This is a great way for teens to get educated early about getting vaccinations and a great way to promote good health. If you make a point to educate early on then it can help students to make healthy choices later on in life. This idea of a virtual world definitely reaches out to a different age group. It was easy and fun to explore around this little virtual world.
It was easy and fun to explore the whyville. In the town there were a lot of different houses I could explore and learn a wide variety of information from. But this virtual world may teach something but then it also may just be a game for them to play, not learn anything. I found it hard to actually understand what I was really supposed to do but explore. I wanted more structure through the virtual world. There could’ve been more information available to the audience. This is a great starting point but more attention needs to go towards health care.
Personal health behaviors are best addressed in this manor of the virtual world. These little characters are allowed to go where ever they please but then in real life they can also make their own decisions. Once they make these healthy decisions they can apply these choices to their own lives, not just to their virtual lives.
I got lost in the virtual world. I liked the fact that I could explore freely but I then again saw this as a game, not a learning experience. I wasn’t exactly the target audience, but I could’ve still had more information available to me. I explored the doctor’s house in the whyville and there wasn’t a lot about health at all. It was however a place where students could ask question about the things in the room.
This interactive game most appeals to the younger generation. This is very helpful because most of new information today is portrayed over the internet and this is helping them to understand how to get this information. This is a way for them to learn how to make healthy decisions and at the same time, learn how to safely use the internet. This could be promoted more widely if students of the target age were exposed to this in the classroom. Maybe monitored by a teacher and then they could help guide them towards the health information in this whyville.
3 comments:
I visited the same sight as you and I agree with everything you have to say. The site is a great way to learn about various health topics and it makes it fun for kids so they actually want to learn. The parts about getting flu shots I thought were pretty cool. There is a big push by health promoters to get everyone to get the flu shot. If you get children to get learn about this when they are younger than you are much more likely to get one when you are older. I agree with the games, kids love to play online games and that is the best way to teach them about health facts. If you get them to play a really fun game that allows them to learn about something like eating healthy, than you have done your job. I think that if we enough children to participate in websites like this, that there would be a significant positive impact on our youth.
I also participated in Whyville!! Although I found myself more frustrated with trying to figure out what to do then enjoying myself. However certain parts of the world are very beneifcial to the younger targeted population. I really liked that the virtual world explored more aspects of health other then just physical. One game that I found dealt with ones environmental health by showing how to properly recycle!! Whyville is a great way for young kids to learn and health promoters to reach this population. However I do not see this as being useful to older populations mostly because they just do not have the time to play these more or less computer games.
I visited Whyville too, but I seem to have had less of a positive experience. I do agree about the exploring part, and I really didn't understand what else there was to do. I did not find the part about flu shots, and only saw the recycling influences of the game. I thought that that was awesome, but I was not really that thrilled overall. The game is not exactly a piece of cake to understand and navigate, and applies to a specific audience. It also made my computer freeze, which I didn't appreciate...
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