Video Games as teaching tools?

      As a mother of two boys who love to play video games, I am constantly facing an internal conflict on whether or not video games are of any real use. Today however, I read an article that helped me to see that although games have the reputation for not having any educational value, they indeed offer tools that are sometimes not blatantly obvious. For instance, one wouldn't have thought that the game Zoo Tycoon would offer anything other than entertainment value, when indeed it promotes critical thinking and math skills. Zoo Tycoon is one of many 'management games', where the purpose is to create a business and stimulating environment. Other management games can also help teach science, social studies, and language arts while still entertaining those who play them.
      Other games encourage strategy while learning or conducting experiments to find out how things work (or don't work). Such games are "Model Trains 3D", and Microsoft's "Flight Simulator X".  While video games have the widespread reputation of not promoting any learning, the above games mentioned are only a few of the tools offered that do more than just occupy time; they also encourage thinking skills that can help in the real world while also stimulating their minds. While many games do not promote any learning of any kind, there are several others that can be used as teaching tools that can enable our children and students to reach beyond Mario and Luigi, and begin looking at the world in a different light. Utilizing particular video games in the classroom can give our children an opportunity to learn these thinking skills without even realizing it, while making us teachers look like the coolest ones around. Besides, isn't teaching about promoting learning while having fun?
     

Spreadsheets!

     I have recently begun familiarizing myself with spreadsheets. Now there is a tool that doesn't get enough credit! I have been amazed at the available add ons, uses, extras and so forth, that I am beginning to wonder what took me so long to use them. 

     Today I had the task of reviewing and evaluating a spreadsheet. Sounds simple enough, right? Well since I am just a beginner when it comes to this sort of thing, the reviewing and evaluating part was rocky at best. Although it was my duty to simply look at the spreadsheet & take note of the different changes I would make to it, I wanted to go further, deeper, and figure out what it is about spreadsheets that could possibly make my life easier in the classroom or assist my students in learning about history. In this blog however, I will just stick to the spreadsheet itself and what accommodations I would make for my classroom.

     The spreadsheet I selected to review was a 5th grade level history about Feudal Japan, and the Shinto religion. Very interesting topic indeed! The spreadsheet itself was very organized and detailed with some surprising purposes. Its motive was to help the students maintain an 'accounting sheet', by keeping track of assignments in order to compete against the other classmates, while demonstrating their and the other groups' strengths and weaknesses. I thought that the set up was great, and the idea spectacular! I think that it would be very easy to change it up a bit to fit the needs of my classroom. Obviously I would have to change the history subject, timeframe, location, and difficulty level, but the basics of it (assignments, layout, competing, etc) I would keep. Overall, an excellent learning experience! Although this was one of many examples of how to use spreadsheets in the classroom, I am really excited about the possibilities, and what kinds of amazing things I'll be able to do with spreadsheets!  

Classroom of the future...?

     I watched these incredibly interesting (and slightly dated) videos today on what the classrooms of the future would look like. How old you ask? Well, Reagan was president, Michael Jackson's BAD album was released, and The Simpsons made their television debut. Give up? It was 1987! 1987 was a great year, and also happens to fall within a great decade which housed the birth of the home computer.  So it should be no surprise that with their introduction, there came a rise in use of technology as well as the opportunity to let our imaginations run wild. These videos, though they are dated, are actually quite close to the type of technology we use today. For instance, video chat was depicted, voice recognition was used, research was conducted via computer, as well as computer screens built into the walls of the classroom in place of chalkboards. It was all so fascinating!
     What I found riveting was the use of video chat and the way it was depicted. In the video, a boy is home from school due to a broken leg yet attends class via chat. He is asked to conduct research and prepare for a history presentation that is due the next day, so uses his computer, and through voice command, finds the information he needs, then sends it electronically to his study partner. We could nearly do all of those things now (with the exception of voice command; that is still somewhat limited)! It was mind blowing to think of what we have accomplished in just a matter of decades. If only we could get the whole 'artificial intelligence' thing down. Then I could drink iced tea, while a robot cleans my house.