As part of a course on Educational Technology, I decided to try Lifeline, by TwoMinute Games, a mobile game.
The game made me think about how immersive a game experience can be, even in such a simple format. It also made me reflect on my own childhood playing video games and how in the span of a couple of decades, I now feel completely out of touch with gaming culture.
Similar to the ongoing evolution of the media production industry, the evolution of curriculum and the integration of technology will take time and with severe growing pains. I do not have a comment on how to keep children from playing games on laptops when they should be completing curriculum but also believe that sometimes pausing to ‘play a game’ is a good mental break- something that even adults do! While it is unreasonable to expect teachers to design games for all of their curriculum, I do believe that there should be an understanding of gaming culture by all new teachers entering the workforce so that they can ‘speak the language’ and find creative, organic ways to inject play and games (both digital and not) into lesson plans. I realize this is a very oversimplified response but I also feel that so much can be learned when you incite play and creativity into any activity. I am watching the Minecraft evolution with interest and have added it to my own to-learn list.
Here is my first foray into 'mash-ups':