Course Reflection: New and Emerging Technologies

The learning activity that I developed in Weeks 6 and 7 involves the use of the educational video game Immune Attack, which can be found and downloaded from the website for the Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org/programs/ltp/games/index.html). It is an interactive, multi-level video game where students maneuver through various components of the immune system and make decisions based upon what they encounter. In a strange turn of events, I actually met the creator of the game this past weekend! I attended the USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall, where hundreds of organizations presented over 1500 interactive science exhibits. Ironically, one of the exhibits that I visited had Immune Attack on display! It turns out the woman who designed the game, and is designing the new version of the game, was there and I was able to talk to her about it. I was also able to see kids playing (and enjoying!) the game.
Prior to this class, I would have put myself into the group of people who are skeptical about educational video games, both in their ability to teach and the practicality of using them in the classroom. Now, as a result of this class, I have completely changed my position. I am looking forward to finding more educational video games and I hope that many new ones are produced in the near future. I see now that good educational games provide authentic learning experiences, and that students become highly engaged in the games. While I have learned about many emerging technologies during this course, I know that I will focus on identifying emerging educational video games for use in my classroom. I am now also more prepared for effecting change in my school by encouraging other educators to adopt this type of technology, as well.

APP4: Online Learning with Course Management Systems

Please view my Voice Thread presentation about web-based course management systems.