Digital natives are attracted and motivated when interacting with media. With the rapid increase of the internet, who knows of a child that doesn't like online games? Not surprisingly, many children admitted to be addicted to online games. This is a picture of my son's shirt (a picture says more than words). This when we as educators need to take advantage of the situation by combining games and education, however how effective and appealing is this combination to children?A recent study conducted by an operator of virtual education games, ITS (Intelligent Tutoring System), demonstrates this combination is a great opportunity to motivate, entertain, and improve student's performance. The main components of an ITS are the knowledge, modelling, tutoring, and user interface domains. In order for a game to be effective they need to have all four components. Games are used as motivational tool they should not be used to replace instruction, but should only serve as a supplemental tool.
There are some disadvantages and one might be when students find it difficult to navigate through the game than it is to comprehend content, however great improvement demonstrate more an advantage compared to a disadvantage. A very important note of educational games is that the greatest benefit is for those who need the most help, low performing students achieve more improvement. Students that are good performers don't show much of an improvement, yet most importantly they don't regress.
Here is a list of some online educational games which you might want to try and make a sound judgement about them:
- http://www.learn4good.com/games/educational-learning-activities.htm
- http://www.funbrain.com/
- http://www.learningplanet.com/
- http://www.starfall.com/
After trying some of them, don't I wish this was available as an alternative to my learning 20 years ago!
See you later, virtually!
-Becky
References:
Virvou, M., Katsionis, G., & Manos, K. (2005). Combining Software Games with Education: Evaluation of its Educational Effectiveness. Educational Technology & Society, 8 (2), 54-65. Retrieved from http://www.ifets.info/journals/8_2/5.pdf
Playing games in the class room is great as well as the use of different gadgets as a learning tool. The uses of cell phones might work hand in hand with classroom teaching, but eventually one has to give.
ReplyDeleteWe don't we, try teaching our children people skills to help them to be able to function globally. All the stats being put out there, I believe have more to it than meet the eye. Let us give ourselves 10 years at which time these tech kids will enter the work force, then we can really put out statistics. They will either do just fine or become tech addicted kids who will be afraid to let go.
Yoofi
There are now video games being used in military training. One such game designed for the U.S. Army by the USC Information Science Institute "combines several patent-pending, breakthrough technologies, including computational models of language, culture and learning that guide the behavior of the game's autonomous, animated characters; and a contextual, speaker-independent speech recognizer for non-native speakers". This magnifies the usefulness of teaching digital natives in their own language. Students of today are multi-taskers, accustomed to simultaneous interaction with technological tools and humans.
ReplyDeletehttp://www3.isi.edu/about-news_story.htm?s=155
Becky, I think it is important that you clarified computer games should not replace instruction, but supplement it. I think educational games are great for reinforcing concepts, but many students are only given these opportunities to use technology. I believe students also need to see that there are many other uses for technology. Students should be given opportunities for research, creating and presenting information for self and peers.
ReplyDeleteOnline educational games do engage our digital native students in their learning, but I wonder which levels of Bloom's taxonomy most of these games are hitting. With many "games", students are probably spending the majority of their time in knowledge and comprehension, with a just few explorations into analyze and evaluate. The possibilities that web 2.0 applications hold for students reach all the way to synthesis and creation. We need to be sure to move our children from the basic knowledge into games or online projects that require higher-order thinking, as well. Starfall is used in our ESL and special education classes, in the middle school where I teach. When utilized effectively, even students with learning difficulties can explore higher-order thinking. All students can have the opportunity to "engage in...dynamic thinking and learning, where they must synthesize information, analyze ideas, and draw their own conclusions, preparing them for the larger community, where few issues are black-and-white" (Neal, 2011).
ReplyDeleteNeal, M. (2011). Engaging students through effective questions. Education Canada, 51(1), Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov
Debra, Thank you for your comment, however I just wanted to point out I did clarify computer games should be an extra tool not a substitution or replacement of instruction (last sentence of second paragraph). I think I should underline it since I do believe it is very important! Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDelete