Monday, October 31, 2011

Digital games

The subtitle of Klopfer’s et al. article, “How Teachers Can Leverage Them”, is a succinct summary of the authors overall message. Klopfer et al. advocate for harnessing students immense interest in digital media. Particularly they advocate for using digital games to supplement the curriculum.

While I was not surprised by the advocacy of digital media and games, I was surprised by some of the games they suggested using. World of War Warcraft is a game that my brothers played incessantly as teenagers. The suggestion that this online multiplayer game teaches “critical higher order thinking skills” would have been laughable when my brothers and I were teenagers.

However, the authors make it clear that digital media and games have a place within the classroom. The teacher examples they provide give an idea of how digital games and social networking sites and simulations can be implemented in the classroom.

It is my belief that Klopfer’s et al. paper presents a somewhat distortedly positive view of the use of technology within the classroom. The authors appear to address only the positive aspects of digital media, while spending little or no time on potential downsides. While I agree digital media provides tremendous educational opportunities, I think there is also a strong potential for misuse and abuse. Klopfer does not stress the role of the teacher enough in supervising students. My fear is that students will be given a game such as Civilizations and simply left to “play “ the game. These digital games are only useful as supplements to the overall curriculum, they should not be the curriculum itself.

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