Teachers, Students, Digital Games: What's the Right Mix?

Jessica Jones

Korbey, H. (2013, March 22). Teachers, students, digital games: What’s the right mix? MindShift. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/03/teachers-students-digital-games-whats-the-right-mix/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FnHAK+%28MindShift%29

IL

Summary: The focus of this article is the use of games in education, since a PBS study, as noted by Korbey (2013) found that 43% of the classroom computing time goes to playing games and over 50% of teachers use digital games in the classroom (para. 5). Despite all of that time spent playing games, Korbey (2013) points out that “some teachers are wondering if games really are innovative techniques used to enhance student learning. Or are they just flashy, colorful ways of dishing out more of the same?” (para. 5). With many games “drill and kill” practices in disguise, Korbey believes that the quality of the games is a factor in the balance of games in the classroom. To strike the perfect balance of games in the classroom and hands on education techniques, Korbey suggests that more research is needed.

Evaluation: The thing in this article that I found most fascinating was when discussing quality of games, Korbey brings up the new SimCityEDU. This new game has formative assessment built into the game that aligns with Common Core State Standards, making it educational. Despite how educational games like SimCityEDU are, Korbey repeatedly states that an educational game cannot replace a good teacher, although not all students have access to good teachers. Overall, Korby does a good job of laying out the benefits of games and of a more hands on approach for education while being conscious of further research that should be conducted.