ICT Assignment 1 (Part 2) VELS

1. ICT provides a rich and flexible learner-centred environment in which students can experiment and take risks when developing new understanding.

ICT has the potential to provide invaluable opportunities for students to learn. One particular application of ICT would be gaming. Gaming in my view will be a key element in the future of education. In today's society reports of how gaming affects students learning negatively are common in today's media. However, instead of viewing gaming as a hinderance on student learning, it could instead have a more positive affect when integrated in the High School curriculum. In a video presented in TED the benefits of gaming are clear, it is instantly engaging to students and works well with the students ZPD [1]. An perfect example of this would be if you were an character in virtual gaming world such that of the hugely popular World of Warcraft were you would be fighting an evil boss, the boss fight would always be challenging but achievable for the character attempting to fight it. In a game students are free to explore various possibilities, take risks and can choose experiences they want to take with them effectively letting the students choose what they wish to experience and learn new things at their own pace with appriopriate scaffolding always in place to get them to the next level. For example to 'level up' a character, character quests are available and once completed experience points are granted which leads to a character level up, in helping the students with the quests, hints and clues are often given in game aid the student in completing it.This concept could readility be applied in a classroom [1]. Given many students have access to laptops in class the key is to make learning throughly addictive as experienced with gaming.

Through this gaming way of learning students are able to take on new identities and infact embody a completely different person, they could readily make mistakes infront of their peers and not feel the sense of ridicule as usually felt by in a classroom environment as they emobody a character in the virtual world. The competition element of gaming plays a big role in aiding the students learning process as natually students won't want to lag behind their peers and want to beat them in any challenges. The learning of a student can take place by them engaging in different levels of the game. This could represent a given curriculum topic and depending on where their at the student would often choose aspects of the topic (within the game) in which they could tackle. This results in self diagnosis and self learning, where the teacher can act as the scoffold if students were completely stuck and needed help and act to direct the student on the topic in which they want the student to explore. Team work is also a vital element as since students co-exist together in the virtual gaming world, they could team up to face harder challenges otherwise unconquerable to any individual player.

Reference

[1] J. McGonigal (2010), 'Gaming can make a better world,' TED Videos.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html>