well in which we can adopt.
It was then followed by a short briefing by Dr Ashley on the different available stations.
I was introduced to new theory by Dr Ashley- the Shit Sandwich theory and I agree with him that we should start commenting with nice words, the hurtful truths and nice comments to round it up.It was really funny having to discover such a interesting 'theory' and I believe it will come in handy in future when we are faced with such circumstances.
Then after, my group was assigned to station 3: Online Flash Games. We had to go into any of the links stated in the portal and attempt the flash games. I was quite puzzled as to why we had to go to the particular station when all of us had access to the internet from our own laptops. Nonetheless, we followed the instructions and logged onto any of the stated links available.I tried a few games on mathematics, art and science. I did not find them exceptionally fun perhaps it maybe due to the fact that those games which I've attempted are catered for younger kids, so there was not much of a challenge. A handful of my classmates were assigned to the wii station and from their loud noises of "ooh" and "ahhhhhh", I reckoned they might have enjoyed themselves tremendously. There was a tinge of jealousy in me when I was observing how much fun they had while playing wii while I was playing my online game. Dr Ashely told us that it will be rotated and that everyone will have a chance to try out all five stations at the end of everything.
Though the online games were not as fun as the wii games, I could say that I have gathered new insights to game based learning. Game based learning uses competitive activities and gets students to challenge themselves competitively in order to have fun and to motivate them to learn effectively. There were problems and questions during game playing and it is required for students to think on their feet in order to proceed to the next level. An added advantage? It is fun, engaging and interactive!
How to teach with games? I was googling and was trying to search for answers to this question and from what I have gathered, it says that we can reward students for accomplishing certain goals in the game to spur them on to do better the next time round.
All in all, games based learning is one of the ways in which students are able to experience fun in learning.
Glad you liked the MxL. It was designed to wow.
ReplyDeleteYou are right in pointing out that you could have played the Flash games anywhere with your laptop. But note that a) other areas of the MxL were otherwise occupied, b) the idea is to model systematic station-based learning, and c) not everyone brought a laptop and might have needed the computers provided at each station. :)
Your concept of how gaming might drive learning or be incorporated into teaching is what most teachers figure out for themselves, even without having gaming experiences. Do note that I have desgned these session for all of you to develop deeper, more meaningful incorporation of games or gaming strategies. You might discover these ideas in the weeks that go by.