Too much to remember!

As many of you (probably all of you) know, there is a lot to remember to do and know these days and not enough hours in the day. Trying to remember EVERYTHING that you have to do gets overwhelming and is sometimes impossible. Some people turn to smart phones and organizers. Personally, I think my smart phone was a great investment. I definitely use it to keep track of things that I have to do. Particularly, I use the sticky note application. Other people use calendars and other organizers to keep track of everything. This is also a good option. However, what if you forget your calendar at home? What if you can not afford a smart phone or you can't use it in school?

An alternative to those options is creating an online to-do list! There are plenty of sites that let you create free accounts that you can access from any computer or browser. Since everyone is very busy these days, this is a very convenient tool. There are plenty of options out there to create an online to-do list. Some of them include:

• Strike App
• Ta-da List
• Wipee List
• Squareleaf
• Sticky Screen

These are just some of the more popular options available. Personally, I think Squareleaf and Sticky Screen are great because you can arrange different post-it notes. Strike App is another one that is very simple and easy to manage by just "x-ing" out the things that are done.

Bringing Gaming into Education

The first article I decided to read this week was titled "Welcome to Our Virtual Worlds", by James Paul Gee. I was really impressed as I read this article. It had to do with using games in an educational way and also preparing for the 21st century learner. Being a fan of video games, I couldn't agree more with what he had to say. There is a lot of good that can be found in video games, if you look at the right ones. It doesn't matter what the game is about, there can be good educational uses for it. Whether it is the content of the game or the thought process that the game inflicts, there are great games out there. I was glad to hear about games that a lot of us are probably familiar with. Some of those games include Oregon Trail and Sim City. I remember playing Oregon Trail in lower elementary school. From what I remember, it taught us how to make decisions based on the information at hand. I also remember playing Sim City. The version I had is not nearly in depth as the one mentioned in the article, but it was still a strategic game. I liked the idea of using Sim City to recreate the city they were living in. Another game that I think can be educational is Roller Coaster Tycoon. This was a game I played when I was younger and is similar to Sim City, except in the form of a theme park. You have to strategically build your park, hire workers, and keep the prices right for the visitors. Gaming can be a big part of education. We just need to figure out a way to implement it into the existing curriculum.

The second article I read for this week was titled "Good Video Games and Good Learning", also by James Paul Gee. This article not only focused on why video games can be a good idea in education, but it mainly focuses on what makes a video game great. He starts off by explaining how he got into video games and that he realized it was a task that is challenging and keeps your attention for an extended period of time. He then goes through 16 different points about why video games are good and why they are good for educational purposes. This was an easy article to relate to because I am familiar with some of the games that he mentions. He leaves us by posing a question. He asks us "How can we make learning in and out of school, with or without using games, more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning
principles that young people see in good games every day, when and if they are playing these games reflectively and strategically?" I thought this was an amazing question because I feel this should be our goal as educators. We should be trying to figure out ways to keep our students interested in their education.