Educational Technologies Blog Games, Simulations and Virtual Environments

   Educational Technologies Blog         Adult Education Learners

           Vocabulary is the basis of reading, writing and education as a whole. A solid, firm foundation of any educational pursuit is built on a rich vocabulary. A well-developed vocabulary opens the door to numerous opportunities for any individual.

           I selected Brain Age http://www.brainage.com as the first choice because it is useful for enhancing your thinking and problem-solving skills through puzzles and quizzes. This game emphasis: attention, speed, language and sharpens the memory while strengthen the intelligence. There are apps for Androids, Ipad, and Wii users. Users will find   a variety of puzzles all designed to help keep the brain mentally alert.

Also, this game is useful to solve math problems, improves learning and increases vocabulary. Players are able to compete in a learning environment and enjoy themselves simultaneously and learn in the process.  Squire (2011) emphasizes: “multiplayer games enable people to play together and collaborate in activities to achieve mutually desirable goals, and this intensifies learning”.

            

            I would incorporate Brain Age games in my professional practice in allowing the adult learners to create their personalized puzzles to share with the class and as a tool for test purposes. They would create test banks from the concepts and other content they learned to prepare for mid-terms, finals and other forms of evaluation. The adult learners would have complete autonomy with the selection of the design and selection of content.

           Education and learning have evolved into a more creative posture. This leads educators toward incorporating games, simulations, and virtual environments as needed tools to assist in creating richer, more meaningful learning experiences. According to Squire (2011): The school based culture of passive knowledge reception (as opposed to production) needs to change. Such a change would require revolutionizing across the entire education system- from the professional development of teachers (who themselves are treated as recipients, not producers, of knowledge) to the assessment system”.

              The second technology of choice was an Avatar simulation produced content or MUD which is a text-based online cooperative game. This type game using Avatars which represents the players illustrates transformed social interaction occurs when people interact using Avatars. When learners are passionate about in what they are involved,

They will exhibit extreme measures to achieve. Avatars are useful in video games, with Xb360 Dashboard and the New Xbox Experience. Avatars can be utilized to create blogs, and stories. It affords learners to think “outside the box” and cope with different real life situations. It allows them to be whatever they dream they could become. Games can teach learners more than using paper, pencil and tests. Games allow learners to participate in their education. Participation breeds motivation and motivation breeds success. “While virtual worlds may seem “torpid’ (Solomon 2004) to a non-gaming older generation, empirical analysis of what game communities do and value intellectual and academic play. In a school system sometimes side- tracked by testing regimes that pressure teachers and students on only a narrow range of topics, popular culture contexts might be a nice compliment to classrooms”. (Steinkuehler, C. & Duncan, S., 2008).

               I would create this technology in my professional practice in two ways. First, the learners would design a blog and the topics would   evolve from a real life issue, an issue at school or create an issue. They would design their individual Avatars to represent their personalities or positions regards the issue and discuss and work through avenues to resolve the issue. This would provide social interaction, social inquiry skills and problem solving skills. If the issue is one of fantasy, it would allow the learner to step into roles they may aspire to fill.  The second opportunity would be to create a community, assign roles and learn to interact with each other. They would research the role and responsibilities they would portray and experience the life of the character they have assumed. “Learners should have clearly visible opportunities to become leaders, teachers, or authors in the domains they are studying. It should be clearly communicated what players must do to become experts, and they should have opportunities to interact with such experts” (Squire, et.al.).

             As an educator my purpose is to teach and yet make it an enjoyable, rewarding, and successful experience. Games, simulations, and virtual environments are the vehicles in society to achieve success in education. Dewey (1897) states it as: Good education, effective and life-enhancing education, represents life “as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the playground”. This is applicable of learners of any age.

References

Dewey, J. (1897). My pedagogic creed. Sch J I4 (3). 77-80

Solomon, A. (2004, July 10). The closing of the American book. The closing of the American book. The New York Times p. A17.

Steinkuehler, C., & Duncan, S. (2008). Scientific habits of mind in virtual worlds. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 17(6), 530-543.

Scientific Habits of Mind in Virtual Worlds by Steinkuehler, C. & Duncan, S. in Journal of Science Education & Technology, Issue 17. Copyright 2008 by KLUMER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS-DORDECHT.  Reprinted by permission of KLUMER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS-DORDECHT                                                      VIA THE Copyright Clearance Center.

Squire, K. (2011).  Video games and learning: Teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York, N.Y: Teachers College Press.