Allright I am a bit new to this whole blog thing but lets try to get off to a good start.
First, in my thoughts on technology and education. After I read chapter one of our book for EME 5050 It got me thinking about the new digital student and how to embrace this new change and really push it forward. My thought process started out with what does the digital student love to do. Which takes me to gamming. Everyone loves games they’re fun and a great way to pass the time.
The gamming industry has taken a revolutionary turn recently also. With the development of the wii, gamming has found ways to integrate movement and activity into its entertainment. Recently I was browsing the web and found this video on Ted (http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_molyneux_demos_milo_the_virtual_boy.html), which seamed to me like now speech and interactions were being integrated into gamming in as well.
Now my wondering mine equipped with my newfound concentration on education and technology said, “What if then gamming was incorporated with learning?” Individual games to interact with and grow with the digital student exciting them to learn and pushing their knowledge. This seams to me like a great opportunity for children who learn at different speeds or have a hard time focusing. I know when I was a kid all my ADD friends loved playing video games. Now I am not saying that teachers should be replaced with video games, but pushing that industry to focus on development of educational software seams like it would help supplement in a child’s learning. It could even prove to be an aid for a teacher.
Food for thought …
Rick,
ReplyDeleteI like your blog... haven't quite finished Ch1 yet, but almost there, and I got the same impression you did. And I have the same anecdotal history of my ADD friends and their amazing video game skills!
As for gaming and school, I have a rather personal story. A friend of mine has 7 year old twin girls. One of the girls got diagnosed with Lukemia last year (weeks into the first grade!), and the chemo left her unable to attend school regularly. Her teachers were great and came to her home and helped her with all the assignments, but she needed to a) keep up her energy and b) fufill the PE requirment for progressing to 2nd grade. She can't be out in the sun (chemo makes you over sensitive to sunlight), so her teacher recomended her parents buy the Wii 'olympics' game. She was able to do all the excercises in her livingroom, and her teacher just came in and checked the progress bar on it every two weeks to make sure she was keeping up with the other kids in PE class!
An amazing example of how a video system can help not only a sick patient feel better, but help her keep up to date with all her friends at school (the Wii characters can interact online so her friends could 'race' against her from home, etc).