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3 Simulations and Games in the Classroom
Pages 57-68

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From page 57...
... . One dimension is the physical setting, either the formal environment of a school or university science classroom or an informal learning environment (the home, museum, after-school program, or other setting)
From page 58...
... They can individualize learning to match the pace, interests, and capabilities of each particular student and contextualize learning in engaging virtual environments. Because schools serve all students, increased use of simulations and games in science classrooms could potentially improve access to high-quality learning experiences for diverse urban, suburban, and rural students.
From page 59...
... First, the teacher is a resource to support learning and can also provide valuable information to developers on student misconceptions inadvertently generated by a game or simulation. For example, a teacher observed that a student team using River City once spent substantial time repeatedly using the mosquito catcher (a virtual tool to help students assess the local prevalence of insects that serve as a vector for malaria)
From page 60...
... Finally, public schools offer the opportunity to deliver educational games and simulations to an entire population of students, scaling up the potential learning gains. Opportunities for Individualized Learning Simulations and games designed for science learning allow the learner some control over the pacing and content of the learning.
From page 61...
... Classrooms offer opportunities for teachers to extend the supports that can be embedded in science games and simulations to meet special needs. Fourth, educational games and simulations can potentially help prepare students to take full advantage of other science learning activities.
From page 62...
... For example, some River City teachers were amazed by students' eagerness to spend extra time on the curriculum during lunch hour or before or after school. By providing supervised access to the curriculum at these times, the schools allowed students to develop communication skills and social relationships centered on science learning.
From page 63...
... One is that the classroom teacher may not always implement the game or simulation in the manner intended by its designers, inadvertently undercutting student learning. For example, although River City is designed to motivate and support students in moving from exploring the virtual environment to formulating and testing a hypothesis, some teachers have asked students to use the curriculum to simply confirm correct answers that the teachers provided in advance (Ketelhut et al., 2007)
From page 64...
... . To address technology constraints, the River City team included a parttime technology specialist to handle the unique school-by-school and districtby-district network configurations. When technical problems arose, science teachers reported that often their students were adept at resolving them.
From page 65...
... At the same time, state science standards and assessments emphasizing science facts encourage teachers to emphasize content knowledge, leaving little time for inquiry. Science teachers who use a game to engage students in inquiry will require extensive support to transform their teaching practices in the face of these challenges.
From page 66...
... In her view, neither using technology to supplement the current curriculum nor conducting comparative studies of using technology versus no technology will dramatically improve students' science learning. Instead, she suggests integrating simulations and games into science instruction by following design principles that are, for the most part, identical to the basic design principles for supporting deep science learning more generally.
From page 67...
... They can individualize learning to match the pace, interests, and capabilities of each particular student and contextualize learning in engaging virtual environments. Because schools serve all students, increased use of simulations and games in science classrooms could potentially improve access to high-quality learning experiences for diverse urban, suburban, and rural students.
From page 68...
... Science educational standards that include many topics at each grade level pose a constraint to increased use of simulations and games in K-12 science classrooms. Simulations and games are often designed to support learners in thinking deeply about selected science concepts by engaging them in active investigations, but teachers and administrators may avoid using them because of the pressure to cover all of the topics included in current standards within limited time frames.


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