Teaching and Learning in Internet-based environments (online)

The online experience that I believe would be most beneficial with my students is the Educational Gaming. The educational gaming tool will allow students to obtain mastery of the skills needed to complete the task, while allowing students to have fun and compete with one another. Our culture is consumed with the different gaming systems such as the Wii, Playstation and XBOX. These systems are utilized by children and adults of all ages and it would benefit my students to implement these gaming strategies into the classroom setting. For example, as an engineering teacher I would create a game using Unigraphics where students are expected to match sketches with various designs within a set time frame. Students can gain points based on consistency, thoroughness and the amount of time that it took to find the match. In terms of content, utilizing the Educational Gaming experience would assist students with understanding how systems are connected, manipulation of variables, 3D, ProE, and CAD models. The Educational Gaming would provide students the opportunity to explore various engineering fields and theories while having fun competing with friends and family. Numerous pedagogical strategies could be utilized to teach students through Educational Gaming. I would place students in cohorts and allow them to compete with one another to obtain extra credit on assignments. I would also play with students online and help them to see how engineering can be learned in the comfort of your own home while competing with others around the globe. At the end of the semester, the cohorts will have a tournament to determine who is the best and prizes will be awarded to the group who wins. The prizes awarded will have an educational technology component to them (ie Itunes Cards, USB Plugs, Recordable CDs/DVDs). I feel that it would be very difficult to use the online field trips with my class because the students would not have the opportunity to work towards a collaborative effort. The online field trips seem to be more of a fact driven tool than an exploratory tool. After careful review of the links provided with this topic, it did not appeal to me as something that would be beneficial towards my work with students.