SMART-7

Gaming

I think that gaming can have a lot of educational value. I would say that the age group of teachers that I am a part of is a group that understands the value of gaming better than the generations before us. We are a group of students that grew up gaming more than past groups and we have seen the advancements made throughout our years in school. "The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the rise of commercially developed software games that were both entertaining and skills based" (p. 89). This is when I was growing up so I am more familiar with past generations of teachers who did not have the games in their classrooms as they were learning. These teachers before me might consider gaming solely for entertainment and not for skills and learning. Students give reasons for using games to help them learn in school like they can "be used to teach difficult concepts" and "they are engaging" (p. 89). Some students learn better by doing. Gaming can be used in correspondence to regular teaching for students who are slower learners or for students who learn better by doing. Gaming can be reinforcement to the concepts students already know and further their knowledge in ways that simple worksheets and paper may not be able to accomplish. Throughout the whole chapter on gaming it talks about how games can provide opportunity for students to learn problem solving and thinking skills that are not easily taught otherwise. After reading the common objectives to gaming in the chapter I think the only major concerns would be the hardware, amount of time to play, and finding time to play. I would say that it is the teacher's job to find games that are useful the the curriculum and that teach the children. Teachers cannot just say, "Go find a game and play it!" and expect children to find an educational game; they must first use the game themselves to make sure it is safe and that it will actually teach their students.

Having children develop their own minigames could have many benefits. They are using their computers to make a game for themselves or others to play. This means that they must know, or at least be reviewing the information as they are putting it into the computer to be used in the game. These games can then be used during that school year for other students and the student that made it can be proud of their work. If the game is really good then it could be used for years to come. I have always heard that repetition is the mother of memory, so at the very least through this assignment they are gaining repetition of the material being included in the game. Of course, I must mention the 21st century skills being applied in this assignment would be very beneficial and possibly even inspiring to future gamers and game makers.