Enhancing Learning Through Technology

With the many online resources available, will online educational games benefit children? How will they be beneficial to a child's learning process? To date, many technological advances have been made. It is becoming much easier to access learning software and activities online without having to make a purchase. A parent and child can easily access these interactive, online activities with the use of technology.

The purpose of the online educational game was to become familiar with the vast amount of online resources. Along with my group members, we discovered a variety of useful games which would be conducive for a child either in school or preparing to enter the school system. As a first-time parent, for example, preparing your child and knowing what to teach your child beforehand may be a challenge. Although you may begin to teach your child their ABC's, counting from 1-10, body parts, and etc. - is that really enough? Do you think you could have done more? Well, with online educational games, parents are given the opportunity to participate in the learning process with their child.

Before preparing for the presentation, my group and I browsed through the Internet for possible online games which we felt were the most productive and most engaging for the audience.  Finally, we found one which would possibly enthrall the audience and engage the participation of everyone in the classroom.  The title of our chosen game is called, “Action Fraction”.  The primary objective of the game is to add and subtract fractions using different denominators.  Furthermore, before planning the presentation, we created a rubric which would aid us in carefully executing this assignment.  With creativity, there are many ways a rubric can be created.  According to an online source titled Teacher Vision, a rubric is defined as “a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student’s performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score.” (2000-2012).

To create a rubric, we decided to divide it into four distinct categories: graphics, layout, sound, and directions.  These four categories helped provide a focus and awareness.  For instance, it allowed our group to achieve an outstanding presentation using the set of expectations we hoped to achieve with the rubric.  Personally, creating a rubric was not a challenging task.  After viewing a few sample rubrics from previous students, as provided by Professor Cyrus, my group members and I felt comfortable enough to create one, ourselves.  The challenge was finding a suitable game that would meet the overall expectation of our rubric.  Believe me, after settling on one game, we would search over and over again for another.  Some people may describe us as “perfectionists” or “over-achievers”, but we just preferred that our chosen game meet the criteria of our rubric.

Being that I am an aspiring elementary teacher, I would be able to apply this educational game into my lesson plan, more specifically during math time.  Aside from instructional teaching time where I would define what a fraction is, provide examples, and distribute hand-outs; my students could greatly benefit from online exercises such as “Action Fraction”.  David Macaluso, wrote an article for Pacific News Center in regards to the Standardized Achievement Tests (SAT) for Guam.  Although he states that the scores have improved, we are still lower than the national average.  In addition, Robert Underwood was interviewed and he stated that math has historically been a challenge for students (Macaluso,2010).  What is happening?  Are the children not receiving the adequate education?  Are the parents not participating in their child’s learning process?  I am sure these are three of the many of other questions which rattle through the minds of educators.  How can we better prepare our students? 

Along with the daily instructional teaching, online educational games could also provide direction and understanding for students.  If you thoroughly think about it, almost every child enjoys playing video games – why not engage in a computer game perhaps?  For students who lack confidence when it comes to Math, our chosen game would provide the child with extra assistance.  In addition, the game provides incentives for the child.  For example, because our chosen game takes place on a race track, there are two race cars.  When a problem is answered correctly, your car (the red one) speeds ahead of the opponent in the blue car.  In addition, if a perfect score is reached at the end of the game, it would read “Good Job or Great Work”. 

With my teaching pedagogy in mind, there is a way in which both the rubric and presentation could be revised.  Although our rubric was categorized into four sections, we failed to consider the learning aspects of the educational game.  For example, how beneficial is this game for the students?  What benefits would they be receiving and would this game have met the criteria?  On the other hand, although we carried out a successful presentation, I realized that technology has a way of acting out sometimes.  I realized that it would not be a bad idea to have a “plan B”, just in case “plan A” fails.

Overall, this assignment was a wonderful experience.  With the many resources provided by Professor Cyrus, it was a success being able to include a few of the introduced tools, as well as being able to venture out and discover new one’s as a group.  Online educational games are both beneficial and conducive to a child’s learning process.  It provides a foundation for children struggling not only in Mathematics but in other content areas, too.  It also molds the students into critical thinkers.    

References:

Macaluso, D. (2010, October 17). SAT 10 Scores Show Improvement Over Last Year; Math Still a Challenge. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from Pacific News Centers website:
http://pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8691:sat-10-scores&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156

Teacher Vision. (2000-2012). The Advantages of Rubrics.  Retrieved March 10, 2012 from
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods-and-management/rubrics/4522.html