Blog 7

In chapter 24 of Marc Prensky's "Don't Bother Me Mom- I'm Learning!” he describes four methods that teachers can use to incorporate games into classroom learning sessions. These four methods were to bring games played outside of class into the classroom through questions, discussions, etc, then to use the principle behind good, complex games to make some or all of your teaching more game-like, and therefore more interesting and engaging to students, next was to play in class a game specifically designed for education, and lastly play a commercial, of an off-the-shelf game that was not specifically designed for education, in class, either as a whole class or as individual students playing separately. One of the methods that I think would be quite interesting to try and do in class is to play a game that doesn't have to be related to class and then try to form a discussion about it and how it can be incorporated towards working on an essay for instance in this writing class. For example if were to play a game like Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and then write about the technology that is being used in this game in form of a paper, it would not only be interesting but fun and a great learning experience. Also if you think that maybe Call of duty 4 Modern warfare isn't a good example and maybe its too made up then you can try and play a different War game by the same makers such as Call of Duty World at war which is basically a game about world war 2 and a lot of what’s going on in this game are staged around real scenarios and real environments with guns and weapons that were used in world war 2. That would not only be highly educational but incredibly fun. Another way that you can strike the attention of a class and provide a good learning experience based on games is if you wanted to incorporate music. Games like Guitar hero and Rock band not only help you develop a good hand-eye coordination but it teaches you about different kinds of bands and styles of music which if another essay was to be assigned, students can write about what they learned from these music games and what kind of bands did they like and how does the music they play challenge there skills to be able to drum like an actually drummer or to shred a plastic guitar as though it were a real one based on music genres and popular bands. Using games in class would be a great learning experience because there are just about a game for every category possible.