Tools of
Transformation
by Matthew Trimboli
With the
advent of new technologies, teachers are in a prime position to radically alter
the means by which new knowledge is acquired and generated among students. As a result, it is incumbent upon educators
to design clear, appropriate instruction that seeks to meet current standards
while also ensuring that real learning occurs.
Responsible, dedicated teachers will gradually assimilate those techniques,
materials and tools that prove themselves to be truly beneficial to the
learning process, while also remaining vigilant for bias and other defections
in online materials that render them inappropriate for classroom use. Games represent one such tool but most
assuredly require evaluation on a case-by-case basis to determine the aforementioned
qualities in order to determine their appropriateness for in-class use.
Math Blaster and Zoombinis Logical Journey are two of the
programs mentioned by the text that I can personally attest to having a real
value in providing effective, meaningful learning experiences. Using them in my own childhood, I now realize
how valuable they were in helping me understand different concepts and use
deeper metacognitive skills to solve problems or challenges presented in the
game. In Math Blaster: The Search for
Spot, the player must compete as Blasternaut in a race against time to
rescue Spot, his robotic assistant, who has been kidnapped by the evil trash
alien, a malevolent figure whose trademark is leaving a trail of garbage in his
ship’s wake. Utilizing concepts such as
addition, subtraction, estimation, etc. to complete the assignments, players
are able to practice and refine their basic math skills while also employing
deeper thinking skills in order to solve certain equations. The same holds true in the sequels Math Blaster: Secret of the Lost City and
Reading Blaster: Invasion of the Word Snatchers and even expands upon the use of
deeper thinking and comprehension skills.
Games offer a great benefit when utilized with clear objectives
and appropriate content. Avoiding the
mindless violence and gore of such titles as Grand Theft Auto, Resident
Evil, etc. is of paramount importance if we wish to avoid creating the
opposite effect with our students. If current
research is to be believed, these types of games desensitize players and
increase violence, aggression and rage among them, a troubling finding given
their widespread use and popularity. Consequently, it is incumbent upon parents
and educators to instill the importance of utilizing positive and productive games
that do not rely on death and destruction.
Three Questions:
1) What sources exist for locating more programs like Math Blaster and Zoombinis?
2) Does overexposure to computer/video games diminish childrens' imaginations?
3) How can we strike a balance between technology and tradition when learning?
Three Questions:
1) What sources exist for locating more programs like Math Blaster and Zoombinis?
2) Does overexposure to computer/video games diminish childrens' imaginations?
3) How can we strike a balance between technology and tradition when learning?
Jason F,
ReplyDeleteForums like this and networking with one another I think would be an excellent method in finding out more sources of educational games that work with student’s in the classroom. You can also do searches for yourself on related games for your content. There might also be a section in Barney and Nobles on educational games, but I have not done this yet. I have found creating games on your own is very useful and assures that the material is curtailed to your students. I know I bring this up a lot but it was not until I played Jeopardy with students that I was observing, where I found out how fun it can be. Student’s love competition and since the material is what was covered anyway, you would hope that all the students would be able to participate and not feel left out. This can be done both on PowerPoint for those of us who would rather keep it simple, or you can make an actual board and play it out in person. We should not be afraid to try and fail. We won’t learn what works otherwise.
I think in both ways the over exposure to video games and cartoons diminishes and adds to the student’s creative abilities. When I was a youth I know that watching new cartoons and video games gave me new characters to draw and create of my own. It gave me a template on what I wanted my new characters to look like. I think we also had more free time on our hands and there was not as much content on the television to sit in front of mindlessly. With the addition of all the new cartoon channels and networks, coupled with the internet being so readily available and you have children who do not try as much. You have so many options, free time is being occupied by activities that do not require the student’s to think. Exposure to new video games and cartoons is healthy but over exposure is not.
For your last question, I think the issue is not finding a balance between technology and tradition when learning; the issue is when our method of traditional learning will be considered outdated. The shift for everything to be technology based is coming fast and we have to start to get on board. Maybe in the lower economical classes they might not shift completely to technology based learning but this will be a standard pretty soon for all schools. The children who are born now will never know cell phones with buttons for dialing, or the sound of a dial up modem, or any of the other things that will be phased out by the time they are adults. We have to learn to adapt while still holding on to what some of us consider being the cornerstones of how we learned.
Thanks Jay, I agree that free time is being occupied by activities that do not require students to think. Without any down time, they do not have the ability to mold their imaginations by working with the raw material they saw on TV, read about, etc. Overexposure is definitely counteractive to helping them become creative, critical learners and thinkers.
DeleteWe do indeed have to adapt, but I guess I'm somewhat of an old soul when it comes to tradition. You put it much better when talking about holding onto the cornerstones of how we learned. I feel we should preserve what has been shown to work to differentiate instruction and provide students with multiple mediums for learning. For example, I like using Jeopardy too and sometimes it's relaxing to draw the gameboard on the blackboard or whiteboard and draw and erase the numbers and categories instead of always using my PowerPoint version. The students like it as well especially when keeping score to see how far they have left to go to win.
WOW! I remember using Math Blaster in my childhood, I did not know what it was when I was reading the text but now when you put up the picture I remember what it is. It was a great game, I had so much fun playing it without realizing how much I was learning. I think using games as a means of learning are especially important for students with behavioral problems or who cannot sit still in class. I do believe that it is important however to not use games too much because in reality and in the real world, there are not games in college to play or at your job. Students need to be able to complete the work by concentrating themselves and not be stimulated 2302348237% by technology and games.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tatiana, I absolutely agree that students need to be able to complete the work by concentrating and not always being stimulated. As you said, reality is not an eternal entertainment venue and the students need to realize that there's time for using games and other high technologies and using concrete, physical learning tools and mediums. College proves this point because while many of our professors advocate for these new types of differentiated instruction, they are still using the very means with us that we are told to discard or diminish, namely, lecturing, hours of reading from textbooks, completing writing assignments, etc.
DeleteI really appreciate the second question you mention. As an English Teacher creativity and imagination is crucial to writing and understanding literature. If we put too much emphasis on games will our students struggle even more with these skills they must learn? Or are there ways you can use these games to bring out creativity? We need to think about these questions while we are evaluating games to use in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThanks Annina, I completely agree that creativity and imagination represent the crucial elements for writing and understanding literature. Social Studies is another subject where this is imperative since students have to organize their thoughts, knowledge and opinions to provide effective arguments on essays and other writing pieces. Additionally, they need real-world experiences to foster greater understanding because too much emphasis on games makes learning static and unfulfilling. On the other hand, when used appropriately, I think we can bring out creativity by integrating games with detailed lessons in order to more fully meet learning objectives.
DeleteI'm going to answer question 1 and 2 briefly, and then write at greater length about your third (and arguably most interesting) question.
ReplyDeleteFirst, there are plenty of websites where teachers share this kind of information, and where teachers can go to get advice from more experienced teachers. Check out Reddit.com/r/teachers. They've been incredibly helpful to me in the past.
Secondly, I don't really believe that videogames diminish our children's creativity- when videogames are well-crafted and living up to the potential and the set-standards of the media, they are an excellent source of inspiration and learning. Only poorly produced videogames diminish creative thinking, in the same way that top 40 music hurts music as a whole and summer blockbuster movies only win Razzies.
As for your third question, about striking a balance between technology and tradition: I think this is kind of looking at the situation from the wrong angle. Traditional teaching styles didn't fail to implement technology because they didn't think it was important, they failed to implement technology because it didn't exist. The real question isn't "how do we balance technology and tradition", it is "how do we balance the lessons learned from traditional teaching techniques with the needs of our students in the modern day classroom". We don't use technology arbitrarily or to be contrarian- we implement it into our classroom because it provides us a fantastic opportunity to be better than the teachers who came before us, to more fully meet the needs of our students, and to better ensure that we meet our goal of providing a quality and fulfilling education to every student.
Matt, I love the games that you provided. I think there are a lot of good ones out there :) There is definitely a time and a place for certain games, and as soon as those students leave our buildings at the end of the day they are going to be exposed to whatever they want and we can't do much about it. But I think that using the games in the classroom relieves some stress and opens different learners up to different visuals. I don't think that it hinders creativity, I'm hoping that it sparks some. My district offers video game design as an elective and the students just absolutely love it. Creating their own world with their own rules really makes their creative juices flow. I would love to see a student who is struggling in a class think to themselves, if I was the designer of these lessons, how could I make it interesting? Maybe they would think of some cool game that could be used in the classroom. And maybe they will make millions and thank their 7th grade teacher for inspiring them ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie, I completely agree that there is a time and place for certain games. As you said, once they leave us at the end of the day, they'll be exposed to whatever they want and we can't do much about it. That's why I thought it was essential to strike that delicate balance between technology and tradition since our students will be inundated with technology all their lives and need to have the alternative outlet to experience working in reality, using their senses with concrete projects that their inspirational 7th grade teacher provides for them :)
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