Talk:Unit One: Why video games in the classroom?

-- Alicia Mari 07:54, 27 November 2012 (EST)

You may want to include unit objectives to orient the learner as to what she/he will be focusing on. The background knowledge portion is a nice way to start helping learners organize their thinking. Short descriptors or definitions for each term may be an additional way to trigger background knowledge prior to having learners get into the reading.You may want to consider more open-ended reflective questions. Participants might already feel they are effective in their practice and simply want to learn about the possibilities games have as a new dimension to learning. The brainstorm activity is effective, as learners reflect on their feelings/notions about the topic. A brief summary/statement about the reading might be especially helpful for those participants with limited knowledge of video games. Would the persuasive writing activity be better suited towards the end of your course? Participants (especially those with limited knowledge in this field) might need the benefit of the units to follow in order to be convinced and knowledgeable enough to write a persuasive statement requesting funding for gaming technology in the classroom.

Dobler Tryout Comments -- Teresa Dobler 12:10, 28 November 2012 (EST)

-You use many strong outside resources to back up your work. You not only ask the student to read these articles for content, but you ask them to reflect on their own teaching as they read. This will prime them to make meaningful connections.

-I would list the full citations for the articles you link to somewhere within your course so fair credit is given.

-For the preactivity brainstorm, perhaps you should make the link separate and have the word video games appear normally within the directions, as I was confused as a learner as to whether or not I should click the link or not.

-Perhaps learners could post their responses somewhere for others to see.

-I really like the activity, particularly the persuasive essay. It really made me look back to the reading for reasons.

-These activities seem perfectly related to the objective on the unit, and clearly help learners understand and articulate the benefits of video games.