Technology in the Classroom week 5

It is exciting to think about all of the possibilities on the internet for expanding my curriculum.  I am especially excited about the prospect of video games in my classroom.  I remember fondly the days of Number Munchers and Oregon Trail.  This tells me that there were some long term lessons that I picked up from playing them.  As our technology has improved so have the video games we play.  The educational games of today make my fond memories look like toddlers of the information age.  Today these games have a life of their own.  They bring students to the center of rich, dynamic worlds that they can leave an impact on.  I like Quest Atlantis.(2010)  It is a fictional world where you can enter one of many virtual worlds experiencing some kind of problem.  The student steps in as an expert on the problem, whether that is a scientist, accountant, statistician, doctor, or something else.  This puts them in a pivotal role in the game.  I also like the other game posted on our list, River City.(2010)  This one felt like it had much more structure with training provided for teachers and lots of time spent in class on the project.  Its only downfall was that it looked as if the simulation was not going to be offered this year.  According to their website it was undetermined if the project was even going to make it through 2010.

               Both of these games hold a lot of promise for grabbing kids’ attention and keeping focused on school work.  As a gamer myself, I know the most important aspect of a video game is its content.  If the storyline is engaging and enjoyable the graphics do not need to be amazing.  The snapshots of the games that I have seen look good enough for engagement.  The parts of these games that you see are not as important as what goes on behind the scenes though.  They are developed by organizations like the National Science Foundation.  Educators pour over research and collect data as students use the software.  This is all used to enhance the learning aspect of the games.  These are much more instructional than Number Munchers and often in tacit ways, so that children don’t know that they are actually learning.  These two sites look like they could be terrific additions to a classroom experience.
               I also liked the links to real life data collections.  My fiancé has used the Long Island Sound buoys in her research and it is an amazing resource.  Additionally and perhaps more applicable in an inland setting, is the data for air pollution. It is always a struggle to make our content directly applicable to a child’s life.  By using data from their neighborhood to solve problems you can make the exercise extremely relevant.  It’s also handy to show students problems that don’t work out to even numbers with no decimals.  They should realize that real data collection involves HUGE data sets and long, often clunky, numbers.  With my bachelors degree in Environmental Conservation I like the idea of focusing work on environmental problems.  This “hometown” data appeals very much to me in that regard.


Indiana University (2010). Quest Atlantis. Retrieved from www.atlantis.crit.indiana.edu
Harvard University (2010). River City.  Retrieved from www.muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/