Gaming and English

This post is inspired from an edutopia article entitled, 'The Role of Video Games in the English Classroom.' At first I was skeptical at the topic, the English classroom was the last place I was expecting video games to be proposed. I've seen computer games for science and math courses, but I never considered their value in an English class. Overall, the article did discussed how video games can be viewed to look at various parts of speech. They particularly mentioned showing clips/using games with different tones to emphasize what tone is and how it is applied in different circumstances.

I see the general idea behind the article. The standard, use what the students already enjoy and equate it to learning. I've had some teachers use clips of games/movies to emphasize points, but they were few and far between. However, I think this article comes up short. They discuss using the games a learning tools, but all the games they mention are main franchise games that require significant time and effort. They even mention skyrim as an inspirational game, allowing students to develop their character and choose their own path, but, as they mention, the game takes dozens (or even hundreds) of hours to complete.

I do see the point that certain topics, such as tone, are more easily recognizable when heard. Though I think movies would be a better fit than video games. I also recognize the appeal that video games can have to the student population. However, I still do not see a valid use for these types of games in the English classroom.

Another point against games is the audience it hopes to reach. Though they may appeal to certain students, particularly the young males, other students may find the games crude, un-enjoyable, and lacking purpose. It would allow for a group of students to be reached in a new manner, but it could completely alienate others. I do think that English classrooms can have a modern input from movies, games and media. Though the focus of these particular classes is often based on the great authors of centuries past and that is unlikely to change. These games will come and go, but will they stand the test of time, perhaps. But one thing we do know is that the classics from Shakespeare, Orwell, Dickens and others have already stood this test as masters of literature and language. We should act very conservatively when we consider to introduce new ideas, less we may inadvertently replace the tried and true classics with modern works that teach improper and temporal language.

The Democratic Classroom

I was perusing the blogs on edutopia and I came across an entry entitled, "If they don't practice democracy they won't learn it" Here is a link to the blog: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/practice-democracy-to-learn-democracy-mark-phillips.

The blog discusses that schools, particularly high schools, do a decent job at preparing students academically for life after twelfth grade, but put forth little effort develop them as a citizen. The gist I took out of the article is that the schools are teaching students about democracy, but in the classroom democracy plays little to no role. The article mentioned students not having influence in the learning outcomes or school reform, both of which are places where students' opinions could be very highly cherished. I certainly see the point of this article, particularly in high schools where the students have the mental capacity and desire to have control over their education. Students' would certainly be good candidates for influencing school reform and learning outcomes. Just as we have mentioned in class, the learning outcomes must be tailored to the individual student populous.

One thing I disliked about this article is the tone it implies in Democracy, that students should have a democratic say in their classroom. In my high school experience I got to experience classes with a high degree of democracy and some with a low degree. In one of my math classes we were told exactly what we were supposed to learn and had almost no autonomy over our education. That class was disliked by many of my peers, but we did learn a lot, though the fears of freshman geometry still echo in my peers minds. On the other side I had a calculus class my senior year where the students had nearly all of the control. The class ended up being a lot of fun, we would have mandatory 'chill time' each day where we would not learn and each Friday we would have donuts or cupcakes or something of the like. In the end we had a lot of fun and developed friendships, but we didn't learn a whole lot. We were a month behind other classes at other high schools and I still don't know some of the topics we were supposed to learn in that class.

So no control will can to the students despising the class/material/teacher, though they may be more geared to learn the material. While with complete autonomy students will choose a more social setting that, though it will be fun, can severely damage the learning aspect of a course. Finding the right mixture of autonomy to give students is certainly a role the teacher needs to play. I remember one English class that had a degree of autonomy, where the students all felt like we were participating and engaging in the course, but the teacher retained some of her power, enough to guide us towards the material we needed to learn.

In short, the idea that students can use Democracy is certainly a good idea. Who better to tell the school board what improvements can be made than some of its students. Democracy also greatly increases the engagement in the class and the material. If the students feel that they have contributed to the course, they are more likely to care about the material that is covered. However, I think there is an amount of control that should remain with the teacher. The teacher has the students academic interests in mind, whether the students realize it or not. I think a teacher's role can be that of a voice calling out in a corn maze or lazer tag game. They direct the person towards the ultimate goal, but the people can choose which route(s) they want to take to get there.

PTL,

Travis Ray

Educational Trends

There are many technological trends that weave their way into education. I remember when it was 'trendy' in my school to have an overhead projector. But the modern trends are continuously updating and furthering the past advents. While reading the '12 Education Tech Trends' article two of the trends stuck out to me as trends that will affect my future job as a science educator. 

The most notable advance was the 'maker-movement.' It has been my experience that many science classrooms enforce a lab component, but that it does not have a creative basis. Most labs were simply done because the teacher told us to, we found what the teacher wanted us to find with his/her experimental set-up. There were very few cases that I remember a teacher having the students do something original, be it slightly altering an experiment and trying to discover something extra on their own. So often I feel like the teachers hold the students' hands and walk them through the lab, but the students are rarely encouraged or forced to grow and develop their own procedures. The maker-movement is just that, encouraging students, particularly in the sciences, to develop and make their own experiments, leading to greater understanding and care for the STEM fields.

The other trend that I could see in my future life in education is gaming. Often times students are turned off to science and math courses because they seem boring. Gaming is a way to incorporate a fun aspect to teach scientific phenomena. I remember in my senior physics class we had two lessons that were portrayed to us through games. One of witch was a game where we had to place charges at particular points to direct a free charge into a goal, sort of like electric hockey. While using this program we were able to see how the charges interact based on their sign, distance, speed, etc. and have a fun time trying to solve the various challenges.