Moursund

My latest book, available free on the Web.

I have just completed my book, Introduction to Using Games in Education: A Guide for Teachers and Parents. It is available free, in PDF and Microsoft Word formats, at
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7emoursund/Books/Games/games.html.

Using traditional games as aids to learning

From the time I was a child, I have enjoyed playing games. About a year ago, I began thinking about writing a book on uses of games in education.

I have made gradual progress on this project, and I can see now that I will eventually finish a book. Like all of my recent books, it will be made available free on my website.

The project has proven to be quite inteeresting. There are many things that one can learn through learning and playing traditional games board games, card games) on a computer or without the use of a computer. Since problem solving is one of my professional interests, I have spent a lot of time thinking about roles of games in helping studetns get better at problem solving. What I have found is that many of the strategies used in playing games are applicable to problem solving in many different disciplines. Thus, with appropriate help from a teacher on transfer of learning, games can be an excellent vehicle in teaching problem solving.

Reading and learning vocabulay

In recent weeks I have become interested in the topic of reading in content areas. After spending quite a bit of time browsing, reading, talking to knowledgeable people, and so on, I have come to the conclusion that our K-12 education system is not doing very well in helping students learn to read in content areas such as math and science.

What appears to be happening is that our educational system works on helping students build vocabulary, both in general and within specific disciplines such as science and math. However, knowing the vocabulary is only a modest part of what it takes to read science and math with understanding.

I am reminded of when I used to teach computer programming in FORTRAN using a book with a title "Ten Statement FORTRAN." Learning to program in FORTRAN certainly involves learning some vocabulary. However, learning the vocabulary is a tiny fraction of what it means ot learn to be a good programmer in a programming language.

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