Sunday, January 20, 2013

Gaming as a New Paradigm

ETPT 5980

I was really surprise about the information form the article named Games as a Part of Today's Culture. It says “80% of gamer-parents play video games with their kids. And 66% of those gamer-parents think that playing games brings their families closer together. .” (“None to Claim Their Bones,” 2013, para.8).I never think playing game together make family relationship tighter. It was an interesting information to me. Actually, today’s kids are growing by playing digital games. They are a part of their daily life. However. are they fit for education?


As we see digital games everywhere, they are in classroom, too. According to some people  at the National Science Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, these games meet  standards-based academic content and 21st century thinking skills at the same time (“None to Claim Their Bones,” 2013, para.2). These games create an efficient and fun environment for learning experiments.  Moreover, they provide students communication, collaboration, problem solving, and even thinking in a different way. Maybe, the most important feature of game-based learning is supporting experiential learning. Plan formulation and strategic thinking are also other good qualities of some of games.


These games are really useful to teach something students. After playing these games, they reflect their knowledge to real life. For instance, according to the article named What About Games Makes Them Good for Learning?, “if a player has to learn about ratios in order to feed the monsters and free a pet (goals that she's taken on because of her deep engagement in the game), it turns out that she's very, very likely to put in the effort to learn about ratios.” (“None to Claim Their Bones,” 2013, para.12).


In the video named School Mods: Gaming the Educational System from the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auP-eq17U1g , a person identifies himself as a computer addict. He says he learned using computer before starting walking. He talks about some innovative video games companies that produce some games based school content such as money management skills, algebra equations, and protein puzzles. The person in the video says he does not understand why school curriculum is not turned to game based, even though these games have a quality that teach these school content faster and more effectively than ever. As students learn with different speeds and different learning styles, he asserts that teachers cannot go up or go down to every single student’s level at the same time and with the same educational tools. He says digital games meet these needs. They meet individual pace, individual focus and individual ability. He also says we mostly learn through our failure. However, if this failure is in the traditional learning environment, it is nothing just humiliating. IF students fail in a digital game, this failure makes students more willing to play. There is a really big difference between gam-based learning and traditional learning in terms of this situation.


All in all, game-based learning open us more efficient door for students, teachers, educational system positively. We cannot wait to use this new model for education.


 References     


“None to Claim Their Bones,” (2013). Retrieved from 


“None to Claim Their Bones,” (2013). Retrieved from 

http://labyrinth.thinkport.org/www/library/learning.php


 

 

 

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