Simulations, Gaming and Virtual Reality

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According to Ellen Wagner in the article, Enabling Mobile Learning, mobile learning will respond to the on-demand learning interests of connected citizens in an informationcentric world. (p. 44) My students are learning to multitask. It is part of their world. The television is usually on while a conversation is happening and everyone is eating dinner. Many students do their homework while listening to the television, radio or iPod and talking on the phone. This is our students’ life.

The Wikipedia article that contains information about the Croquet Project paraphases Papert in saying that children growing up in France naturally learn French. In the past, I had students in my classroom from other countries that did not speak English. The total immersion in an English speaking atmosphere helped them to quickly learn many Engish words. Therefore, if students could virtually visit other countries or time periods or even a land of math it seems that they could learn more quickly and easily through the experience.

At first, I thought there was no possible way to incorporate gaming into my classroom in the next six months. We don’t have enough updated equipment. I don’t know enough about creating or finding appropriate sites to correlate with the curriculum. But then I started to break the concept down into smaller more appropriate pieces.

Mimi Ito and Angela MacFarlane from the conference presentation last week stated that gaming is a social event. It is a good way for students to combine their talents and work together toward a common goal. Tom Snyder has developed some software based on simulations and a gaming concept. It divides the students into groups and provides a math or science problem that must be solved. The teams work together to solve the problem. The problem is presented through a computer or DVD interface. Many of the problems are geared toward older students, but I can check into this software and see if any is appropriate for second graders.

Staying with the theme of working together and multitasking, I can continue to provide some group projects. We usually do one or two a quarter and try to add more each year. Learning to work together with others is an important concept that can be built on in the future.

Finally, I know that there are some panoramic views already created on the Internet for use in the classroom. I will look for some that correlate with our curriculum and try to use them during instruction.