One thing I have learned throughout my Genius Hour Project is that an overwhelming number of edutainment games are directed at children between the ages of preschool and grades two and three. I never noticed this before - while games certainly do exist for older students, I didn't realize that there were a lot less than those directed at younger students.



I also hadn't really thought about the fact that a lot (but, of course, not all) of educational games are set in the format of a group of minigames, while minigame collections are not among the more popular kinds of non-educational games. While this style might be fun for younger kids, in my experience, older students are more interested in games with real goals and achievements to work towards.

Through my experiences in this course, I've learned that there are so many tools available online to help enrich education - if used properly. I have noticed in my life that a fair amount of teachers tend to shy away from using much tech in their classes, and I fear that I might end up being the opposite; using cool technology just for cool technology's sake isn't a good strategy either. I've realized that I need to learn how to strike that balance and use tools where they make sense and are a benefit, not just because I think that they're interesting.

Going forward, I think I personally need to focus on not necessarily learning about new technology, but learning how to integrate any available technology into a class effectively - and knowing when to choose not to integrate it at all.