Is There a Budget for Xbox?

Kurt Squire, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of curriculum and instruction, spoke on his experiences researching simulations and games in learning environments. David Williamson Shaffer, a professor at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, told the audience about his interest in how computer-based media change the way people think and learn.
Researchers say video games have many attributes that help people learn:

1. They activate prior learning, because players must use previously learned information to move to higher levels of play.
2. Games provide immediate feedback in scoring and in visual and auditory stimulus, which allows learners to more quickly modify their learning strategies before the ineffective ones become entrenched.
3. Skill transfer from games to real life is much more likely to occur.
4. Motivation to learn new ideas or tasks is higher when games are used for most people (although some prefer to learn in traditional ways).

When students come to your class with new technologies do you think of it as an opportunity or an obstacle? How can you use technologies like I phones, I pods, or blackberries to increase your students learning opportunities?
Source: Wisconsin Technology Network