NEWS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original Source: http://www.zawya.com, 6th March 2011

http://tinyurl.com/4hmsj5l

Doha, Qatar (6 March 2011): There is no doubt video games are increasingly an ingrained part of children's lives, and many people see a potential negative impact of this. But could gaming be a way to improve learning? The Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQATAR)hosted an interactive workshop on Gaming in Education as part of its ICT Pedagogical Workshop series yesterday. More than 100 teachers from across Qatar attended the workshop, which was held at Carnegie Mellon University-Qatar.

 

"Children play computer and video games all the time, they are fun and engaging. Whilst playing they deploy a number of strategies and develop a range of skills. Educators need to understand and build on this to discover new opportunities for teaching and learning," said Khawar Iqbal, Digital Literacy Communication Manager at ictQATAR

 

Workshop participants heard from numerous international experts and were able to do many hands-on activities related to integrating gaming into their classroom. A variety of topics were covered at the workshop, including: using, evaluating and building educational games for the classroom; cyber safety and gaming; collaborative design for quest based learning; and game based pedagogy.

 

 

"Educational games can empower student learning and thinking as an important part of a teacher-led 21st Century classroom. It's in its early stages and we have much to learn, but the potential for gaming as part of the educational process is becoming more and more apparent," said John Turner IT Facilitator at Qatar Academy.

 

 

This is the third ICT Pedagogical Workshop held by ictQATAR. Previous topics covered were the e-content and mobile learning. .