It's Official....

I'm a dinosaur. I've thought that for a number of years, but today there was absolutely no question. I combined my art class with the music class for a "down" day between AIMS testing. The kids looked at a video game called Guitar Hero. OMG.......

This was so interactive and full of so many potential skills for the kids: eye-hand coordination, working with rhythms, practicing, listening and discriminating sounds, use of digital art to set up each song, motivation. I could go on. About mid-way through my 5th period, all I could think about was "how can math possibly hope to compete with something like this?" A couple of the boys were outstanding, and we had two girls with the highest string of correct notes. I can see where some kids would stay glued to this game to practice for hours.

There's nothing like it that I'm aware of for math. And therein lies a huge opportunity - develop some educational games that excite and instill like this music one. Could you imagine how math scores would go up?

The technology is obviously there. The technology is beyond me - I'm from the black and white TV generation. While I like to think I am more computer savvy than the average person my age, this video is so beyond my understanding.

In redesigning the whole educational system, we need something like this....And redesigning - not bandaging - the system is the way we MUST go.