Barry Fishman's talk about making school more "gameful" by considering the attributes that make gaming so popular with kids was enlightening. I hadn't expected him to make a successful connection of the gaming experience to better classroom learning, but he did. The attributes that make gaming successful with kids (clear learning goals, high motivation, encouraging identity play, allowing productive failure, encouraging exploration, providing "just right" levels of challenge, reinforcement, infinite patience, and embedded assessment) can so easily be tied to classroom learning. It seems like a no-brainer. As teachers we should embrace these attributes to increase student interest by making learning engaging, not just fun, right? Curious about what makes gaming, I asked my son, what he likes about his favorite game, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, "The swordplay feels natural- it's complete touch control, the movements are natural (encouraging identity play). I have lots of things to choose from to play the game (encouraging exploration). I don't really mind losing, cause I can always restart from where I was and keeping moving on through the game (allowing productive failure). Very interesting, he easily highlighted three attributes that make the game compelling for him.
These are the factors that keep my son transfixed by his DSi for hours at a time (when I'm not paying attention). Games let him escape to a fantasy world, provide him with a sense of confidence, give him autonomy, they exhibit relatedness and encourage collaboration and competition with other players. If we can tie these factors to the 4 elements of good pedagogy: clear information, thoughtful instructional practice, informative feedback, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation with the attributes of successful games in the classroom, then we can keep our students coming back for more.
I was so excited to hear what Liz Kolb had to present and was not disappointed. She had a lot of practical information to offer, I understand why she had the largest amount of time to present. The hands-on experience she had us try made the thought of using the applications in the classroom more real to me. The trick is convincing others that cell phones can be effective learning devices. I think the best method of introducing cell phones in the curriculum would be to start with the "Summer Text Program" she highlighted. This would allow for students and parents to be exposed to cell phone learning outside of school without the "threat" of challenging the traditional classroom experience. Baby steps. Hopefully, by seeing them in action daily, the experience would show parents that cell phones can assist in student learning. The parents could then (after being provided information about other successful applications that could be used) become advocates for classroom cell phone use, no longer apprehensive or critical of their presence.
Megan and Jill did an excellent job of presenting the SCVNGR application to the group. It i always difficult to teach technology to a group of people with varying levels of mastery. The lesson they gave allowed time for learners to work at different speeds, and Meggan and Jill exhibited extreme patience in doing so. It was a super fun experience and I enjoyed working with in-service teachers to see how their comfort levels varied and affected their experience with the "hunt".
Great day- congrats to all contributors:)
I also enjoyed the cell phone talk - but then I enthusiastically talked to two teachers afterward who said cell phones would be a bad idea because students would abuse the privilege. My enthusiasm was thus curbed.
ReplyDeleteI loved the speakers at this conference! I learned an incredible amount and would love to take Barry's class next year (if it's offered in the spring).
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