Please post responses by Monday 11:59pm at the latest.
Q#1. On (reader) page 724-5, Hull et al discuss the
importance of agency and "de/recontextualization" and,
in Gee's terms, how "good learning requires that learners
feel like active agents (producers) not just passive
recipients (consumers)." With these ideas in mind,
discuss how the teachers in the Parker excerpts enabled
students to learn agentively. What implications do
these approaches have for pedagogy in general?
Q#2. Choose one of the learning principles discussed
in Gee's article about video games and discuss how you
would use a video game to teach specific content
(a concept in math, physics, language arts, physical education...)
In the Parker excerpts, one teacher got students to learn agentively by having them play a game called Quest Atlantis where learned science and experiment based skills interactively. They explored a virtual world in a gamified manner where they received rewards and quests for proceeding, and they were also faced with scientific decisions and problems. They were acting like “active agents (producers)” as Hull would describe because they are forging their own learning and venturing their own discoveries instead of waiting to accept answers or results like a “passive recipient (consumer)”. This influences pedagogy because learning begins to gravitate towards interactive learning experiences instead and which mirrors the Freirien question based learning instead of the alternative banking method.
ReplyDeleteGee discusses utilizing Cycles of Expertise where a person is able to develop a beginning level of mastery and then build on that foundation in a new environment such as “bosses” in videogames. I would incorporate this concept when teaching students how to touch type. In the beginning, it will begin with first mastering the index fingers of the home rows, the “j” and “f”, and then working on the middle fingers, “d” and “k”, then the ring fingers “s” and “l” and finally the pinkies, “a” and “;”. Once they have built a level of mastery in each of those, then in a sort of “boss” level I would have them try to type words using all the letters such as “fad”, “lad”, and “dad” so that they would have to reinforce and also develop new skills of using multiple letters.
The idea that children must attain agency in learning is something that Hull, Gee, and other education leaders discuss and that the teachers in Parker's excerpts help students attain by employing various multimedia or interactive activities that students can connect to. For example, Amy Crawford, a high school English teacher, uses theatre to enhance the English learning experience. She takes her class to see live theatre performances and assigns her students to perform theatre pieces in front of the class. In doing these theatre activities, Crawford cites that her students gain a whole array of knowledge, skills, and understandings of themselves and of the world. For example, not only do students learn new language and movements from doing theatre, they also learn how to be respectful of audience members and to be respectful audience members. Crawford and other teachers demonstrate that learning does not simply have to be kept to traditional methods of "book learning" or lecturing. This supports Friere's theory of interactive learning, that students learn better if they are able to interact with the classroom and teacher, rather than simply taking in information passively
ReplyDeleteOne of the learning principles Gee states is that "different styles of learning work better for different people." Therefore, students learn best if they are able to choose how they learn a certain subject. For example, learning word problems in math is a good way to apply this principle and to allow students to choose their method of learning to solve a problem. Many word problems can be solved in multiple ways, such as, guess and check, working backward, drawing a diagram or picture, or writing an equation. In working with word problems, I would teach children the methods of solving word problems and allow the kids to choose which methods they prefer to use to solve the problems. However, I would emphasize how the student used their methods to reach the solution to make sure that the child understood the problem, rather than finding a specific answer.
In Hull’s article of agency, it’s important to know that children “are the most constrained of all social actors; parents and caretakers, schools, and society regulate their activities and choices” (pg. 8). Student understands that they are agents in their own “social world” yet they want to know more in order to be a social actor in their community. So how can teachers and mentors guide these students to become these agents in their community? Parker gives us a very good example by using a gaming program called “Quest Atlantis.” I found this program to be very innovative and that it has ability to enable students to learn agentively. One of the most important aspects of this program in my opinion is the story line of the program and how it can motivate students to learn. The students become “questers whose mission is to solve an ecological crisis in the virtual world of Taiga National Park” and during their journey they must predict, solve problems, and create a solution. This is an awesome way to not only learn but also connect with the students in their classroom and other classrooms worldwide. By creating this understanding of their classroom and bringing in their lives from home into a video game can help these students to become important social actors in the community.
ReplyDeleteI found Gee’s principle of “pleasantly frustrating” a bit humorous yet an effective way to help students learn. Making something difficult yet “doable” is a brilliant way to reinforce the idea that a student’s hard work is paying off. If I was able to make a video game using this principle I would probably concentrate on math. For example, I would create a stage that teaches students how to add and subtract. Then on the second stage I would then create a learning program that teaches the students how to do multiplication. These first two stages would be fairly easy, but as they reach the final stage, I would give them question that would combine addition, subtraction, and multiplication. [ex. (3+6)x(3-4)x(2x3)=?] When they look at this question, some students would find it impossible to do because they haven’t experienced anything like it, but if they break it down from what they have learned from the past two stages, it’s more than possible to find the answer.
Media outlets provide an opportunity for students to be extremely creative, but they need the approval and guidance of teachers in order to do so. From a constructivist standpoint, kids act on the world, shaping it. These authors stress the importance of children acting on the world and creating their interpretations of it. They give examples of video essays, advertisements, PSAs, and so much more that allow kids the freedom to make something and express themselves. They argue for collective learning rather than multiple choice regurgitation. Participation, not regurgitation! Socially students can feed off each other and learn things they did not know before, whether it’s software programs or point of views. Teaching tech-savvy kids can redefine the social constructs of a school and possibly a society (when working collectively). Having kids work on projects together takes away from the anti-social aspect of tech-based learning. When you break down the teacher’s power structure in the classroom by giving students the freedom to work, teach, and present together, they will retain all that they learn. It’s been proven that the capability of teaching a subject/topic is a much better way of learning that being a “consumer” of the teacher’s knowledge.
ReplyDeleteGee:
This author does not necessarily advocate for video games, but rather for the principles underlying the popularity and success of video games that can be administered in an academic setting. “Co Design” is one principle that I can readily agree with and see in play in some classrooms as the teachers try to allow kids to feel like their ideas about class are being implemented. He advocates that kids should be given decisions in their curriculum and be agents of their own learning. A way I’ve seen this implemented, while very simple, has been very effective in valuing each child’s opinion as well as monitoring their needs and achievements. This would be the Y. At the end of class or a specific activity, a teacher will ask the students to draw a big Y on their paper and ask them to fill it in with a) what they liked or what they want to do in the future, b) what they would like to work on, had a hard time with, and c) what was their goal and/or what did/do they expect. A teacher can comment on these papers and implement some of the kids suggestions so they feel valued and more like producers.
Trinity Taylor
In Parker’s excerpt, “Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids”, many of the teachers utilized media and popular culture to help students become active agents in their learning experiences. For example, one teacher used multimedia production to help students participate in expressing themselves through using words and images. The teacher found that the best way for his students to become media literate was to give them hands on experience and have them produce their own media. He believes that through this they will shift from being passive consumers of media to critical-thinking, analytical participants in the world of media (50). Another teacher emphasized the importance of deep participatory learning. She believed that when students learn how to think and act like the people they are studying they will have a better grip on learning the material. Teachers can use the idea of role-playing provides one of the pathways to deep participatory learning. The approaches reveal that teaching can be fun, engaging, and culturally relevant. Teachers can incorporate numerous techniques to create dialogue with their students, and allow their students to be creative in learning new materials.
ReplyDeleteIn Gee’s article, he lists Sandboxes as one of his learning principles. The concept of Sandboxes refers to a place where a person is put into a situation that feels like the real thing but reduce risk and danger. I would use this principle of Sandboxes to help students learn how to write and express themselves. They would be able to express themselves without feeling the pressure of being punished by grammatical errors or underdeveloped context. Similar to how the gaming world uses Sandboxes to help players learn the game without making detrimental mistakes, I would use writing tutorials for students. These writing tutorials would be a place to write something similar to rough draft except they would be undergo peer editing and one-on-one meetings with the teacher. This way students are able to be directed and taught in a place where they are not worried about failure or danger in their grades, but rather they focus on learning how to write well.
Focusing on the idea that “good learning requires that learners feel like active agents not just passive recipients”, the Parker excerpts discuss how educators have integrated digital media into the classrooms in order for students to learn agentively. Stating that “a multimedia project is often the first time [students] have been invited to use words and images to tell a story or make a point”, ninth grade English teacher Philip Halpern discusses how he allows his students to produce still images, videos, and podcasts in order to help “shift students from being passive consumers of media to being critical-thinking analytical participants in the world of media” (50). As the students gain ownership over projects that are of interest to them, the students are challenged by Halpern “to step into the role of teacher and assist their peers”, which not only creates a collaborative environment but also allows struggling students quickly gain the skills needed in order to be successful in the class. Another example of a teacher using multimedia to engage their students is Mario Warburton. Warburton, an eighth grade algebra teacher, uses YouTube to teach his students algebra in innovative ways that will “generate student interest” in math while also using videos that are not math themed to “set the stage for class discussion in which students demonstrated compassion for the characters in the videos” (59). Using digital media in the classroom has allowed teachers to help shift learning to a more interactive and engaging environment, where students feel empowered and motivated rather than just simply learning through traditional methodologies that involves students simply regurgitating information taught by the teachers.
ReplyDeleteOne principle that Gee discusses in his article about using video as learning machines that I found to be particularly interesting is his concept of how learning should be “pleasantly frustrating”. Stating that “good games adjust challenges and give feedback in such a way that different players feel the game is challenging but doable”, Gee states that games do a very good job of giving constant judgment “but never a final judgment that [the player] is a failure, and the final exam – the final boss – is willing to wait until [the student] is good enough to beat him” (784). Mirroring the concept laid out by Gee, I would use a video game that teaches an academic subject such as math where students will be challenged to complete the academic related video game by the end of the semester. Receiving constant feedback from both the game and the teacher, students will feel as if their efforts are paying off for the duration of the semester and will be allowed to gain a handle over the material at his or her own pace rather than feeling defeated after a single standardized test. This will also prevent students from simply regurgitating information and forgetting it after taking the test, since the video game will be a semester long process where the harder levels will build on the skills gained in the earlier levels.
Within Parker’s excerpts, a teacher uses blogging as a means to create agency among the students at a Northern California high school. The blogs created a space where the students we able self-evaluate themselves and answer questions about that used the material they were learning in class to correlate with their own lives. What I liked about this method, was that as stated in the excerpt, blogging is “a great way to have students write to their peers (and teachers, parents, administrators, or community members) in an informal manner. Due to the informality of the blogging, the students are able to write in whatever way their feel most comfortable, such as slang or in abbreviations. It also creates a sense of agency, because initially many students may be hesitant to fully participate within the blog, but once they are able to see it as a safe space, the students are able to truly express and write about their own self-perceptions.
ReplyDeleteGee states that “good games designers are practical theoreticians of learning, since what makes games deep is that players are exercising their learning muscles, though often without knowing it and without having to pay overt attention to the matter.” One of the principles he uses is “Pleasantly Frustrating.” He states that this method is constructive because it allows for students to be within their “regime of competence.” This means that they feel whatever they are learning is challenging, however doable. By feeling this pleasant frustration, they are able to be aware of the progress they are making through their effort. I would create a game to teach math to elementary school kids to have them learn their times tables. Similar to the game “Around the World,” where students race other students to answer a times table problem, I would create a game where students would have to race against a time to answer a certain amount of multiplication questions correctly. By doing this, they will have to exert their minds and really focus on calculations, while also feeling a sense of adrenaline and challenge. The will allow them to be able to experience pleasant frustration while learning their times tables!
1. Parker describes methods teachers take to engage students. Amy Crawford is just one example that parker cites. Amy was able to more actively engage her class by taking them to plays and working with local resources to allow workshops with professionals. These activities would allow kids not only to better understand the particular English material being taught, but also bring out hidden talents, passions, and skills (like being a respectful audience member). Connecting interest with class material allows students to better understand material being taught. Although Crawford cites that his method is not affective for all students (Some prefer to abstain) it nonetheless engages some kids and gives them new skills and understanding. There is no one method of teaching that is successful and engaging to everyone. But with the use of media like YouTube, video games, plays etc. teachers can create interest and engagement the beginning of the learning process.
ReplyDelete2. The “cycle of expertise” promotes the idea idea that a specific skill would be repeated over and over that eventually expertise is formed. It results in an almost automatic response. A new skills is then introduced with the same process. Each level of the game would be a level up, and the student would learn to tackle these chances. An online math video game could teach students multiplication and division. At my site, St. Anthony’s, the 3rd/4th get to play a math game on the class computers. The game flashes multiplication problems . The further along you go with the greater accuracy the harder the questions get. Sometimes the questions are exactly the same just flipped ex: 2x3 and 3x2. But eventually the numbers get bigger and bigger presenting a new challenge. The child moves up a level with even larger math questions. A correct answer produces a green check in the corner, a wrong answer produces a red check. The scores are counted at the bottom. This game seems to get the kids engaged because they often complain about doing their math homework, but ask to use the computer to play this online math game.
JoyceH.
Teachers in the Parker excerpts enabled students to learn agentively by integrating different forms of media and pop culture in the classroom. Warburton, an eighth grade Algebra teachers employs YouTube videos in his lectures in order to generate interest different algebraic concepts. Additionally, Warburton found that other YouTube videos he features in class, ones that are not directly related to mathematical material are still beneficial because, “these fun moments help me maintain an upbeat classroom climate that is conducive to learning” (60). Moreover, YouTube videos have allowed him to create an atmosphere in which his students can talk about difficult issues in a safe and open way. One such example is when Warburton showed his class five different YouTube videos about bullying during their school’s Anti-Bullying week. YouTube, along with other multimedia, is banned at certain schools. However, it is clear that these forms of media are effective in classrooms not only because they interest a variety of different children, but because they are relevant to a student’s at-home and at-school learning, and help create an environment in which students can be active agents.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the most effective educational video game would encompass many of Gee’s learning principles, but when choosing one, I find the co-design principle to be of extreme importance. The co-design learning principle applied to video games not only allows young people to act as active agents by interacting with the video game, it creates a system of rewards, which encourages the process of learning. Games that implement this principle “encourage[s] the player to act again” because when the player makes an action the game makes an action in response. I might use a video game of this nature to teach plot development and character growth in language arts, by allowing students to develop their own characters and stories and see how their end product (the story they produce) differs from that of their peers. This game would teach them the importance of plot development as well as the necessity of major/minor characters, as well as allow them to think creatively.
1. Living in a society today where technological advancements are developing exponentially, there are many opportunities presented to educators to incorporate the use of technology into their teaching methods. This week's readings have intersecting emphases on the the critical need to allow students to be active agents in their learning process and to explore their creative minds. Parker believes that there is great room for media use in the classroom, especially in the kind of society we are living in today. She gives multiple perspectives on the use of media in the classroom and how it may impair or enhance a student's learning experience. One of ways in which Parker sees media use as a positive tool for learning is the ability to bring in students' interest in school, and thus, building an environment where they feel more welcome to be more like "producers" of their work. An example of a media production activity given in Parker's piece is digital storytelling through which students can "create a story using pictures, music, and voice-over narration." This kind of activity allows teachers to connect with students on a more intimate level that can open up a dialogue between them so that feedback and vice can be exchanged.
ReplyDelete2.The principle of "well-ordered problems" is very applicable in teaching mathematics. Students are initially taught the basic fundamental tools to build a foundation for their math knowledge, which keeps growing as they progress into higher levels of math. It is very practical to use this specific kind of problem solving learning, because video games that also follow this pattern can teach student to focus on understanding the very basic ideas first presented to them. Video games that apply this kind of learning technique can be used in to teach in the classroom, because students will be able to better understand that the "fruitful paths" they initially encounter "are designed to lead players to form good guesses about how to proceed when they face harder problems". After they master the elementary concepts, they can learn to apply them in future problems that are more advanced.
-Joyce Park
As a few of my colleagues have discussed above, I found the example of Amy Crawford a valuable one. Amy, a high school English teacher, worked to further her students’ learning by incorporating theater into her lessons. Instead of just having students read passively from books and write papers, she had them actively engage to help them understand the material being taught. She has her students perform theater pieces, which not only has them learning English material, but also has them learning other skills and also learning about themselves. This system of teaching/learning creates a pedagogy where students have a serious degree of control and investment in their learning. This fulfills Friere’s ideology of hands-on, question based learning, moving away from passive ‘banking’ education.
ReplyDeleteGee introduces the ides of “pleasantly frustrating”, which I thought was extremely interesting. The whole idea behind it is that students are challenged while still feeling like they can accomplish the task. Its seems like such a great idea since it pushes students without making them feel like it is impossible, which I feel is something that is important when it comes to education. When I was in middle school my teacher had us play a version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire with history facts. The questions would start out easy and get more and more challenging, but would always cover material that we had learned. We would be encouraged to learn the material because we wanted to do well at the game, and while playing it we would be challenged but never felt like we were playing something that was beyond our ability. It really would be ‘pleasantly frustrating’, but it was that frustrating part that would push us to learn the material. I could definitely see incorporating this into a video game, where there would be Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-esque game at the end of each history chapter, and students would answer questions from the chapter to win some prize to give them higher standing.
Teachers in Parker’s article emphasized the implementation of new-age media and technology for students to express themselves creatively. Some of these included digital storytelling, public service announcements, and a class video page. One feature stressed included collaboration, so students could interact and work together on a challenging project and toward common goal. Students were also encouraged to take part in text-based projects, including print advertisement, such as designing billboards or magazines, coupled with class contests, where they competed actively through these texts in friendly competitions. Role-playing and reenactments allowed students to use media apparatuses to collectively write scripts and to even tape or podcast their performances so they could look back and reflect on experiences. A specific example was “Quest Atlantis,” a game-based curriculum designed by Sasha Barab, through which students were immersed in a game realm where they learned real world problems, such as regional ecological crises, and figured out solutions through exploration. In terms of pedagogy, these approaches promote learning interactively and collaboratively, persuading students to incorporate their learning in daily life and to retain the information better, as it was gained through hands-on experience.
ReplyDeleteOne principle Gee discussed in his article is that video games should be challenging but also doable. This means that a game must employ the right balance of difficulty, since if it is too easy, the process becomes a mindless and boring task, and if it is too hard, participants are frustrated and encouraged to give up, lowering morale. Since everyone’s ability is different, creating varying degrees of complexity is important to keep interest and educational value. If I were to teach math through a game, I would design fun activities that require students to utilize problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, creativity, and prior knowledge of the subject to figure out various activities. Employing eye-catching graphics and interesting storylines, where all the activities tie together, not only keep students interested, but the high quality shows students effort, implying that these subjects are important. Having different levels also allows anyone to participate and promotes playing over and over, attempting a more difficult stage each time.
Educators in the Parker excerpt are those who are more resilient to ‘change’ which is an important asset in today’s digital age. Others, especially administrators prefer the old way ‘proven’ mode of teaching. The teachers in the excerpt enable students to have agency in their learning by employing digital media as a tool. For instance, in one of the examples, literacy is accomplished through visual media, tapping into the viewers/ students creativity for them to create their own story using digital media. Gone are the days of checking a book out from the library, reading it and writing a book report. The students can employ problems in the surroundings they are in, or context familiar to them. Hence, they become more socially aware of their community and its strengths or weaknesses. These trigger in their minds the need to invest in their community when able. In this manner, learning is re-contextualized through imagination, students’ making inquiry rather than absorbing information. One may argue that Parker’s concept along with Gee’s terms that “good learning requires that learners feel like active agents not just passive recipients (consumers),” and Hull’s discussion of agency and “de/re-contextualization,” is rooted in Freire’s argument that education is not and should not be a banking concept.
ReplyDeleteOne of Gee’s learning principle is Well-Order Problems. This principle can be utilized in games that allow the players to explore their future goals or career. The players can choose a particular profession, for instance, being a teacher. The game presents challenges faced by an educator. The player decides the appropriate action to take giving him/her the agency in the game. The player then earns points for making the right decision based on tested pedagogy research/theories and gets a promotion. The issues become more difficult as the player progresses in the game.
1. The Role-Playing and School segment asks how pedagogy can help students take on different roles in their classroom-- recontextualizing new ideas about learning. Students will develop new feelings about learning, simply by exposing students to media environments where they have access to various outlets. Teachers and those interested in learning begin to see the various outlets each student chose and further make inferences about the diversity in learning, and letting students be agents of their own learning environments.
ReplyDelete2. I believe the System Thinking Principle in Gee's article would be a wise principle to employ when attempting to create a video game for learning. The segment states "People learn skills, strategies, and ideas best when they see how they fit into an overall larger system to which they give meaning."(reader788). Approaching this project with the concept of systemic causation in mind will expand the amount of and trajectory of learning. The segment noted players enjoy games in which they have to learn a new set of laws and rules in order to progress in the new environment.
Parker demonstrates that media production allows students to “shift from being passive consumers of media to being critical-thinking analytical participants in the world of media” (50). Therefore, they become active agents (producers) and not passive recipients (consumers), like Gee says. Teachers find ways to incorporate media and popular culture in their classrooms so students can better understand and prompt them to engage in media literacy. For example, one teacher integrates multimedia production that allows students to express themselves and participate in the “conversation” by using words and images to an audience. Therefore, this teacher found that this was the best way to allow students to become critical thinkers while raising their self-perception of academic success. Other teachers use youtube videos, role-playing, blogging, etc. This shows that teaching doesn’t have to be one certain way since it can be experimented in ways that brings positive learning results. By using media and popular culture, students can best connect and interact in ways that makes learning and teaching fun.
ReplyDeleteOne of Gee’s principles that would be useful in mathematics is “Cycles of Expertise”. By learning repeated cycles of skills, learners can get accustomed to it and know it well enough to move on to higher levels. When I was in 5th grade, my teacher would make two students challenge one another in a flashcard game. He had multiplication or division problems on each flashcard and would quickly reveal it waiting for one of us to say the answer. This allowed us to practice the math problems while also having fun challenging each other. When we knew these answers by heart, my teacher taught us how to incorporate these problems in higher levels of math. Therefore, in order to be an expert at something, practice is key.
In the Parker's excerpts, teachers bring new medias into classroom to let students learn agentively, such as interactions with media at home, role-playing and a game called Quest Atlantis etc. Like the interactions with parents at home, Heather found that those media played an important role in the intergenerational interactions. Media, in one perspective, will be helpful for students to learn agentively if it is brought into classroom because it leads interactions and communications. In Gee's terms, students's good learning requires them to be producer and consumers. Interactions and communications, therefore, will be one of good learning ways. Furthermore, the Quest Alantis helps student to learn how to explore a unknown virtual world. During this process, students know how to discover new tasks(producer) and solve them by getting hints(consumer). This once again confirms the good learning theorem by Gee.
ReplyDeleteIn Gee's article, I found the principle Pleasantly Frustrating interesting because it definitely keeps students' interest in the game and therefore, help them learn during each challenge in the game. This reminds me a game called Machinarium. This game provides easy challenge at the beginning and it gets harder as you keeping playing; however, those challenges are "doable" and therefore player won't lose interest. If I were to make a game, I would definitely make a game like Machinariu because it is a game about physics and logic. It gives you challenges that are based on some complex physics logics.
Parker’s article stresses the importance of active agency among students as the teachers implement the new age media into their everyday curriculum. Children, as the article states early on, do not have the choice to choose what goes in their lives. Society, parents, school dictate most of their lives. Children, like most human beings, want to be free agents in their own lives; therefore, teachers have found an outlet for students through the use of media. I found the game “Quest Atlantis” to be an intriguing way of engaging students to become active agents in their learning. I can definitely see many benefits this program can offer to many students. The students learn to solve problems and predict any possible obstacle that may come their way as they try to save Taiga National Park. They therefore are using their own knowledge to come up with solutions, rather than passively listening and accepting answers given to them by a teacher.
ReplyDeleteGee does mention how different people learn things differently. In my own experience, I have noticed that kids are much more into the material if the subject matter captivates them. Youtube has been a valuable resource when I used it to teach English in Taiwan. My students were much more engaged in learning about animals if we learned an English song about them. Furthermore, although Gee does not advocate the use of videogames, but rather explains its benefits, I too have to agree with Gee’s argument. Because my younger brother played video games, he learned specific strategies and vocabulary that are often times beyond the normal scope of a child’s comprehension of his age. At St. Jarlath I have implemented different methods to get children to learn on their own, whether it is blocks or pictures to learn how to add.
It is clear from Parkers excerpts that teachers wanted students to feel like they were the creators and they had a role. They saw that the way that they had been teaching these boys wasn’t working and needed to try a new method. Rather than trying to force them into learning they took a new approach. Teachers in Parkers excerpts wanted their students to be creating something. By having their students create a web page or a news report, the students are creating something new. This gives them a chance to think of the problem or event, but in a new way. They are still looking at things to do with the curriculum, yet they are doing something that is engaging. When students create something it teaches them skills that a reading or writing exercise couldn’t do. There are so many other things that they must think through in order to make these projects. The use of media can keep students engaged and continue to encourage them to think outside of the box.
ReplyDeleteIn his article, Gee discusses “Empowered Learners.” He says that in video games, players are “co-creating the world they are in” and they have “ownership.” When people feel like they are a part of something and building something they are motivated to make it happen. Students don’t always feel like they are making a difference or doing anything significant with what they are learning. One of the most common complaints for homework is “why should I bother, I’m not going to use this stuff in real life” or “this is pointless.” If students had to create a city using math and understanding math concepts would get you further in building your city, maybe it could motivate students. They would need to build a city and maybe solve some sort of problem or the game could be a competition where you compete with other classmates. The further you get with math problems to create something then they build a bigger city. It would be good to use this in a video game but also give students projects where they feel like they are apart of things and making a difference in the world.
- Cassi Hoyt
With the crazy and fast rise of modern technology and media influencing all of society, it would be impossible to keep it out of the classroom. Parker highlights the use of digital media in her article, by showing how various teachers used media in their daily teaching plans and citing other digital techniques teachers use, like Youtube, and even one of which our own class is very familiar with: blogging. With blogging, students begin to actively contribute to what ever the topic of discussion is, in a fun, and more 21st century appropriate way. Blogging will also help to “de/reconstextualize” as mentioned by Hull, et. al. and really push students to be those active agents that will contribute positively for a student’s own education. Bringing in more digital media into a school curriculum will have to call for big changes pertaining to pedagogical approaches. Yet this also calls for the right resources, and the right way to teach with digital media, which may be tough.
ReplyDeleteIn “Learning by Design” Gee advocates the use of video games to help students learn. Seeing that many kids are used to (and love) playing video games, it would be silly to not take advantageous of bringing a fun activity into the classroom; honestly, one of the better memories of learning that I had in grade school was playing games like Oregon Trail.
Gee discusses games that will empower learners, and one game that I think would effectively help with the categories that build empowered learners (so-design, identity, etc.) would be the game Sims, where not only do you create your own characters, you help lead their life, which includes making sure they have enough money, have a job, have fun, on top of regular human necessities. It would teach kids how to budget their life, put value on the importance of jobs, and also get the students creative juices flowing.
The majority of students are learning literacy from every moment in their life experience. The pass few months, we learned that how much important to develop, how to understand students to develop, and how much teachers have power over to students the literacy in Education class. In addition, we read media influence in children’s life in last week. According to Parker’s article, “Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids," quite a lot of teachers bring into play media such as Blog and YouTube to make students become interesting to learning literacy, “active agents.” Specially, the Northern California high school started experience in the internet blog system to students. The blog is popular culture in children and young adult to write of express their emotions, ideas, communication with others and more. Many students are spending many hours to using the different type of media (not for learning). This type of idea show technology is important tools to teach and make them excited to learn in today society.
ReplyDeleteGee’s article’s take about many different types of learning principles. Of course, different students should be taught differently to learn because not all students learning same way such as some group of students can learn visual, another group of children can learn touch and feel, and more. One of the system Gee discussed is a video game. Numerous students are loved to play a video game in all the time; also, many children are having fun to play video games. It is a useful tool for teaching in any type of subject such as math, physics, language arts, and more. Specially, the teachers can be found out of individual student’s weakness of curriculum. The students can play the video game of those subjects to expand their knowledge. However, it should be use for only practice understanding the subject matter; it is not for grade because students can lose interest to play a video game. The video game is fun to play and fun to learn but if started grading the video game that it is not fun anymore. It is school work that students are not wanted to do.
In the Parker text, there are multiple examples and perspectives of teachers using media in the classroom. There are many activities described that use digital or textual media to make the student an “agent” in their own learning process, particularly in the ninth grade English/media teacher Philip Halpern’s account. Of the projects he described involving digital media, my favorite was the Public Service Announcement idea, because it provides an outlet to learn and actively express an opinion on “an issue connected to the public good.” He also talks about digital storytelling. It has already come up how many processes go into digital storytelling videos when we learned about DUSTY, and I believe that a high level of creative freedom on any project is conducive to a student learning agentively.
ReplyDeleteOne of the learning principles that really seemed important to me in Gee’s article was the “cycles of expertise” principle. It got me thinking that video games, because they are so interactive, have the opportunity to simultaneously give you more and more challenging tasks to complete as you go on to higher levels, using and combining skills practiced all along. To some extent I think that this is what worksheets in the classroom try to do, but I think that it would be really useful to use video games to our advantage to teach concepts that have many intertwining skill sets. Games receive and react or change to a person’s response; worksheets do not.