Gaming Trends

As I look back at what I have learned from this semester I see that the knowledge I have come across is very useful. Gaming is something that is apart of a majority of any persons life. Gaming as an educational venue is unique yet very useful when dealing with the kids of our generation today. Looking back on Jane McGonigals book you see how gaming has affected our daily thoughts and processes. And how affective it can be for a community sense when dealing with a classroom. "Fix #9: More Fun With Strangers, Compared with games, reality is and isolating. Games help us band together and create powerful communities from scratch." (McGonigal, pg. 172) It allows for a connection with other peers that we may not ever develop through our real life activities. All gaming is a virtual world of only fake rewards there is no real life positives that come from gaming. however they show you rules and such things that can translate from gaming or virtual worlds to real life activities. "All games take place in some kind of virtual world—and not solely a Second Life-style, massively multiplayer online environment. Even physical games are played in a synthetic world structured by specific rules, feedback mechanisms, and requisite tools to support them." (Clark Aldrich) Also in Anne Derryberry slide show she discusses how gaming and electronic based learning is only in the beginning stages which leads me to believe what has yet to be explored. Gaming and virtual worlds are almost an addicting thing as humans we want to be involved constantly. I know from my experience with settlers online I was not intrigued early in the semester as I began to be deeply connected to the game and the experience I began to constantly think to check the progression of the settlement. I was constantly making sure every time I got on my computer one of the things I did every time was check the settlers site and do as much as I could possibly in the time I had available at that time.

A classroom in 2030 is definitely not going to be what it is today. I believe that what we look at as an unbelievable future of computers and tablets is what it is going to be. From this semester we learned different gaming and virtual world avenues can be used positively in the classroom. But I believe that this will be the future of education. I feel all course work will be based in a virtual world setting that can cover all learning aspects such as visual and auditory. I think what we look at as gaming and tablets such as ipads or kindles and such are going to be used instead of actual textbooks. Which I feel will be beneficial for students. However it will put a financial stress on school districts it is something that will be the norm of education. I hope to see the progressive change in education as technology and gaming take over and help improve the educational experience for students. And improve scores and learning for these students as well.




Aldrich, Clark. "Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education: A Unifying View." ClarkChart. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

Derryberry, Anne. "Game-based Learning in Higher Education 2012." Game-based Learning in Higher Education 2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

 McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.

Virtual Worlds

Video games and virtual worlds are the future of education because of the way it influences youth to be engaged at a high level. Like in this study, “97% of American’s youth aged 12-17 are engaged in video games daily,” (Caroll, et. al., p. 58) With that many active minds intrigued in gaming it allows for teachers to use it to their advantage by using virtual worlds. And by doing so you can use them to get to higher levels. "Educational games and simulations can engage students in higher-level cognitive thinking, such as interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem solving. Recent technical advances in multiplayer, user-created virtual worlds have significantly expanded the capabilities of user interaction and development within these simulated worlds." ( Antonacci p. 115) By having students intrigued mentally is the important thing in the classroom and by having virtual worlds it allows you to do so. The possibilities are endless of the things thay you can do with virtual worlds. My interest is in history so if I were to put together a lesson as an instructor I would put together certain time periods of virtual worlds and have my students build and discover different events through a virtual world. An example would be to sail west and find America. Obviously the material would fit the age group that I would be engaged with. But it would be interesting to use a virtual world where all students have to build their boat and find their resources to find the new land. And by doing so I would give credit to who found it first or who put together the best boat and such things during the activity. "This ability to develop and interact with your own simulated world offers many new and exciting educational possibilities." (Antonacci p. 116) I am very intrigued in gaming and virtual worlds myself so to be able to incorporate it with students and education is not only neat but something of the future."an overwhelmingly amount of american teenagers play video games daily and incorporating this type of learning technology into the class-room can have many educational benefits" (griffiths, 2002).