By George, It Worked

Today's lesson was a success, all but one student left the session with a narrowed topic. As I mentioned yesterday, I felt there was a need to modify our instruction lecture to change it from a traditional lecture to something that engaged the class more. I took the 50 minute class time and broke it into 3 sections (brief overview lecture, individual topic exploration, and reporting findings) each were about 15 minutes each. The short introduction provided the class a framework for approaching topics and developing a thesis question, but surprising to some of the students in the class... I stopped talking.

I like to talk as much as the next librarian, but by turning the topic discovery and teaching back on the class they were instantly more engaged and tied into their assignment. Each student was focused on finding a topic and exploring the region. I was pleased that no one was really out on a limb doing their own thing.

Taking a look in the mirror and analzying what we already are doing is a great place to start incorporating video game strategies. Today again showed me, that we can gain the benefits of video games through modifying our existing sessions to increase student choice, and personalization.


Photo via Flickr.com by Automania