"A strategy commonly adopted by the entertainment industry involves developing participatory contexts that have elements of challenge, curiosity, play, and control (Cordova & Lepper, 1996). In contrast, the education and design community has developed many curricula and contexts to support learning but has not necessarily captured the interests and motivations of children. Instead of learning from the success of modern media and pop culture producers, educators have distanced themselves from those who are the most successful in engaging children."
Reflection:
In the article "Making Learning Fun: Quest Atlantis, a game without Guns", the authors provide further evidence that students learn best when they are engaged, motivated and entertained. The above quote caught my attention because it seems that educators have distanced themselves from the very thing that children seem to be most interested in. Virtual worlds offered great potential teaching basically every core subject. Within Quest Atlantis, students become characters who quest to help The Council of Atlantis restore its lost wisdom. Students use avatars to move through these quests and worlds. The developers of Quest Atlantis took their cue from the entertainment industry. The result was an educational game that's usage rapidly spread through in-school and after school programs. The article mentioned that students were even completing quests of their own freewill as opposed to waiting for them to be assigned. That type of student motivation and engagement is what I want to strive for as a teacher.
My challenge is to find a way to work this type of learning into a business classroom. With this in mind, I began to search for what business related games are already available. Several of the games I found were simulation games that involved building a community, such as Virtual Restaurant. Here's a YouTube video describing this game:
Source:
Sasha Barab, Michael Thomas, Tyler Dodge, Robert Carteaux and Hakan Tuzun
Educational Technology Research and Development , Vol. 53, No. 1 (2005), pp. 86-107
I really like how this game is so hands-on and interactive. It will give the students a look into everything that goes into running a restaurant, without actually being in one. I also like how everything is standards based, and that it gives students projects to work on; they get to actively work on solving real world problems. This is a great resource for a classroom!
ReplyDeleteAnita, the video of the restaurant simulation game you found seems really cool. Participating in building a business virtually seems like it would be a great learning experience for business class! I wish I had an experience like this in my several business and marketing classes I took in high school. I too, would really like to look into creating my own games that relate to my specific class and grade level. Since I will be teaching special education, I could be teaching any subject, but I really love the idea of simulating all the different aspects of a project, such as building a virtual restaurant. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteI liked and agree with the quote you wrote. It was one of the lines I highlighted when I was reading. I think virtual worlds have a lot of potential. If it were available I know my students would enjoy playing a game to learn chemistry versus listening to me. I would love to incorporate some type of “game” into my class but I don’t currently have the resources or the tool.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the virtual business restaurant has potential especially in a business classroom. I hope you find the right “game” for your class.
Great example of how games are being used to teach business related skills!
ReplyDelete"... it seems that educators have distanced themselves from the very thing that children seem to be most interested in." I totally agree with you. I have educators in my family and I have seen that more and more exposure to games for learning is taking place in the classroom. I saw an interesting piece on 60 minutes about how iPads are helping students with autistism in matching games to communicate a few months ago. Research like it will help break down the barriers towards technology in general in the classroom.
ReplyDelete