Week 2 Assign 1 - Educational Technologies
Teaching Business – All fun and
games?
Gaming, gamification, game-based
learning, it doesn’t matter which term we use, the truth is, we are surrounded
by technology that allows us to participate in a multitude of different games
any time day or night. From the time we
are toddlers we learn to play games.
Games play an important part of development through our adolescence and
teenage years. Some people may believe that games are for kids. I am not one of
those people. I believe that people
should embrace game playing their entire lives.
Games keep us entertained, they help us learn numerous skills, they keep
our brains active, they increase our desire to succeed and the list goes on and
on. So why should we ever quit playing games?
I don’t think we should and statistics are showing that the average age
group of game players is older than some might think. As of May 2012, according to the
Entertainment Software Association:
- The average gamer is 37 years old and has been
playing for 12 years. Eighty-two percent of gamers are 18 years or older.
- Forty-two percent of all players are women and
women over age 18 are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics.
- Today, adult women represent a greater portion of
the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13
percent).
- Twenty-nine percent of game players are over the
age of 50, an increase from 9 percent in 1999. This figure is sure to rise
in coming years with nursing homes and senior centers across the nation
now incorporating video games into their activities.
- Sixty-five percent of gamers play games with other
gamers in person.
- Fifty-five percent of gamers play games on their
phones or handheld device (Brink, 2012)
With statistics like these, it is
obvious that games are not just for kids anymore. With smart phones and tablets becoming basic
household staples, older age groups are becoming more and more familiar with
electronic gaming. That is why I think
gamification should play an integral part of adult education. The technology is out there so why not use
it?
One thing that really stuck with me
when I walked for my MBA graduation ceremony was the fact that the color of our
hoods for business degrees was drab.
Seriously – drab. I didn’t even
know that was considered a real color.
But yes, the color was drab. My
first thought was, there are sixty-four crayons in a big Crayola box and they
couldn’t come up with any other color than drab? Business is not drab! It’s fun and exciting and there are
challenges and problem solving and customer service issues. How can the color representing business be
drab? Business is what makes our economy
work. Business is how we earn
livings. It is not drab!
Since obtaining my MBA, I have had a
desire to teach online classes to students in the business field. Having ownership in a successful small
business and spending nearly three quarters of my life in customer service,
business administration and management is something that I am truly passionate
about. I believe that small business owners
play a crucial part in our society and teaching others about the inner workings
of the business world is something I sincerely wish to pursue.
My goal is to make learning fun and
interactive for my students. From my own
educational experiences I feel that learning is much easier and retention of
information is much higher if the learning material is memorable and holds the
students attention. Obviously, I cannot
deliver all of my learning material in game form, but there are definitely
games out there that are educational that I can apply in my business
classes. Two games I would like to use
in my classroom are Capitalism II and MIT’s Management Flight Simulators. I chose these two games because they are
interactive and they put the student in real life business situation where they
are given the chance to make business and management related decisions. They are also shown the benefits and
consequences of their decisions. The
following is a brief description of the games.
Capitalism
II
Capitalism II is a game that I would
definitely use in my class. Capitalism
II is offered on the Internet as a PC game.
This is a strategy-based game that allows student to interact in a
simulated business environment. The main
features of the game are:
- Students assume the roles of top managers of a
company
- They must identify and evaluate market
opportunities, formulate business plans and execute them to achieve
results.
- They have to make decisions in such business areas
as marketing, sales, pricing, manufacturing, hiring, capacity
planning, inventory management, research and development.
- Students are given a specific set of business or
financial goals to meet.
- They have to face the consequences of their
decisions.
- So students must think hard about each decision
they are going to make.
- During the process, they also learn the essentials
of leadership and team building (Brink,
2012)
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
MIT Sloan has long been a pioneer among business schools
when it comes to action learning—creating
real-world applications of classroom knowledge. Management flight simulations
are the latest such application. These innovative and interactive tools create
a virtual world in which students explore and participate in the critical
management issues facing a range of industries and organizations. Students who participate in a simulation can
see the immediate consequences of their decisions and learn what it’s truly
like to juggle competing priorities amidst a constant influx of information. (Learning Edge, 2012).
Another multimedia tool I would like
to use in my classroom is web videos. In
addition to gamification, videos can help students learn and present them with
memorable information. "A
lot of students these days expect information to be presented in a flashy,
entertaining way, so videos can help draw them in," says Larry Sanger,
executive director of WatchKnowLearn, a site that collects education-related
videos. High school student
Patrick Greaney still remembers a photosynthesis video he watched in class at
Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School, in Haverhill,
Massachusetts, that featured a catchy tune. "The song stuck in my head and
made me remember the process better," he recalls (Hillner, 2012). Two video sites I would like to incorporate
into my classroom are YouTube and MIT’s case studies.
The teaching case studies available
on LearningEdge, which fall under the headings of entrepreneurship,
leadership/ethics, operations management, strategy, sustainability, and system
dynamics, are narratives that facilitate class discussion about a particular
business or management issue. Teaching cases are meant to spur debate among
students rather than promote a particular point of view or steer students in a
specific direction (Learning Edge, 2012).
You
Tube – Business Lessons
There are over 3.5 million videos
that fall under the search of Business Lessons on YouTube. Obviously that many videos fall under the
category of information overload. However, the way I would use both MIT and
YouTube would be to ask my students to pick either a case study or a prominent
business figure and write a report about the business lessons they learned
after watching the videos.
I did this type of assignment during
my MBA classes and found it to be very interesting. Many times when students are locked down to
their text books and they are only learning about business theories and
financial statistics, the work can become very monotonous. Stepping outside the classroom and allowing
students to see and hear from successful business people and see their lessons
in action, it brings their textbooks to life and reminds them that the theories
they are studying will someday apply to their careers in business.
Brink, J. (2012, May 6). Game-based learning for
the corporate world. Retrieved November 7, 2013, from
http://www.trainingmag.com/content/game-based-learning-corporate-world
Hillner, J. (2012, February 22). How to use online
video in your classroom. Retrieved November 7, 2013, from
http://www.edutopia.org/youtube-educational-videos-classroom
Learning Edge. (2012). Retrieved November 7, 2013, from
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/simulations/Pages/Overview.aspx?home
