Week 6, Assignment 2

As a physical educator, I love the ideas of using games in the classroom.  Students of the 21^st century are motivated by being actively engaged in their learning.  It is my experience that students do not enjoy “chalk talk” or in another words, being lectured for a lengthy amount of time.  Their interest can be peaked by involving them in the learning process. 

Using different types of multimedia, especially games, encourages students to be active learners.  Who doesn’t like games? Put a game in front of students and watch how the classes’ participation and enthusiasm increases.  The key to using games, is to find high quality and appropriate games to support the lesson concepts being taught.  

Our classrooms are filled with students with different types of learning styles.  It is important to differentiate instruction in order to meet the needs of all our students.  One way to differentiate the lesson is to reinforce concepts by using different types of  teaching mediums.

My opinion, from a technology coordinator’s perspective, students need to be prepared for the 21^st century workforce.  In that being said, they need to be digitally literate and competent.  Although finding quality educational games can be a little daunting, it is important for teachers to collaborate on what has worked or not worked for them.  With that type of collaboration, teachers will be able to support their lessons with quality games.  If they have problems finding games, they can have their students create the games using Gamestar Mechanic and Quest to Learn.