[Edu] Re: Making the case

[Magi D. Shepley]

I have to go with Laurie.  I had noted the last time that the standards 
at education world aren't standards.  They are links to the National 
Council's for the various teacher organizations... NCTE and NCTM 
(National Council for Teachers of English/Mathematics).  Their standards 
are extremely vague and don't align to most state standards that I have 
been looking at.  One of the groups I am active in within the Council 
for Exceptional Children did cite the NCTE standards as a starting point 
for focusing groups (I helped write the paper, although its not 
published yet), but recommends that for making state standards 
functional for children with developmental disabilities that each state 
select a group of teachers or that each district form an ad-hoc group to 
perform this task because each state has DIFFERENT standards at 
different grade levels.  You can make them align in some cases (I've 
done so with Maryland and Virginia science standards for another 
presentation I've given), but it isn't easy and can be a stretch.  I've 
attempted to align 7-8th grade math & English in PA, MD and VA to add to 
my master's project which was a curriculum to teach pre-vocational 
job-skills, specifically focused on the intial skills needed for the job 
search.  It wasn't possible at that time, and although Maryland has 
become more specific, Pennsylvania has not.  Virginia has been extremely 
specific with their standards of learning for at least 10 years.  New 
York is another state that has been (I'm not sure if they still are) 
extremely specific.   And in a state like Pennsylvania where there are 
501 individual school districts, you're probably going to have a very 
difficult time writing standards that each person in each district in 
each school will agree to follow.

Magi

Laurie Menke wrote:

>I agree that standards should be the main focus.  I
>also think a case for why games are useful educational
>tools in general is beneficial as well.  However, I
>disagree that the national standards are the way to
>go, as I've stated in an earlier post.  My main point
>is that in states with high-stakes testing, such as
>mine (California), knowing that a game fits the
>national standards won't mean a thing to
>administrators.  All they want to know is if it will
>increase test scores, which are very specific to
>California standards.  I believe that's true for many,
>if not most, states these days.  Therefore, I still
>feel that it's important to have a web site where
>teachers can click on their specific state and see how
>the games match their specific standards.
>
>My 2 cents,
>
>Laurie
>
>
>--- Pat Fuge - Gnome Games <pat at gnomegames.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Standards - please let teachers know exactly how
>>each game meets specific standards - while all of
>>the previously mentioned items are important it is
>>standards that are important at the end of the day.
>>
>>Thus, if we can show that a game makes it easier and
>>fun to learn a concept or meets a specific standard
>>or part of a standard and is fun, easy to use in the
>>classroom, and improves the overall learning
>>experience and retention we have a winner.
>>
>>I would use the national standards available at
>>
>>    
>>
>http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/index.shtml
>  
>
>>as these are put forward by educators at a national
>>level and try to cmply with state standards across
>>the board.
>>By showing what standards a specific games content
>>meets it becomes a viable educational resource for
>>the classroom instead of a feel good thing to add to
>>existing materials. Moving it from dessert to the
>>main course.
>>
>>Pat Fuge
>>Gnome Games
>>www.gnoemgames.com
>>
>>    
>>
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