Technology Integration

Many folks will say no to this question. I’ve just finished a section of TPCK. In 2003, there was a study by Heeter that compared educational and commercial computer games. That study found that educational games were “easier to learn, less complex, shorter, less challenging to play….” This resulted in a need by the school to bring the games within a certain time slot schools had available. The authors of the study concluded that computer games for schools were schizophrenic as content learning and fun had to be significant components. All one has to do is to go to brainpop.com and check out their “lessons.”

So if complex computer games that result in higher learning don’t fit the school environment, maybe that environment needs to be modified. Hmmm, don’t think that will happen any time soon, but what we can do is to provide ‘after school’ time and ‘before school’ time for students to interact with more complex technologies with adult supervision. Now, that would be interesting !