Using games to teach?

Today I blogged a bit on teaching and learning with games. Are we ready for this? Are we using games to teach? Which ones do we like?

Here's an interesting article! Yeah,,, the kids want the games!

Suprised? What has been our experience?

Tags: games

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Permalink Reply by Raenette Taljaard on April 16, 2008 at 3:53pm

I use games in my class every day. I start the day with a word game or word of the day. At Maths time we do an interactive warm up. Then I teach my group of the day using Maths games as their specific warm up. After morning tea we use the Smartboard to do a literacy game as warm up. Often my reading group has a game to learn whatever our focus of the week is too. After lunch, we have a quick fun game, to regroup before settling down to whatever we are doing. My class has twice as many boys as girls, and even so, I have minimal classroom management problems - they're having too much fun! Have a look at my Del.icio.us for ideas and links.

Have fun!
Raenette

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on April 16, 2008 at 8:26pm

from a lengthy discussion on the same topic

I own or recently bought (from Ebay) or plan to buy the following software for my 4-6th graders.
Risk II
Civ IV
SimCity
Railroad Tycoon
Axis and Allies
Age of Empires
Age of Mythology
Stronghold II
Making History

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Permalink Reply by Marlen Rattiner on April 17, 2008 at 7:27am

Nancy - If you recommend those titles, you might want to explore the educational possibilities of an upcoming game called Spore... (targeted for September 08)

It is designed by Will Wright who was behind Sim City and The Sims. His original title for it was Sim Everything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(video_game)

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Permalink Reply by Frida Leman on April 17, 2008 at 7:51am

I use games to teach Math, Language and UOI (unit of Inquiry) in my class. I think it is good to start a lesson with a game or to get students' attention back when they get bored during the lessons. My students love to play Bingo, fishing, snake and ladder and many more games. As a teacher, we need to become more creative to create better learning process. And one way to achieve that is through games.

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Permalink Reply by ddeubel on April 17, 2008 at 8:15pm

We have a directory of hundreds of click and play games on our Ning. EFL Classroom 2.0 , click the games tab.

I produce many ppt games and would encourage teachers to not only play games with students but most importantly get them making the content and the games themselves! This is where real learning flames.....You can see many of my ppt games if you scroll down to the bottom of the directory. Here's my latest, BAAM flags -- a way to keep kids interested by avoiding the BAAM. Edit as you wish -- I'm all about open copyright for teachers.....

David
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

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Permalink Reply by Derwin Kitch on April 18, 2008 at 8:26am

There is a game called Wolf Quest that is created by the Minnesota Zoo. The students play the role of a wolf living in Yellowstone National Park. It teaches about the ecology in the region.

There is also Food Force created by the United Nations World Food Programme. Students have to go through 7 levels to bring aid to the people on a fictional island.

Both are freeware.

CIV IV has to be my favorite computer game, Nancy, and the only one I really play. There's a lot you can learn from it.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on April 18, 2008 at 1:40pm

The kids love it, they also like The Age of Empires and Mythology and Sim City.

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Permalink Reply by Scott Walker on April 19, 2008 at 8:32pm

There is a new game out by Tabula Digita that puts the kids in front of a game similar to the Halo games that they are so crazy about. It is called dimension m. When I met the them at FETC and tried it out, it was incredible. After the students work through the units in math they are forced to test their skills in a type of battle mode. Pretty impressive. I'm not sure if they have expanded to support every state in the US yet though as they have been trying to perfect in a handful of states before expanding.

I personally use Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Dance Dance Revolution to help teach rhythm in my music classes. Kids love that.

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Permalink Reply by Jack Olmsted on April 21, 2008 at 3:12pm

Mark Wagner and Michael Guerena of the Orange County (CA) Department of Education's Educational Technology group produced this video webcast on Games in Education back in '06.