Double Entry #10

Learning to Play or Playing to Learn

“The proliferation of networked computers, gaming consoles such as the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Gamecube and handheld devices such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, have made computer gaming part of mainstream culture” (Arnesth, 2001-2006).

I decided to choose this as one of my quotes because it says so much about my current students. As I have said gaming is so popular with the 9^th graders in my school. I have even found it interesting that when students finish an assignment they are eager to play Pokémon or even an educational game on the computer. Students are all about the games. Recently in my school I had a group of students do a comparison and tally it in Microsoft Word. They did a survey around the school to determine the most popular video game character: Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Now you need to be aware that the students did this on their own and this was not an assignment of any type. This example demonstrates how much students are involved in the gaming world and using computer outside of school. Now if students applied this dedication to their school work then we would see an increased amount of learning. Using these same skills and devices and methods will help us to inspire learning and increase achievement among our students.

“Regarding playing to learn, the emphasis is on learning, which is to say that some content or skill should be the end result of game playing. As such, knowledge and skills are treated as effects or outcomes. In regard to learning to play, on the other hand, the emphasis is on the activity of playing. As such, learning might be regarded as an integrated part of mastering an activity, in this case, gameplay” (Arnesth, 2001-2006).

I think this is a great way to explain the incorporation and the usefulness of gameplay in the curriculum. If we are allowing our students to learn necessary content while they are having fun they will be more motivated to complete the task, thus learning more. Our goal as educators is to make learning the best possible experience and by having the students participate in activities that they do on their own time will encourage them to me more actively engaged in the learning process.

“Still, according to Kirriemuir & McFarlane (2004) many teachers and parents seem to recognise that computer games might support the development of valuable skills such as strategic thinking, communication, application of numbers and group-decision making” (Arnesth, 2001-2006).

Wow, this quote is perfect; however I am not sure that it is quite accurate the many teachers and parents recognize these valuable skills, at least in my experiences. From the experiences that I have had, parents seem to think that there child wastes hours of time playing “those video games”, as most of them comment. Now while I understand that there must be a distribution between a child times playing these games and involved in other activities – many parents think that this is a waste of time, when in fact it is helping students to develop valuable skills needed to be successful in their future endeavours  Teachers are a mixed area, and honestly this deals mainly with the method of teaching and instructional style. I have many teachers in my school that still believe lecture and book work is the best method of teaching the students, many of the teachers never even turn on their projectors, then we have the teachers who are constantly trying to get in the computer lab, making use of smart phones and tablets, and using any form of technology that they can to help inspire learning in their classrooms. 

Works Cited 

Arnesth, H. C. (2001-2006). Learning to Play or Playing to Learn - A Crtical Account of the Models of Communication Informing Educational Research on Computer Gameplay. Institute for Educational Research .

Resources:

This is a video about some of the greatest computer programmers of our time. Such as Bill Gates creator of Microsoft, Mark creator of Facebook, and creators of twitter, dropbox, and many more. They are talking about how they became interested in computer programming and how you do not have to be a genus to write a program. Check it out below!!