http://bigthink.com/ideas/38094
I am a big fan of gaming… was not always the case, I cried when I had to write the bubble cash reviews and had to play World of Warcraft for my gaming class in my masters program…. Now I am addicted to it. I don’t play competitively, I’m actually pretty bad at it, but I see a lot of value in the game. It gives me an “in” with my students. When they find out that I play WoW that sometimes can be enough for a student to decide I am worth learning from. I find that I frequently use WoW for analogies in teaching math, I’m relating to the students on their level. WoW teaches them how to work together, to keep trying, to attempt alternate methods of attacking a problem when you are not being successful, to communicate, to work in a group, to value the talents of others, goal setting and a whole lot more.
The question is what is it that causes students to spend so much time playing these games? What elements of gaming can we incorporate into the classroom to get students that engaged?
I’m going to work on thinking of how I can restructure my class to allow for some of the elements mentioned in the above article.
