I think that technology can be both beneficial and harmful for students. I think that technology can be beneficial for students in some cases because it can provide feedback for student immediately. It can provide visuals for students such as, models and diagrams which can help students who struggle with imagining it for themselves. I also think it can be helpful because it is an easy and efficient way for students to learn and access information. On the other hand, I think technology can be harmful for students because it can take away the effort and thought that is required for students to adequately learn and comprehend information. Technology can…

It is clear that not all students start at the same place academically, but that doesn’t mean they can’t improve. Being able to adapt to different difficulties in our game design will allow students to perform well. In our game design we are giving the students multiple ways to recognize the emotion they are trying to identify. We are giving them the opportunity to identify these emotions through resources like color, visuals, and things they can touch or pick up. Having multiple ways to help them find the answer makes it easier for them to recognize the emotion given. If the students guess the wrong answer they will have to…

Willingham proves that there is no one-size-fits all. Kids vary in learning paces and background knowledge which results in them having different strengths and weaknesses. I think when it comes to designing a game, we should be focusing on how to shape it to make it flexible and accessible for everyone. Willingham talks about cognitive styles and how teaching strictly to a style can improve the learning of the students. When designing our games should strive to add aspects to our game that includes a variety of representations in order to strengthen understanding for everyone. Along with this Willingham also talks about multiple intelligences. This can be useful when designing…

Willingham’s point is that practice isn’t just for getting better—it’s also for locking in skills so they last and can be used in new situations. That idea can directly shape how learning games are designed. I think in our game design we are applying this concept by having the students go to all the stations and requiring them to do all of the tasks correctly before moving forward. If they are unable to correctly identify the emotion/mood for that station they will have to start at the beginning. This allows that students to continue to practice the emotions they correctly identified the first time but also have another chance to…

In Chapter 6 of Why Don’t Students Like School?, Willingham focuses on how experts think differently from novices. His key point is not that all students must become experts, but that expert thinking depends on a large base of knowledge and extensive practice over time which can be something unrealistic for a lot of students. Instead, the goal should be helping student’s approximate expert thinking in limited areas, not fully reach it. I think that expecting students to become experts in subjects at school is unrealistic. Expertise requires a lot of practice and knowledge collection. I think as teachers we should be focusing on helping students build a firm foundation…

In Chapter 4, Daniel Willingham emphasizes that students struggle with abstraction because the mind naturally prefers concrete examples. I think it’s important that in order to help students better understand abstract ideas they need to experience those ideas in different forms. Willingham argues that students grasp abstract concepts best when they see them applied in many different. Because prior knowledge is largely concrete, exposing students to different examples helps them recognize the structure of the idea. In our game we are applying this by teaching them emotions through many different senses. We will be teaching them the same emotions for each sense, but they have to recognize through one sense…

I think this is important to consider especially for Pre K/K students because we are most likely to only be able to capture their attention for that very moment and lost it in the next. So, it is going to be important for our game design be structured in a way that allows the learning goal to be connected to succeeding in the game as well. I think it’s also going to be important to not unintentionally create any distractions that could pull them away from the target of the game. I think we have implemented this well by using a path design that will help them stay on track…

“We dredge up memories when we think of things that are related to what we’re trying to remember” (34). This quote explains that we don’t just pull information out of our brains randomly instead, we remember things by making connections to skills/facts already learned. When you think about a certain topic, our brains try to find related ideas, experiences, or knowledge, and those connections help us recall the memory. Overall, our learning is built on connections. “Similarly, you may know all of the vocabulary words but lack the conceptual knowledge to knit the words together into something comprehensible.” (21) This quote emphasizes the importance that knowing individual facts or words…

“Most of the problems we face are ones we’ve solved before, so we just do what we’ve done in the past” (5). I think this really highlights how shaping and patterns truly shape our minds throughout time. We see it as being able to solve problems quickly and usually effectively, but it can also be limiting because we aren’t raising any new ideas or solutions. “People like to solve problems but not to work on unsolvable problems”(1). This shows that when people believe that the solution to a problem is attainable, they are more likely to be motivated to work at solving that problem. They are more likely to put…