Hello, thank you for your blog and thoughts. I really liked your point about storytelling and education. I know personally, story telling really draws me in– I am a sucker for a Ted Talk! As well as I agree with your point that technology is not going to go away whether we like it or not. If anything, I think it’s only going to increase as time goes on so it is important to we start thinking about how to implement it most effectively. I believe that we should strive to be more exciting than someone’s social media or phone however, I know that some stuff we need to cover its not always the most captivating of information so I struggle with the balance between being exciting and knowing that in life, they are going to need to pay attention during something that doesn’t excite them. However, I do agree that this should always be something we strive for (if this makes any sense). I also believe that if every potential student has technology such as a laptop that it would really help with making higher education accessible — not everybody can afford to go to college and this could help make it more cost effective as an online option.

Thank you for the comment, Remy. I agree to your point. Many a times, professors assume the knowledge of the students and go on teaching. In this case, if the students lose interest because of the lack of background, they may never feel good again for that subject for the whole semester (or even life). So understanding the level of students is very important.
Also, I have not had any class which may have led me to forget everything else. I would like to be in such a class to see what it feels like to ‘forget partying’!

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Hey Sara,

Thank you for reading the post and the comment. Teaching can be really helped with the context. I think involving reality based examples and describing how a particular theory is put into practice can be really helpful. For example, many people don’t like math and think it is useless to learn it at all. But if they are told the application of it in the design of everyday object, it may be easier for them to understand its utility. Similarly, project-based learning is great in putting things in to perspective. It allows one to think critically. If someone can own something, they will be more responsible towards it and with responsibility, thinking will follow through.

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Hey Ruixiang & Kristen!

I wanted to echo what Kristen said about introducing us to Democracy 3–it is an interesting concept. For your studies, do you try and accurately simulate present issues when you start a session; or were you more interested in how political systems work in general? Stuffy textbooks are hard to learn from; games certainly make learning lively.

On some of Kristen’s questions–specifically the one about overall student performance. I was thinking this notion of gaming & learning could be like all things–where moderation is the key. BUT; I was also thinking that if a student’s plan of study was designed around a game, that could potentially turn what I just said on it’s ear. So it’s an interesting concept to consider.

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Hi Sarah!

I enjoyed your post this week. As a gamer, I was able to relate well to your analogy of a good game vs what a good classroom experience could be. I like that you talk about how the practice of teaching would be student-oriented and that each student levels up in their own time as they develop the necessary skills. I can see where this would have a positive impact on student outcomes and would make an instructor feel good about getting up and going to work everyday.

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Hey Kristen!

I love that you are embracing gamefication in Chemistry! I didn’t follow that path, but I did enjoy it when I was taking Chemistry courses. I wish I had a good story to share about my chemistry experience (I’m sure there were games, but I can’t think on any now.) I remember a demo about chemical bonds that involved people going to the front and coming together to make simple compounds based on valence electrons…but my memory on how that activity really went gets fuzzy right about there.

BUT I will say, and this may be typical for an organic chem final, my prof had us all ID an organic compound as our final exam in that class. We had a couple of hours worth of lab time to do it in–or longer, I can’t remember–but I DO remember that it was really cool to get to practice all the little experiments and walk through the steps on my own to figure out what it was I was in charge of identifying. I guess that is more of a puzzle; still, it was a lot of fun.

Good luck on this search for teaching tools! I would be very interested to hear more about what you discover!

Hey Oumou!

I really enjoyed reading your blog this week. The perspective you bring as an international student is extremely valuable. I think it is easy for domestic students to take for granted the resources they have in access to education and educational content, internet, and other issues related to technology and connectivity. This was a thoughtful post. I could see the shift from your first words about the status-quo of learning coming from lectures or trainers in labs to understanding that it’s about teachers who are genuinely interested in the success of their students and the power and potential of networked learners.

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Stopping a lecture at regular intervals to engage the audience or change the activity to a brief video sound like easy ways to keep the everyone awake and paying attention to the material. I am also very interested in this entomology game!

Hi Efon & Haniyyah,

I enjoyed your blog/response this week. Learning on one’s own is important, but so is the face to face interaction. It’s the part that is most special because it helps round out our knowledge by having a person/persons to provide that context.

So Haniyyah, I wanted to empathize with you, too, have felt the pressure of having to teach myself how to use software since starting back at graduate school and it’s not easy! Especially when you’re hunting down how-to’s and trying to figure out what’s a good lesson/forum & what isn’t. (But you did better than me because I walked away from R at the last minute because I was too overwhelmed by doing that and everything else I had signed up for that semester.) BUT, I was smiling the whole time I was reading your story, because as I was reading your words I could see all the different skills you were learning and practicing through that exercise and all of that makes you a better scientist. We can’t just be told what we should be doing or should know, we learn by doing & from sharing this experience with each other. So the joke is we learn so much from “Google” but it’s true!

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Hi Dana!

I was interested in your questions about what’s important and/or obsolete about teaching pedagogy. I thought about your question about how characters would be learning–that Bowman of the future sounds wild! I suppose there is learning happening there; mass brains! I am more curious about the leaps that got her there in the first place! Do you think Bowman’s scenario is an environment more for innovation or for checking “truths”?

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