"The text based tools, teacher-centered instructional methods and power-point driven presentations that are apart of the repertoire of many educator’s arsenal of engaging students is decreasing in its effectiveness with this generation of students."
S. Rana
Excerpt from my "Literature Review and Research Proposal"
Research Methods in Education - Winter 2010
Research Methods in Education
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AS AN EDUCATOR and LEADER - Being a mandatory course, I appreciated that it more or less presented itself as a "shell", allowing for anything that I found interesting in the realm of education to be applied to all the skills in research I acquired from the course. Initially, I studied how a mixed-methology transformative paradigm research framework allowed for change to occur in very difficult educational circumstances, specifically schools in the occupied Palestinian territories. As much as this aspect of social justice on a global scale interested me, I adjusted my focus on something more relevant to Canadian experiences, and related to my recent experiences.
In the summers of 2007 to 2009, I was a director of a technology camp for students at University of California Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Northwestern University, in the United States. For my final research project, I used the observations and conversations I had with the campers of those programs about how engaging technology, and more specifically, video games were to influence what I was going to focus on.
In this artifact, I shared with my classmates a potential area of research I was interested in embarking on in student engagement (if i were to select the research route of the M. Ed. program). I proposed how engaging students through the use of commercial video games could have positive effects on students' literacy achievement levels.
In my research, I attained a solid understanding of how to engage the 21st century student. I spoke of how the needs of these students, often spoken of as digital natives (Prensky, 2001), are not met solely by differentiation. They are on-demand learners who need to enjoy the process of learning, but need it to move at a reasonable pace, get instantaneous feedback, and learn (safely) through trial and error in the solitude of playing and learning on their own (Simpson, E., Clem, F., 2008; Simpson, E., 2005). Furthermore, I grasped the understanding that these students have a "do it now" attitude that allows them to learn at "twitch-speed", and often try first then learn instructions later (Simpson, E., Clem, F., 2008). Many teachers still take heed in paper-pencil tasks, group work, and learning that revolves only around text-based resources. These methods alone will not win the attention and engage learners of this generation.
By using commercial video games in the classroom students can:
As an educator and leader, based on my experiences and age, I hope to be a bridge between these students (digital natives), and my older more seasoned colleagues who Prensky spoke of as digital immigrants (2001). Hopefully with my research and experiences on student engagement taken from all the learning I did across the degree, I could assist in the acquisition of learning tools, most effective practices, and the implementation of learning experiences that will both engage and enlighten 21st century students.
In the summers of 2007 to 2009, I was a director of a technology camp for students at University of California Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Northwestern University, in the United States. For my final research project, I used the observations and conversations I had with the campers of those programs about how engaging technology, and more specifically, video games were to influence what I was going to focus on.
In this artifact, I shared with my classmates a potential area of research I was interested in embarking on in student engagement (if i were to select the research route of the M. Ed. program). I proposed how engaging students through the use of commercial video games could have positive effects on students' literacy achievement levels.
In my research, I attained a solid understanding of how to engage the 21st century student. I spoke of how the needs of these students, often spoken of as digital natives (Prensky, 2001), are not met solely by differentiation. They are on-demand learners who need to enjoy the process of learning, but need it to move at a reasonable pace, get instantaneous feedback, and learn (safely) through trial and error in the solitude of playing and learning on their own (Simpson, E., Clem, F., 2008; Simpson, E., 2005). Furthermore, I grasped the understanding that these students have a "do it now" attitude that allows them to learn at "twitch-speed", and often try first then learn instructions later (Simpson, E., Clem, F., 2008). Many teachers still take heed in paper-pencil tasks, group work, and learning that revolves only around text-based resources. These methods alone will not win the attention and engage learners of this generation.
By using commercial video games in the classroom students can:
- Explore virtual environments (deFreitas, 2006)
- Engage in exploratory/ discovery learning experiences
(deFreitas, 2006) - Use strategy, direction, skills that strengthen parallel attention
(deFreitas, 2006; Gros, 2007) - Strengthen their skills in learning through observation and testing
(deFreitas, 2006; Gros, 2007) - Take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered, and numerous attempts are provided to re-demonstrate and test-out tactics and skills, and build on their own self-efficacy to take risks in newly acquired learning situations (Gee, 2003; Carstens, Beck, 2005)
- Learn through the various multiple intelligences, in an essentially student centered activity (Schrand, 2008)
- Engage in a concept cited by Lilly (2007) but coined by Csizszentimihalyi (1997) known as flow. This is known as the optimal state one is in when engaged in a task with such concentration that the student is completely engulfed by the task, losing track of all time and exhaustion (Lilly, 2007; Norton-Meir, 2005).
As an educator and leader, based on my experiences and age, I hope to be a bridge between these students (digital natives), and my older more seasoned colleagues who Prensky spoke of as digital immigrants (2001). Hopefully with my research and experiences on student engagement taken from all the learning I did across the degree, I could assist in the acquisition of learning tools, most effective practices, and the implementation of learning experiences that will both engage and enlighten 21st century students.