ST 6: Technologies in Special Education Online learning games

ST 6: Technologies in Special Education Online learning gamesFIT Kristin Basford10/22 10/28The problemHow can we best promote academic growth for students with unique cognitive and/or behavioral needs?

How can we keep students with behavioral needs, who are participating in a behavioral education program in a special education setting, on pace academically with their general education peers until the time when they are able to join the general education classroom?The solutionONLINE LEARNING GAMES

Icons for two of the pre-selected games we will look at

What is so amazing about an Online Learning Game?When children play, they learn.From peek-a-boo to video games, people are programmed to learn through play.

Games provide conditions ideal to learningGood learning games provide rich experiences that have a vital role in constructing memoryAlthough experiences must meet specific conditions in order to be truly useful to learning, these conditions are also the properties of a well-designed game (Gee, 2008).

What are the conditions of Online Learning Games that are useful to learning?Experiences are most useful for future problem solving if the experience isStructured by specific goalsInterpreted. Paired with immediate feedback during the experienceUsed to expand upon or debug interpretations of previous experiencesDiscussed, reflected upon, and interpreted/reinterpreted within a social context.

this list with additional details is available in the MS Word file ST 6 Job Aid Conditions of Online Learning Games Useful to LearningTasks #1 & 21. Choose a student profile from the list of case studies, found in ST6 Case StudiesConnor, Ariel, Marcus, Nick, Taja or Eddie

2. Play either MathBlaster or JumpStart from the point of view of the child in your case study.Both provide rich experiences and meet most/all* of Gees of the conditions listed in Job Aid #1 *depending on your perspectiveAllow 15-30 minutes to play this game. Feel free to skip the customize your avatar options to save time.Record notes about the appropriateness of this game for the student profile you selected for your case study. Use your ST 6 Job Aid to structure your notes & save time.

3. Find another free online game for learning, targeted to the same audience as the case study of the student profile you chose.Play it.Record notes about the appropriateness of this game for the student profile you selected for your case study. Use your ST 6 Job Aid to structure your notes & save time.A friend of mine constructed a web page that contains links to free games for Elementary-age students. You may wish to choose one of these games to save time, but feel free to select a game not listed here. The page appears to have a bit of white space on it. Just scroll down and you will see the links.Task #33. Find another free online game for learning, targeted to the same audience as the case study of the student profile you chose.Play it.Record notes about the appropriateness of this game for the student profile you selected for your case study. Use your ST 6 Job Aid to structure your notes & save time.

A friend of mine constructed a web page that contains links to free games for Elementary-age students. You may wish to choose one of these games to save time, but feel free to select a game not listed here. The page appears to have a bit of white space on it. Just scroll down and you will see the links.

Task #44. Write a brief, concise comparative analysis of the two games with respect to (1) the quality of the learning experience. Use your notes for both games from to structure this discussion. (2) the appropriateness of each game given the specific needs of your student. How might your student do well with these games? How might he/she struggle with these games? What other information might you need?(3) post your analysis in the discussion board for ST 6

In summaryLearning objective: Analyze and Evaluate the information learned in this ST within a meaningful context (as provided by the case studies)

Blooms taxonomy:

If you have any questions regarding this Special Topic, and especially if you need clarification, please post those questions in the Questions & Clarification thread for the ST6 Discussion Board.

BibliographyAnnetta, L., Mangrum, J., Holmes, S., Collazo, K., and Cheng, M. (2009). Bridging Reality to Virtual Reality: Investingating gender effect on learning through video game play in an elementary school classroom. International Journal of Science Education 31(8), 1091-1113.

Gee, J.P. (2008). Learning and Games. In K. Salen, (Ed.) The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning (pp.21-40). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.