Monday, 3 October 2016

Learning experiences- Games


           First thing that comes to mind when thinking of integrating online educational games into students’ learning experience is, will it be efficient? With exploring the different types of educational games, one could conclude that finding the right games will, in fact, enhance a child’s learning experience. Finding the right game may include, but is not limited to, looking at the ultimate goal of the game, the content of the game, and if it is age/grade appropriate. These were some concepts that my group focused on when creating the rubric for the game that we chose.
            Kitty Rutherford member of the North Carolina Elementary Mathematics Council in Raleigh, shares that, “Games give students opportunities to explore fundamental number concepts, such as the counting sequence, one-to-one correspondence, and computation strategies. Engaging mathematical games can also encourage students to explore number combinations, place value, patterns, and other important mathematical concepts” (Rutherford, 2015). I would mainly use online games in my teaching pedagogy, for the subject of math. Math because it seems to be the most challenging subject for most students and could cause negative feelings, therefore the use of games could possibly change the attitudes of the students and make the subject fun instead of dreadful.
            Rutherford adds that online educational games also supports a school-to-home connection, in which it allows for parents to get involved in their child’s learning experience and could be beneficial for both the parent and child. I would highly encourage parent involvement, with that said, I could revise this assignment by allowing students to play a game with their parents at home and to write a short reflection on their experience and what they were able to learn.
            The Starting Point whose goal is to develop a resource that intimately integrates pedagogy with teaching resources and fully supports a virtual community of educators, shares ways on how to teach with game-based learning. The most important would be to be able to define the objective. This helps “to keep this idea central to planning your lesson and choosing or designing a game, or you may end up using a game in which the material to be learned is bypassed by the players” (Starting Point, 2012).
            Overall, this assignment allowed myself, as well as my group, to see what exactly to look at when choosing an online educational game, how to use it efficiently, and to continue to explore different search engines and communication tools.
                                                                            References

How to Teach Using Games. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games/howtogbl.html

Rutherford, K. (2015, April 27). Why Play Math Games? Retrieved October 01, 2016, from http://www.nctm.org/publications/teaching-children-mathematics/blog/why-play-math-games_/

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