Today in class we discussed gaming and how it can be integrated into the classroom. We also discussed our gaming experiences throughout our years of schooling and whether or not we found them to be beneficial.I think that it is a super cool idea to utilize technology and gaming into the classroom, however I do believe that we, as future educators, need to be aware of which games we implement and if they actually pertain to the lessons we are teaching or if they completely miss the point of being an “educational” game.

In our breakout room, my group discussed the use of things such as all-the-right-type, Kahoot and cool math games for kids. We actually also got the chance to play Kahoot as an entire class which covered the base of our course outline. I think that Kahoot can be a super fun way to engage with students and check in on everyones understanding, but to be played in younger grades your students would need to have access to mobile devices in the classroom (ipads?). I also mentioned in the class document the idea of using code.org as a game tool; this is something that my mentor school uses for their students after they have finished their tasks in the computer lab. It is a super fun way to help them learn the basis of coding while still having a little bit of fun!

https://code.org

https://kahoot.com

Overall, I think that using games can be extremely beneficial, but I do believe that it needs to be used as a reward or brain break related to the lesson rather than just free fun time or as a full lesson!

I also wanted to say a big thank you to Michael for all of his hard work in attempting to modify his class for online learning. It has been really neat to discover all of the different types of technologies, and important regulations/rules that we need to follow as educators.

Thanks again!!!