Week+5

James Paul Gee plays video games. This guy is my new hero. Not because he plays games but rather he is pioneering the concept that video games can be used to teach and in a game you are constantly being assets. He also goes on to stress the idea that video games are driving literacy in that one must be able to read and problem solve to play. This got me thinking about what I have played and which games could help students the most. So I have done two tings first I went to my own collection and picked out the games I felt would the most beneficial to a student who wants to develop their problem solving skills and then I went online to locate games that look to me to provide a challenge in a meaningful educational way.

Before I go on to my list and thoughts I want to state that I do not think games can take the place of the teacher but I can see games being one of the main avenues of delivery of content. If a company were to develop a game that covers in-depth content in an interactive and entertaining manner then that would be a gold mine. The only problem is how do you convince an entire nation of educators that this is a strong step forward? I believe the implementation challenge would greater then the difficulty of designing and creating such a game.

Here are my findings- Of all my games one recent game stands out as having strong potential for educational purposes and that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I chose this game because of its many different aspects. In the game play players are mainly concerned with completing military style missions but during these missions the player must solve mathematical pattern problems, deal with several scientific aspects like calculating speeds and adjusting mission parameters for the coriolis effect (rotation of the earth). This game will not teach in depth content for either science or math but it does provide reinforcement of certain concepts and demonstrates how game play and education could be intertwined.

Also I want to say that during my time in this class we have watched several videos from edutopia and so many of these videos strike a strong cord with my own beliefs about education. I have joined the edutopia website and started participating in several groups on the site. This has been a great experience and I must say that this class has given me more exposure and enjoyment to items that are important ot me then any other class in this program.