Running Head: MAKING LEARNING FUN, EASY, AND INTERACTIVE

Making Learning Fun, Easy, and Interactive

By: Jared Cunningham

Professor Corine Blake

Education 214

2/14/17
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Videogames, cloud computing, and three-dimensional printing, what do they have in

common? Education. We can utilize these emerging technologies so that students have a more

fun and interactive time while learning. The videogames allow the kids to interact and have fun

while learning. There are many different games based on many different subjects. Ranging from

addition/subtraction to algebra, reading including phonics, sciences with great interactive labs,

and writing including sentence structure and essay writing. Cloud computing will allow students

to store information and collaborate from different geographical areas and store everything in a

centralized location. Also, teachers can make lessons and access these collaborations from

different locations also. Three-dimensional printing will allow teachers to create three-

dimensional models based on their current lesson, giving the kids an interactive approach to

learning. These three technologies will foster a new way of learning and thinking within our

students and our teachers that will allow us to progress further than before.

My generation and many more to come love videogames. It is a relatively new

media, especially when it comes to the educational field. It is currently being implemented

throughout schools across the nation as a new way to teach children and track their progress. In

this section we are going to discuss the pros and cons of this newly implemented way to teach.

There has been an influx of game usage in the classroom over the past thirteen years. Some are

heralding this gamification of education as the way of the future. This tool allows students to

take a more active approach to learning.

Quest to Learn, for example, is a school that bases its whole curriculum around video

games and video game style learning. As a public school in New York City, Quest to Learn styles

its curriculum into missions or quests much like a videogame, of which have multifaceted

challenges that have more than one outcome that fosters critical thinking and problem solving.
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They also utilize a website called GameStarMechanic.com that allows the students to create their

own videogames also. This is a great way to be creative in a non-traditional way, which is suited

for the twenty first century. Games are also uniquely suited to fostering the skills necessary for

navigating a complex, interconnected, rapidly changing 21st century, says Alan Gershenfeld

Founding Industry Fellow at Arizona State Universitys Center for Games and Impact.

I have seen in practice how videogames can assist children in learning. I have been

working at a school for half the year as a kind of tutor and substitute teacher. When you use a

game website, such as, STMath.com and verbal communication from an instructor kids really

start to catch on. Also, some children progress quicker and further than others and you can easily

monitor this progress right from the website. There are sites for reading as well, such as, Fast

Forward and Reading Eggs, both sites allow students to work at their own pace, with guidance

when needed without interrupting the other students. So far I have only seen and read about

examples for elementary school age kids, but games can easily be modified and made to be more

complicated for the students of increasing ages. I, for one, make games on Quizlet to study for

my midterms. It has made easy and enjoyable for me to learn. I foresee video games having a

huge impact on teaching in the future.

Cloud computing allows teachers to centralize their course load so that students at any

level can access it and learn from it wherever they may be. The teachers can store videos of

lessons, reading material, and games all in one location and allow access to students on a needed

basis. There are many advantages to cloud computing and we will go over a few.

Mobility, unlimited storage, and centralized storage allows for access from anywhere

with the internet. If a student is sick and cannot make it to school and the teacher has uploaded a

video and some work, the student could easily stay up to speed by use of the cloud. Students may
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also collaborate on projects a different times thanks to the cloud. Making incompatible schedules

a thing of the past. For instance, they can each write portions of a paper or work on a project

separately and then upload their portions to the cloud, and one or more people can work on

consolidating this information together into one project.

Cloud computing could also replace all your paper related products. If you

stopped utilizing paper that could save you money in the long run. Without pesky text books, or

worksheets you could easily save time and money for both the students and the school. With this,

the text books could easily be updated yearly or quarterly and not have to print out new text

books every semester with very few changes. You can just update the online ones dynamically.

Some may argue that the hardware and software aspects of cloud computing could be

expensive and setting up such infrastructure could be extensive. It really isnt you could set up

cloud computing on any computer that has a hard drive. Of course, results will vary based on the

quality of the computer, but you could do that from a standard desktop with a standard internet

connection. You could, however, save lots of money on infrastructure by going completely in the

direction of cloud computing for education, for instance. You could save money on an actual

physical site, with chairs, smartboards, water bills, electricity, and so on by forgoing the physical

site and having a small room with dedicated servers and supplying computers to work from.

I foresee three-dimensional printing to be something of the future for classrooms. With

three-dimensional printing, we can supply classrooms with models of all kinds of goodies.

Making cheap models of things that would have been way too expensive in the past.
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For science, we could have a cut away of the Earth that could be used like a three-

dimensional puzzle with different colors for each layer that students could put together and take

apart and study. Or we could have models of cells, body parts, atoms etc.

For math, we could easily make games where you could fill a math beast up with

whole numbers, or fractions or different equations. With art, we could replicate any three-

dimensional piece and put it on display for the kids to see. History/geography we could recreate

any monument, place, historical figure bust. Anything, the technology is limitless and since we

cannot take every student to see everything, we can bring pieces or small scale versions to them.

I foresee these three technologies being the future of education. Making learning fun and

exciting with videogames like ST Math, Reading Eggs, and Fast Forward. The kids wont even

realize they are learning. I have seen this in action and the kids really enjoy it. It needs to be

more adapted for older students, but that will come. Cloud computing is great for all ages and not

only for students. Teachers can collaborate with other teachers to come up with lesson plans.

Also, making their own lesson plans centralized makes it easier on the teachers to give out, and

the students will have a easy reference when needed. Allowing the teacher to user their time

wisely. Three-dimensional printing will be great for students to get a hands on feel or up close

look at things they would otherwise not be able too. These technologies are going to set a fire in

the imaginations of students and teachers alike.

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