Gaming, the new way to learn?

When I started reading Matthew Kearney’s blog on learning through gaming I first thought, “Yeah, right, let’s bring gaming into the classroom, what a great idea. NOT!”  and was not really interested at all. I’ve seen my brothers spend hours at a time locked up in their rooms playing these games, and really, they did that for fun not for learning. It was just a way of spending time, wasn’t it?

thanks to this flickr'r

Even though I wasn’t particularly interested in this topic, I decided to watch the video anyway. After all, I had to react on his post in my blog. So I pressed play.

Almost immediately I changed my mind.

Hey, can children really learn and apply all this knowledge through games? I mean I know, I’ve witnessed my brothers having fun in these games, so maybe, these games can make learning more fun?

I looked at the game more closely. And yes, I do see the benefits of it and no longer think it’s a complete waste of time. However, unfortunately I’m still not particularly interested in playing the game, but I believe now, that during special allocated computer times, these games should be encouraged. I will just have to make sure that I can find a variety of different games so that all my students enjoy learning with them.

I’m open to a new way of learning.