Discussions

Your Name and Title: Oren Dolev, K-8 Teacher, M.Ed. student

School or Organization Name: Kaye Academic College of Education

Co-Presenter Name(s):Oren Dolev, Shuli Shlomo, Sinia Aharonov,Rina Na’aman, Mumen

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Be’er-Sheva, Israel

Language in Which You Will Present: English and Hebrew

Target Audience(s): Teachers and Teacher Educators

Short Session Description (one line):Why should teachers play with their students?!

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):

 To play or not to play?!

Mammals have always played. Humans have always played. Games are a universal learning tool. Children, like cubs learn the necessary skills as they play that are important for their survival.

There are so many kinds of games: From classic socio- dramatic games young children play in kindergarten through board games and, of course, computer games.

There is no dispute among experts that playing games is necessary to our proper cognitive and emotional development. The current generation plays international games on-line and therefore creates a new culture of a global community. It is important to try to understand the benefits and values of these games in education.

The game SimCity Edu deals with global issues and catches the attentions of people and students from around the world who as the game evolves become a global community

In spite of all we have just stated there is no consensus among teachers who have a hard time adapting computer-games as a teaching tool in class.

Why is that?

We are teachers and M.Ed. students in a program named:  Education in the Era of ICT .

We wish to share our research results in trying to solve this dilemma.

In our session, we will present our fellow 'immigrant' teachers terms and conclusions regarding the educational contributions of computer games, discuss with the audience the successful ways of incorporating a game in class.

Our insight in a nutshell is -play before you teach.