Double Journal Entry #3

“Persistent virtual worlds literally support hundreds of thousands of users each day, consuming hundreds of millions of man hours per game, sporting economies that surpass the gross national product of many actual countries.”

I chose this quote because the first time I read it I had to go back and read it again because I thought I misread it; those numbers are really surprising.  I knew a lot of people played video games, but I wouldn’t have guessed the number to be in the hundred thousands of people playing each day or that the number of hours played per day was in the hundred millions.  It seems impossible that that much time would be spent on a video game.  If we could find or design games that could captivate students like these games do, they could be really effective in student learning.

“Completing quests requires that students participate in real-world, socially and academically meaningful activities, such as conducting environmental field studies, interviewing families and friends, researching community problems, examining current events from multiple perspectives, writing autobiographical anecdotes, producing advocacy media, or developing real-world action plans.”

This quote intrigued me because I couldn’t believe that students could get so much from one game.  There are multiple types of formative assessment that engage the students in different intelligences.  They are inquiring, writing, interacting with the community, examining artifacts, problem solving, and much more.  There is something to reach every student; and teachers can use the ongoing assessment to see what the students have learned.  These activities aren’t just busy work; these are skills the students will use in the future.

“QA scored significantly higher on the sum of all four dimensions than any other activity in which the students engaged (e.g., non-QA school work, playing with friends, reading books, etc.) The fact that children regard QA as a form of play even though they are doing school work, and that they rate it almost as highly on this dimension as playing video games, is particularly interesting, given that a significant amount of QA activity involves doing academic work.”

I really like this quote because it proves that if you can get students interested in what they are learning, they will want to learn and enjoy learning.  These students were so engaged with the QA activities that they didn’t even notice how much work they were actually doing.  This is the perfect example of students being engaged; these activities meant something to them.  They were motivated to complete them and proud of the work they had done; they even rated it almost as highly as actual playing. 

Additional Resource

After reading this article I was really intrigued about Quest Atlantis.  Since the article was so long, and sometimes used technical talk, I didn’t feel I had the clearest picture of everything that QA had to offer.  So, I went and searched for some videos that could condense the information I had read and also show me some pictures of what the game looks like.  I found the video Quest Atlantis on the Learning Channel and it was really helpful.  In this video, the doctor explains the benefits of QA and how it is being used in schools.  What I really like about this video is that they interview the students playing the game, so you can get their perspective on what they like about the game and what they are learning.

I think this game would be a great tool to integrate into your classroom.  I’ve looked at the website, and I know you have to be a subscriber in a classroom to play, but I would love to play around with it and see all of its features firsthand.  I don’t know of any schools around here that use QA, but I think it would be a great investment to look into.

Source

Questatlantis.  (2009, Nov 4).  Quest Atlantis on the Learning Channel.  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q2sRp5YM8Y.