Gaming Technology in Education
WRTG 101S
Writing Assignment #3: Research-Supported Essay
Writing Assignment #3 will be a research-supported essay.
Courses that fulfill the General Education Requirements (GERs) at UMUC all have a common theme—technological transformations. In following this theme throughout this semester in WRTG 101, we have read the analyses of various authors on innovations and technological transformations in education and in other fields.
In this essay, you will continue this theme of technological transformations.
You have two choices for your essay topic. Please choose one of the two choices. Please note that both choices are identical to the choices you had for writing assignment #2, the cause-effect essay. You may write on the same topic that you wrote on for writing assignment #2; however, you may be asked to adjust the topic in some direction in order to write a more successful research paper. In addition, of course, you will expand on the number of sources you use to defend your argument.
1. TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION
Analyze the impact of a particular trend in technology on education.
Our discussions in the class up to this point might be helpful for you as you consider ideas for this topic.
You might analyze any one of the following. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.
a. The potential effects of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in higher education. You might focus on a particular field of study for this choice.
b. The effects of online courses on education. You might focus on a particular field of study for this choice.
c. The effects of using digital media in online courses
d. The effects of computer use in writing courses or courses in other disciplines
e. The effects of certain forms of technology on reading skills or reading habits
f. The potential effects of video games being introduced into schools and used to help educate students
2. TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR FIELD OF STUDY
Analyze the impact of technology on a field of study of your choice.
This option represents a more general approach to the essay.
Some examples might be the following. These are just examples. Many approaches are possible for this topic.
a. The effects of mobile devices on cybersecurity
b. The effects of the Internet on the field of advertising
c. The effects of cloud computing on a particular business field
d. The effects of the Internet in an area of communication studies
e. The effects of the Internet on global marketing strategies
f. The effects of a particular type of technology on health care
Outline for the essay
The essay should have the following elements:
- an engaging introductory paragraph. You might even want to cite sources in the opening paragraph to make your opening engaging to the reader.
- an effective and clear thesis statement
- a statement of definitions and background on the topic on which you are writing.
o You will want to define any terms necessary for the reader.
o You may want to provide a historical background on your topic.
- unified, supported, and coherent body paragraphs that defend the thesis
- sources cited throughout the body paragraphs that support the arguments in the paper
- an effective conclusion
- a “references” page that lists the sources cited. The references should be listed in APA format.
The sources and citation format for this essay
You are required to use at least six sources for this essay.
At least four sources must be acquired through the databases subscribed to by UMUC's Information and Library Services. In addition, at least three sources are to come from scholarly journals.
Keep in mind that if the sources are scholarly, the argument you make in the paper will be more persuasive. For this reason, feel free to use all scholarly sources if you can.
In addition, please feel free to cite more than six sources. You may find that seven or eight sources (or more) are necessary to establish your argument and defend your thesis. Please do not feel limited to using only six sources. Use more if you would like to or need to.
Please cite your sources and list them at the end of your paper using APA format.
Length: 1300-1500 words
The strategy for this essay:
This essay can be a persuasive essay, in which you try to persuade the reader of a particular position. Or it can be an expository essay that synthesizes material, an essay in which you give information to the reader and synthesize the different viewpoints on an issue. The following examples help illustrate these two approaches.
For a persuasive essay, you could take the position that video games should be integrated into school science curricula to teach middle school students. You would cite articles that demonstrate research studies and other pieces of evidence to support the claim that video games can enhance instruction in science classes and will help middle school students learn science more effectively.
If you write a persuasive essay, please follow one of the following three options for organization:
- Classical (deductive) approach
- Inductive approach
- Refutation approach
More information on these three styles is given in the following video tutorial:
http://info(dot)umuc(dot)edu/academicwrtg/WRTG101_101S/wa3_lecture_f.html
For an expository essay, you could synthesize information on this topic, one that summarizes and analyzes the evidence for and against using video games in school curricula.
Format
- Double space.
- Include a title page with the paper's title, your name, the date, and “WRTG 101S.”
- Cite sources using APA format
- Submit your paper as an attachment
Technology and Education
Assignment three rough draft
Introduction
Technology is an aspect of using technical knowledge in various fields, with close reference to manipulating machine capabilities and computers, with the main aim of making life easier. Over the last few decades, technology has had fundamental influence in the lives of everyone regardless of their field of occupation or age and other demographic characteristics. Today technology forms the backbone of most of the social and economic aspects of the global relations and economics (Granic, Lobel & Engels, 2014). One of the areas that are fundamental to every area of life is education and research. With the level of influence that technology has had in the last several decades, the integration of technology and education has had massive influence which will be felt for ages to come. These are effects that are likely to trickle down to other areas which are directly or indirectly related to education such as the economy. Technology changes fast and with it there are so many developments and applications that can improve the education system immensely.
Thesis statement: This paper looks at the some of the ways that technology and education can be integrated to enhance delivery (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2011). Further, integrating technology in education will enhance the deliverables now and in the future.
Gaming Technology in Education
Starting from the 70s when the inventions of the gaming platforms started showing up, the games have grown both in functionality and versatility. By the end of 2014, the gaming industry is estimated to have reached the $86 billion dollar mark. This is because; it has become one of the fastest growing consumer markets in the last few decades. Despite the fact that there some of the games titles that have been thought to be too violent, there are some very fundamental applications in education to help student understand the content of their studies with great ease. Much of these educational applications can be put to use in high schools and other lower school systems where the impact would be quite significant (Corso, 2014). This is not to say that there are no other higher educational levels where the simulations can be used. In the air force and even in the car manufacturing industries, especially ones with racing teams, simulations are quite common. Doctors and nurses have in the past been involved in games that simulate Alzheimer’s disease and the various training objectives are engrained in the simulation (Squire & Jenkins, 2011).
Most of the studies indicate that the video games help the students, at whatever the level to develop their physical and psychological abilities as well as the psychological ones. The effects as highlighted earlier range from the positive ones to the negatives and everything else in between. The games in this case have some elements of physical and mental activities that the students are supposed to interact with and a set of goals and objectives to be achieved in a given span of time alongside some form of rewards. Games also include rules, challenges and the feedback mechanisms to help the students to follow through with the objectives of the game and those of the instructor. The physical and psychological abilities are enhanced as the students interact with the game and they have to connect what they are thinking to what they are doing.
Through the challenges that are strategically crafted, the students are required to use their problem solving skills. At the same time the aspects of decision making are applied at every level, thereby combining a number of skills and applying them on educational material. It calls for the students to enhance their cognitive skills at every level as the challenges are mounted in their complexity relative to the objective of the lesson within the games and the skills that the students has developed over the course of their learning, socially and when playing the game. The cognitive skills are developed after the student has learned to coordinate their physical movement and actions (Theesa.com, 2014). This is due to the fact that, cognitive abilities relate to memory, language, attention, problem solving, perceptions, decision making and all aspects related to reasoning objectively (Gee, 2004). As students engage with the video game contents, they draw on their ability to follow instructions, read and comprehend and execute the objectives. This means that they have to develop rationality in their mental processes, visual acuity and objective responses relative to the learning objectives of the game (Devlin, 2011). Most research findings indicate that, games used as educational platforms, improve the abilities of the students, with reference to spatial skills, strategic planning/resources management, logistics, patterns recognition, visual acuity, short memory, perseverance, multitasking abilities, execution abilities and time management relative to the task at hand.
.Gaming technology in health care
Much like the gaming technology has found its way in the educational sector; it is also widely used in the health care sector. Gaming in the health care sector is quite significant, much like in the educational sector where the medical practitioners are trained on how best to handle some of the health conditions such as surgery (Griffi...