If you are planning to be a teacher, that is great! Maybe you dream of decorating your classroom, or making countless lesson plans, or bringing in 3D models made of Styrofoam for your class to ponder over. This is all well and good. But if you are planning to avoid technology and the use of computer and video games in the classroom, then it is probably best that you rethink your classroom dynamics. Just breathe in and take the news bluntly from Cynthia Selfe:
“For teachers, literacy instruction is now inextricably linked with technology.”
Moreover,
“Technology has become part of our responsibility, whether we like it or not.”
(4-5, Literacy and Technology Linked)
As future and current educators, we all have to face our fears and hardships on the computer and overcome them. Things are only going to become more complicated as technology advances. Because children are exposed to so much stimulation from television, video games, computer games, cell phones, and internet activities, we have to compete for their attention while they are sitting for hours in our classrooms. One way to do this, as James Gee explains in What Video Games Have to Teach Us, is to use interactive computer and video games in the classroom. He argues that such games are not a waste of time if the children/students are lead to participate in and master the arts of critical learning and thinking. A game example he used was called Pikmin. In the game, the player has to overcome monsters and other various physical obstacles while looking for pieces of his wrecked spaceship. The player has to remember and apply the different strengths of the native creatures, Pikmin, that have agreed to help the player through his journey in order to overcome the challenges presented. Gee mirrors this gaming process with the science learning process in schools-
“Such learning-just like Pikmin-encourages exploration, hypothesis testing, risk taking, persistence past failure, and seeing ‘mistakes’ as new opportunities for progress and learning.”
(37, What Video Games Have to Teach Us)
Teachers have to get their students excited and involved by reaching into their worlds. Using technology is an easy way to do so because it is usually so readily available. But there are some underprivileged students who do not have computers or such games at home. We then have a further responsibility to utilize class time effectively, because some students may not be able to practice certain tasks at home. Regardless of any situation as Selfe explains in Literacy and Technology Linked, we fail if we do not introduce and teach all children about technological literacy (7).
by Linsey Snyder
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