Magnolia Trail part 3

This video was pretty great and Katie had a lot of great points that she made.  Play is important was one of the first points she made that I completely agree with.  Play is fun and observational.  Students can learn from their surroundings, and when they play they can apply the concepts they learn in new ways that may not be able to in real life.  Play is so important because they develop so many skills while playing that they normally wouldn't anywhere else.

It introduces students to so many different experiences that they may have missed due to circumstances beyond their control.  This will introduce concepts to students they haven't known about and maybe even get them interested in certain subjects just because they played with this in a game.  I feel that students should have a wide variety of experiences in the classroom because they all learn differently and games are a great way to do it and is fun as well.

Like McGonigal, Katie points out the social aspects of gaming.  It teaches important lessons such as team building or collaboration.  In the past teaching these things may have been pretty boring but with the use of games you can learn to trust people more while having fun.  Even when I was on the Capstone retreat we did games to help build up our trust within our team.  Playing games with others can really show you who they are or what they aspire to be which allows you to trust them.

Identity is a big thing in life, as well as the classroom.  Students should learn who they are that way they can make decisions accordingly when it comes to their education.  I understand that at younger ages they are not going to be able to figure exactly who they are but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give them a head start on the process.  Games allow you to explore different characters and you get to act out games in ways you normally wouldn't in life.  This allows children to safely test out different personalities to figure out which one they are.

There is so much pressure in society today to not fail.  This is counter productive because some of the greatest learning in history came from failures.  Students need to understand that if they fail that it isn't the end of the world.  Games give them a safe and fun environment to fail gracefully.

We see that good learning happens in games, but as Katie points out it is hard to figure out exactly why.  I have seen games help out many students but there isn't really a way to incorporate games into every aspect of teaching, or at least not in a way that would teach everything we are required to.  If we could figure out a way to truly harness this phenomenon then I think we would be on the verge of the next big thing in education.

Parents want to know that their student is learning in school so if they hear that their student is playing games all day it might be hard for them to understand.  Seeing the learnig values in games is difficult because they aren't immediate or in such huge leaps, or at least not usually, as regular instruction.  Showing others how this can be utilized is one of the major steps that need to be taken in order for this movement to gain ground.

Should the instruction incorporate technology or not? This is a question that every educator has asked.  The thing is seeing these two learning tools on completely different fields holds us back from really teaching to the fullest of our abilities.  These are tools, as previously stated, and that's it.  We can use computers just as well as we can use books.  Use them both and allow students use the method they prefer.

When students start to create games you are giving them an opportunity to consider others.  How is this going to affect my audience?  This is the type of question the student must ask in order to produce something that is worth while.  This gets students to that higher order thinking that teachers so desperately try to reach.  We see that they can achieve this with games, so why not use them?

Games are scaffolded in order to have a flow of learning.  In a game you can only get to places that your abilities or skills allow you to.  You may not have the right equipment to reach a certain area on your map and there for must work your way toward that goal.  This is a great way to build upon what students know. Set up learning like a game with quests, show them what they can attain after putting in the work to acquire the prize they so desperately seek.   Show them that even if the quest looks difficult and it is going to take a while to get there that they can do it.