Week Twelve: Finalizing our Presentation

This week our team’s focus has been on creating a presentation for our game proposal using Prezi.  We have found that we can share the project and can work on it either independently or collectively.  During our team meetings this week (and last) we could work collaboratively on the Prezi while communicating through Eluminate.  That has been a nice layer for teamwork.

Laying out the order of the slides, deciding which graphics to use, transfers, as well as when to use text, when to use voice overs, and when to use both seem to have been the process for each slide.  It’s been enjoyable to working with this team.  We have a good process in place, strong communications, and a final presentation that is shaping up nicely.  We’ve agreed to do the final agreed upon tasks and then take a final look at it again over the weekend before declaring it DONE.  Can’t wait!  I hope everyone else is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel that is calling our names. 

Week 11: Oh the thinks that we’ve thunk…

Yep, it’s been another week of thinking up thoughts.  Our team met twice this week to discuss where we are, where we’re going, and how we’d get there.

Where we are…Feeling good about our game idea in general.  Its focus on Alaska and protecting Alaska’s resources in order to avoid the overreach of the Capital fits the bill of our overall goal. Additionally, players will achieve their ultimate win by collaborating with one another to protect those resources.  Edmodo will be the vehicle with which the game is played.  Through Edmodo, teachers have the ability to group students, award badges for level advancement, and monitor all posts prior to going live.

Where we’re going...We need to finalize our proposal and develop a presentation. 

How we’ll get there… Over the weekend team members will continue to work though details, wording of, and layout of our final game proposal on our Wiki page.  We’ve already begun playing with Prezi as our presentation tool. (This has proved to be somewhat time consuming as we are learning as we go.)  We decided to put the presentation on the back burner until after our proposal is completed. We’ll meet again early next week to tackle it again.

Week 10: Serious Game Creation or Confusion?

The best thing about this week was meeting as a team in Elimunate and finding out that I was not the only one feeling way out of my comfort zone. I have a great team!

We started our meeting by trying to determine just what the focus was supposed to be.  We had conflicting ideas about how we were to use The Hunger Games book one. Are we trying to avoid Panem? And if so, then there are no Hunger Games?  Or, are we designing a game based on the actual Hunger Games in the story?  We all agreed that the later was too morbid, too violent for a school game and the first option was likely more desirable.  This lead to a discussion about what caused the separation of districts, the Capitol, and what we would need to do (and know) to avoid it.

Once we had begun to conceptualize a game that would focus on avoiding Panem, we turned our attention to what free online tools and social media we might use.  We discussed possibilities such as Facebook, blogging through Moodle, and Edmodo.  We reflected on games such as the World without Oil, The Oregon Trail, Farmville and the range of simplicity to complexity that each offered. The ideas starting flowing.  What would our levels look like?  How would players advance?  What will collaboration look like?  Badges anyone? How long will it take to play the game?  How do they WIN the game?  We kicked around a lot of great stuff for about an hour and a half and then decided to adjourn, think on it, and meet again the following day to see what we could pin down.

Our second meeting took place on Thursday following our Twitter session. During our second meeting on Eluminate, we built on our overreaching focus of trying to avoid Panem. In our game, a community (Alaska) will be trying to remain self sufficient and the Capital will be trying to overtake it and thereby control its resources (gold).  We determined what levels will look like, how to advance from each, what kind of class collaboration will be necessary, and the variety of groups.  We made a lot of good progress even though we had to restrain ourselves at times as the ideas grew.  For the sake of completing this task and not over complicating the game, we decided to keep the focus doable.

We will meet again at the beginning of next week to hash out more specifics and hopefully draft a proposal for a fantastically fun serious game!

Week Nine: Contributions to the learning of others

This week in review…

• Tuesday I met with Chris for just over four hours to discuss and review this week’s assignments.  We spent a great deal of time trying to conceptualize a game using social media which would help avoid Panem.  We sent an email to Lee with specific questions about the how-tos of this week’s assignment.
• I helped Chris with the process of how to review a game within the wiki.
• In order to begin the conversation on game mechanics I added a page to team 3’s wiki space for that discussion to happen.  I sited http://gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics as a reference point.  I tweeted this information in order to communicate with my team.  I also shared Lee’s response to the above mentioned email with my team on this wikipage.
• I reviewed games and tweeted each one at #etlead.
• I asked #etlead during our Twitter session about how to review a game that is not listed.  Lee let us all know to email her directly, that she would have to make a review page.
• I posted my blog on Friday and tweeted it at #etlead.
• I read  several great blogs and offered a link to a visual reference of online tools focused on Blooms Taxonomy  in a comment on Chris’s:   http://morethanenglish.edublogs.org/files/2011/09/bloom-interactive-pyramid-12ta9bt.jpg.

Week Nine: What are the challenges in shifting content from what, to where, and how?

What: fact based

recall and understanding

Where: content based

applying and analyzing

How: making and playing

evaluating and creating

The concepts of what, where, and how are really not new to learning.  The three dimension  build nicely upon each other just as Blooms Taxonomy does with the use of verbs .  Similarly,  Webb’s scale, Depth of Knowledge  focuses on the context in which the verb is used and the complexity of thinking required to demonstrate learning.

The challenges:

TIME

 pacing guides vs. content objectives

required material vs. required knowledge

checklists vs. continuums

limits vs. possibilities

Through the course of this class we’ve looked at the benefits of serious gaming in the classroom.  Students involved in serious games are tapping into those higher levels of thinking in a variety of ways.  They are actively problem solving and strategizing.  They are making connections and learning collectively.   Students are motivated, reflective, taking risks,  and participating in simulated, real world experiences without the risk of real world consequences.  Yet, with all of that in mind, I appreciate the caution offered by researcher and writer Mizuko Ito,  “We need to do more than simply point to what kids can potentially get out of playing games, however, and consider how these games are embedded in their everyday lives and in institutional accountabilities. By failing to do so, we will continue to overestimate the force of technology in transforming education and to underestimate the role of institutions and existing practices in determining learning outcomes.”   Good teachers and best practices are still at the heart of learning.  Teachers who ask questions rather than simply answer them.  Teachers who allow students to get their hands dirty and do the digging themselves, rather than simply delivering it.  And, teachers who are invested in their students; what they know and challenge them to grow their knowledge in deeper, richer ways.

Third grade teacher Anna Dawn shared a unit on her blog where she puts all of the above into practice called Where We are in Place and Time.  Here she lays out the unit objectives complete with NETS standards, essential questions, enduring understandings,  GRASPS Tasks, as well as the expected levels or facets of understanding.  She includes fact based knowledge, the how; the context in which it exists, the where, and provides structure and guidelines for evaluating and creating their final project, the how.

Resources:

Thomas, Douglas & Brown S., John. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

Ito, Mizuko. (2009).  ENGINEERING PLAY A Cultural History of Children’s Software. Retrieved from:  http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9780262013352_sch_0001.pdf

Living and Learning with New Media, Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (2008).  Retrieved from:  http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePaper.pdf

Blog of Anna Dawn,  Learning and Growing in the Digital Age.  Retrieved from: http://www.coetail.com/akdawn/2014/03/14/course-1-final-project-where-we-are-in-place-and-time-grade-3/

Week Eight: Thoughts about learning in the collective…

My first thought…uncomfortable.  I can relate to the example of the student who panics when she’s called on in class to share what until that moment was a private moment of processing information.  I tend to take in new information and mull it over in my mind for a period of time, applying it to different scenarios in order to form a connection to it.  Learning in the collective at first seems disruptive to that process.  Too transparent. Too public.  When asked this week during our Twitter session to think of a mascot for learning in the collective I recalled a video I’d seen on YouTube quite some time ago of a group of cat herders; well intentioned cowboys trying to move a herd of crazed cats in a common direction.

Lots of little bodies simultaneously moving in a hundred different directions.  Yep!

However, as I read this week I realized I was confusing collective with community.  The distinction made in the text, A New Culture of Learning between the two has been helpful:  “In communities, people learn in order to belong.  In a collective, people belong in order to learn.”  This is a different distinction than that offered in the book Meaningful Learning with Technology where the two terms seem to be used interchangeably.  With this distinction in mind I feel less guarded than before.

I’m still researching and learning about what a collective might look like in my first grade classroom.  It would have to be somewhat different than the collective community I participate in for myself.  I am able to independently read and write, have the language for expressing my thoughts, and the ability to distinguish what information I want shared. My students however don’t have those abilities in their entirety.  Their participation would be dependent on the support I am able to give them.  I have yet to determine what that will look like.  I am encouraged and inspired by teachers such as Kathy Cassidy of Moose Jaw, SK, Canada.  Ms. Cassidy teaches first graders through a number of collective practices.

It’s reassuring to read her bio and know that she is constantly changing her approach and teaching methods through technology to best meet the needs of our ever changing clientele.  Likewise she uses a familiar mix of materials and programs through out the day to teach specific content and strategies.

Thomas, Douglas & Brown S., John. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

Howland, Jane L., Jonassen, David, Marra, Rose M. (2012). Meaningful Learning with Technology

Kathy Cassidy’s blog:  Primary Preoccupation,   A grade one teacher inviting the world into  her classroom:  http://kathycassidy.com/

Week Seven Reflection: How I contributed to the learning of others…

During our Twitter session this week we discussed the possibilities of using Double Robots in the classroom.  I recently saw a story done by KTUU News where they showcased how the KIBSD is using these Doubles between there village and town schools:  Rural Education: Kodiak Focuses on Providing Students Options

A few years back I had 2 students in Seattle’s Children’s Hospital being treated for long term illnesses.  I offered the potential of using the Doubles for those students and offered a link the following article where this was done:  Double Robot Allows Injured Student to Attend Classes, Rehabilitation

Leslie wrote in her blog this week about starting a Minecraft club at her school.  I offered an article from the Washington Post outlining the successes and challenges of a similar undertaking at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School in Washington:  Minecraft Spawns Classroom Lessons

 

Week Seven: What does the way you play have to do with embracing change and how does this impact you as a professional?

Start small.  Integrate.  Stay connected. Communicate.  Ask for hand-me-downs.  These are the big ideas I took from Primary Years & Early Childhood Education:  Why Games? with Vicki Davis, Sharon Davison, Margaret Powers, and Jennifer Deyenberg.  Kids want to play games—all the time.  As educators we can and should be capitalizing on that desire to enhance learning and deepen their engagement with curriculum. 

Authors Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown made a strong case for making change visible as they outlined the differences between the online sites Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Britannica’s content is edited in an effort to determine a record of stable knowledge.  Wikipedia however records and sites all editorial changes, discussion, and entries for readers to examine.  “Wikipedia allow us to see all those things, understand the process, and participate in it….Wikipedia is a living, changing embodiment of knowledge, such a reading practice must embrace change.”

I took the Bartle test of gamer psychology and got the following gamer profile:

80% Explorer, 67% Socializer, 60% Achiever, and 13% Killer. 

The idea of being able to follow the process of change appeals to me.  The slower change in technology which allowed for easier adaptation of the past century was one I found more success “playing in”.  I am not ready to say that I can embrace change in the sense outlined in our text this week. I do look forward to new possibilities but I realize that change doesn’t always happen smoothly.  In the classroom I am constrained by the structure of pacing guides (and therefore time), mandated materials, lack of accessibility to technology, and my own understanding of best practices when making decisions about innovation.  As the facilitator of learning in my classroom it is my responsibility to assure I’ve done my homework.  As a result, playing for me means exploring connections and possibilities thoughtfully and reflectively, which in turn means cautiously and often, slowly. 

Gamified OOC. Primary Years & Early Childhood Education, Why Games?. Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/110129890717354735708/posts

Thomas, Douglas & Brown S., John. (2011). A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.

Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology. Retrieved from Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology _ Explorer.htm

Week Six Reflection

This week Chris and I hosted the Twitter Session.  We were fortunate to have good conversation around our questions about our past and present learning environments. We began with a trip down memory lane posing pictures of different classrooms from 1950-2000. Discussion focused on what we saw and related to, to what was missing.  We shared The Evolution of Classroom Technology which opened up further discussion about technologies we had in our classroom as young learners vs. what we use now as educators. We shared how many of us felt our pre-service training of technology was lacking and what we find to be indispensable to our daily instruction. A lot of great ideas were shared and conversation seemed to come easily.  Following our Tweet we provided additional references to the the following sites for everyone to explore:

Classrooms a Century Apart. 

30 Education Innovators Worth Following on Twitter

Twitter Lists for Secondary Teachers

Week Six: How does the culture of your current taeching enviornment differ from the learning enviornment you experienced as a student?

This is has been quite a week of reflection. Several times this week I heard myself udder those dreaded words I use to hear from my parents, “Well, when I went to school we had (or didn’t have)…”  It didn’t help that we were celebrating presidents Washington and Lincoln in class either.  Somehow I think my students might actually think I go as far back as those two great men.  And while there have been a lot of changes in my learning environment since I was a first grade student, I didn’t have it quite as badly as those early American heroes.

I purchased A New Culture of Learning as an audiobook from iTunes, my first.  Unfortunately, I could not find it on my phone / ipad, or how to listen to it for that matter.  I should’ve used my Kindle app and bought it from Amazon.  Lesson learned.  So, I’ve ordered the paperback from Amazon and it should be here tomorrow (USPS tracking says it’s in Anchorage tonight.)

I was able to watch the video with Verena Roberts on Game Space Learning, called Why Minecraft Inspires me with guests, Drakkart, Johnnynodger, and Newmann.  It was informative even though they all spoke a whole new language to me.  I admit to being overwhelmed by all the different components they were discussing (in that unknown language).  The channels on YouTube, the mods, modes, and red stones?   Vicki mentioned that her 2nd grade son’s teacher allowed extra credit when studying the Titanic as a way of intergrading his work on Minecraft. Thanks to Chris, I have a student this year who is obsessed with Minecraft, I on the other hand as his teacher am still lost. In this regard  I was appreciative of the perspective from the boys about the community support that they feel when engaged in serious games, namely Minecraft.

Chris and I had a great time looking for pictures and references for this week’s Twitter session.  The Evolution of Classroom Technology was really interesting. My first grade teacher (who was also my Sunday school teacher for a number of years) had the equivalent to the Ferule of the 1850-1870 era believe it or not.  Mrs. Fields’ had a crooked finger on the end that she used to knocking us on our heads with when we we’re paying attention.  I think I have an actual dent on the top of my head to this day. (She had one at church, too.) 

I was surprised to see the Mimeograph dated from the 1940s.  We had an old Ditto machine in Jr. High we used to run the school paper on.  Small room, no windows, and the smell of fumes.  I remember.  Sadly I have to admit, I have originals in I still use in class that are tell tale blue dittos.

The Twitter lists of technology we listed from our early classroom experiences was telling (wasn’t it Lee?) of our years.  Technology was hard to identify in my elementary classrooms.  There were the occasional film strips, tape decks in music or at a listening center, the intercom systems, ditto machines, and eventually a single computer in my 6th grade classroom.  Today things are just not that way.  We have technology interwoven into nearly every part of our day with the Promethean board at the center of it all.  For me my top can’t live without advances are:

1. My computer.  Its the first thing I turn on when I enter my classroom and the last thing turned off at night.  It keeps me connected to the rest of my staff, families, and community.  It organizes my lesson plans, newsletters, and emails. I research, explore, and plan on my computer.
2. The Promethean board has become the medium though which most of my lessons are delivered.  We have flipcharts for everything, links to our favorite site, and turn the music up to celebrate birthdays (great speakers).
3. My iPhone.  I use it everyday in class as a camera, a timer, for checking email,  apps to check reports for my RtI interventions, for previewing videos or files on YouTube, Learn 360, and Pintrist.

Yep, it’s been a week of reflection and I can assuredly say, the classroom learning environment I teach in is much different than the one I grew up in.  Things are changing and I’m learning to change with them (except for that book from iTunes).  However, sometimes the best is still the unchanged; a good book, shared with eager learners, about where we’ve come, so that we have an appreciation for the freedoms we have today and in our futures.

 

Links offered on Thursday night during our Twitter session:

Classrooms a Century Apart.   Great article on Education Technology and how it has changed over time.   EdTech Journey to ETIS

 30 education innovators worth following on Twitter

http://www.edudemic.com/twitter-lists-in-the-classroom/ Twitter Lists for secondary teachers