Double Entry Journal Entry #12

Double Entry Journal #12
Chapter 5: Learning and Gaming

1. What is the main argument the author is making in Chapter 5. Video games can be a great segway to learning and teachers can use the concepts of video games in the classroom to enhance learning. Children love video games and take pride in learning and achieving in the video games. If teachers can make students feel this way about school then much more meaningful learning can take place.

2. What constitutes a theory of learning? To create a theory of learning the teacher must know what they believe about learning and what they expect of the learners in the classroom. The teacher can then add in ways they plan on teaching.

3. Why did the author struggle to learn to play Warcraft III? What needs to proceed
before good learning principles? He thought it was too hard at first, he had to learn more about the game before he could play better; where his brother picked right up on the game.


4. How would have the authors struggle with learning to play Warcraft III been
interpreted in school? It was a precursor to future learning in the game and in school. It can scale the learning from failing to high level learning.


5 What kind of learning experience might be better suited for at risk students? Students need to make choices in their learning. Students need to be engaged in learning.


6. Why does the school-based interpretation of "at risk" lead to bad learning? When a student becomes labeled they tend to fall into that label. Students who attain the label "at risk" know that failure is a stereotype that fall with those students. "At risk" sounds very negative to me from personal experience. When I was in high school there were many classmates who had this label attached to them. They would tell you them self that as soon as the label was attached to them they received less help and guidance. Not always from the teacher but school in general and from them self. Some felt that the label  was a get out of jail free card that said I am "at risk" so I don't have to do anything.


7. What do schools need to do to function more like a good game? Schools need a good, well designed program to function like a good game.


8. What is different about how good games and school assess learners? Games assess learning in lives and challenges accomplished, school assess learning by testing.


9. What is a fish tank tutorial? It is a set of stages that progress to an advanced level to go with advancements in skills.