"The reason most kids don’t like school,” says Seymour Papert, “is not that the work is too hard, but that it is utterly boring..”
I think that we can agree that educators have a tough job--teach the core curriculum, administer the required assessments, keep the students engaged, and, oh yes, somehow make it fun to learn. When I was in the classroom I felt that after soccer, baseball, etc. --all the spring sports practices/games began, I was just treading water with the students. They were no longer as easy to engage. They came to school tired from late practices, or games, and were more interested in the replay of the game they had played the night before and who was on which team.
How do teachers engage students in curriculum that is "utterly boring"? Playing games? Classroom time is precious. There are a lot of digital tools--how do you pick the "best" ones? How can you use digital games intentionally to support skills, problem solving, creativity, deep learning? How can digital games help scaffold learning for students? Does it promote digital citizenship? What about parent concerns?
Watch the following video from Playtime Online, for some help with answering some of these questions:
Other Resources to Explore:
- Institute of Play--Playtime Online: What Does Math Have to Do with Games?
- Surprising Insights: How Teachers Use Games in the Classroom
- Game-Based Learning: Resource Roundup
- Why Use Games to Teach?
- Game-Based Learning: What it is, Why it Works, and Where it's Going
- The Learning Game
Peggy Steinbronn, Ed.D.
AEA PD Online Instructional Designer
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