Screen Shot from Age of Empires

Age of Empires in the class

                      At  the end of yesterdays EDUC 504 class Rory asked the question "how can we revise a high school curriculum around video gaming?"  After first hearing the question I really didn't have any initial thoughts or opinions regarding the subject matter, but after having some time to think it over I believe I have developed a clear position.  Growing up in middle school and high school I always used to play the game "Age of Empire" PC games.  "Age of Empires" is a series of PC games that allows players to cultivate their own civilization in real time strategy fashion, similar to the way SIMS does.  This game was so cool to me growing up because it allowed me to express my interest in the subject of history all while playing video games, which is something I loved.  As crazy as it is, I feel that "Age of Empires" really helped further grow my passion and intellectual curiosity for history.  The game allowed me to create my own civilization and decide what buildings, people, and direction to take my land.  I got to build houses, build farms, raise armies, invest in technology, invest in resources, manage infrastructure, create alliances, and much more.  Furthermore, each decision a player makes can drastically effect the direction and outcome of your civilization.

            I honestly believe a real time strategy game like "Age of Empires" could be used abundantly throughout a history or anthropology class during a semester.  The game was created in such a way that I believe it could be really beneficial to use in history classes helping students further understand the importance of history and how it relates to them.  "Age of Empires" in my opinion does a remarkable job of making history come alive to its players.  I also think the game is really beneficial because of its ability to cross into other disciplines and encourage students to problem solve.  Moreover, the game is very user friendly and easy to understand and master.  The game is very similar to the SIMS in that you control everything that happens, and the direction and flow of the game.  "Age of Empires" could be easily aligned into the history classes daily lessons.  For example, if one week my class is discussing WWII, then "Age of Empires" can be utilized as students execute their own military strategies, with the same weapons and geography of that of WWII.  Students can play countless simulations of real time battles where they make numerous decisions that affect the outcome of the civilization.  The game also provides students with a great general understanding of practical economics that they can then apply to a more vast understanding of history.  All in all I believe Age of Empires would be a great game for developing students basic understanding of history, and how it is shaped based on various decisions and strategies.  I plan on using the game a lot in my future history classes.           

An image from the first video game I ever bought!  Mario Kart.

Video games inside the classroom!

Being a child of the 1990's I grew up with a love and appreciation for all kinds of video games.  I got my first video game system, a Nintendo 64, when I was in second grade in February of 1997.  To this day it was probably the most exciting purchase I have ever made.  I could hardly wait to get the new state of the art system home before opening the box and reading the manual.  I attribute the birth of my intellectual curiosity to this purchase and playing video games at an early age.  I didn't particularly like to read as a young adolescent, but that all seemingly changed when I began playing video games on a regular basis.  I always read the manuals of each game I bought an played, and remember becoming markedly more inquisitive in how I went about playing the games.  This intellectual curiosity further moved into the classroom where I begin studying more and attacking problems at a more metacognitive level.  I feel that video games at an early age helped increase my vocabulary in the same way that reading from a book can increase your vocabulary, just in a different way.  I also feel that by playing video games, which are often challenging, my cognitive ability and problem solving ability increased and became more advanced. 

            I would love to use video games as much as I can, within reason, inside the classroom.  I really enjoyed the article "Good Video Games and Good Learning" by James Paul Gee.  I thought the article did a great job of looking at some of the brief learning principles good games incorporate.  I believe video games do a great job of interacting with the player and allowing the player to make decisions that will influence his/her game play experience.  I also think it's cool how video games encourage its players to take risks.  Video games lower the consequences of failure and therefore promote risk-taking.  I believe education should also reward students who take academic risks in engaging in new and more challenging academic coursework.  Also, video games are customizable, allowing players to customize a game to fit their learning and playing styles.  Education should also consider further allowing this concept, for the simple fact that students enjoy learning more when they feel it is something they can personalize and control. 

            I hope to implement some forms of video games into my history classes, at least a few times each semester.  I think video games can provide a very practical learning opportunity for students who enjoy engaging in them.  Moreover, I also think the use of video games in the classroom will keep class fresh and interesting, allowing students a break from the standard monotony of a history classroom.  I feel that History in particular could really benefit with the use of video games in the classroom.  I really want to try and relate the importance of history to my students and how it is all around them, and I feel that a video game will help me in making history more fun and practical.  I enjoyed playing some of the history games on the BBC website and plan to use this cite when I enter the classroom in September, to give my students a new medium for increased comprehension and understanding.                    

Media Literacy Education

This week in EDUC 504 we learned a lot of valuable information.  More specifically, we discussed  information regarding the purpose of media literacy in education.   We used the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) as a framework to converse about the purpose of media literacy education.  According to the article the main purpose of media literacy education is to "help students develop the habits of inquiry and skills of expression needed by critical thinkers, effective communicators, and active citizens in today's world."  Some of the goals of media literacy education that I found particularly informative was the idea that it is important for students to ask their own questions about the media, as opposed to just responding to what the teacher asks.  This is important for students to become good critical thinkers of the modern world.

            It is also imperative that teachers teach students to ask questions when they are both, making and using media.  Asking questions is key in all academic disciplines so that students develop a deeper understanding of various concepts and ideas.  It is also encouraged that teachers push students to use multiple means of expression including sound, images, and words.  This helps students further decide which mean of expression will best allow them to achieve their goals.  Furthermore, students must justify all opinions and interpretations with apparent, document based evidence.  This statement holds very true in all other academic disciplines as well.  For something to be taken as credible it must have evidence supporting itself. 

            I also found the point, "includes media representing diverse points of view( e.g. , does not reduce complex debates to only two sides and/or actively seeks alternative media sources)."  When gathering information one must make it a point to collect a diverse array of thoughts, concepts, and ideas before fully developing one's own opinion or point of view.  I felt that this reading, mixed with a great class full of good examples and information will be very beneficial for me as a future educator of the twenty-first century.  Furthermore, class these week provided me with two great new programs in drop box, and xmarks.  These two sites will really help me in organizing my digital life.         

Learning about Pinterest

I really enjoyed learning the in's and out's of Pinterest the last few days.  I feel that the website will be really beneficial for me as an educator.  I found it very similar to one of my favorite websites, Stumbleupon.  Pinterest allows users to: make a wishlist, plan a trip, organize an event, start a collection, and plan a project.  Pinterest allows users to create and manage image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies.  Pinterest gives each users a pin board, homepage, where they can compile all their interests and likes in one place.  You can search for virtually any topic or idea on the cite.  I definitely see myself using this website as a history teacher in years to come.  The website is very user friendly and easy to set up or sync with your Facebook.  

As a future history I found the cite to have tremendous potential for aiding me in my lectures and curriculum.  I searched for history and found a ton of great primary pictures, historical facts, and geographic facts and concepts.  I think it would be great to be able to build a large collection of images and facts that I could use to supplement, and enhance my lessons.  Pinterest can be very helpful in providing teachers with innovative and creative ideas for lesson plans.Moreover, I really liked one feature of Pinterest that I feel will come in great use as I begin to teach and look for outside sources to fill my lesson plans.  I really like how if you click on a picture it makes it much larger, and if you click on the image again it takes you directly to the pictures respective website.  Here I can find even more information about the photo or topic. 

I plan on using Pinterest in the classroom almost everyday.  My goal is to make history exciting and relevent to my students.  I feel that the abundance of images and ideas located on Pinterest will be great to use in the class.  Furthermore, some individuals are visual learners and this will be a great opportunity to include them.  I also noticed Pinterest has a great section for teachers, giving ideas on how to teach lessons in an innovative and exciting way.  I cant wait to use Pinterest in the classroom!!  

 

School back in the day

        I can't imagine going to school in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century around the time of John Dewey.  I can't fathom how different and foreign it would be to me, being a student of the twenty first century.  First off, the school would probably be made up of only one or two rooms without any sign of indoor plumbing or the comforts we have come to expect being citizens of the modern world.  Moreover, the classroom would most likely be made up of a mixture of grades. The most advanced piece of technology located in the room would probably be either the wood burning stove in the middle of the classroom or the chalk and chalkboard the teacher is using to convey his/her lessons.  Each student would most likely be required to study and learn Latin, and if you didn't do your homework the night before you could expect to be subjected to corporal punishment in front of your classmates.  Corporal punishment at this time often meant being spanked, slapped, or getting your knuckles hit with a wood ruler.     

                     The one room school houses of the nineteenth and early twentieth century could most likely fit inside most modern day high school cafeterias.  These schools usually educated anywhere from 5-30 students at a time depending on the geographical location of the school.  Unfortunately, because of segregation laws, in both the de jure and de facto sense, schools were often very homogeneous.  Each differing minority group usually had their own separate school that was located in close proximity to their houses and neighborhoods.  In some cases, the teacher or headmaster actually lived at the school, and had a small room built off of the school where he/she could sleep and cook. 

            Even during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century technology still played an important role inside the classroom.  Even if their technology at the time was just chalk and chalkboard they didn't know any better just like we don't know any better now.  I'm sure in a couple hundred years the people of the twenty second and twenty third centuries will look back at us and our computers as inferior and laughable.  I'm sure if the students of the early centuries, and even decades for that matter, would be in awe of our modern day classrooms      

"Learning By Doing"

 Prior to reading this week's articles I would have never guessed that John Dewey's ideas, in anyway, had such a lasting impact on educational technology; I mean he was born before the Civil War and died shortly after the first room-size computers came into being.  Although John Dewey never specifically advocated for the use of modern technology in the classroom, something that would have been difficult being a person of the late 19th and early 20th century, his progressive ideas of the time have "indirectly" stated his acceptance and advocacy for technology in the classroom.  Evidence that Dewey would have approved and advocated for technology in education is apparent in many of his quotes and reoccurring ideological principles. 

            For example, Dewey states in his Pedagogic Creed "that schools must represent present life - life as real and vital to the child as that which he carries on in the home, in the neighborhood, or on the play-ground."  In today's world computers and technology as a whole play an imperative role in society and civilization.  Dewey would agree that schools and classrooms all across America need to provide every opportunity they can to integrate technology into the classroom so that students can be prepared with practical knowledge in order to succeed in the 21st century.  Moreover, Dewey believes that a "teacher should be engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life."  This idea only enhances the notion that technology should be incorporated into the classrooms so that students can be educated and prepared for our modern world, a world that is seemingly run by modern technology. 

            I believe that using technology inside the classroom can really help students grasp information.  Dewey states at great length the importance of students learning through experience, not material.  Technology offers the perfect opportunity for students to learn through individual hands-on experience.  Additionally, technology inside the classroom offers student's opportunities  for: student-center learning, context based learning, experiential learning, authentic learning, and reflexive learning; all which, according to Dewey are vital to the learning process.  Although Dewey never directly advocated for modern technology inside the classroom, his ideas of presenting students with real world experiences and practical knowledge can only leave scholars and educators assuming he would have advocated heavily for its use inside American schools.  

"Teaching with Technology" -My First Blog

"Teaching with Technology"

I believe that EDUC 504 "Teaching with Technology" is going to be a very insightful and important class on my road to becoming a twenty-first century educator.  If I just sit back and think of my own experience as a student throughout the years, technology has played a very important role in helping me learn and grasp curriculum of all disciplines.  When I started school in the mid-1990's I remember there rarely being a computer in every classroom, most classes just shared a couple computers, and ironically these computers we located out in the hall.  I remember there being T.V's and no projectors or smart boards.  As I began middle school and high school I do remember technology being much more prevalent inside the class.  Teachers often used projectors and computers on a daily basis to present material.

                With the increased prevalence of technology in the classroom teachers can now reach students in many different ways.  Technology in the classrooms allows students to learn well beyond the textbooks, allowing teachers to have unlimited access to resources and lesson plans.  Moreover, and most importantly perhaps, technology empowers students in taking an active role in furthering their learning and education; technology allows students to take ownership of their academics.  I think it is also important to note that technology in the classroom also helps to bridge the achievement and social gaps so prevalent in American schools by allowing all students access to a wealth of interconnected knowledge. 

                As a prospective secondary history teacher I see myself incorporating technology into my classroom at every moment it allows itself.  I hope that all kids in my class will have a computer or tablet in front of them allowing for instant internet access.  It is my hope that through technology I can make history fun and exciting for all my students.  Furthermore, I feel it is my job as an educator in the twenty-first century to see to it that all students have a confident and basic understanding of technology prior to entering the "real world."