opinion - The McKendree Review

All Fun and Games: Video Games and Learning

21Apr

By The McKendree ReviewNo Comments

Opinion

All Fun and Games: Video Games and Learning

By Andrew Gardewine, Contributing Writer Lebanon, Ill. - Many people don’t consider video games to be a legitimate source for learning. Video games have been given the label as a form of leisure-time play, are considered childish and are seen as something that people eventually grow out of in order to pursue more serious ventures. Play is considered something done in order to release tension and blow off steam to help focus on work ahead. In his essay ‘The Rhetoric of Video Games,’ Ian Bogost uses school recess as an example to relate video games to something people use to blow off steam. “Children learn while seated in desks, listening attentively to a teacher or reading from a book. This sort of valid learning is interrupted by recess, where children are allowed to play. Understood in t...

What’s all the Yammer about?

BY ANNA BELMONTE Staff Writer Join groups. Get connected. Build yet another Facebook-like community. It will replace email; it will make Academia easier; it will keep you informed. We have been hearing a lot about Yammer, that McKendree made the switch from email to social media and that students and faculty should use it. While there is a lot of support for the transition, there is also prevailing dissent in the campus community. Some people just don’t want something new, and they don’t like hearing that change is a must. So what is the big deal? What opinions about Yammer are circulating campus, and why do people feel the way they do? What is all the yammer about? Let’s explore the issues that sprouted Yammer and the potential it unlocks. We will also look at the good, the bad and t...

Please don’t cry about Wi-Fi

BY LAUREN REEVES Staff Writer This semester, students have sent numerous emails. Dialed in hyperventilated & breathless calls. And, frantically marched their way to the Information Technology (IT) department located in the lower level of the Marion K. Piper Academic Center. Why are the students doing this? The reason is that the students of McKendree University are fed up with the Wi-Fi capabilities offered. However, there is nothing to fear. Students no longer have to worry because IT is here to help. The department is aware of the issues users are facing when working with the Wi-Fi. Over the summer, IT was allowed to expand their offices in order to hire more staff members to combat all the issues that students may face. What most students don’t know is that McKendree has over 6,000 ...