Spelling Bee's 

    When I first entered this game site that Gavin recommended me to try, which we ended up choosing for our presentation, what caught my eye was the colors of the site. I thought that it was very colorful and pleasing to look at. Getting started was quite easy and not very troubling. All you needed was online access, enter your name, choose your bee, and click start. You are also given a short tutorial in how to play the game. But overall it is very easy to play.
 
     The rule of the game is to listen to a word that is spoken, then you must type it on the keyboard correctly. The games is timed so if you misspell the word, your bee will drop the letter it is holding and it takes time for it to go and retrieve another letter. There is also hints given in case you miss type or spell the word, you are penalized through the lose of time.
   
     When creating the rubric we as a group felt that the most challenging part was figuring out how to grade or rate the game. The reason is because even though it has educational value it is a bit challenging to gauge its effectiveness because we have to look at it from a perspective of a child playing the game. So we choose three different criterias; 1. Learning style 2. Proficiency of Content Knowledge 3. Interactive learning and graded it as 1-poor, 2-average, and 3-excellent. Overall I gave the game a 7 out of 9 total points and we as a group game it a 78% rating.

     How would I use this game for my content area? Using this game for my content area would be difficult because I teach math and this is geared more towards Language Arts. But I believe that I could still use this game in my class as a form of reward activity. It would be very beneficial for my ESL students because as stated by Kim and Chang (2010) "ELL students also did better than their counterparts in performance in math due to game play". Although this game may not be of much benefit to my content area,  the idea of gameplay as a tool to increase cognitive skills in schools works. As stated by Maloy, Edward, Anderson (2010) "Evolved into a broader set of strategies for teaching math problem solving using a combination of computer-based activities, learning games, and students' creative writing of math problems."But it has to be monitored and controlled in order to make sure that it will be effective.  

   In conclusion this game was really fun and educational, but as long as it is used by age target it was designed for it will be effective. I felt that its use in my content area will only be as part of my rewards system, the idea of using game play as a tool to help students gain vertical alignment or increase cognitive skills is worth exploring and using in classrooms. I will definitely be incorporating game play as a tool for my students to explore next school year.

Reference:

Kim, Sunha, Chang, Mido. (2010). Computer Games for the Math Achievement of Diverse Students. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 13(3), 224-232.

Maloy, Robert W., Edwards, Sharon A., Anderson, Gordon. (2010). Teaching Math Problem Solving Using a Web-based Tutoring System, Learning Games, and Students’ Writing. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research, 11(1), 82-90.