Internet-Based Multimedia Resources for Online Learning

This week, I have explored two games that are available on the Internet and are appropriate for my future Adult Basic Education (ABE) learners.

“Games provide an effective and painless, even fun, review format (Kaupins, 2005; Moy, Rodenbaugh, Clooins, & DiCaro, 2000; as cited in Nilson, 2010, p. 148).  Online games place learners at levels that challenge but are achievable and “reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of incremental goal progress, not just a final product” (Willis, 2011).  This reward produces motivation and active learning as learners realize that they answered challenging questions correctly or solved a puzzle or problem.  When students use online games, they experience authentic learning and are able to clearly realize their progress.  The ongoing and accumulating feedback learners receive from online games is the reward they need to move on to the next levels that challenge them even more.  Learners "brains invest more effort to the task and are more responsive to feedback…when they play their…[online] games” (Willis, 2011).  Willis (2011) refers to this an “intrinsic reinforcement.”  Conrad and Donaldson (2011) stated that games are comprised of tasks that include the components of decision making, engagement, and acquiring knowledge from a different perspective.  For Adult Basic Education learners, I believe that the two games reviewed below would be fun, review skills already learned, achievable, challenging, offer rewards, motivating, and would help students see their progress.  These games would also involve decision making, help students acquire English and Math knowledge in new ways, and promote active learning.      

Skillswise English and Maths for Adults:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise

Skillswise is a website that is free to use and was created for students to improve their adult literacy and numeracy skills.  It is produced by a group from the BBC Learning Department in Salford, England.  The website offers online games, videos, quizzes, and printable worksheets and factsheets for learners to use in class or at home in English, Math, Job Skills, and Adult Learning.  On this website, I played three games.  In the Blown Away Punctuation Game, I learned about when words need capital letters in a sentence.  The Going to Work with Commas Game reinforced when to use commas in sentences as well as when not to use them.  In the Logging Sentence Game, I learned to compose a sentence from many word choices.  These games could be used to reinforce ABE learners’ skills in English literacy.  They could be played individually or in small groups.  I also think that online ABE students could be referred to use this website to improve their English writing skills.  On just the English Games page, there were 54 different games from which to choose.  As an educator, I would want to make sure that I had played the games from this website before assigning them to my learners.  I would also refer them to specific games needed for reinforcement of specific skills being worked on in class.  One concern would be the fact that this is a British website and some of the English words or expressions might be unfamiliar to U.S. learners.

Math Fraction Games:   http://www.math-play.com/math-fractions-games.html

Math Fraction Games is a free-to-use website with 17 different games to play that offer practice in adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions.  The fractions page is one of many available at the Math-Play.com website, all offering many free math games.  I played two of the fraction games.  The Baseball Math—Simplifying Fractions Game definitely challenged me to make the batter hit home runs which then resulted in even more challenging fraction problems to solve with multiple choice answers.  The Fractions Jeopardy Game offered me practice and the opportunity to reinforce my math skills using fractions and, again, multiple choice answers.  Both games were fun to play, and both could be used with multiple players.  One concern I had with both of these games was that they did not explain what the correct answers were to the problems missed or explain how to solve them.  I think that information would have been helpful to learners playing the game—to figure out where they went wrong in their problem-solving attempt.   

I believe that the games offered on both of the above websites meet four of the five components of Conrad and Donaldson’s (2011, p. 103) checklist for effective games:  learners would be involved in decision-making and would learn from game outcomes, the games offer exploration in a real-world subject, they are engaging and help students acquire knowledge in a different way, and they are provided in a safe environment.  The Baseball Game and the Logging Game would be the only ones that require learners to assume a different persona.

References

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 

Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Willis, Judy. (2011, April 14). A neurologist makes the case for the video game model as a learning tool. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-student-engagement-judy-willis