It's often hard for children to understand commitment and dedication to some things at a young age. Yet with mine craft, a tedious foraging, building and strategy game, they are constantly working toward getting enough of one material to build something. I have never seen them give up.
To be honest though when people started to refer to the game as math oriented and requiring higher level logic I didn't quite agree. The more I see my boys play and read about it, I see the level of thinking the game truly takes. Often I look at the game and think I don't even know where I would begin with this but clearly children of this generation do.
I remember when my parents would (and still do) asked for help with technology I use to think, "how can they not understand fill in the blank it's so simple." But that is because we were brought up with those tools. I never thought I would need help with technology and I'm sure if I watched enough videos and got to be hands on with the game I could figure it out. However as more complicated things come out like Mine Craft I sit their in awe at the skills children have.
The resources are at their fingertips. If my boys are not playing they are watching instructional videos, talking to their friends about their worlds, watching other funny videos that people have made with their mine craft game and planning their next moves. They are surrounded by this information. In this generation almost anything is accessible in an instant. If I needed to learn something new other than a sport I would most likely watch a you tube video first or read instructions online.
So I find it a slight bit surprising that I was put off by our 20% video where we have to learn something new with the use of technology. I'm very hands on and like to learn as I go. I also like to have someone there guiding me along. The idea of learning yoga without someone to correct my body movements and posture is frightening. Although possibly more difficult either for everyone or people late in the game to independent learning through technology, it is possible to teach yourself nearly anything through technology. I mean even xbox probably has a game that can observe your body and determine if you our have the correct pose.
Therefor with technology surrounding our every move it's essential that as teachers we become more familiar with the technology surrounding our students and work to incorporate it ninth our classrooms. Not just because it may better hold their interest but also because this is probably one way students best learn.
So despite my reservations for how helpful technology can really be in a classroom (which again surprises me due to my love for technology), I am going to fully commit myself to my learning and technology class as well as my curriculum design and integration class requiring a focus on one to one technology.
Still struggling to think of ideas for my 20% project. So if you haves any suggestions please let me know. Alyssa's blog post about her 20% project did help me broaden my ideas and learn I could really pick anything that interests me. http://alyssateacheschem.weebly.com/4/post/2014/02/20-handwritten.html?