Incorporating the novelty of gaming into an instructional atmosphere can be tough and will definitely come under scrutiny by colleagues. Realizing the attention grabbing implications, I’ve been exploring how to effectively and efficiently bring in gaming to my classroom setting. Last night, I received an email from a parent (also a teacher) about my use of Angry Birds in the classroom. “Ut-oh, I’m toast!” is all I could think, I quickly racked my brain for the appropriate pedagogy to support my decision to bring gaming into my classroom.. then I read on:
“…was sharing your tech skills in getting Angry Birds to operate on a SmartBoard. Running apps through the smart board is something I’d like to be able to do, so I was curious if you were running it through an iPad/iPod App or from the Google Chrome App. Of course our district doesn’t run on Macs or Laptops, so it may not work the same….but any tips you’re willing to share are appreciated.”
My response: “I’m running apps with Google Chrome. It should work great on your PC too. I was testing it out for a Classroom 2.0 PD workshop I presented. The classroom implications for these apps is endless :)” I couldn’t help but justify my actions, I nearly added: “and you can calculate the speed at which the birds fly by using the formula speed=distance/time.” Since I was very proud to have gotten my bird to go 32cm per sec!