Gaming

Gaming has accelerated quite a bit in recent years.  These games range from simple paper and pencil to complex online gaming.  As a teacher I think that gaming can be a very useful and beneficial tool in the classroom.  If used appropriately and monitored students will benefit from gaming because they are from the technological era never knowing a world in which digital games were always an important part of their lives.  They have all the resources of the needed knowledge to access all these forms of gaming.  According to the 2010 Horizon Report research into games for educational purposes reveals some interesting trends.  Early studies of consumer games helped to identify the aspects of games that make them especially engaging and appealing to players of various ages and of both genders:  the feeling of working toward a goal; the possibility of attaining spectacular successes; the ability to problem-solve, collaborate with others, and socialize; an interesting story line; and other characteristics.  Gaming offers many positive advantages in an educational environment as a pose to reading about it in a textbook.  Technology engages students so much more than just reading about it.  Gaming and computer simulation encourage a learner not only to wonder, "What would happen if ...?" but also try out those alternatives virtually and see the consequences right in front of them according to Simulation Nation: The Promise of Virtual Learning Activities.  Some other benefits this technology offers to an educational environment according to the video No Gamer Left Behind is the opportunity for students to do real life procedures like surgery and be able to make mistakes without the real life consequences or experience an emergency room and the interactions with patients and other doctors. 
The 3 sites that I thought were interesting and fun were Shepphard Software, Arcademic Skill Builders, and Gamequarium.  Shepphard Software offers games in all subjects.  I played around with some Language games with nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  I also played a life cycle game.  Both games were fun and engaging.  Arcademic Skill Builders had Math, Language, and Geography games.  I played a state and capital game that was very helpful, it made me think :)  The last site was Gamequarium and this had games in all subjects as well, but the best part of this site was that it had e-books that could be downloaded for free.  I read through some of them.  This was very entertaining to me since I've never actually done anything with e-books.  Great games and technologies.