2011 Four State Teaching Conference - Using games, social media and mobile devices in the classroom
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How games, social media, and mobile devices can be used in the classroom to develop blended learning techniques.
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2011 Four State Teaching Conference - Using games, social media and mobile devices in the classroom
- 1. Using games, social media, and mobile devices in the classroom Presented by: Assistant Professor, Akram Taghavi-Burris Graphics and Imaging Technologies dept. aburris@pittstate.edu
- 22. Math Playground MathTV GrandTheft Auto IV
Editor's Notes
- According to Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert, in a presentation on “Changing Education Paradigms”, this is the most technological stimulating times we have ever experienced on earth. However, students are often being penalized for being distracted from non-engaging content. These students would probably call it boring. What makes educational content boring to the students is not necessarily the content, but the way it is presented.
- Most of our education is presented using a “push” strategy, where we push the content to the students and hope they get the message. This strategy has been used in advertising for years, in way of commercials; and we all know what we do when we see a commercial, change the channel or tune it out. This same thing is happening to our students.
- An alternative strategy is “pull”, where a student is actively seeking information they want to learn. The “pull” strategy is often more effective, than “push”, but only tends to occur when the student has interest or a problem needing an answer. WebMD is a popular site that people visit when they are trying to figure out what might be causing their running nose and itchy eyes and thus educates through the “pull” method.
- Then there is “osmosis” which as it implies a gradual absorption of information. “Osmosis” is media-driven and it comes from the many bites of information that we encounter on a daily basis, news blurbs, tweet updates, and magazine covers. An example is that most students know that Pluto is no longer a planet, because of the media hype behind it, but they can not always state the names of the 8 official planets, and no the moon is not one of them.
- The popularity of mobile devices has also grown. According to Apple.com, the company sold 17 million iPhones in the last quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth and sold 11 million iPads during the same period, which is a 166 percent unit increase from year-ago.
- William Higinbotham created what is considered the first digital game “Tennis for Two” in 1958 to engage high school students who were visiting the Brookhaven National Laboratory, in New York.
- Perhaps, it has to do with stereotypes, that the average gamer is a 13-18 year old anti-social boy, who enjoys violence. The truth of the matter is that the 68% of American households play games, average gamer is 35 years old and more women over 18 years old play games than boys under 18 (ESA, 2011).
- The fact of the matter is that they are, they are learning the skills required to win the game. Most games start with a goal/objective that the player must reach in order to win, from there the player starts their journey figuring out the controls and the best method to reach their goals. The average gamer seldom reads the game manual and instead relying on trail and error to learn the mechanics of the game. In order to guide the player video games provide instant feedback. Feedback is the positive or negative response to the player’s choices (actions). Feedback encourages learning, which in this case refers to learning the rules of the game. Learning gives players a sense of accomplishment.
- In education much of our curriculum is about teaching systems like english, math, science, they are all systems. In fact economics is a system that can often be found in games. Even causal games like “Farmvile” incorporates an economic system, where players must learn the best crops and livestock to invest to receive the best profit.
- One of the classic educational games is “Oregon Trail”, designed by three teachers at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971, was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.
- Often the problem associated with educational games is that, while effective, they do not engage the student for long periods of time that a commercial game does. Iowa Stat University Researcher, Scott McLeod, posted a very interesting debate about the differences in quality between educational and commercial games on the blog “Dangerously Irrelevant”. The article mentions not only the differences in graphics but in the story complexity as well.
- Think of Social Media as lifelines, when your in the hot seat on who want to be a millionaire. With so much information being produced every second, it is impossible to know everything, we shouldn’t be teaching the what the answer is, but how to successfully find an answer and multiple alternatives
- Where we like it or not social media is how today’s youth is communicating. With out proper education on how to use this media, these individuals can fall prey to online predators and cyber bullying
- Use cameras to take picture of items on a scavenger hunt Have students record demonstrations to their phone Another way of using the recorder is have students create a captains log or even video confessions about how their project is going.
- Flash card apps {flash my brain}