Blog Post # 12

1. Watch the slide presentation: Using the Nintendo Wii in the Classroom by Roy Z.Gonzalez Torres.

2. Write a one paragraph post in which you discuss the uses, if it's useful for all students, interesting facts and how it can be used in the ESL classroom.  Follow the requirements in Writing A Quality Blog Post.

3. Research educational games that may be used with the Wii system. In a one paragraph post provide names , product features and age level of five games appropriate for use in the classroom. Provide a link to the website(s)you use for research in your blog post.

4.  Write a two paragraph discussion on How Technology Facilitates Learning.

 Using the Wii System in the Classroom
The Wii game is suitable for all ages. The system engages students and can be used with large and small groups. The Wii can be used for teaching students the arts, physical education, English as a second language,science, geography and other topics in creative ways. The games are useful for all students including ESL and special education students. In the ESL classroom, the games promote discovery and art skills as well as psycho motor skills and exercising. There are other games that support math skills, science, history and fiction. Many of the games promote identification, memorization ,analysis, visualization and problem solving skills.  Two benefits of using the Wii system in the classroom are encouraging students to use the web as a research tool for personal interest and more than one student can play a game at one time depending on the kind of game used.

Educational Games for Wii
There are many games available for the Wii system. The The Educational Wii Games 2012 has many games and information regarding each game on the site. Sesame Street Educational Games are for preschool age children.  There are two games in this series and both games adapt to a child's reading level making it unique and challenging. My Word Coach Educational Games  focus on improving vocabulary. Whether you are adult or child level there are great challenges to either know or learn the meanings of words. The Cosmic Family Educational Wii Game  is a unique way for children to have their turn on the Wii that is not overwhelming to them.  This game is appropriate for ages 4 to 8 years old.  The Endless Ocean Educational Wii  game is appropriate for ages 10 years and older. Players of this game interact with a huge variety of under sea life.  The Science Papa Educational Wii game is for kids and adults. This game has a number of different experiments and fun learning games for aspiring scientists or simply people who want to expand their knowledge in areas of chemistry, physics, biology and fossils.  The Wii system is a wonderful classroom tool for incorporating technology into a routine day of learning.

How Technology Facilitates Learning
In the past, the role of technology was to deliver lessons to students, just as trucks deliver groceries to super markets. If you deliver groceries, people will eat .  If you deliver instruction, students will learn.  Not necessarily!  In the 1980's mainframe computers were used to deliver drill and practice and simple tutorials for teaching students lessons. When microcomputers were introduced in the classrooms, the natural inclination was to do the same thing with them. Later in the 1980's educators began to perceive the importance of computers as productivity tools. Word processing, databases, and spread sheets emerged enabling businesses to become more productive. It was at this point that students began using word processors to write with.

If schools are to encourage meaningful learning, then the ways we use technologies in school must change from technology-as-teacher to technology-as-partner in the learning process. If technologies are used to encourage meaningful learning, then they will not be used as delivery vehicles. Technologies should be used as engagers and facilitators of thinking.  Why does technology encourage meaningful learning?  It is because technology requires users to think and reason. Students do not learn from teachers or technology. Students learn from thinking about what they are doing or what they did, thinking about what they believe,  thinking about what others have done or what they believe, thinking about thinking processes they use, just thinking and reasoning. Thinking mediates learning. Using technologies as tools to learn with requires learners representing what they know...teaching the computers. Using different tools requires learners to express what they know in different ways.