Nov 23 2008
Wii in my Classroom
I am delighted to get our Nintendo Wii installed and setup in our classroom. To get the audio working I used a small jack for the connections and ran it from the Wii into the PC’s Line In and then out again to speakers. We have one for each of the Year 5 and 6 classrooms. Not only will it obviously be lots of fun, I am hoping to make the most of the games to support learning. We have the Sports game and also Big Brain Academy which looks good. Soon I will take a closer look at BBA and see what more it has to offer in terms of classroom use, so look out for that soon.
Here is one sketchy idea already: Addition and Subtraction using Wii Golf (part of the Sports game) Use as a maths starter, an engaging way to generate whole class sums or even a small group activity – children take a shot, we subtract from the total yardage for that hole. Written addition of the yards for different shots. Total yards of shots around a short course. The yardage will only ever be into three digits for a single shot – unless I get a go and it will be less! Perfect 2 and 3 digit addition and subtraction for the age group of our class.
So much more to explore!
Next week we will be getting the children creating their Mii avatars and I will try to find a way to export those images for use elsewhere. I wish that back when I was ten my classroom was this much fun.
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18 Responses to “Wii in my Classroom”
This sounds like so much fun!! You could also use the bowling feature of games to work on addition with the kids. I have BBA and love it–lots of educational potential. Not sure how it works, but there is a cooking game that may work on measurement. Good luck and have lots of fun!!
@Tammy – I have never been able to get my head around the points system for bowling though. But you are right that is another good way in, thankyou.
This sounds great, you could do estimation of angles in the pool/snooker. Lots of health education with the wii fit and of course there is the boxing game!!
It will be interesting to see the results, so I can put it to my headteacher.
Will you be able to use the online facility of the Wii? We can’t connect ours to the network…
That may make it easier to get the avatars out… otherwise photos of screenshots?
I think I may need to “borrow” our Wii to do some “research” this weekend! (maybe have some pals round to role play the pupils!)
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This is really a clever idea! I love the idea of using games for teaching math.
Have you used Alice with your students? Alice is a virtual world development environment, completely free at alice.org. Your students might have fun with using the math required in Alice. Middle school aged kids seem to be able to make it work.
Anyway, just thought I’d throw it out there for you. The leap between playing games and making games isn’t far with environments like Alice.
Your classroom looks awesome! Where do you teach at? I wish I could get that into my Learning Support Classroom!
You could definitely use the sports game for addition and subtraction reinforcement.
Creaing the Miis will involve learning about attributes.
As far as educational games for Wii – I’ve heard about Chess Crusade, Smarty Pants, and My Word Coach. Wii Fit would be great as well, promoting excercise never hurts anyone.
However, do you think it’s going to be harder to grab the kids’ attention for lessons that don’t involve the Wii? Are they going to be bored out of their mind with pencils and paper now?
Good luck with the Wii!
Wow what a great idea! Kudos to your administration for approving this, as well. There needs to be more teacher like you, willing to change the old school style to reach the students of today.
I hope many positive results become of this.
[...] Wii in my Classroom | ICT in my Classroom – Read More [...]
Great idea! I look forward to seeing the creative ways that teachers use this technology.
[...] his blog, Tom Barrett discusses how he plans to use a Wii game system to teach and reinforce math concepts in his [...]
[...] Wii in my Classroom [...]
Thanks for sharing your innovation. I’m a part of a wiki focused on the Nintendo Wii in education.
http://wiilearn.wikispaces.com/
Would love to see what you’re up to.
The Wii Fit has great potential for integrating health and PE along with math into your classroom. It’s an extra cost but worth looking into!
[...] Wii’s have a place in classrooms? Tom Barrett’s post Wii in My Classroom gave an example of the world’s most popular entertainment system’s integration into [...]
[...] out this article to see how one teacher is usingthe Wii in the classroom. Also, do not forget to check the comments [...]
I really like that you can integrate this fun technology into your classroom to teach math! Students always have a disgust for learning math, so maybe using games to learn math will sprout positive feelings towards math and hopefully prompt them to enjoy learning
Also, by using the Wii in your classroom, you are using something that the kids are familiar with to learn new material. Great!
A bit of a late reply but google ‘Mii Avatar’ and use a screenshot to capture the image. Works nicely.
Al