Well, this blog will be a rewrite of a blog i have reflected on in the past several weeks and the very first blog (Games are fun, but is there more to them) i wrote will be rewritten.

Gaming can be a cause of controversy and debate but for many such as myself, i see games fun of course but i believe they can offer more to the real world specifically in the education sphere. Game Based learning was introduced to me during the week 3 Lecture of my class and the knowledge really made me realize that Games can be a vital tool for students struggling in schools in certain subjects such as Maths or English.

Piaget was also mentioned during the lecture and he reveals through his work on Cognitive development, playing through games is considered integral to and evolving with, children’s stages of Cognitive Development (Plass et al. 2015). Games in the classroom as a result, serves purpose for students in order to experience an online version of learning what they are struggling in. Games can be addicting sure, i have experienced addiction to certain games when i was younger however, it didn’t corrupt me, instead it provided benefits and for young students, these benefits can improve their school life moving forward.

Benefits such as teaching technical skills and improving critical thinking such as improving problem solving skills to succeed in online education games. What i found really intriguing was how games can teach young students technical skills, technology will be exposed to all students however through games, kids can embed coding and programming (Acer, 2017)

This blog when i first wrote was really lacking on the academic side however through solid feedback i got from my peer (below) i had the chance to perfect this blog and truly reflect on this driving question.

These Screenshots are Feedback evidence given to me by a peer

References:

Acer. (2017). The Benefits of gaming in education: the Build A World Case, Success Stories, (Unknown Publication Location), Retrieved from: https://eu-acerforeducation.acer.com/success-stories/the-benefits-of-gaming-in-education-the-build-a-world-case/

Plass, J., Homer, B,. & Kinzer, C. (2015) Foundations of Game-Based Learning, Educational Psychologist, 50:4, 258-283 DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2015.1122533

Copy of original 1st blog:

When it comes to gaming, there’s always the mystery questions that pop up to their usefulness. In society today, games are time consuming with children to even adults spending long amounts of time on different games (E.g. Fortnite) however the driving question reveals a important point: are there more to games?

When reflecting on this question, i can heavily relate to the genre of gaming as i myself play games of different genres however what really got me interested in this topic from Week 3 was the introduction of game based learning. This topic i can 100% say i particularly enjoyed than most weeks as i was told how game based learning can be more effective for students as an extra tool for improving academic skills. Academic Articles reveal so much about Game based learning such as with Piaget, it is revealed that Play is integral to and evolving with, children’s stages of Cognitive development (Plass et al. 2015)

I can agree with the fact game based learning can prove dividends for Teachers and their teaching strategies however i don’t agree on teachers banking on the benefits of GBL (Game based learning) to enhance their careers however the engagement/motivation these games can bring to struggling students can be instrumental to their academic future.

To conclude this reflection, Games can be heavily tarnished for their addictive like features that children fall for however game based learning reveals the “more to them” part of the driving question. For me, games can be implemented for Education in impressive ways and considering the recent pitch me and my group produced, this just supports the advantages games can bring.

Games are created to provide fun to people’s lives, to take their minds or even improve their minds. Cognitive development is even enhanced with the use of games as Piaget/Vygotsky reveal. This topic of games was very intriguing to reflect on and if i continue on the teacher path, this will almost certainly improve my teaching strategies.

This Blog will be dedicated on peer reviewing two of my fellow classmates on the blogs they have done. Screenshots of my feedback will be included below:

Feedback

Driving Question: An understanding of how changes in technology impact on the way humans communicate, and the ethical issues that surround these changes

This Blog will be somewhat different from the previous two i have written because this question was set for the 3rd blog especially but the question is a somewhat reality question than most. Technology evolves every year, communication improves greatly because of this evolution as today, we have a large variety of communication tools (e.g. Facebook’s Messenger, whatsapp etc.) with Apple from 2007 onwards being the main evolution stone for human communication as this technology company releasing improved and technology-advanced mobile devices to easily contact other humans with no difficulty at all.

I have been part of this evolution train as i was born in a generation where technology was steadily improving, i moved from using nokia ‘Brick phones” to using Smart android phones such Samsung Galaxy S2 to S5. Technology changes has greatly improved my way of life and my family as well in terms of communication as it becomes way easier for my parents who are relishing the technology changes to easily communicate to their family overseas in Chile.

However, the issues technology brings especially ethical ones, were always going to be a difficult hurdle for technology changes but considering the fact technology evolves every year and gain more ground (Al-Rodhan et al. 2015, para. 3) in terms of communication, ethical issues are going to be an annual trend of debate.

Amount of Screen time is the main ethical issue debated with Technology change as children can get too attached to the new technology that is given to them, which distracts them from life/school activities, thus drifting them away. However these changes can improve a student’s education as i have revealed in previous blogs so these changes provide more of an impact than people realize in terms of Communication.

References:

Al-Rodhan, N. (2015). What are the ethical implications of emerging tech. World Economic Forum, 2015, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/03/what-are-the-ethical-implications-of-emerging-tech/

Driving question: To Tweet or not to Tweet?

Tweeting has an important use in today’s society with even the US President heavily tweeting his opinions/thoughts worldwide. In my experience however, Tweeting was at the bottom of my life to be perfectly honest as i found using twitter to be tedious and pointless. It held no meaning in my life as i just stuck to Facebook and Instagram but as twitter was heavily used during last week’s lecture/tutorial, it opened me up to things i knew about twitter however using it for educational means was what changed my opinion on the importance of tweeting.

Twitter i found out, surprisingly has intriguing strategies that benefits teachers who are looking for more feedback from a global standpoint. Benefits such as finding and sharing resources with other educators. I find this very beneficial as i do use social media a lot so asking for teaching feedback from an online view can greatly assist my teacher strategies. Twitter is considered as inspiration due to the productivity (Miller et al. 2017, para. 6) for some however embracing new ideas is the benefit i 100% agree with out of the rest as i love getting ideas from other people and with the main topic from last week’s lecture being on PLN’s (Professional Learning networks), twitter has more uses than just simple tweeting.

To summarise this blog, Twitter can be largely beneficial for many Teachers but answering the question of to tweet or not to tweet, i agree but only 60% and the last 40% not to tweet. I say this largely because of my inexperience of Twitter however i just personally don’t enjoy the structure of Twitter such asking so much personal information for creating a simple profile. Tweeting opens minds and it reveals how technology has evolved so much for the education sphere.

References:

Miller, E. (2017). Teachers on Twitter : why you should join and how to get started. The Guardian , 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2017/apr/20/teachers-on-twitter-why-join-get-started-social-media

Driving Question: Games are fun, but is there more to them?

When it comes to gaming, there’s always the mystery questions that pop up to their usefulness. In society today, games are time consuming with children to even adults spending long amounts of time on different games (E.g. Fortnite) however the driving question reveals a important point: are there more to games?

When reflecting on this question, i can heavily relate to the genre of gaming as i myself play games of different genres however what really got me interested in this topic from Week 3 was the introduction of game based learning. This topic i can 100% say i particularly enjoyed than most weeks as i was told how game based learning can be more effective for students as an extra tool for improving academic skills. Academic Articles reveal so much about Game based learning such as with Piaget, it is revealed that Play is integral to and evolving with, children’s stages of Cognitive development (Plass et al. 2015)

I can agree with the fact game based learning can prove dividends for Teachers and their teaching strategies however i don’t agree on teachers banking on the benefits of GBL (Game based learning) to enhance their careers however the engagement/motivation these games can bring to struggling students can be instrumental to their academic future.

To Conclude this reflection, Games can be heavily tarnished for their addictive like features that children fall for however game based learning reveals the “more to them” part of the driving question. For me, games can be implemented for Education in impressive ways and considering the recent pitch me and my group produced, this just supports the advantages games can bring.

Games are created to instill fun to people’s lives, to take their minds or even improve their minds. Cognitive development is even enhanced with the use of games as Piaget/Vygotsky reveal. This topic of games was very intriguing to reflect on and if i continue on the teacher path, this will almost certainly improve my teaching strategies.

References:

Plass, J., Homer, B,. & Kinzer, C. (2015) Foundations of Game-Based Learning, Educational Psychologist, 50:4, 258-283 DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2015.1122533

This blog is for all those tech students out there.

This Intro blog outlines what the next 4 blogs will contain, which is personal reflection on the topics brought up during the semester. The purpose of this blog is to prepare yourself on Digital technologies and the 4 driving questions based on this course.

These questions will be based on several topics brought up during my classes and with this:

I will academically reflect on them in the next several weeks with the use of Academic referencing.

ACADEMIC HONESTY STATEMENT:

Signed: BRodriguez,

Date: 27/8/19

My signature above constitutes my pledge that all of the writing is my own work, with the exception of those portions which are properly documented.