Games have all of that and more… Sesame Street Games are a part of a beautiful educational package of resources.
Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.
Diane Ackerman
Contemporary American author
Stand beside a child with boots on near water and you can predict what will happen, most of the time. SPLASH! Learning is not like that.. Sometimes the splash of integrated learning is not allowed. Countless administrators have cautioned teachers to not use games, but we have mentors such as James Paul Gee , Alex Chisholm, and Henry Jenkins and so, we continued exploring games, serious games and virtualization and modeling.
Games can be hard fun!!
Here is the link to the resources:( It’s a treasure chest)
The Count ” Count me to Sheep”
http://www.sesamestreet.org/games#media/game_a62697ea-6b68-4e24-aad2-fa836daea0c5
But wait!! there are not just games, it is what I love about media, you can link ideas and information that personalizes , that creates interest and curiosity, and that is a pathway to other knowledge. I call it a knowledge network, or a learning landscape. Children and parents can explore in interactive ways and can work together or separately. The games can be saved.And there are levels of learning. Now look where you do the levels and find the player and explore the various games. You decide what to put on your “Sesame Street!”
You come to the game station and then click the game or video that you want to use.
http://www.sesamestreet.org/play#media/video_9c57ade5-3af3-4953-9c52-63e02a19a873
When I first got games and lots of them in my classroom, children who were supposed to be in the after school program would “sneak” to my room and beg with pleading eyes to use the computer. Soon I would have a whole room of children, quietly pursuing adventure in a game. The games we had were not so sophisticated and were at a higher level, but just the same, I learned that there were children who were brilliant in their learning who did not learn in traditional ways. The confidence that winning a game gave them was priceless.
Sesame Street’s resources can be the first step to winning confidence in learning, at home, in a day care center, or school or after-school program. I have no children but my homework was to observe the lessons and learn…Immigrant parents often did the same. It is not a steep learning curve.One foot in childhood is fun.
Sesame Street is a family, or group kind of learning, even at 5th grade.. little quotes and lessons enter the learning space. Sesame Street has a toolkit for STEM with STEAM.. arts are very prevalent and embedded in the toolkit.
Thinking about Gaming and the Media Mix
I have worked in schools at all levels of learning, and at the Smithsonian in Summer Camp. The younger the student ,the more enthusiastic. The students were about exploring and learning and linking ideas.Games are interesting and engaging, promote self confidence, and provide students with a fail-safe environment to learn and become empowered. This happens magically, and can transform a student, and change a family’s way of communicating. You can beat your own score !
Something I found out was that testing was not predictive about intelligence. Students who had low scores on testing could and did play games very well. I would let them play and then share that I knew how they learned and we would be on the road to excellence. Children who memorized well, were not always the best gamers, until they change to become curious and fearless.
This is why we should at early levels, allow students to explore learning. Sesame Street creates the way to help challenge the digital divide .It is a rich tapestry for learning.
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” – Fred Rogers
You may need some convincing. I have personally been confronted by well meaning educators who said that learning is not fun.(ok I was transferred out of a school or two for insisting on using games in the classroom.) Sometimes pioneering creates problems. Educators need to have support to make change.
Kurt Squire
– Kurt Squire, ‘Game Based Learning’,p.36
- “There is a well known saying among designers in the educational games business: ‘If you want to take all of the fun out of it, get a bunch of educators involved.”
http://www.educommsy.uni-hamburg.de/commsy.php?cid=1186929&mod=material&fct=detail&iid=1201808
Children learn to be afraid to make mistakes, probably in the classroom more than in any place in the world.
Because I went to a gathering in New EnglanPopTech, I met Henry Jenkins, Kurt Squire and Idit Harel and was invited to a workshop at MIT. It was hard not to keep doing games and linking them to knowledge.
Classroom Experiences
I have experience with games and children. I used to work for NECC and I piloted games in the classroom. In my teaching experience I also worked and piloted after school initiatives and particularly games. I helped to revamp some games to make them more interesting for girls.
I have two funny stories. One is about the Count. I had a child in my classroom who adored that character. On picture day, he went to the bathroom and put on a t-shirt and slicked his hair back as if he was the Count. I did not know what to say, so I said nothing, but his mother was not amused.That child is now a math professor. Count one for the Count. ( This was in 4th grade)
Look at this game. http://www.sesamestreet.org/games#media/game_a62697ea-6b68-4e24-aad2-fa836daea0c5
You may think it is only teaching counting. But there is much more. Take a small child and try the game . It is fun to do, and you only need to get it started. I played it several time with small relatives. Thankfully I did not have to read it , over and over again , it was interactive and funny and variable.
I had a child who came to class from a homeless shelter. He could ace every game on the computer but said he hated math. What a wonderful discussion we had! He had topped even my scores on all of the games. Sometimes i would show him cusinare rods, and tesselations. He just did not like doing practice of drill. He was really good at computational problem solving. I do not know what happened to him.
There is something about the joy of learning. Sesame Street brings a smile to most everyone’s face. There are all types of ideational learning , scaffolding and ways of sharing a message within the games. Here are the steps from ideas, to Playlist. It’s a how to for you straight from the web page.
Sesame Street lets students learn to handle big ideas and to turn STEM in to STEAM.
Videos
Watch and learn together! Click on the orange videos button to start watching featured and themed video queues. Use the green arrows to scroll through the filmstrip to find more, from classic clips to recent favorites. Want to watch an even bigger Big Bird? Just switch to full screen view by selecting the green button to the right of the player window.
Games
Stay and play– We have Games galore! All of the games on Sesamestreet.org are designed to cover topics and skills that are perfect for preschoolers. Just like in the Videos section, you can browse hundreds of fun learning games, or find games by Muppet, topic and age.
Playlists
A fun, furry mix of videos and games! Sesame Playlists turn learning into a fun-filled adventure! These interactive learning experiences contain videos and games centered around a topic or theme. Click the purple playlist button to see the featured playlist of the day, or find playlists by Muppet, topic, and age. Each playlist expands to show all videos and games in the set.
My Street
Your child can save her favorite games, videos and playlists to her own personalized page. When your child watches a favorite video, or plays a game she wants to come back to, click the house icon under the filmstrip to add it to My Street.
I picked this video, because it is again about sheep.. and it is funny!
http://www.sesamestreet.org/videos#media/video_b82a8df3-f0e4-4ae2-995d-9d1b80e9672d
Alex Chisholm on Games
How Gamification Is Winning http://www.engineyard.com/infographics/gamification
http://www.epicwinblog.net/2013/10/the-35-gamification-mechanics-toolkit.html
You may need to know.
Gamification works by making technology more engaging,[2] by encouraging users to engage in desired behaviors,[3] by showing a path to mastery and autonomy, by helping to solve problems and not being a distraction, and by taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming.[4] The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading web sites.(source Wikipedia)
Infographic on Gamification http://classroom-aid.com/2012/04/09/infographic-about-the-gamification-of-education/
http://classroom-aid.com/2012/04/09/infographic-about-the-gamification-of-education/