Alice in Wonderland Adventure
Let me first admit that I hardly ever play games on Facebook that I can’t remember the last time I did it. I had to ask my children who play tons of games there. I started today with my daughter’s choice: Brain Buddies. The game is much fun and awfully engaging and can develop multi literacies away from the memory tricks: visual, mathematical and logical.
The visual literacy as understood by researchers is how we understand and perceive images we see. Visual literacy is significant for teaching young children how to read. If children can’t recognize the letters or numbers, they won’t be able to read. I believe visual literacy is the grounding base of both the Web and e-learning since the learner relies more on reading online, interacting with the teacher and mates using icons and buttons that s/he needs to recognize to use correctly. Thus, Brain Buddies lends itself to be an e-learning medium for children for many subject matters: reading, geography (maps), science (symbols) and math (numbers and signs).
Speaking of math brings along the second literacy Brain Buddies may develop. Math requires speed as well as accuracy in calculations. This is exactly what Brain Buddies trains players on. It builds on the visual literacy to teach children basic arithmetic. Although the game focuses on basic mathematical literacy, it can be very useful with children. It’s engaging and requires good deal of concentration and speed.
Now we come to logical literacy which I believe is in the core of our work as writing teachers who endeavor to develop students’ analytical and argumentative skills. Brain Buddies has an addictive logic component that teachers can use to train students implicitly on analyzing what they can see before choosing the correct pattern. This simply teaches students how to stop and think before making any decision and how to make sound judgments based on analysis rather than appearance. A pedagogical application of this component is for the teacher to ask students to explain their choices. This entails making a claim (the choice) and using evidence (reasons behind the choice). Can’t think of a better preparation for argumentative writing. Worth trying, right?
One more comment due here: I never saw Facebook games from literacy lens. I’m almost sure the game developers didn’t have any pedagogy or literacy ideas in their minds as they were developing Brain Buddies. Yet, like any other medium around us in the social discourse, we, teachers, can utilize Facebook games to serve our objectives and to boost the new generation’s literacies.
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