4th blog post - my thoughts....

All I have to say is WOW (and not WOW as in World of Warcraft!). I mean, I have never really studied gaming in any concrete way. I've always loved games and been interested in games, and really could see the potential of games in learning environments, but this week's videos/presentation have really opened my eyes to new possibilities. I never thought about setting up my classroom like it was a game - I had never heard of the term gamification before. I am really interested to see what this man, Ananth Pai did with his classroom (as referred to in the 2nd video), I think I might get that book by Lee Sheldon that I found last week.

I teach adult learners (typical age: 28), most of whom come to my class and don't want to be there. The vast majority of my students are mandated to be there, all in order to gain workplace skills with a goal to get a job and keep one. About half my students need their GED, and a third want to continue their education by going to college or a vocational program. I teach A LOT of different types of things... everything from basic math to computer networking. The first thing I try to do is instill a sense of curiosity in them. I find my hardest challenge is to get them to WANT to learn. I attribute this mental "block" to them never having a good example of learning that is fun. Learning is supposed to be fun. It is fun. Bad systems of learning are bad.... and unfortunately, I think a lot of the students I work with had a bad (outdated?) system of learning which skewed their whole idea of it.  What I'm getting at is that I can see the potential of gaming systems being used in my classroom (and other classrooms) that can make learning fun (and relevant) again!

I was most impressed and inspired by the second video. I wrote down the 5 elements that increased fluid intelligence because, although I had never named them this way before, I have instictually been using them in my work:

1. Seek Novelty
2. Challenge Yourself
3. Think Creatively
4. Do things the hard way
5. Network

I still think of curiosity as the gateway to learning.... and, now, these 5 things as the process of learning. I think I'm going to put these on a poster!

I also wanted to mention that I have had a tough time getting around the idea of violent video games. I am glad for the third presentation because it really challenged my idea of a what video games are. It made me think (remember?) that there are a large range of video games, and I am happy to be reminded of this.

The first video made me think about the possibility of creating games that would help specific problems people/youth might have and that developers are working with researchers to make games like these. I hope that there is a market for those types of games.  It made me think about my son, who has a really hard time adjusting to change and dealing with strong emotions. I could imagine a video game that would slowly (and progressively) expose him to situations that need the player to adjust to change... I wonder if that could help him learn to control his emotions during those times in real life. I read an article (it was one of my fellow student's doubly entry resource last week) about ways to prevent PTSD through gaming - in which soldiers who were about to be deployed would play video games that slowly expose them to situations of intense situations and would help them deal with PTSD in the long run. I'm going to look into age appropriate games for my son that might be able to help him with his issue adjusting to change.

Great videos/presentations this week! Really enjoying this class - it is challenging my preconceived notions of gaming (and making me a believer).