In conversations about kids and screen time, few experts are arguing that young people might benefit from more time in front of the computer. But one scholar in the College of Education and Human Services says games can help kids develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and reading comprehension skills \u2014 while engaging a generation of \u201cdigital natives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we hear \u2018gaming,\u2019 we first may think of violent games like Mortal Kombat,\u201d says education professor Roberta Devlin-Scherer. \u201cBut SimCity or Ayiti: The Cost of Life are really learning games.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Ayiti, players help a family navigate life in rural Haiti. Games like PeaceMaker and Peace Doves explore international relations through the lenses of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and global nuclear proliferation. Other games teach literary analysis, finance and mathematics, current events and media literacy, among other subjects.<\/p>\n
The University\u2019s 2013 nominee for CASE\/Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professor of the Year, Devlin-Scherer emphasizes the importance of teachers helping students navigate the online world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are teaching them to be digital citizens, to be responsible, to use the technology to improve their situations,\u201d she says. \u201cTeachers can talk honestly to kids, and say, \u2018How are you managing? You don\u2019t want to miss out on being outside. Make sure you balance your life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, teachers have long used games in classrooms to engage kids in learning and add variety to lesson plans. But most of today\u2019s students have never known a world without Internet and smartphones, and video games are a natural fit for a learning style that is visual, interactive and provides immediate gratification.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is, whether we like it or not, our students are episodic, used to short TV shows and to switching between Internet screens: They\u2019re multitaskers and have a difficult time going deep,\u201d says Julie Carlson \u201913, a first-year social-studies teacher at Pequannock Township High School in Pompton Plains, N.J. \u201cWe want to harness these games and devices in order to motivate them to go deep \u2014 to create a buy-in for students so they\u2019re willing to use technology in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carlson cites the mini-videos she and her classmates created in Devlin-Scherer\u2019s sophomore-level Instructional Theory Into Practice course. During the semester, Devlin-Scherer recorded the students presenting lessons to their peers, providing immediate feedback on body language, projected confidence and clarity. At the end of the course, they made short videos in which they reflected on their progress and plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing how much I\u2019d improved over the semester was not only instructive but was also encouraging,\u201d Carlson recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s hard to measure in teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mini-video project epitomizes Devlin-Scherer\u2019s use of technology as a tool for learning. \u201cI\u2019m looking for ways to present information that is more unique, interesting, creative, and engaging,\u201d she says. \u201cTechnology lets you combine tools, skills and ideas together.\u201d<\/p>\n
In flickering sepia tone, a young woman exits a train terminal, glances at her map, and strides purposefully forward. Titles appear across the bottom of the screen: \u201cI accomplished so much since I came to this country.\u201d As the image changes to color, the same young woman stands at the front of a classroom. \u201cBecoming a Spanish teacher is my American dream,\u201d Solange Sandel \u201913 says in voiceover.<\/p>\n
The shift in tone from nostalgic to cutting-edge mirrored her experience under Devlin-Scherer\u2019s mentorship, Sandel says. \u201cThe future did not just represent me, but what I could do for the next generation of students,\u201d she observed. \u201cSeton Hall is like that, the best of both worlds: tradition, while always looking toward the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today Sandel is a first-year Spanish teacher at West Morris Mendham High School in Mendham, N.J., where she uses many of the computer and mobile apps taught in Devlin-Scherer\u2019s courses. She has been told that she is the first teacher there to use this technology.<\/p>\n
The assessment is echoed time and again by Devlin-Scherer\u2019s students: that she is preparing them both for the near future and the changing world ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessor Devlin-Scherer \u2014 and the education program at Seton Hall as a whole \u2014 were very focused on where education is going to be next year, and what our teachers need to know in order to be prepared when they graduate,\u201d Carlson says. \u201cTechnology is the way it\u2019s going; education, in fact, is behind society as a whole in terms of technology. Having experienced the benefits of technology in my own education helps me better use it for my students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tricia Brick is a New York-area writer.<\/cite><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Professor Roberta Devlin-Scherer shows her education students firsthand how technology improves classroom learning.<\/p>\n