Week 2 Entry 2: Response to Tanya Doll

Original post by Tanya Doll:

When I first started the gaming and education class I thought to myself that this class was not going to benefit me at all. I work for a company that would never allow gaming to be incorporated into the learning environment. Not to mention that I did not play many games. It wasn't until the very end of class that I decided to take a risk and talk to them about getting gaming into the company. I thought of Wii Wednesday's where I would set up a Wii game during the lunch hour and allow people to come in during their lunch break and relieve stress or just have some fun together. My company bought the idea and after implementing it I realized just how much people had forgotten how to let go and have fun. It has taken a little coaxing to get some people involved but now it is becoming the norm and more people are looking forward to playing.
I also have implemented a fun jeopardy game using PowerPoint to initialize the one year anniversary of the company. The categories are about each department giving everyone a chance to learn more about the other departments. This game is also used in the new hire orientation at the end to get people remembering what they had learned in a fun way.

You can go to:
http://www.murray.k12.ga.us/teacher/kara%20leonard/Mini%20T%27s/Games/Games.htm
There you will find all kinds of templates for games that can be used in school or any organization.

Response to Tanya Doll:

Thanks for the link Tanya! I love using the jeopardy template for reviews before a quiz, and these other game show themed templates look great. The templates are easy to follow and made to edit the info so it is easy for any level PowerPoint user. Wii, online games, and customizable templates are great resources in team building activities for a company or for classroom use in presenting new information.  

The gaming class did provide several opportunities for understanding gaming and some of its uses, but I must admit I do not like all constant updates and reminders from Farmville after the class was over. Actually, I completely deleted Farmville from my facebook applications a few days after the class was over. Playing Farmville was fun, but keeping up with it was not a good option for me during the time of thesis revisions and project development.