Web and Today's Technologies

This article is called "Web: Today’s Technologies" and is written by Jennifer Groff and Jason Haas.

This article is about different web games and activities that can be used by students in the class room. Many students under 18 years of age have a facebook account, have played world of Warcraft, or Second Life. These are a few examples of the leading tech innovations that are around today. Facebook Is the most popular technology innovation right now and is connecting friends, new people meeting, and has followers joining groups around topics of their interest. “The researchers at MIT’s Education Arcade have dedicated themselves to understanding the potential benefits of these technologies to students and teachers and to helping schools implement these technologies in ways that make sense.” Many teachers feel that video games would be disruptive to a class but students can use these video games as tools to learn in a more creative way. For example, a computer game called Ayiti can be played and how it is played is the students are introduced to a family on the island of Ayiti and must help them make decisions about work, education, community building, personal purchases and health care that may improve their lives. The article states that “This is the best situation, because you and the kids become partners in learning.” Both the student and the teacher will be learning in this situation because it is a new style of teaching and is being tested right now in schools slowly but surely.

This article sounds fun, yet challenging and since this is an open-ended activity sometimes that comes with problems. Every teacher should give these techniques a try because students gain deeper conceptual knowledge of what they are learning. Another cool idea for a tech game in the classroom is Muzzy Lane’s Making History and it is geared toward older students. In this game, students role play to take on significant challenges and face world leaders in WWII. This one would be very fun and the students would get a chance to learn more about which countries fought in different wars and who their leaders were. It will give students a more hands on approach to the war and make them feel as though they were part of it. I am going to try and incorporate one of these intellectual games in to the classroom because I see the benefits that it has brought some students within the article. I will try out one of the tech games with some friends or fellow colleagues first to see if it will be fun and able for my students to conquer and then I will incorporate it slowly to the class and we will work on it once or twice a week in the computer room that is offered to us. The children will even have access to the game at home if they want but the service may be a little pricey depending on which game we end up playing. I hope my future students will appreciate this unique teaching technique when used in my classroom.