Online Educational Game — Reflection

As a math teacher, I strongly believe in teaching through playing. My belief in this is based on the adage of you learn best when you're having fun. Aside from maintaining interest longer than textbook work, a visual representation of content found in videos and educational games can help students understand concepts better, stimulate curiosity, and encourage self-learning (NeoK12, 2012).

Math inherently represents quantities and yet, as teachers, we often forget to use actual quantities to explain it. Many online games do an excellent job at graphically representing these quantities for easy comparison. When compared to a typical classroom lesson, games can have the benefit of combining instruction with demonstration. This is an more effective learning method than direct instruction (Entertainment Software Association, 2013).

While I still endorse the game my group selected for the Online Game Presentation, the other group's game was more successful at encouraging creative thought. This reminds me of Bloom's Taxonomy and that I need to be more critical in selecting activities that truly encourage higher-order thought (Bloom, 1956). Exploring within my curriculum is good, but I need to remember my goal as a teacher: to develop complete learners.

I have stated in the past that I believe my subject to merely be the canvas where I teach students how to teach themselves. While my curriculum is relevant, people forget most of what they learn so my real goal is to make sure students can learn whatever is needed in situations they encounter in life. In the future, an online game selection should take advantage of the opportunity to encourage creativity while meeting curricular goals. The rubric must focus on encouraging higher-order thinking as much as aesthetics or specific content.

Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc. 
 
Entertainment Software Association. 2013. Games: Improving Education. Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/games-improving-what-matters/education.asp

NeoK12. 2012. About Us. Retrieved from http://www.neok12.com/aboutus.htm