Using technology in the classroom wisely

Nowadays, many students spend most of their time using different modern devices such as, computers, cell phones, videogames, video cams, digital music players among others. In order to catch up with them, teachers of the 21^st century face the challenge of having to integrate these tools into the classroom and show the students how they can profit from them in learning.

One way of including technology in the classroom is to present students a videogame with which they could not only play and have fun but also learn meaningfully.

From prezi presentation "My house"

 As an example, in the project we designed, “Creating your own house”, the learners will play with the game “The Sims” in which they have to create an imaginary house in groups of four. They have to prepare a final presentation to share it with the rest of their classmates using an LCD projector. They are expected to describe the house using the “existential there” and vocabulary related to parts of the house and furniture.

From https://twitter.com/hashtag/tpack

This project is carried out following the TPACK model which stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. It is more than simply adding ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to traditional approaches. It depends upon deep knowledge of how ICT can be used to access and process subject matter (TCK) and understanding how ICT can support and enhance learning (TPK) in combination with PCK. (more info about TPACK here).
What we decided to do is to relate the content we had to teach (parts of the house and furniture and There is/are), using a technological device (in this case, the students' computers), to the final task of our project (pedagogical knowledge), which consisted of a final presentation of the house to the rest of the groups. 

Since one of the objectives of this project is that students will be able to describe a house at the end of the task, we thought that the famous videogame “The Sims” was a suitable option to fulfil it. First of all, it helps students activate schemata relating the new subject matter with previous knowledge and infer the main topic; it serves as a visual aid while doing a listening activity about the new vocabulary, and also it shows students a model of how their final presentation could be. Then, doing collaborative work they have to decide how their ideal house would be discussing about the parts of the house they want to design, the type of furniture, number of rooms, and so on.

From prezi presentation "My house"

What is amazing in this game is that, while designing their own house, students will discover more words and concepts related to house and furniture enlarging their vocabulary. Therefore, they have to look them up in paper or online dictionaries and learn their use so as to include them in the description of the house.

Another advantage is that “The Sims” facilitates the students’ work when designing the house. It saves time, provides the necessary tools and all the members of the group can take turns to share the work and play fairly. Doing it on paper might have turned the activity tougher and boring. Besides, using this videogame can result in the creation of different types of houses that shows the diversity of ideas and students’ likes and dislikes.

All in all, technology should be considered as a tool that can be integrated in the teacher’s lesson plan not only to be used to entertain learners and be more innovative but mainly to support the learning teaching process helping to fulfil the objectives meaningfully.