Week 10 Blog Reflection

Amber Hanson

Week 10 Blog Reflection

This week was more about me learning from others. As I am not too much of a gamer myself (yes I play games, but not too often).  I learned about a few websites however, that I hadn’t known before. in fact it was a website I learned from a person I interviewed, it’s called www.boardgamegeeks.com.  Now this isn’t necessarily a website that aids in the class, but it is something I learned about that I would like to look more into for my personal life.  I am one of those people who get frustrated while learning new games, especially when there are a lot of rules to it.  This website is one that I can take a look at in which I can learn about the game BEFORE I have to play.  I think by doing this my frustration level will not be met. 

Throughout my research, as well as a reoccurring theme throughout people’s blogs posts was the concept of passion.  Gamers are passionate about the games we play.  This is definitely something that we as teachers and leaders can learn from them.    I found that so many gamers play these games, not for fun, they play because they enjoy the thinking that’s involved, the communication, the hard work.  We can learn from this, by making things enjoyable for our students, as a game, it won’t seem like learning anymore, but rather as fun.  I think the key in finding what actually drive students is to simply ask them! If we ask them and learn more about them as people, we can use what we know to create projects/games and direct or lessons in a way that is engaging and fun whereas the students won’t see it as just ‘learning’, but rather as an enjoyable experience.

I really like how in Courtney’s blog, she pointed out that practice was one lesson we as educators can learn from gamers.  Gamer do it all the time, when they need to redo something, or just want to get better at the game.  This is something that a lot of leaders do and continue to do as a means of improvement. I also agreed with the concept that collaboration in which she talked about, as it is a great skill gamers often are able to exhibit.  They do it constantly in RPG games and the like.  By showing that they can successfully collaborate with another individual (or many) they are likely able to complete a task or goal that would not otherwise be able to be met.  By learning to work together for a common goal they exhibit leader like qualities.  One person can only accomplish so much; if we as teachers can tap into and use this on frequent bases we will become better leaders.