Back in the day I remember playing Oregon Trail in my elementary computer class. I remember stressing about being bit by a snake, being plagued by typhoid fever or running out of crops or oxen. Whether I realized it or not, that was a learning experience! Had my teacher attempt to teach me budgeting money, rationing food, or avoiding farmland from being flooded or die as a result of droughts, etc...I would've been completely disinterested. This fictional world that we were placed in for 40 minutes a week, made us, the students, escape the traditional classroom and explore the world of problem solving from a virtual point of view. The world may have been fictional but the life lessons were real. While reading this chapter, this was a memory that came to mind that made me think about how long technology has been trying to work its way into the classroom. Although, Oregon Trail was not an academic based game and more of a virtual learning experience, I still valued the time played on there as I felt it taught me some cause and effect, math and problem solving skills. Here we are so many years later and with a seemingly never ending flow of such learning games, software and apps that are available for our students and the options will keep on growing.
Although, it is beneficial to include technology and gaming in the classroom for enrichment purposes, it is especially important to evaluate the complexity of the game. The assigned game's intended purpose should not be to provide mindless fun during school hours. It should be to evaluate a student's higher-order thinking. I agree with University of North Texas technology educator John Rice stating that a game should score high on specific standards in order to ensure that it successfully promotes higher order thinking, in accordance to Bloom's taxonomy.
The game should have complex story lines, age appropriate characters, real-world settings and puzzles that must be solved, interaction with other players or virtual characters, replay with alternate outcomes, and interesting graphics. Without meeting these criteria, the teacher is failing to provided the students with a dynamic learning experience and "remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating" may not occur for the duration of their playing time (2013, pp. 163) .
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| Photo credit to Kathy Cassidy on Flickr |
The one concept I was most fascinated by was Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). To think that a system exists that can provide an accurate evaluation of a student through computer responses feels like it is something out of a science fiction movie. Such intelligence tutors are said to be compared with "similar to having one teacher for every one to three students" (2013, pp. 176). I know from years of being a tutor myself, that being able to assess a student's progress, and diagnose what they need more work on is a difficult task. Having ITS, means the kids today have the opportunity to either work on specific disciplines, higher-order thinking, concepts, facts, problem solving, or inquiry learning from the comfort of their own computer. The program is capable of diagnosing the student's shortcomings and create practices that help strengthen them in those areas. I personally am most interested in this, as it can help my own children and students in the future.
Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
[Washington Post]. (2014, May 18). 'Oregon Trail' and the Evolution of Classroom Tech". [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/njy3twF2X0I
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