Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Week 4 Video games and virtual worlds in classrooms.
Explore some of the games listed on the assignment sheet. Play one of the games and create a blog post commenting on what educational purpose there might be in utilizing this game in your classroom, on our class blog following the guidelines we have been using. Also post the URL of a recorded short video of your game play (1-2 min) of at least one game. Also be ready to discuss what you have learned at the next Google Hangout.
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I have never played Minecraft before today and I was actually confused about what you were supposed to do during the game. I ran around the game trying to figure it out and I couldn’t understand what it was I was supposed to be doing so it was difficult for me to figure out how you could use them educationally. I used one of the links on the assignment and looked up ways that you could use Minecraft in the classroom. One of the ways the article said this could help in the classroom is that it shows real life buildings that you can go into and explore. You could have them explore these buildings and point out different details that are in the building. Another things is it helps students with ratio and proportion because you have to build buildings and you can ask them to make a scale model of a building.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16ks4xORTMo&feature=youtu.be
DeleteIn the game Civilization, the player becomes the ruler of her or her very own civilization and is instructed and led on how to rule it strategically and successfully. Gee’s article says about Civilization that “even young learners can enter a game as a complex system and learn deep conceptual principles about history and the social sciences.” The player is faced with the tasks of exploration, diplomacy, and warfare, as well as expanding his or her castle and collecting taxes from the people residing there. For a history teacher, this game could be very effective in introducing students to ancient civilizations and how they worked as the students are able to enter the world of a civilization and become the ruling force behind their civilization’s successes and failures as they must strategize how to rule their economy, diplomacy, and build and direct their own military for conquest.
ReplyDeleteI did not think civilizations the best, most exciting game to record for 1-2 minutes, as not so much can happen within that time, and so I recorded my playing Windosill, which I found to be an intriguing and interactive game that causes the player to be strategic in their actions in order to move forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fwt0-lCugw
I played the game Civilization where the player becomes the ruler of their own civilization. It is set back in mid evil times it looks like and you get guidance on how to rule your civilization successfully by building your kingdom, handling your “people” (army, knights, town’s people, etc.) and fighting in wars. I never played games like this online since I was in second grade so it was an interesting experience to have because I forgot what it was like. As an English teacher I am not sure this game would be useful in the classroom, but I know they can use new vocabulary they learn from that time period in their pieces of writing for the class. I think this game is more for a history class because you learn strategic moves on how back in the day they use to build their civilizations/kingdoms from the ground up and learn historical facts along the way. It would be a great game to play when giving a lesson on war or learning about history back in that time period. As you play you do need to think about your next move so it can help kids generate critical thinking skills while they are playing something they enjoy. I didn’t enjoy it as much because I am not into video games, but I know a lot of younger kids in middle school and high school would enjoy these types of games.
ReplyDelete**YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn1Pdgzi9wY&spfreload=10
I explored the game World of Warcraft and I found it quite confusing. I don't play video games on a daily basis, so I was very unsure as to what I was doing. The first problem I experienced was downloading the game. My computer shut down several times and I had to restart what I had started. After the game downloaded, and I started my first "mission" I was so confused. I tried to play the game for a while until I gave up and watched my friend, who was familiar with the game, play. There were so many buttons and I had no idea what he was doing, but the concept of the game was what I found interesting. I think this game, or another form of this game, could possibly be incorporated into the classroom. Maybe if these missions could include the subject of teachings, for example, maybe students could write a paper on their character they chose.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s25drbCS43c
DeleteThere was two games that were interesting but the one game that stood out the most was the game Civilization. This game was cool to me because its like you are running a whole entire village of your own and battling to keep it safe for you and your community. You are your own ruler in this game. You can put houses and buildings where you want, get food and build fires. The whole scene is in the mid evil times where you need a specific ruler to tell you what is going to happen and what you should do to keep safe and to fight when you need to. There are knights, rulers and town people that help throughout the whole game and there are people who are also fighting in wars. I dont usually play online video games at all but this one was actually entertaining to me. It was a good experience for me. I now want to try and see if there are other games such as this one to play and get interested in. As I get more into my early childhood classes, I have to see a child's perspective on games. I almost forgot how much fun it is to actually play online video games. In grade school we got to play them all the time when we had free time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1EtFp8OEbM
I played the game civilizations. I don't really play these games but I feel like I know how they work. It seems as though you are kind of the overseer of your civilization and it's your job to build it up from a simple village to a complex empire. You can also attack people which is also cool. As a teacher you could probably use this game to show the growth of old civilizations in a fun interactive way. Not many teachers make playing a video game homework. I think this could easily keep most of the kids interested and interactive.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0GM9XFKjcA
I chose to explore the game Minecraft. I have heard a lot about the game before, but I wanted to try it out first hand. My 2 minute video shows me just starting to play and as you can see from it I was kind of confused. However, after playing with it for a little longer I saw you can do some pretty cool things with the game. As I learned how to do more stuff I figured out you can build different type of structures and also put in water and other type of resources. I think this program could be very beneficial in a history class where students can create things based off of what they learned. For example, they could try to create a reenactment of a battle or a big event in history. Since I will be teaching Math and Science, I don’t think I could use this that often, but I believe it could be a good tool to use overall.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MQfBATpxMM
I played the game Civilization. I am knew to all of these games, I just have never gotten into them or given them a chance. It was an eye opener though because in a simple way it can teach points on early civilizations and what life was like for them as they were trying to grow. I will be a history teacher and this would be a great source to use that will keep them actively learning and probably get the material across to them easier. The game has many different quests and shows how you, as a ruler of an empire, can build or attack other colonies in attempt to expand your empire. Very useful game for having fun as well as learning important history of the world.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arKmnWhK9UE
I played the game Minecraft for the project and am very familiar with the game. I game all the time and was familiar with all the games you listed. Although i cant see any of them being used for education, without having and extremely structured system behind it. Minecraft is open ended, but you can structure it a lot more than the other games, because if your host of a server you have admin rights that allow you to do that. As for World of Warcraft, and the majority of other games this is extremely different. This is because you don't have control of the other players, and you aren't an admin so the players can run around and do what they please. This is why I chuckled when I saw it on the list because Blizzard (the creators) have control of the game and not the instructor.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRVeVEZIB9Y&feature=youtu.be
For this weeks video game play I decided to play world of warcraft. I had the hardest time downloading it and figuring out the objective of the game. I realized that while playing you were given objectives and you were rewarded for completing those objectives, as well as unlocking things. To me while playing this game I really saw no educational value- but maybe after becoming more familiar with the game the educational value would show. Being an early childhood education major I would obviously never use this in my classroom because it is way too advanced for young students. Attached is my youtube video (I had some complications with the recording and slow downloading to get to the game)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb_TN106Gvs
The game Civilization was a very strategic game. At first it was kind of boring because you just followed an arrow on what to do but once you got into it more it left you on your own and you had to figure out what to build and where to find it. You could only unlock items to build your castle and create an army after completing a quest. I think this could be a great learning game because you build strategic skills learning how to keep your people feed, protected and sheltered providing their needs while learning how to spend your coins wisely to achieve goals. When attacking other castles you learn different methods to use for different situations. This is a skill that is hard to develop in every day classrooms because it is more concrete thinking.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op7TxZ3HHr8&feature=youtu.be
I played the game Minecraft for this assignment. I had never played the game before so I struggled a little bit trying to understand the game and how it worked. After playing around with it for a little while I was still a little confused but I was able to figure a few things out. I personally do not really know how a game like this would work in the classroom. The only thing that may work for the classroom would be that you can build things in the game. I never got that far in the game where I was able to build anything, however, I did some research and apparently that’s part of the game. This may help students understand measurements or dimensions. However, beyond that point I do not think there is any real classroom value to this game.
ReplyDeleteI played the game Minecraft and it was my first time playing the game. The game seemed like it would have been fun/useful if I had played it before. I actually have heard cases of teachers using it in their classrooms, especially with younger kids. I can see how the game would be good for teamwork building and communication skills since there is a multiplayer function. As a social studies teacher I could use the game to teach my students how to allocate resources if I’m teaching an economics class, or show students scale models of ancient buildings in a history class. Overall, Minecraft could become a valuable asset for teachers and a great way to engage students by presenting them with an example they understand.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVlYkYtJavQ
For this weeks video game, I played civilization. The game seemed very confusing to me, and for the 2 minutes I played i developed a negative opinion on the game. First thing, when thinking about video games and interpreting the way they were designed and if that would be successful or not in my classroom, this one did not seem to match my ideas of a good game. The reason is, i am 20 years old and the only reason i understood or was able to understand what to do in the game was by following the big red arrow that told me to "click here" and with one simple click it seemed as if i had just mastered every task in the game. I did this continuously because the game already started off not catching my attention, so i wasn't interested enough to actually learn. Now, for a younger child like in a first- third grade classroom, they especially are just going to follow the red arrow because it's what catches their attention, and it's easy. Therefore, nothing is being gained out of this experience unless one was to spend an ample amount of time memorizing and practicing the gestures used to "win" or "complete missions."
ReplyDeleteI think that before a game starts or is used in an educational classroom, instructions need to be clear, background information needs to be given, and it is vital that the student or child has a large part in thinking, navigating, and doing the own actions in the game.
I was not impressed with this game much, and it did not allow for imagination or creativity as well.
http://youtu.be/kZyvdQZfTb0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBFkZYCUR-g
ReplyDeletethis is actually the correct link for my video! ^
I played the game Civilization, or I at least did everything the game told me to do. I am no much of a gamer to say the least. Video games intimidate me. I never played growing up, have try very hard to avoid playing games now. I don't like the idea of being sucked up into a virtual world. I would much rather focus my time here in the real world. While playing this game I thought about what children could get from it. students could learn history lesson from this game. it is based in a medieval time era, so there are lots of things students could learn form that. they could also learn following rules, and how to become a good leader. they are in charge of their own civilization (hint the name) so it is their job as the civilizations leader to make it grow and prosper. overall it is a good game and do see some educational benefits behind it.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihAFJ_eJ7nw
I played the game Machinarium and while it wasn't really my cup of tea to begin with, I found myself playing the game much longer than I anticipated. I am not really used to point and click video games and am a pretty casual gamer to begin with. This game would interest students and could most easily work as a "way in" to a lesson. It could spark interest and discussion on the topic of science and machinery and could be an effective attention grabber. It could also work in a Language Arts classroom as a form of inspiration. You could use it as a topic to form a narrative assignment in which students will write a backstory to the main character. Its not the easiest game to use in a classroom but with a little imagination, it could be a valuable tool.
ReplyDeleteHere's me playing Machinarium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZjw4G4hm50
I played the game Civilization and at first I thought it was very boring and redundant. Although, once I got going and began to build up my “empire” and take over other people’s empires, it became kind of addicting. Then later I realized that I just lost an hour or so that I will never get back. The game puts you in control of your own city and allows you to build an army, produce food, take care of your people with their taxes that are collected, and even do special side missions to earn a greater reputation and earn more money. The ultimate goal of the game is to have the greatest and largest empire you can. I’m not sure I really see the goal in educating with a video game like this. I know for a fact that if a teacher told me to use class time to play this game I would not learn anything I would just try to compete with fellow classmates. It is a huge time waster, yet so addicting that my students would enjoy it but there would be no gains made as far as education goes. Personally I do not think that video games will be a part of my classroom at this point in time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOnSLQFWyh4
When I was growing up, I did play a fair amount of video games including Mario Party, Donkey Kong, Zelda, and Super Smash Bros. all on Nintendo 64. I also played Sonic a lot on my computer and also many educational games that my mom would purchase at the store. Even though I am not an avid participant anymore, I do see the good that video games can have on a child, but also see negative effects too. One positive outcome is the sense of achievement. I would never want to put down the controller or mouse if I didn’t reach my goal. This is partially good because it allows students to set standards and goals for themselves, but on the other hand, a student/player can get so sucked into the virtual world that the game becomes a huge part of their life. As an Early Childhood Education major, I will have computer available in the classroom because I know I always looked forward to that, but only on good behavior. Technology can be a bad thing if used too much or the wrong way, so I think it should be a reward just it was for me.
ReplyDeleteI played World of Warcraft. I have never even heard of this before or any of the games. I tried WOW out, but I had trouble shooting it, so the only option that I had was taking a video on my phone. I apologize for not as great of quality. I tried my hardest to figure it out on Google Hangouts, but I just couldn't seem to get it to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpkoQxB8_vM&feature=youtu.be
Good job & good article
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