Wehrley Support and Next Steps

We've got the data. Where do we go from here?

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Support and Next Steps

This research project took place during hybrid teaching, distance learning, and the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many of the conventions and practices that one could employ during a more normal teaching year were disrupted or rendered moot. While I was able to gather a fair amount of useful data, even under these unusual conditions, great potential still exists in exploring and expanding this research during a year when circumstances are less restrictive and teachers can bring their full arsenal of teaching tools to bear. Additional research with a larger sample size could be a great help in further clarifying and building upon the results of my study.

Additional Research Questions

Some questions that could guide further research are:

How familiar are different students and student populations with video games, and how does this background and experience affect their abilities to use video games as a tool for learning?
Where do video games and text-only narratives differ? Where do they overlap? How can these two mediums be used to complement each other in English language arts classes?
How can video games be leveraged for more targeted instructional activities?
How can assessments be adapted and improved to incorporate the kinds of multimodal texts and new literacy abilities that students are already using today?

Next Steps

In order to continue pursuing the subject of my research, I plan to explore the following:

Creating additional slideshows and video tutorials to help other teachers understand the bigger takeaways from my research about different literacies and virtual worlds
Developing more lessons that other teachers can incorporate into their own teaching, including more targeted instructional activities that leverage specific aspects of video games in strategic ways
Researching and constructing new types of assessments that focus on different types of media, multimodal texts, and new literacy abilities
Generating and sharing image and audio assets that teachers and students can utilize to create their own games and virtual worlds quickly and easily
Building a computer program that allows students to create 3D virtual worlds in a simple, efficient, and enjoyable manner
Expanding my research to include the use of virtual reality devices and virtual reality computer programs in making and understanding narratives

Thank You

I would like to thank NapaLearns for providing so many educators with such wonderful opportunities to create new and innovative approaches in teaching so that we can all build a better education system for our students. For more great resources, please check out their website at NapaLearns.org.

I would also like to thank all of the instructors in the Touro University Innovative Learning Master’s program for their continuous support. For more information about the Innovative Learning Master's program, please check out their website at cehs.tu.edu/gsoe/online/innovative

Last but not least, thank you to my wife for putting up with me and all of my talk about video games and education during these last twelve months! Her continuous support and encouragement throughout every step of this journey allowed me to complete my research and finish this graduate program during one of the most difficult years of teaching in modern history. I couldn’t have done it without her!

Research

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