Are Online Games Harmful or Helpful to Education...

"Are online games helpful or harmful to education? Why do you feel this way? Find an article online about educational games that supports your argument. Provide a link for it in your blog and a response to the article."

I believe that online games are extremely helpful to education. My main supportive fact for this argument is that online games provide a way for students to learn while having fun. There are so many games that are available online that provide ways for students to learn more about a variety of subject material, including physics, health sciences, vocabulary and writing skills, along with an immense number of math related games. Last semester I was placed at Bangor Christian Middle School with an instructor who taught 7-9 science and pre-algebra. She was mainly a science teacher and she was stuck with a random math class that was out of her comfort zone. However, she was extremely open-minded to different ways of learning and in her science classes she used labs to create motivation for students so she sought a way to create motivation in her math class as well. At least once a week she would break the students up into groups (either by skill level or by mixing skill levels so that the high achievers could help the struggling students) and created stations throughout the classroom. At least one station would incorporate an online game that she would project using the SmartBoard and the students would be able to play on the big screen. The students absolutely loved using the online games and learned more than they would have if they were just given worksheets of equations. More often than not the students would fight to stay at the station longer and complain when they had to move on so the next group could have a turn.

I've also experienced a multiplayer online role playing game as a student in an Advanced Math class. Motivation was extremely down, mainly due to the subject matter and the fact that almost half of the class would be leaving early because they were seniors and had the last two weeks of school off for their finals and graduation walking practice. Instead of giving a final cumulative exam that covered the entire year (which had been interrupted for over a month for the Juniors to undergo an intensive SAT math prep program- it was the year that Maine made the SATs the junior level standardized test), the teacher decided to assign a huge project that would be created using the program Teen SecondLife. Using SecondLife we had to create our own houses using geometric shapes and textures. This program integrated business (our teacher had his own beauty salon that actually made him real life money by creating and selling nail designs that rich women would purchase for their avatars), geometry, engineering, geography, communication skills, art and technology. This program allowed the students to learn so much more than we would have if we just had stayed with the textbook. Although the content material was not identical with what the textbook covered, we still learned a massive amount of geometry and engineering skills, along with a whole new technology skill using the program. We were not only learning and having fun while doing it, but motivated to work on the project during study halls and after school! After we finished our house that was complete with color schemes, full bathrooms (luxury bathtubs included), designer kitchens and living rooms, and our ideal personal bedrooms (what student doesn't want the ability to design a perfect bedroom!) we were so proud of our projects that we tried to show them to as many people as possible.

I think that online games are an excellent way to introduce students to new topics or support material that's being covered in class. They boost motivation and allow teachers to integrate several subjects, while giving students a chance to work on computers. However, online games do need to be carefully monitored- the games that students are playing should be content-related, educational, and appropriate. Students should also only be playing the games when the teacher deems it appropriate, and not during lectures or other class periods. Online games are only harmful to education when they serve as distractions to the students rather than supporters and motivators of their learning.

The article that I chose supports multiplayer online role-playing games like SecondLife for education. It states that it boosts motivation and supports a varied assortment of learning requirements from geography to engineering. Programs like SecondLife also provide a way for students from all over the world to interact and learn from each other. Students from the study included in the article stated that the online role-playing game helped them to develop an awareness to natural resource decision making, benefited their team building skills, and supported their electronic communication skills. The study states that online games could provide training and learning in groups in a wide range of subjects areas.

Link to Article:
"Online Gaming as an Educational Tool in Learning and Training"
http://web.ebscohost.com.prxy5.ursus.maine.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=10&hid=106&sid=2509330f-5ab2-4fd3-9030-3d2386d7373c%40sessionmgr112
( I don't' know if this will work or not because it was a PDF document)