Video Games in Classrooms

Mark Prensky makes it apparent in his lecture that the concept of technology differs greatly from teacher to student in present day.  He points out that back in the good ole days, content was the focus of education where the class followed the book exactly with no deviations because they did not have the technology to use.  The book was it.  Now, almost every student has a computer or smart phone readily accessible.  They have grown up accustomed to changing technologies and using them especially video games.  They provide entertainment, excitement, social skill building, captivating images, and all the mindless wasted hours parents think they bring. Prensky points out that kids today have to turn their brain off before they come to school, because it really does look boring compared to the technologies they use outside of school.  Engaging them and motivating them is more important than the content for students to learn.  As a teacher that goes against everything I have been taught in school, but after thinking why not make the content engaging for the students in a format they enjoy using.

Honestly, I do not know enough about video games to be able to incorporate them or even the location of the power button.  I have never heard of a teacher using them in class effectively.  However, I do think that technologies will be a benefit to the classroom, even if it is not video games. The new iPad cart at my school is a much-used asset.  My students have made videos, presentations, and all sorts of assignments using them.  Participation was at an all time high because they were using a technology they enjoyed. An important part is asking the students “What sucked?” about an assignment using technology as Prensky puts it.  The students have amazing ideas, and their teachers should listen to their ideas to make students more engaged. I do not want them to power down in my class.

Flipped Classrooms

I have actually never heard of the flipped classroom before this.  It was interesting to learn about and to see how easy it can be to incorporate into the classroom.  I wish that my teachers had used something similar to this when I was in high school so I know my students must be thinking the same thing.  I can see myself using this in my classroom in the future, and I want to try to incorporate it.  Her vocabulary method would be phenomenal in my classroom for additional words not on the vocabulary list but would be beneficial to know.  I think it would be a great way to review the grammar points like how to conjugate a verb in a certain tense or a reminder of the placement of indirect object pronouns.  I definitely will not be trying to reinvent the wheel, but I want to look into more ways to flip my classroom. If the students will be more engaged and take more away from the activities and lessons, it is worth it.  I don’t know quite yet how I plan to do this, but slowly integrate it into class.

Some positives from a flipped classroom are the constant access to the information.  If they have a question or forget the main point of the lesson, the video is always at their fingertips where they don’t have to wait until the next day to ask the teacher.  Another positive is the amount of time freed in the classroom to do activities to practice what they learned, and they can never have enough practice talking/speaking/listening/writing in Spanish.  A negative would be not every student has access or the means to watch the video at home due to financial reasons, being grounded, Internet went out, and all the many reasons why they would not be able to watch it.  Tucker pointed out the negative that some kids will just not watch the video and then instruction time is lost outside of class, but in the classroom as well.  Her solution works well for her classroom, but I don’t know how I could incorporate that in a Spanish setting. 

Blogs can be a useful tool when integrated correctly into schools.  Teachers are always looking for new means to capture the students attention and to disguise learning with fun activities.  Many students enter school with the preconceived notion that school is boring and a waste of time because thats how many movies and TV shows portray school, and it is our job to show the students that learning can be fun.  I could easily incorporate blogs into my classroom.  Almost every student has a smart phone where they can type (with all the Spanish accents) and post to a classroom blog. This could be as easy as writing an assignment about what they did over the weekend practicing a past tense or finding pictures and writing captions for them in Spanish.  It would also be a great portfolio for the students to see their work and how it has improved over the course.  This could be a great resource for them to take to college. It will make them more cautious about grammar mistakes or their effort if they knew everyone could read it.  It would make them feel their work has more significance than me just reading their paper and giving it back to them.  This way, all of their classmates could leave positive feedback or their thoughts about another students work.  Blogs would also be a great way to connect across the school as well as other schools.  For example, right now in Spanish 2, the vocabulary is over hotel words.  If another school using the same book is there, the two classes could collaborate and write about their favorite trip when they stayed in a hotel.  That way, the students would be reading real life students work rather than the generated situations in the book.  They would be able to comment all in Spanish of course.  This could be a useful tool for a school as long as positive feedback is given.