Vicki DeHoff

I  am not a gamer, preferring in-person games to online, and I dislike group learning as an individual and instructor for similar reasons -- the dominant learner.  I have been intrigued by the research presented, particularly in the discussion of motivations and challenges of cooperative learning, as I also see these in in-person activities. In any group activity, one learner often dominates, frustrating other learners, who lose their ability to learn through the modality.  Upon reflection, I see that the dominate learner may not be deliberately behaving negatively; positively motivated learners may motivate as well.  The suggestions solutions were quite… >>>

I have learned that neither gaming nor simulation are effective at introducing new concepts.  Adult learners need to understand the "why" for accumulating new information; it would seem that simulation would be more effective at answering the why question rather than gaming, where the goal may be competition or point accumulation.  If social learning is a main motivator for gaming, I'd like to see research that breaks this down by  generational motivation.  For example, in my experience, the digital natives may be more motivated by social context to learning, where "Boomers" may not be socially influenced.

I have worked exclusively in Simulations for the past six years and am now returning to the classroom in an accelerated course.  One must deliver the content that students manipulate and sometimes it feels like you can't do both (content delivery and activities/games) in time allotted.  I understand the need to assist retention with active learning strategies during class time, but I'm struggling with how to do it all in limited time.  It would seem that moving retention activities online in blended work would be ideal.  Perhaps part of the problem is that I consider online games a waste of… >>>