I have to go with Laurie. I had noted the last time that the standards
at education world aren't standards. They are links to the National
Council's for the various teacher organizations... NCTE and NCTM
(National Council for Teachers of English/Mathematics). Their standards
are extremely vague and don't align to most state standards that I have
been looking at. One of the groups I am active in within the Council
for Exceptional Children did cite the NCTE standards as a starting point
for focusing groups (I helped write the paper, although its not
published yet), but recommends that for making state standards
functional for children with developmental disabilities that each state
select a group of teachers or that each district form an ad-hoc group to
perform this task because each state has DIFFERENT standards at
different grade levels. You can make them align in some cases (I've
done so with Maryland and Virginia science standards for another
presentation I've given), but it isn't easy and can be a stretch. I've
attempted to align 7-8th grade math & English in PA, MD and VA to add to
my master's project which was a curriculum to teach pre-vocational
job-skills, specifically focused on the intial skills needed for the job
search. It wasn't possible at that time, and although Maryland has
become more specific, Pennsylvania has not. Virginia has been extremely
specific with their standards of learning for at least 10 years. New
York is another state that has been (I'm not sure if they still are)
extremely specific. And in a state like Pennsylvania where there are
501 individual school districts, you're probably going to have a very
difficult time writing standards that each person in each district in
each school will agree to follow.
Magi
Laurie Menke wrote:
I agree that standards should be the main focus. I
also think a case for why games are useful educational
tools in general is beneficial as well. However, I
disagree that the national standards are the way to
go, as I've stated in an earlier post. My main point
is that in states with high-stakes testing, such as
mine (California), knowing that a game fits the
national standards won't mean a thing to
administrators. All they want to know is if it will
increase test scores, which are very specific to
California standards. I believe that's true for many,
if not most, states these days. Therefore, I still
feel that it's important to have a web site where
teachers can click on their specific state and see how
the games match their specific standards.
My 2 cents,
Laurie
--- Pat Fuge - Gnome Games <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Standards - please let teachers know exactly how
each game meets specific standards - while all of
the previously mentioned items are important it is
standards that are important at the end of the day.
Thus, if we can show that a game makes it easier and
fun to learn a concept or meets a specific standard
or part of a standard and is fun, easy to use in the
classroom, and improves the overall learning
experience and retention we have a winner.
I would use the national standards available at
http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/index.shtml
as these are put forward by educators at a national
level and try to cmply with state standards across
the board.
By showing what standards a specific games content
meets it becomes a viable educational resource for
the classroom instead of a feel good thing to add to
existing materials. Moving it from dessert to the
main course.
Pat Fuge
Gnome Games
www.gnoemgames.com
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