Assessment One: Embedded Task Five - Reflection On The Practical Use Of... Interactive Learning.

Embedded Task Four - Reflection On The Practical Uses Of... Interactive Learning

    Pew-pew! Pew-pew-pew! Though reminiscent of the arcade, the sound of gaming shall echo through the classroom once again, at the hands of the student... but for an educational purpose this time, instead of a digital distraction.

    Though early primary years offered typing tournament styled games intended to form and increase a student's skill in touch typing, secondary schooling offered little in the way of educational gaming. With the demand in young individuals for technology, and thus gaming, students would personally source their own - which often would not be educational. Because of this, a blanket ban fell across all games. 

    However, with the heralding of the technological age, interactive learning seems to have a second shot in the educational setting. Interactive games can now be used in order to teach students or to focus them before and/or during a lesson.  One example of this is Sheep Dash, a game in which your reaction time is tested as you tranquilise the sheep dashing across the field. 

    Sounds easy? Not really. I dare you to try it. 

    But it is useful for engaging and entertaining students during the waiting periods of a lesson. Finished early? Challenge the students. Waiting for half the class? Have some fun! You could even make it into a friendly - and loud - competition on free dress days.

    Another fun website for educational games is EdHeads, in which numerous games lie in wait for students to play. Personally, my favourites from childhood were the knee and hip surgeries, but there are many more to explore. 

Other sites I have discovered are:

• http://www.csitheexperience.org/webadventure.html
• http://www.darfurisdying.com/index.html
• http://quizlet.com
• www.learner.org

   I find these quite fun - as I am an avid gamer myself - and would have loved having games in school to entertain me when I was bored and finished my work.

    At a later date, I would love to fully explore these sites, as well as some more interactive learning tools like text2mindmap, mapping and GoogleDocs as per the idea of the NMC Horizon ideals.