As a student who spent most of learning years in China and Saskatchewan, I was taught under the traditional model of “sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. I have thought that education is all about information retention. However, since I went through my teacher training program and became a teacher myself, I realized that this kind of teaching method does not work. Students are not engaged, contention retention is low, and students lack the ability to connect what they learned in class to real-life situations.
With the guidance of my practicum teacher, I have started to change my ideas of teaching to make my lessons more active and practical. In my class, students use concepts they learned in class to play and design boardgames, find solutions in simulated real-life scenarios. They have written and produced plays based on the stories that they have written. We used Age of Empires and Age of Mythology to study early civilizations and medieval society, and how they affect our society today. I was very keen to combine elements of game in my lessons (although not always with technology). Since the pandemic and we are forced to shift to online education, I found that it became challenging to keep my lessons active. I lack the knowledge, tools and resources to make online learning active for the students. Therefore, my main objective for this classes is to learn how to transfer the concept of active learning online, especially in the area of developing gamified lessons. My hope is that through active learning, I can foster a learning environment where students can reflect and shared what they learned with each other, apply their learning in concrete situations as well as abstract domains, and of course, have fun.
Hi Wengshang,
Much like Miguel, I find I can very much relate to your story as well. Part of my reason for enrolling in the MET program was to gain the knowledge, tools, and experience necessary to change the way we see a “traditional” classroom setting and learning as a whole. I love your integration of games into your classroom! It is something I am very passionate about. I would love to be able to change the negative perception of computer games. My philosophy is: if the kids are passionate about something (video games) instead of dissuading that passion, why not take advantage of it and shift it in a more positive learning direction. I am also a huge fan of Age of Empires! I played hours and hours when I was younger and much of the history learned through that game has stuck with me. The power of learning through games!
I can totally relate to your story! I went to a very traditional school and once I became a teacher I began to fix everything I disliked about teachers and the way they taught me. My students appreciate how I do things and appreciate the fact that I’m not reforming to the old ways but taking the time to listen to what they would like to see in a teacher. More specifically the use of technology in my teaching using apps on the Apple TV, mobile devices, laptops, projector, and iPads. They love how I incorporate modern trends to teaching, like creating funny Spanish tik tok videos. I wish you the best in this experience and hope we get work together at some point!