I responded to Scott McLeod’s call to teachers who use video games in their classrooms. Here’s what I’ve been using lately with my students:
I use the customizable quiz games on ClassTools.net to make test prep fun and engaging. Students compete in small groups in one of the arcade-style games to qualify for a tournament of champions. And they study for Science tests.
To give the tournament more of an arcade feel, I use Wiimote Smoothboard from Boon Jin . I can connect a wiimote to my PC wirelessly and map custom keystrokes to the buttons to use the wiimote as a point-and-click input or a traditional video game control pad.
I also teach students to create their own games and animations with MIT’s free programming environment Scratch . The holy grail of student engagement is a marriage of Scratch with Wiimote Smoothboard to give students a taste of video game development. Coming soon…
Try out the latest Smoothboard 1.6 which has the autoconnect to computer mode using MS Bluetooth Stack. This reduces the hassles of manual Bluetooth connection.