Learn to play and play to learn

There are so many games in both the real and virtual world it is hard at times to find those that really work for pleasure or educational purposes.  The internet is filled with games from the simple to the incredibly complex and finding those that would work for adults is a stressful task.  There are plenty of games available for children in k-12, but games that will help the adult developmental writer do not pop up right away.  I did find two that I think would be great to use.

 

http://www.icivics.org/games This site provides all types of information regarding the judicial process in the United States.  What I especially like about it are the games that help teach about those different processes.  As an educator, the more ways learners can experience the way the system of law works in this country, the better informed decisions they can make if the need arises.  As a writing instructor the game “Argument Wars” is a fun and educational way to have students experience the power of persuasion.  Real life scenarios are given and the player chooses a side to argue.  The computer is the counter argument and a judge determines if each side has successfully and completely supported their argument in an effort to win the case.  It was easy to use and great for adults.

 

http://www.thinkingworlds.com/ If it turns out that there is nothing online that can be used (which is highly unlikely), thinking worlds has created a site in which a teacher or anyone else for that matter can go on the site and create a simulation game in just a few simple steps.  It helps to have all of the objectives that students should learn ready so that construction of the simulation goes a little more easily.  In this case, I could take some particular section of the writing class, like subject-verb agreement and have the students go through a simulation in which they are preparing for an interview from the resume construction process through the interview.  The student would have to choose all of the correct language in order to land and start the job.  Learners need real life application, and creating a virtual example of how important it is to be able to speak and write well will help them to overcome such obstacles in the future.

What could I do with that?

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ultrabook/shop-ultrabook.html

      As I sit here in an attempt to let the excessive amount of food I ate digest, I am thinking about the number of laptop convertible commercials that I saw.  I decided that it was something that I needed to look into a little more deeply.  I went to Intel’s site and began looking at the different varieties of laptop/tablets.  I have a pc and a laptop, and I am considering the possibilities of the tablet.  The Intel site is nice because it showcases the hybrid machine as designed by different companies.  The reviews for the brand I looked at were all positive.  The biggest issue was the weight as it compares to a stand-alone tablet.  This trip through the virtual store makes my mind wander into the possibilities that could come about with this piece of technology and education.  Learners could easily work from anywhere typing essays or doing research with the laptop.  Flip the screen and view e-book chapters more easily with the touch screen feature of the tablet.  Even if the weight is an issue, learners who are working on material are not necessarily walking and holding the tablet in front of them as they are reading, so I do not see that as a potential problem.   This type of equipment could be used across disciplines, but I think the cost may be a problem for institutions or programs that have very limited budgets (nothing a well written grant could not handle).

http://www.eschoolnews.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2011/09/mobile_star.pdf

  
   That leads me to something that is more readily available and could easily be added to a learning experience – the smartphone. With the number of smartphones surpassing the number of personal computers for adults 18 and older, there is access to technology that learners bring with them to the classroom every day (School Technology Action Report, 2011). It is an expense that does not have to be incurred by the institution. For the writing classroom, learners can take advantage of a dictionary or thesaurus when they are working on in-class writing projects. Facilitators could have students upload free applications that help them do quick checks on grammar, rhetorical modes, or, if it is available, an application that allows them to access an electronic version of their textbook. The students are checking their Facebook pages or sending Tweets under the desk anyway, so the instructor might as well take advantage of a mobile technology that is brought into their learning environment every day. Who knows? They might learn something.

What I like about...

www.linkedin.com  Linked in is a social networking site that focuses on connecting professionals.  There is no specific type of employment that is targeted; it is for anyone who wants to be connected with what is going on in the world of professionals.  Signing up requires a name and an email address.  Once registered, additional information can be entered regarding location of employment, position, and personal statistics the user may want to provide. Not only does it connect professionals, but job searches and postings can be created.  There is also a wide array of articles ranging from business to education that provides valuable information from a host of different areas.  What does this have to do with college writers?  From an educator’s perspective, it is a great way to show students how important written and oral communication skills are to their future professions.  Students need to have justification for why they are taking a particular course; if they view an article or a job posting that specifically exhibits the need for “excellent” written communication skills as a must to acquire a position, it may help them to be motivated to complete their writing assignments successfully (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski, 2009).

www.facebook.com.  I just cannot resist it. Facebook is a social networking site that connects people for any reason. There are a lot of different ways in which Facebook is used – daily updates by users on whatever may be happening in their lives, angry rants about religion, politics, jobs, or children, or whatever funny cartoon or video they may have happened to view. For a writing instructor, it is a buffet of both excellent and poor grammatical constructions.  Naturally concealing the identities of the individuals who posted, it provides the ability to help students learn the appropriate way to use there/their/they’re, your/you’re and a myriad of other sound a-like combinations.  It can also be used as a forum for students to create a “poll question of the day.”  In this way, I can have students ask a question on their personal Facebook pages and write an analysis of their audience based on the answers they received.  This helps students understand why it is so important to take their audience into consideration for anything they may write.

 

Both LinkedIn and Facebook are of extraordinary value depending on the needs and use of the individual.  What makes them so great comes from the connections that are created between human beings all across the globe.  Even if the connection may not necessarily be the most favorable because of the artificial environment, the benefits are potentially unlimited and quite real.

 

Reference

Ginsberg, M. B., & Wlodkowski, R. J. (2009). Diversity & motivation:  Culturally responsive teaching in college (2^nd ed.). San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.

A simple search

Students today have a lot of different choices available to them through technology to help them with any subject.  Depending on what they need, it really is just a matter of typing in the right words in a search and thousands of interactive tools and applications come up.  I took that approach from the perspective of a person taking an introductory writing class. I have included two links; one is an interactive tool that aids in essay development, and the other is a free application that can be downloaded to a mobile phone or tablet.

 

http://write.ctdlc.org/pages/index.php Online writing tools for college students helps students through the process of writing an essay.  The site itself is very simple in appearance and has three areas that can be entered from the home page – thesis development, process personality, and audience for college papers.  The part of the website that I found most interesting and potentially helpful to learners is the process personality questionnaire that determines, based on a series of questions about their previous approaches to writing, the best methods for them to use as they begin and work through a writing project.  A series of helpful suggestions appear that individuals can click on that provide further explanation (Write, n.d.). 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.testsstore.app.peg0&hl=en Because many students in introductory or developmental writing need help with grammar concepts, they sometimes need additional practice. Google Play offers a free application called Practice English Grammar.  There is a second version, but I only discovered that after I had downloaded the first to my cell phone.  Version one is relatively easy to move through and it offers a basic overview of parts of speech and practice quizzes and flash cards ranging from nouns and adjectives to subject-verb agreement (Practice English Grammar, 2011).  This tool would come in handy for students to have a quick reference for grammar or practice.

These, of course, are only two of millions of interactive writing and grammar tools.  They are not necessarily the greatest of all time, but not too terrible of a result from a simple online search.

References

Practice English Grammar. (2011). Retrieved from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.testsstore.app.peg0&hl=en.

Write! Online Writing Tools for College Students. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://write.ctdlc.org/pages/index.php.