Institute/Session Summary:

Learning Objectives:

Through PowerPoint Presentation

• Introduce the audience to the socio-constructivist theory of learning.
• Introduce the audience to several variations of teaching styles.
• Introduce the audience to the preferred learning style of today's students.

Through audience interaction and engagement

• Based upon the completion of the above learning objectives, demonstrate how games can be an effective tool for learning in the college classroom.
• Provide handouts, suggested readings, research citations, and an email follow-up with participants after the session.

Summary:

I have been successfully developing and utilizing games in the college and university classroom for the past three years. My session, "Connecting with the Net Generation through Games" will examine three primary areas of concentration. First, instructional styles of teaching and learning styles of the Net Generation student will be discussed. The second areas will focus on how games connect to learning. The third and final areas will be a demonstration and sharing time for all participants.

Based upon the socio-constructivist learning theory, participants will examine their own teaching style and how today's student perceives it. Participants will then be introduced to the preferred learning style of today's Net Generation student. The need for hand-on learning experiences led to the concept of games in the academic classroom.

Games will be shown to be an effective way to connect to the student's prior knowledge. The path of prior knowledge enables students to connect quickly to new information. The myth about games being just "fun" will be discussed and the real mental process behind games will be revealed. Participants will gain an understanding for how hand-on learning experiences such as games can enable students to connect to academic topics in all fields.

The final half of the session will provide a hands-on demonstration of how games have been effectively used in the developmental reading classroom. Participants will then be given a form to fill out and share any games or activities they have successfully used in their classrooms. The results will be posted and shared with all participants via email. Handouts of two games used in the developmental classroom will be disseminated to all participants.

Presenter1 Name: Denise Peterson
Presenter1 Institution: South Texas College
Presenter1 Bio: Denise Peterson enjoyed as successful career as a librarian and library administrator.  After retiring from librarianship she went back to school and received a second Master's in Reading Education.  Denise is currently enjoying her second career as a Reading Instructor at South Texas College.