I have mixed feelings about educational games, especially after the experience I had with my selected website, "ProProfs Brain Games".
After a failed attempt at creating a word search for my vocabulary
words, I decided to try a crossword. The crossword was created (http://www.proprofs.com/games/crossword/night-vocabulary-1/) and, although it was easy to make, I'm not sure how useful something like this would be with 12th grade students.
I
remember having a lot of fun with educational games in elementary and
middle school (Reader Rabbit, The Oregon Trail, etc.), but I think a
game would need to be more complex and pedagogically sound at the high
school level. A better activity for my students might be to have them
create the games themselves as a review or extension activity.
Overall,
I can see the value for games in education, but a game would need to be
a little more involved than a crossword or word search in order to
elicit higher order thinking. My students have told me about some games
that require them to reason and synthesize information and I know that
programs like Second Life allow students to interact with a lot of
educationally valuable resources. So, just like many of the tools and
resources discussed on this blog, games need to be evaluated and
appropriately utilized in order to facilitate learning.
I agree that the games need to be more involved and challenging in order for the students to be engaged. Many kids are "gamers"and these platforms are too simple and boring. Some games offer the opportunity for players to add to the games and actually have them published and added to the game. There are so many more options for using games in school. Games encourage collaboration, problem-solving, and higher order thinking skills if used properly.
ReplyDeleteI used the same website and also had a bad experience. I was so excited about the idea of creating jigsaw puzzles from art. I was going to create 3 and feature the artists that my students learned in ART 101. If they earned a certain high score on all 3 (the faster you complete the puzzle the higher your score is) I would award them extra credit, but it didn't work. I could not interact with the puzzle on my Mac once it was completed. I was wondering if anyone had luck with this site on a PC.
ReplyDeleteSara, I could interact with your puzzle on a PC but am not sure what you were trying to add to the puzzle? These free game creation tools do have limitations and we do need to try, test, and test again before using games for students' learning.
ReplyDelete