HOT TOPIC: Online Games
Volume 1, Issue 40 - June 24, 2005When all is said and done, there are no more attractive affordances of the Internet than its ability to deliver multimedia games to users around the world, often at no cost. The trade-off can be no cost games for bothersome advertising. In order to identify online games that are appropriate for the classroom, teachers want games with worthwhile academic content and little or no advertising to deal with. In truth, no advertising is the goal, but in some cases a game site can be so worthwhile a banner ad here or there may be acceptable.
Regardless, there is a common perception out there that while online gaming can be fun, it is by-and-large not appropriate for younger children. After all, most web-sites are heavy on text, making them impractical for non-readers and primary grade classrooms. Putting together this week's D12 edition disproves this assumption, as a majority of the top online games with solid learning content are developed for primary and elementary students.
This is not to say that there are not online learning games for secondary students; they're just fewer and d\far between one another. The reality is that the market for secondary students is much more limited with the big bucks going after the X-box crowd. Therefore, take it when you can find it and be vocal to vendors and webmasters that they need to pay more attention to the learning needs of high school students!
With this issue we conclude the first volume of the Digital Dozen Newsletter. It has been my pleasure serving you this year with the best the web has to offer! I look forward to picking up where we've left off with volume two in September 2005. If you have topics you'd like to recommend I research over the summer, be sure to email me at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your interest and support of my work not only for D12, but also for all my work at the Surfaquarium through your subscription. I look forward to our continued collaboration in the future, be it through the newsletter, the web site, my online courses via the Digital CoP, and face to face through presentations and workshops!
Enjoy sifting through this week's offerings. If you begin playing now you should be proficient enough to be able to play with your students by next Fall! <grin>
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