Pros and Cons of Video Games

Found this list that is good for consideration when we are looking at (video) games for education:

The Pros:
– highly motivating, it’s fun (fun is very important – we don’t underestimate it!)
– encourages risk taking and trial and error
– self-paced
– young-age friendly…young kids can begin to work with complex situations or ideas
– encourages analysis and looking for mistakes
– can incorporate or train different learning strategies- though at present visual-heavy (pictures, images, text)
– can hint without telling
– can be very patient
– solve by ideas, not strength or size (great for young gifted kids or 2E’s)
– encourages perspective changing
– encourages some problem solving (though not as much as we’d like for K-12)
– allows incremental learning, close monitoring of improvement or training
– allows precisely targeted sensory / perceptual learning (auditory / visual processing)
The Cons:
– it’s not real- may impact on how the information is generalized, taken seriously
– the process is immersive and usually fairly fast-paced (may not be as conducive to reflection compared to other learning formats such as reading)
– doesn’t encourage as much critique about the information as maybe reading original documents, magazine, or book…after all, it’s just a game
– game play doesn’t directly examine reality
– players are directed to the programmer’s teaching points or conclusions- whereas direct inspection of real experiments or phenomena may provide more individual learning points or conclusions.
– the games could be administered poorly…teacher leaves students to computer terminals, student doesn’t learn anything, copies from neighbor, etc. (this can happen in labs too, of course)
– games are interactive, but not as interactive as conversation with a smart and perceptive teacher (remember the Turing test?)…some programs are completed by kids clicking a lot or cheating
– not hands-on learning (click or toggle rather than working with original materials)…miss making projects by hands, spatial learning and modeling

[source: Eide Neurolearning Blog]

Happy Birthday to all Homo sapiens

今天是大年初七,是华人传统中的”人日”,即所有人的生日。原来,正月初一鸡日、初二犬日、初三猪日 、初四羊日 、初五牛日 、初六马日、初七人日!今天妈妈照样煮了潮州人的七样羹,即七种蔬菜合一的一道菜,所用的菜类有白萝卜、芥蓝、菜心、大芥菜、春菜、大蒜和芹菜。
欲了解更多,可浏览以下两个网址:
《初七人日捞鱼生庆生日》
《初七七样羹 越吃越青春》
生日快乐!

CNY 2005 – 新年大团拜

今天是大年初四(乙酉年),家里头来了三组学生来拜年,分别来自我教过的班级,即2003年毕业的4E2,2004年毕业的4E1,和在籍的4E2华文班。很高兴大家都兴致勃勃地到来,希望所有人都开心而归。遗憾的是人多了未能逐一地问候。听学生说毕业了彼此都没有碰面了,新年到此聚首,方有机会见到彼此,都算是有缘人吧!来点一点有谁到了(职业病) …
2003-4E2:珮希、婉婷、倩吟、思佳、诗翎、艺祯、信薇、瑶萍、爱玲、淑惠、润轩、劲毅
2004-4E1:俐莹、维莹、冰容、小淑敏、家仪、吴诗莹、惠玉、千谦、秀慧、美仪、佩诗、羿娉、智芬、珮瑜、美滢、雪云、佳敏、雪婷、大淑敏、浩栋、蔡伟杰、伟雄、建辉、衍兴、劲文、耀豪、源胜、宏义、洛颖、铭伟、仕兴、(2002-2E2)慧柠、琪琳
2004-3E2:奕敏、詠薇、乐玲、诗敏、珮绮、怡洁、诗韵、衍瀚、伟民、婉婷、淑芬、诗瑜、秀英、温俐、斯惠、傲邦、明亮、詠权、财恭、治菘
以下是一些照片,供回忆吧! 🙂







在此再次祝愿所有人”新年快乐,身体健康,万事如意”!

3rd Edublog Workshop – Collated Inputs and Feedback

We have finally collated the inputs from teachers who have attended our workshop at Nan Chiau last week. Download it here.
The report is available in 2 flavours, one in standard word format while the other is in graphical mindmap format.
Please feel free to distribute and share the findings with your fellow colleagues 🙂
Hope to hear from you soon on your plans for implementation! Cheers!