As I mentioned during our discussion yesterday, I was very grumpy when I wrote my previous post, and feeling ultra skeptical. While my skepticism does remain, I am feeling a bit more optimistic about bringing some video game culture into the classroom. Notice I say the culture, and not games themselves, because I feel that is still too many light years ahead of where myself and my district are. However, Rachel pointed out to me on a Ning conversation that many video games have features on YouTube that are the non-playing portions of the game - in other words, the movie-like parts that develop the story. I had no idea of this, and I'm excited to start looking some things up and potentially using that as a gateway to more video-game literacy in my classroom.
Also, I mentioned that I have already used online games in small ways in my classroom. Here are some links to the ones my students have liked the best - they may not be very sophisticated or in-depth, but they do get the students engaged and using their English skills in a fun way.
Grammar of Doom! http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/grofdoom/advisory.htm
Grammar Ninja http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html
Also, this website has links to over 20 English-based games:
http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/gamezone2.htm
Enjoy! I like Grammar Ninja :)
Where is that video game feature? I would like to check that out.
ReplyDeleteI find myself slowly coming around. It would appear that I was way off in my initial reaction. Oh well. I got some catching up to do
Bravo, Jenna (& Steve)!
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly the kind of gradual, open minded thinking we all need to embrace if we are going to engage our students in the multimodal literacies that characterize their lives and that dominate our society. I look forward to hearing how YOU flesh out these important ideas.
Jenna, I feel the same way as you. I think there is a definite difference between bringing in the culture versus the games themselves. I realized after your comments in class that I, too, use some of these same computer games with my students. I just hadn't really connected them to our readings and discussion on video games. My students do enjoy playing games on the laptops if they have finished their other assignments, etc. I don't build whole lessons around their inclusion, but allow them as kind of a reinforcement activity when there is time. I will also have to check out the Youtube videos Rachel mentioned. That is helpful to know and definitely a much more plausible option for my classroom.
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