What does the way you play have to do with embracing change and how does this impact you as a professional?

                                                                     

After taking the gamerDNA I found out that I got the ACHIEVER.  Some of the characteristics of this profile include, “best, first, and most” (http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/).  I would say that this is pretty accurate about my personality when I am playing a game.  I am extremely competitive by nature, growing up I was involved in lots of sports and always wanted to be the best.  How does this transfer over into my classroom?  As a teacher I want the students in my classroom to get the best education possible, I want for them to be successful, changing the way I approach the content in my classroom by incorporating more game play may be the best way to do this in today’s ever changing society.

“Change is inevitable in schools as the student population becomes more diverse” (Wagner, 2001) and as educators are faced with the daunting task of preparing students for “jobs that do not yet exist using technologies that have not yet been invented in order to solve problems we do not even know are problems yet” (Fisch, 2007)  Educators need to be open to changing the way they transfer their information over to students, change brings new ways to learn and absorb knowledge.  It forces educators to be creative and push the limit, it allows educators who are embracing this change a chance to change the way education in our country is run.  Most of all “change motivates and challenges.  It makes clear when things are obsolete or have outlived their usefulness.  But most of all, change forces us to learn differently.” (Thomas and Brown)

With the availability of information at our fingertips, memorizing facts is not useful anymore.  Students who have the skills to look up information, read and decipher the information and then apply it have the upper hand.  Memorization “is not a bad way to learn about things that seldom change, such as spelling, the periodic table of the elements, and dates in history.  Unfortunately, however, what students memorize are things they don’t actually use very often in their day-to-day lives.” (Thomas and Brown)  Learning in today’s school is becoming more about learning the skills to obtain and understand, sort through and make conjectures about the information around them.

Textbooks are limited to what the publishers want to put in print, “online resources let people make their own conjectures.” (Thomas and Brown)  I believe it is important to teach students how to make good judgement about the online resources they are using.  Teach them how to check the references and the sources of the information, give them the tools to be successful in the following years after they are out of school.

“Traditional approaches to learning are no longer capable of coping with a constantly changing world.” (Thomas and Brown)  Schools need to seriously think about the way students are taught.  In an ever changing world, is a text book really the best choice for the source of information a student receives.  Teachers need to have the tools them selves to teach students the online skills necessary to be successful in this world.  Online games may have a place in the classroom as one approach to learning the content.

 

 

References:

OPE Research Brief: Embracing Change, Zhicheng Zhang and Recardo Sockwell, Nov 2009

Wagner, T. (2001). Leadership for learning: An action theory of school change. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(5), 378-383

Fisch, K (2007). Shift happens. Retrieved from http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/shifthappens

http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/

A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, 2011

How does the culture of your current teaching environment differ from the learning environment you experienced as a student?

When I was a student in high school, 14 years ago, there was not a lot of technology being used.  Kids did not have cell phones, teachers did not have computers in their classrooms and the internet was not a tool that everyone used daily.  If you wanted to write a research paper you went to the library and looked up the topic in the card catalog and then find your book.

Today teachers can take online classes to advance their degree, they can connect with other classrooms across the country and they can use technology as a tool to enhance student’s education.  Students also use technology every day to stay connected to their friends and the fast pace online world.  “Children want to be entertained and they are used to things that are fast-paced and ever-changing” (Stacy Fonseca) so why should teachers not tap into the information highway and use technology to their advantage?

Teachers are challenged to channel the energy of the online world into their classrooms.  Not long ago teachers lectured, students read and wrote essays from their textbooks and students were only able to get feedback from the teacher in the form of a test, project or in-class discussion.  In today’s world feedback has become instantaneous with the use of computers.  “The instant feedback allows both students and instructors to know if they understand the material.” (Virginia Community College)  Games are a great example of instant feedback.

In my dream classroom, all of my students would have a device.  They would be connected to my computer by some software and I would be able to see their responses from anywhere in the room.  Students would also be able to collaborate with each other between different periods of the day.  A one to one device “offers an advantage to shy students who might not otherwise actively participate in class.”  (Virginia Community College)  Devices would allow students to provide me with instant feedback as to how they are understanding the material, it would also allow for shy students to participate more in class.

The way that students are learning today is much different then when I was in school.  Today it look much more like play, “when play happens within a medium for learning, it creates a context in which information, ideas, and passion grown.” (Thomas and Brown)  This shift in education does not look like any shifts before, it is a bit scary, overwhelming and exciting and “requires a shift in our thinking about education.” (Thomas and Brown)

It is a bit overwhelming knowing that I am educating today’s youth without knowing the job skills that they need to be prepared for in the future.  The world is changing at an incredible pace.  Thomas and Brown suggest in their book that the primary differences between education of the past and education of the future is: the classroom model will be replaced with digital media providing rich information through play, learning will be done through engaging within the world, and finally students and teachers will embrace what they don’t know and come up with better questions about it.  This is a lot to think about.

References:

http://www.examiner.com/article/how-has-teaching-changed-over-the-years, Stacy Fonseca

https://sites.google.com/a/email.vccs.edu/ltm/how-computers-have-changed-the-classroom, Virginia Community College

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/promoting-a-culture-of-learning-terry-heick

A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, 2011