Everyone loves Games

It's great to be in the MXL room again and I think all of us had a fun time trying out the Wii, Xbox and PSP games. With the excellent graphics, some of the games look so real and they are very interactive too. Looking at my peers and experiencing it myself, I can see how games can really attract the attention of students and bring the enthusiasm out in them. This effect is something that we usually do not experience in traditional classroom teaching.

This session does reinforce what the guest speaker, Mr Daryl Koh had shared with us on 26th Aug. Games can be like real virtual worlds, they can be so immersive. Today's teenagers are very in touch with them, they love playing video games and is becoming an integral part of their lives. It will be a great incentive if games are incorporated into lessons. When students have interest in something, they will have the interest in learning it.

Indeed, with the use of relevant games and a well designed plan, I can understand how using a game-based approach in teaching can bring about interests and create meaningful learning for the students.

Wouldn't it be a fun to be students nowadays? :)

Can video games actually be good? read on here:
http://neuroanthropology.net/2009/06/02/can-videogames-actually-be-good-for-you/

2nd Life

Second Life - a online 3D virtual world imagined and created by its Residents. (www.secondlife.com)

It was very interesting to be in the MXL studio today and introduced to Second Life. There was an almost exact replica of the MXL studio virtually in Second Life. Impressive.

I wasn't really a fan of 3D games, as I always think I feel kind of dizzy after some long hours. Probably I'm not used to it. My first experience with 3D games was in Counter-Strike. Players can know and chat with each other in front of their computers during the game itself which was what made it fun to me. Second Life has this chat function too.. good. :)

During the introduction, we were brought into one of the tsunami world where an tsunami occurrence was able to be simulated. Wow, it will indeed be useful for student to know what it would be like seeing for themselves.

While we are being shown on the different worlds, I began to think how it can be useful in my future teaching of Maths & EBS. I do not think I can create a world in Second Life, at least not as impressive as the ones we saw. So the next best will be to find a suitable created world to utilize it. I will need to take alot of time to explore them.

Is there a world already created where students go in and learn how to solve Maths problems? .. If anyone knows of any, do share with me ok? :)

E-Learning Week 5

This week is our E-learning week where we get the chance to apply self directed learning and collaborative learning through the use of online discussion forum.

So.. what are my reviews on this learning process?

My task given was to participate in on Scenario 1 Activity B where we were to come out with pre-emptive and intervention strategies to help solve classroom management issues during a face-to-face ICT lesson. My own objectives were to find out about the strategies on my own as well as gather inputs from my group mates. I see it as a practical exercise as I would probably get to apply them in the future when teaching EBS in schools.

My first thought after completing the task was that I had actually spent alot more time doing e-learning task than compared to the regular 2 hour classroom lesson for allocated for each module in school! Time was spent doing self study of the topics, analyzing the case scenarios, thinking of strategies and doing discussions online.


I must say that E-learning provided greater flexibility to do the learning at own pace in the sense that I was able to control when and where I want to do the learning. So often, I was prone to doing the assignments during the wee hours of the late night, which sadly resulted in my dark eye circles. For the sake of beauty, I need to change this. :)


Next, I find that I had enjoyed the collaborative learning process where group mates post their views for discussions. From there, I was able to know more solutions to the problem and hear opinions from others which could widen my perspective of things. In fact, I think it's fine to have differing views on an idea. It makes the discussions more interesting. :)

With the online discussions, I was drawn to going into our forum daily to check on any new updates on my thread.

Is this an indicator of self-directed learning too? (",)