"Are online games helpful or harmful to education? Why do you feel this way? Find an article online about educational games that supports your argument. Provide a link for it in your blog and a response to the article."
I think like all things; educational games in small doses that directly relate to a topic being taught can be helpful. Alternative ways of learning concepts and new information can all be helpful if they are used appropriately. First all games need to be thoroughly research by educators to decide if they have educational value and if teachers can use them effectively. Are they going to teach students something or provide practice of a new concept? Do they provide a challenge? Can they effectively learn something from this games? If these factors are discussed and discovered that is when educational games can be helpful to students, otherwise if the games students are playing are not providing one of these qualities they may indeed be harmful. If a game does have educational substance they can be a great way to teach something in an alternative way that may be useful and helpful for exceptional populations that may understand something better if it's presented in a different way. Educational games can also be engaging for reluctant students. I believe educational games can also be a helpful way to tier your lesson to meet the needs of certain individuals or to provide an accommodation for specific students, such as a hearing impaired child. They can also be helpful because often they help teach a specific concept and provide extra practice with that concept.
I had trouble accessing any of the articles that had my same point of view( as they were for purchase only), but I got the abstract of two articles that were pretty similar to my beliefs.
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED058715&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED058715
This article discusses several positive reasons for incorporating educational games when they're appropriate and if they are introduce along with the right teaching methods they can prove to be very effective. When using educational games the teacher's role is very important in the success of the learning through a game. This article emphasized on the teacher's role in educational games and the idea that games should be used to practice process skills rather than facts. Both of which I discussed in my opinions of educational games.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1109548
This article goes deeper than I had thought of about the creation of educational games. I had mentioned that these games need to be effective in teaching a certain concept or idea, but I didn't think of the idea that creators need to be integrating curriculum into them in order for these games to be effective teaching tools. I also think this article made a very important point, that "education has to be at the heart of the game". Without these educational concepts and topics being integrated these games can be harmful because they lack the educational value they need.
I think like all things; educational games in small doses that directly relate to a topic being taught can be helpful. Alternative ways of learning concepts and new information can all be helpful if they are used appropriately. First all games need to be thoroughly research by educators to decide if they have educational value and if teachers can use them effectively. Are they going to teach students something or provide practice of a new concept? Do they provide a challenge? Can they effectively learn something from this games? If these factors are discussed and discovered that is when educational games can be helpful to students, otherwise if the games students are playing are not providing one of these qualities they may indeed be harmful. If a game does have educational substance they can be a great way to teach something in an alternative way that may be useful and helpful for exceptional populations that may understand something better if it's presented in a different way. Educational games can also be engaging for reluctant students. I believe educational games can also be a helpful way to tier your lesson to meet the needs of certain individuals or to provide an accommodation for specific students, such as a hearing impaired child. They can also be helpful because often they help teach a specific concept and provide extra practice with that concept.
I had trouble accessing any of the articles that had my same point of view( as they were for purchase only), but I got the abstract of two articles that were pretty similar to my beliefs.
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED058715&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED058715
This article discusses several positive reasons for incorporating educational games when they're appropriate and if they are introduce along with the right teaching methods they can prove to be very effective. When using educational games the teacher's role is very important in the success of the learning through a game. This article emphasized on the teacher's role in educational games and the idea that games should be used to practice process skills rather than facts. Both of which I discussed in my opinions of educational games.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1109548
This article goes deeper than I had thought of about the creation of educational games. I had mentioned that these games need to be effective in teaching a certain concept or idea, but I didn't think of the idea that creators need to be integrating curriculum into them in order for these games to be effective teaching tools. I also think this article made a very important point, that "education has to be at the heart of the game". Without these educational concepts and topics being integrated these games can be harmful because they lack the educational value they need.
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