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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