Games In Education

This was a very interesting online conference about the use of games in education. What she talked about was the use of games that were educational not just playing a game. Some of the current games we use in the classroom now are not completely educational but more playing for fun not to learn. She talked about how games didn't have to be complicated to be educational and that students should learn to own their own learning. She gave lots of different sites to check out and how they could fit in. The important things to remember were to have; joy in learning, need adequate time, the teacher role is crucial, authentic assessment, reflective extensive activities and let student's design their own games. Of course this might work better for the older students than with the younger ones.

Never Too Young

After watching the k12 online conference on "Never Too Young", I see the importance of starting very young so that students will be where they need to be at every grade level to be able to compete, cooperate and collaborate with their peers in the future. They need to be blogging at a first or second grade level and using Tools such as Voice Thread and working with their teachers on other tools that the computer can give them. It would be great to get kids at the sixth grade level that already have the ability to use the tools that the computer can give them.