When I first started reading this article I didn't think I could understand how video games help students learn. I liked that the teacher Al Doyle expected his students to chart the patterns of the robots in the game on pieces of graph paper. I also liked that they got to design their own games. I understand how doing this is teaching them problem solving. I think its cool that there is an entire school devoted to teaching students using video games.
I remember when I was in sixth grade computers were still relatively new in my school. Each classroom didn't have their own computers but we had a computer room and we had a computer class twice a week. I liked my computer class because we got to play games on the computer. One of the games which was my favorite looked like a race track and a car drove around the track but it only went as fast as you typed. You had to type the words that floated in the middle of the track so your car would go. Before we played this game for the first time we played other computer games to help us remember which fingers we were supposed to use for the different letter keys on he keyboard. At the time I remember wondering why the keys weren't in alphabetical order. I really liked these games, everyone in my class thought they were fun. At the time I didn't really think I was learning anything, I just thought it was fun to make my car go faster by typing the words. I now understand that gaming can help students learn because now as an adult I can type 60 words per minute. I wouldn't have been able to do that if we hadn't used those games. I don't know if everyone in my class learned to type as well as I can but the games worked for me.
I also think it's neat that the school in the article wanted to set up Rock Band for the teachers to unwind with. That would be really cool.
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