Gaming

This chapter talked about gaming and it's place in the classroom.  In this chapter they talked about the use of mini-games and complex games, they noted that most of the games used in a classroom are mini-games.  This is because complex games are classified as games that take more than 20 hours to complete, and as a teacher 20 hours is a lot of time especially when you have standards and objectives to meet.  Teachers often feel as if they are in a time crunch and so it can be kind of overwhelming to commit so much of your time to something like gaming.  Also many teachers are not big gamers or haven't had a lot of experience playing with various games so they don't necessarily understand the things that can be gained by using games.  Personally I have played very few complex games because I would much rather do something that won't require a lot of time to figure out or get through, I like having results almost immediately or being able to figure out what is going on.  So for me the thought of having to dedicate so much time to something like one game seems vastly unappealing.  But when you look at the numbers a lot of kids game and want to see more games incorporated into the classroom and many teachers are willing to incorporate games into their curriculum they just don't know how to.

Personally I think that there is value in using games to help extend learning.  Every student learns differently and I think many of the students would benefit from simulation games or games where you have to put yourself in someone else's shoes, this allows students to learn by doing.  They not only get to be in control of what they are doing, but often they can see consequences to their actions and this helps them to learn and relate to what they are learning about.  Knowing your students will help you to know which kind of games will work best for them or if gaming will help them learn at all.  As far as having children create their own games I think there is great value in this, because it causes the children to develop complex systems and they get to harness their creativity in a constructive way.  It also allows the students to work on their communication skills and learn how to look at their work with a critical eye.  They will learn the value of revising their work and will probably gain more from an activity like creating their own game than you will at first imagine.  Allowing children to own something always helps them to not only work harder, but also gives them pride in a job well done.