C4Ta#2

   The person I was assigned for these two C4Ta assignments was Jen Deyenberg, a teacher from Alberta who is an avid blogger of technology in the classroom. Her blog is found at trailsoptional.com.

   The first blog post of hers that I read was SimCity-Teaching local Government and Civics. She used SimCity 3000 with her sixth grade class to compliment their local government unit in social studies. It teaches the students how to “manage decision making, balance wants and needs of citizens, lobby groups, and government responsibilites,” Deyenberg states in her post. She says it brings the unit to life by allowing students to build a virtual city and make all of the decisions for the city. The game provides instant feedback on the decisions the students make. The game also judges the students’ jobs based on Sim happiness. If the students do a terrible job, they could get fired as mayor of their city. If they do a great job, Deyenberg says they create statues in their honor. Deyenberg says she uses the 1999 version of the game because it is the least complex compared to newer versions. The newer versions require more needs and it takes away from the concept of the game. Deyenberg posted a video of the students talking about their experience with SimCity. Click here to watch. In the video, she goes around the classroom asking the students higher order thinking questions that the students are able to answer by reflecting on what is occurring in their city. This is a really neat idea.

   The second post that I read was My Word Coach-Nintendo DS in the Elementary Classroom. In this post, Deyenberg discusses how she does vocabulary lessons with her students using a game on the Nintendo DS. The game teaches spelling, definitions, and using the words in proper context. It has a variety of games ranging from having missing letters in the words to choosing the correct definition of the word. The good thing about these games is it gives the students instant feedback on whether they were correct or not, and instant feedback helps drive the student to keep trying until they get the answer correct. Deyenberg says she has the students enter the words they got wrong into a Moodle database, and chooses from those words which words she will put on a spelling test. It gives her a way to test what the students know and be able to target what they specifically don’t know. She says that their favorite game is the block letters game, similar to Tetris, where they have to spell a given word as the letters fall from the top of the screen. Another is alphabet soup where the students are given a bowl full of letters and a definition, and the students have to spell the word defined using the letters given in the bowl. The best part is that the students are being tested on their level. The game gives leveling tests to see how much the students know before they start playing. This is another neat way to use interesting things to teach the students. I really enjoyed this idea.