It was very interesting to read about Rosie
on page 158; the student who did not enjoy math until she was introduced to
4MALITY. I was curious, so I found the 4MALITY website and
created a login. There are different
sets of problems that range from place values to understanding decimals. It is very easy to follow and would be a
great tool to incorporate into the classroom.
Solving word problems can be difficult for some students. Tools like this can help make sure students
understand and grasp what the problems are asking them to do. It is important
to set a good foundation while the students are young. As they get into middle and high school math,
they will be more prepared to tackle those more difficult math courses.
I do not remember teachers teaching
me when I was in school how to take research material and rewriting it so it is
in my own words. I personally did not do
well in this area in school, but it is so important that students learn early
on how to acquire this skill. On page
168 of the textbook, I learned about a website called Read/Write/Think that helps students organize
and write a persuasive essay. And since
this chapter explains how gaming can be used in the classroom, there are plenty
of educational games that could be incorporated with a lesson plan. One example is this ABC
Match game which is geared for Kindergarten through 2nd grade;
it helps students with letter recognition and memory.
On page 169 the textbook explains how gamification
is used in education as well as in the business world. I did not realize when I sign up for a store
reward card that it was something called gamification. But like the textbook explains too much
gaming or gamification can have negative outcomes. For businesses, their rewards are points on
future purchases to keep you coming back which causes you to spend more
money. For students, the rewards may
become more important than actually learning the material. I can see how it can be beneficial but there
may also be a down side. There is an
interesting article on Edutopia
with a link to a TedTalk
video which explains how using real world situations in a game setting can
motivate students to learn.
Maloy, Robert,
Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park
(2013). Transforming
Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson
Education, Inc.
Gaming in education is still very much in its infancy - and plenty of 'fodder' for discussion and controversy. It probably does have a place, but there will probably be plenty of conditions in most classrooms. I do hope that we get beyond using games simply as a reward for finishing work in class early though...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on trying out Bubbl.us. It's design is to do more complex mapping of concepts but you can see how easy it is to use and create and that can be so beneficial in the classroom. Also, you might want to go back and edit the code to make the height a smaller number (you can access via the HTML tab and then look for a number that equals height - maybe edit to 1/2 of it). :)