Chester's GBL reflection

I've got to admit i had no clue how games help learning when i was exposed to the games in cotf and mxl. After some readings and enlightenment by Gee and Dr Tan, i thought "Wow, that make sense!"

Gee talked about students being interested in production, not consumption. I think most of the things I've learnt in this ict course have been taught by myself and my classmates. Not to say Dr Tan did nothing, i believe that was his strategy, which work out pretty well. I found myself more intrinsically motivated than a module which i had a newscaster as my lecturer.

Gee also pointed out some obstacles such as teachers being de-professionalised. Yes, teachers have the power to change the way students learn. However, when the big fat monster "Curriculum" comes along, many returned to their old ways.


I'm happy that we're moving in a postive direction in terms of integrating ict and gbl into our lessons. Having said that, i think more needs to be done, such as taming the big fat monster, before we could reach our goal.

So how could i integrate gbl into my lessons as a trainee teacher? Frankly, i wouldn't dare to try anything too unorthodox because $60k is at stake, haha. I'm thinking of using powerpoint games in my lessons. There are ppt game templates such as Wheel of Fortune and Who wants to be a Millionaire readily availiable on the internet. I could play these games with the class as a trigger activity at the start of the lesson, during breaks, review at the end of the lesson, or even during the lesson, whenever it's appropriate i guess.