Disguise Learning As Playing!

Students are always saying that good teachers are those who "make learning fun." When teachers can make learning into a game, learners are almost always engaged in what they are doing. The problem is that teachers don't always know how to teach the content they need to teach in a way that students will find "fun." This week, I learned about virtual worlds and games as education tools in order to address this problem. I chose to focus on two here.


Virtual Worlds

These sites sound great for when students have group work to complete, but you don't want to give them too much of your class time to meet and work. They could meet outside of class without getting bored. They would probably actually look forward to getting their work done!
Also, in some of my classes the students get really into the class discussion, but then we run out of time when they still have more to say. I can't really use the class time the next day to continue the discussion (by then they've lost their mojo anyway), but maybe they could go home and meet on one of the virtual meeting sites for extra credit and continue their discussion.

Do you think we could use these for parent meetings, too, or would that be odd?



Virtual World Chosen for Analysis: Active Worlds

Summary: You can build your own (3D) world, virtual reality game, or training software and invite others to visit and chat with you there. It's supposed to be secure (no one else can access your content). There are apparently hundreds of thousands of users, including corporations who use the games for training.

Educational Benefits/Curricular Uses: "You can move about, play online games, shop and make friends with people from all over the planet. You can even stake claim to a piece of land and build your own virtual home, mansion, estate or castle!" It sounds like this could be used in a creative writing unit or class. Talking to people from around the world would provide fodder for characters' dialogue, and students could write stories about the lives and experiences they create on Active World. Then, they could invite other students from the class to their world when they share their writing so that everyone can get a visual of what is being read. It looks really neat since it's in 3D. Students would still be doing the same work (writing a short story), but it can now be enhanced with these great visuals and inspirations.



Games

I do think that GBL (game based learning) certainly has a place in the contemporary classroom. Whenever teachers can disguise learning as playing and teach the same content as they would have taught before the latest technology presented itself but teach it in a way that kids find interesting, everyone wins. Most of us have learned that kids love it when teachers can make learning into a game, so of course they would love it if learning IS a game, literally!


For math and science, I found eCYBERMISSION. Not only does this make science and math into a game, but it makes it into a contest. It is basically a virtual science fair where kids can compete against anyone in the world. "Taking the science fair out of the auditorium and into cyberspace, eCYBERMISSION is a web-based science, math and technology competition for 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade teams. Your team will propose a solution to a real problem in your community and compete for regional and national awards."


This is definitely aligned with what we know about effective teaching today as it connects learning a content area to a real life problem and lets kids learn by problem solving and looking for solutions. This site is perfect for project based learning. Even better, the problems have to do with the students' communities! How much more relevant could it get?



I believe that games can be appropriate teaching tools for older students, not just the young ones. If a method works on younger people, why wouldn't it work on adolescents or adults? The concept of learning being fun, memorable, interactive, and engaging is important for any effective instruction. As long as a game is sophisticated and difficult enough to hold the interest of a given grade level, the fact that it's a game does not take away from the seriousness or importance of the instruction.