Reflection

I have never read a blog, written or commented on a blog, or developed a blog of my own before IDE 611. Obviously I had heard of blogging and I knew what blogs were but I never found time to really experience this on my own time. Now that this semester has come to an end I can saw that not only have I looked at a blog but I had one of my own. I enjoyed blogging and think that it is something I will enjoy doing more once I am done with school and have the time to put towards interests like this. Blogs can be very informative and almost therapeutic. They can be used like a journal or more professionally. I am glad this was a requirement for this course because it opened me up to new ideas and I think this will be important in order to implement new activities and technologies into my own classroom. Not only did I learn about the experience of blogging but I gained a lot of information from reading other’s blogs. Resources were provided to me that I would not have otherwise had. It was nice to reflect with peers in class and either agree/disagree or share insightful thoughts, comments, and ideas. Now I find myself paying closer attention to news channels when blogs are mentioned  because now I know what the experience and set up consists of.

Educational Game Simulation

Below is a website I found with different games that help simulate activities. The game I looked into was for driver's education where it simulated driving; you select an instructor and go through different practice lessons, before taking your driving test. I thought these were cool games that simulated activties for younger children because even if they aren't close to the age of 16, they will be introduced to the roles, responsibilities and rules of these real life events.


http://www.learn4good.com/games/simulation.htm

Simulations in Education

After a long and crazy holiday weekend I am sitting down preparing for my work week ahead. As I was thinking about my math class I had a wonderful assessment idea to wrap up the unit we are currently working on. Money! I thought to myself how can I simulate the expereince of going shopping for my students. Ultimately, I am going to doing some simulation of my own in class this week because I plan on setting up a class store with items for the students to purchase from me. The student will be given fake money, pick out items to purchase, present me (teacher/cashier) with their money, and if change is needed orally state the amount of change needed. This is a great example of simulations used in my very own classroom!

Simulations

Just wanted to reflect on a thought I had this week while in school. At the beginning of the school year, while the weather is still nice, we always get in our fire drills. There are a certain number we must do each year; however, we also practice 'lock-down' drills and bomb threat drills as well. I was thinking about all of these different evacuation procedures, etc. that we talk about and practice and simulations came to mind. These drills provide us all with a glimpse of the concept that help to make the situation more efficient, effective, and in this case less dangerous.

Digital Games and Simulations in Classrooms

http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/04/08/28games_ep.h28.html&destination=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/04/08/28games_ep.h28.html&levelId=2100


This is a link from Education Week; however, it only allows you to view the first few paragraphs unless you are logged in under a personal or school account. I wanted to share this with you because it discusses the use of digital games and simulations in classrooms. I think we will see this advanced version of simulations that put technology to use in a variety of ways and forms more and more as time goes on. Classrooms have changed significantly even since I was in high school so I can only imagine how they will change throughout my career as a teacher. I also was trying to get away from my K-12 mindset and think about higher education and different educational fields such as science, medicine, business, etc. I believe the more technologically advanced a school or program is within a college the more opportunities you will see for simulation of real life events.

Examples of Simulation

When I was first contemplating what examples of simulation in education would be I thought of standardized tests. I think of something that happens in education that teachers try to imitate for their students. Testing and particularly standardized tests are a good example because teachers often talk to their students about this and try to create a test and environment beforehand that prepares their students and gives them an experience as similar to the real event as possible.

Simulation in Education

My new blod topic for the second half of the semester is going to focus on simulation in education. Some of you may wonder; what is simulation?
Simulation is the imitation of something real. It can imitate a process, event that will take place, or many other state of affairs. Simulation is used for a variety of different reasons and in a number of different professions. Some examples include, technology, training, testing, video games, etc.

Do you have any experience with simulation?