TEACHER WEB RESOURCE PAGE
Educational Gaming and Social Networking in the Classroom
The 21st Century ClassroomThe twenty-first century classroom is infused with interactive whiteboards, projectors, on-line gradebooks, and electronic devices capable of reaching out to the world. If, like me, you were born in a year that doesn't start with "two-thousand", it is safe to say that in many ways the world has moved on. This page is intended to help those of us who did not grow up in a digital world to bridge the gap between "now and then" in a responsible fashion taking into consideration the home based literacies of those we serve .
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Academic Benefits of Social Media and Gaming
- Social Media provides students with a platform from which to collaborate and recieve instant feedback from their teachers and peers.
- Social media encourages students who wouldn't typically speak up to do so.
- Social media when used properly has a tendency to improve writing skills.
- Social media and gaming encourage digital literacies as students are required to spend more time using their devices.
- Gaming tends to increase a childs memorization capacity as games of revolve around the need to memorize critical sequences or track narrative elements.
- Gaming in known to help with fast thinking and problem solving as many games require children to think quickly and utilize their logic in order to think steps ahead to solve problems and complete levels.
- Gaming often lends to skill building like map reading and practial thinking.
6 Basic Benefits of Game Based Learning
Use of Social Media in Education: Positive and Negative impact on the students (Raut, Patil, 2016)
Use of Social Media in Education: Positive and Negative impact on the students (Raut, Patil, 2016)
Benefits of Social Networking and Gaming in School
- The key benefit to using social networking and gaming in school is increased engagement through real world and home based literacies. This point will require teachers to truely gain knowledge of the variety of home literacies in the community they serve in order to properly implement technologies in their classrooms.
- Gaming and social media help those who might not otherwise have access to computers aquire basic digital literacies.
- Gaming and social media in schools offer the opportunity to teach sound and safe use of such tools.
- Gaming and social media in schools often make the move from school based literacies to home based literacies.
Home Media and Children's Achievement and Behavior (Hofferth 2011)
Connecting Digital Literacy Between Home and School (Grant 2010)
Connecting Home an School Literacy Practices in Classrooms with Diverse Populations (McCarthey 1997)
Connecting Digital Literacy Between Home and School (Grant 2010)
Connecting Home an School Literacy Practices in Classrooms with Diverse Populations (McCarthey 1997)
Ethical Use of Social Media and Gaming in the Classroom
The benefits of using social media and gaming in the classroom to enhance home and school literacies is all but unquestionable. What we have not taken a look at are the ethical implications of appropriately using these tools in our classrooms.
In pointing to the extraordinary possibilities that might evolve out of the implementaion of these learning tools one must also consider the pitfalls. The use of social media in the classroom opens the door to addiction, cyberbullying, distraction from learning, and diminished social skills (Raut, Patil, 2016). In addition we risk widening the literacy gap between high and low income and culturally diverse learners as a result of accessibility (McCarthy, 1997). We also must plan for negative writing habits that might move from home literacies into the classroom (Grant, 2010). Further research and training for teachers is imperative to the creation of appropriatley functioning digitally literate classroom. Educators must also protect themselves by avoiding the use of resources they are not prepared to implemnet properly.
In implementing these digital literacies it is profoundly important that educators infuse technology into their lessons in approriate ways that help learners understand how to detect bias and sythesize information from an unending array of sources. Teachers must find suitable and age level appropriate resources that allow for the maximization of oversight and detection of digital literacy rates. New literacies that are in a continual state of evolution must me accounted for. School districts need to update their accceptable use policies for both students and educators to include the use of social media (Tomaszewski, 2011) and gaming.
The bottom line is that we are living in a time of rapid technological change. Our students have been born into a world that was all but unfathomable just thirty years ago. Educators must assimilate to that world or risk allowing the American education system to fall behind at a time when it is already taking much criticism. The secret to success is not just learning to assimilate to the technologies but learning how to carefully implement lessons that adhere to ever changing social norms and literacies without taking risks that might lead school districts and administartors place digital capabilities off-limits.
In pointing to the extraordinary possibilities that might evolve out of the implementaion of these learning tools one must also consider the pitfalls. The use of social media in the classroom opens the door to addiction, cyberbullying, distraction from learning, and diminished social skills (Raut, Patil, 2016). In addition we risk widening the literacy gap between high and low income and culturally diverse learners as a result of accessibility (McCarthy, 1997). We also must plan for negative writing habits that might move from home literacies into the classroom (Grant, 2010). Further research and training for teachers is imperative to the creation of appropriatley functioning digitally literate classroom. Educators must also protect themselves by avoiding the use of resources they are not prepared to implemnet properly.
In implementing these digital literacies it is profoundly important that educators infuse technology into their lessons in approriate ways that help learners understand how to detect bias and sythesize information from an unending array of sources. Teachers must find suitable and age level appropriate resources that allow for the maximization of oversight and detection of digital literacy rates. New literacies that are in a continual state of evolution must me accounted for. School districts need to update their accceptable use policies for both students and educators to include the use of social media (Tomaszewski, 2011) and gaming.
The bottom line is that we are living in a time of rapid technological change. Our students have been born into a world that was all but unfathomable just thirty years ago. Educators must assimilate to that world or risk allowing the American education system to fall behind at a time when it is already taking much criticism. The secret to success is not just learning to assimilate to the technologies but learning how to carefully implement lessons that adhere to ever changing social norms and literacies without taking risks that might lead school districts and administartors place digital capabilities off-limits.
Technology In Schools: What the Research Says (Fadel, Lemke , 2006)
Connecting Home an School Literacy Practices in Classrooms with Diverse Populations (McCarthey 1997)
Use of Social Media in Education: Positive and Negative impact on the students (Raut, Patil, 2016)
Study Suggests Benefits of Social Media in the Classroom (Tomaszewski, 2011)
Connecting Home an School Literacy Practices in Classrooms with Diverse Populations (McCarthey 1997)
Use of Social Media in Education: Positive and Negative impact on the students (Raut, Patil, 2016)
Study Suggests Benefits of Social Media in the Classroom (Tomaszewski, 2011)
Social Networking and Gaming Site Links
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Edmodo Spotlight
Edmodo Spotlight allows access to contless apps to help gamify your lessons , start blogs, and countless other teacher activities.
Saywire Social Learning
Saywire puts the power of social learning into the hands of educators, with safe and secure technology that makes it effortless to inspire students and to create knowledge together.
Funbrain
Funbrain, created for kids ages preschool through grade 8, offers more than 100 fun, interactive games that develop skills in math, reading, and literacy. Plus, kids can read a variety of popular books and comics on the site including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Amelia Writes Again, and Brewster's Rocket.
Purpose Games
Purpose games offers thousands of user created games of all kinds as well as offering the option for teachers and students to create their own. Students can create tournaments and leave feedback for creators.