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?

Educational Scams?

I've been sick this week and took time this weekend to catch up on some rest. I wasn't able to sleep last night and all that was on TV were terrible infomercials. I started listening to one and it was called "My Baby Can Read". The entire infomercial was about a program designed for baby's giving them the skills required to read and there were examples of baby's ranging from a few months old to 3 years and so on reading words, books, and answering questions. I immediately was interested and became wondering about what the program is consisted of. Is this program good for children at such a young age? Does it effect their ability to learn phonetics and the way we teach children to read later in life? Are they learning all of these words as sight words? Will they be able to decode and read other words just as easily? These are all questions that came to my head and ultimately; is this a scam? This seemed to be an interesting experience I thought I would share and ask if you have seen this or another educational program or game that may be a scam or not do what it is advertised to do.

Early Childhood Educational Games

I was babysitting my niece last night and was talking to my brother about things they need to start buying her to make sure she is getting as much exposure to educational games and practicing skills needed for her to develop before going to school. My niece is only 2 months old however, this is something that is important to me not only as an aunt but as an educator as well. I began thinking of things I would be doing if it were my child; sign language was something that came to mind. When I taught summer school we used Baby Einstein programs for many different skills and techniques. I also have a nephew who is 5 years old and last year I made sure that he had Leap Frog programs and tools to use in order to get him ready for school and exposed to the skills and information needed. There are a variety of different educational games available for children at very young ages and I fully support implementing them into a child's life.

Promethean Boards

What is a promethean board?
Before coming to the West Genesee School District I was not familiar with promethean boards either. I actually had never even heard of them. They resemble a smart board in many different ways. If you look up information on promethean boards they are often referred to as interactive white boards. These are "touchboards" however; unlike a smart board you cannot use your fingers to move or bring up information, you must use a special pen. A few things that I have found inconvenient include the use of this pen and you frequently have to calibrate the board to make sure the pen is clicking where you intend. I understand this must take place with smart boards too however I do it much more frequently with the promethean boards.

All interactive touchboards are helpful for implementing technology and different educational games into the classroom. They enhance instruction and hold the students interest and attention for longer periods of time. Students are motivated by educational games and the addition of this technology indulges them more.

Resources for Educational Games

Anytime I can incorporate the internet and computer into my instruction the students seem to become more interested and motivated. I am lucky because I do have a promethean board which allows for the students to all take turns participating in the games and or activity. One site that a number of teachers use within my district is "brainpop" I use brainpopjr.com in my classroom and it has many sources on a variety of different subjects/topics. I sometimes use this site to get ideas on how to expand my instruction or create a new unit on a different topic. Are there any resources you have experience with or enjoy using to either expand and add to your lessons or get ideas from for new lessons?

Scholarly Journal

Assessment in Serious Educational Game, Simulations and Virtual Worlds, Part 2 by Annetta, L., Kirkley, J., Ketelhut, D., Savvides, P., Lu, L., Dunleavy, M., Jones, G., Lamb, R., Stone, M., Kirkley, S., Johnson-Glenberg, M., Birchfield, D. & Heinecke, W. discusses the change in educational "landscapes". This was a topic at the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (SITE) this year. I have been looking into the research provided for the use of technology in the classroom environment and the implementation of what some see as a "three dimensional virtual learning experience" that many learners are expereincing. This research further investigates a learning experience through the use of an educational game or stimulation through the use of advanced technology. This conference also addresses the issue of assessment of this type of learning. I found the article provided from this conference interesting because it brings up valid issues that I haven't thought about taking into consideration as an educator.

A Traditional Educational Game

Educational games can be utilized in a variety of different settings. There are also a number of different games and approaches that can be used in the classroom setting. Growing up and going through school I always think of jeopardy. I had a few teachers who would create class jeopardy around whatever subject we were studying. This is still a popular game that many teachers transform into the educational setting relevant to their own curriculum.

Educational Game Links!

These are some links I used in my classroom today for math!

Monster Squeeze
http://media.emgames.com/emgames/demosite/playdemo.html?activity=M1A045&activitytype=dcr

Sequencing
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/spookyseq/spookyseq.html

Welcome to my Educational Games Blog Spot!

Sept. 8, 2010




I just want to give a brief description of why I chose to create this particular blog. I am currently a special education teacher at West Genesee Middle School and I strongly support the use of educational games. I believe educational games can be used to benefit a variety of students; however, I find them very motivating especially for my students with special needs. Children are surrounded by technology and in order to enhance their learning experience I believe that we must implement technology into their academic routine as much as possible. My students prefer to play a number of educational games on our classroom computer or classroom smart board. I would like to point out however that educational games are not restricted to "games found online" which is what I think generally comes to mind. I am looking forward to blogging about different educational games that I have experience with and those that I don't. I believe there are endless conversations that will stem from this topic and I am excited to get those started! I will be updating my thoughts, discoveries, and ideas weekly!

 
 
Ashley