I am curious to know what future teachers got out of the talk tonight (especially, but not limited to my science prospective teachers.) What, if anything, do video games have to do with your classroom? If we want to help address the crises Dr. Gee talked about, what does that mean for your planning? Do you agree with the 3 charges he left us with: don't make it easy, engage learners in play before reading; and let learners help design the curriculum?
What are your thoughts?
-- Edited by April at 01:22, 2005-11-04
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April Lynn Luehmann, PhD
Warner Graduate School of Education
University of Rochester
Dewey Hall 1-160L
Rochester NY 14627
april.luehmann@rochester.edu
585.275.3010
The whole time I was listening, I couldn't help but think of how perfectly this aligns with constructivism and inquiry. I know we have discussed this a little before in class, but it came up again last night. I don't think inquiry is easy, it puts the play first and allows students to design their own curriculum. I found myself very pumped up and then the air sorta fizzled out as someone brought up our old friend, the standardized test and the side kick, curriculum. I'm still wondering, and maybe I won't find out until I have my own classroom, but... what if we did less content and hoped the kids would be able to figure out, from the ways we have taught them in class, other content that was not covered. I am not familiar with the standardized tests, although I took my fair share. I think if we taught the kids in ways that make the material relevant and establish that scientist identity, they could still do well on the tests. That is ultimately what we are preparing them for, the game of life. They are not going to know all of the content when reading an article on cloning, but using the skills we taught them in science, they should be able to make an informed, intelligent decision.
I would like to hear what everyone else thinks....
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"Sometimes the only sense you can make out of life is a sense of humor."
I have to say that I felt envigorated after that talk. It made me feel very good about what I am hopefully going to be able to do as a teacher. It helped me re-evaluate a lot of what I am doing. Just today I had a cool activity I did with my students. They really enjoyed it and actually suggested we do that kind of thing more often. One student went as far as to say that our labs were too easy and that we needed to do something to make them harder. WOW! How often do you hear that??
In terms of the standarized tests, i am actually starting to think that this is secondary. A healthy dose of "game play" combined with a personal assessment, combiened with lots of regents style practice will make for a very rigurous course but it will definitely get us and the students further.
