Gamification has to do with the learning that comes from playing the game. In Edutopia’s video “Katie Salen on the Power of Game-Based Learning (Big Thinkers Series)” focused on the school Quest to Learn: School for Digital Kids. This school believes that design-thinking is a meaningful way to look at the world, and wants students to be in charge of their own learning so that they can stay motivated to learn throughout their entire lives. This school acknowledges that students learn in different ways, and they look at how students learn outside of school. They have developed a pedagogical approach to game-based learning. The students are presented with a complex problem to solve. Mission and quest-based-quests get harder as students develop the knowledge and experience to reach the next level. This video supported the statement that game design can help students think deeper and more abstractly. This gave a clear picture into gaming and game-based learning being used effectively.
In Edutopia’s article, “3 Ways to Use Game-Based Learning” I read that in effective game-based classrooms students are provided with, “gameful learning experiences driven by play.” Games could be shared experiences. For example students can build in Minecraft, and then have a meaningful conversation about the difficulties of building Jamestown and setting up a colony. One crucial point of this article is that the game is not the teacher; the game is just an activity. Edutopia’s article, “A Game-Based Approach to Test Prep” by Pete Barnes discusses the powerful impact that using games for test prep can have for students. Barnes states that giving students choice about where to start and how to complete the tasks empowers them in the process. To make this happen, Barnes created an online scavenger hunt with optional links. When students are motivated by a game, they rarely rush through just to finish. Instead, they are motivated to correctly answer the questions. I have seen this firsthand with using Prodigy in my classroom. My objectives are for students to increase student performance in mathematics and collaboration through this game. This Common Core-aligned math game motivates students to correctly answer questions by entering into battles they win through correctly completing math problems. There is embedded help through clicking a question mark that will guide students to completing the problem correctly. This site also provides beneficial feedback to the teacher on each individual student in relation to Common Core math standards. Another game-based learning tool I have used is Quizlet. My objectives are to increase student performance in Language Arts and vocabulary. This is a program I learned about through class. This program creates games, flashcards, etc. in order to help students review material before an assessment. I have used paper flashcards and white-board review for vocabulary in the past. When I implemented Quizlet this year, I saw an increase in student motivation and in test scores. Another powerful tool I have learned about in class is Google’s Be Internet Awesome. This awesome interactive game helped solve my problem of teaching effective Digital Citizenship in the classroom. My students love using code.org and have participated in the national Hour of Code. My objectives are to get students involved in design thinking and in problem solving.They love getting to choose which game to build, especially with popular options like Star Wars and Minecraft. They also are motivated by the videos from popular celebrities and athletes endorsing using coding. After reviewing different gamification and game-based learning tools this week, I also want to try out Seterra, WriQ, No Red Ink, and Kahoot. In the Handbook of Games and Simulations in Teacher Education I learned that, “…games and simulations can effectively engage students in direct experience with casual mechanisms and structures of systems, and through experiment and discover, assist them in acquiring higher order knowledge and skills.” Gaming is so much more than sitting in front of a computer screen. It is a way to have student use design thinking to solve complex problems and engage in critical thinking skills through a method that is engaging, fun, and motivating. In Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk she states that games make us motivated to do something that matters, collaborate, and apply persistence in order to achieve. McGonigal wants these principles to apply to real-life. She talks about how a quest in a game is given at a level the player can achieve. It may be difficult, but it is possible. There are many collaborators along the way to help, and gamers get feedback and rewards. These are motivating factors for success we want to see happen in real-life. A statistic from Carnegie Mellon University stated that the average gamer will have spent 10,000 hours playing online games by the time they are 21 years old. This is an interesting statistic because 10,080 hours is the same amount of time spent in school from grade 5 to grade 12. It makes sense that we need to start integrating gaming into education. McGonigal says there are four things that gamers are “getting good at.” They are:
McGonigal states that these four components create people who feel they are super-empowered, hopeful individuals. The goal is to bring these strengths from the virtual world to the real world. McGonigal has created games that have real world problems and challenges. She encourages gamers to imagine the best case scenario for our future, while giving them the means to make epic wins. Bringing people together to help solve real-world problems is going to be a powerful part of our future.
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In Edutopia’s article entitled, “Flipped Classroom 101” by Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams, we learn that the benefit of a flipped classroom is that it creates an environment where the teacher moves from, “sage on the stage” to the, “guide on the side.” To do this effectively there are many factors involved. Students should not watch a video and then come to class, rather they should interact with video content. Methods that help students interact with the digital content include students writing down interesting questions, using an organizer for the students to interact with within the video, providing a short quiz, or inserting pop-up questions.
“Flipped Classroom 101: Challenges Benefits, & Design Tips” by Catlin Tucker addresses the benefits as well as concerns that teachers have about a flipped classroom design. One benefit that I had not thought of before was that a flipped classroom design creates a foundation for me to build with small group instruction. I really like the idea of an “in-class flip” where video content is part of a station rotation. This eliminates concerns such as students not having access to technology at home, adding screen time to homework, or overloading students, especially at an elementary school age. What is awesome about doing in an-class flip is that it works into the structure I have in my day already. Right now I have four different session groups that rotate. I have one group, and the three other groups work on independent assignments. I could seamlessly introduce video content into a session. I liked the three clear pillars of designing a flipped classroom that Tucker laid out:
“Modifying the Flipped Classroom: The ‘In-Class’ Version” by Jennifer Gonzalez synced up with what Catlin Tucker discussed in her article. By having direct instruction (via a video) in a session rotation, then it frees the teacher for more small group or one-on-one time with students. It is important to be prepared and lay the foundation. After taking the time to create the video content, then those videos can be used year after year. In “Start a Reading Revolution: Flip Your Class With Blogs” by Brian Sztabnik, a teacher created a flipped ELA class. This was achieved through choice and blogs. This teacher had students choose what they wanted to read in class. Then, instead of responding to a study guide, students wrote about their reading in a blog format of their choice using the Writing to Learn method. Through blogging, students can choose the theme, images, and gifs. It extends learning outside of the classroom and out to a real-world audience. Edpuzzle is awesome! This will be another great tool to use in a session rotation for an in-class flipped classroom. This site has a ton of great content. I like that you can choose from many options such as TED Talks, YouTube, National Geographic, Khan Academy, or more. I made an account and played around with the tools in VideoScribe and thought there were some great features. You can add text, select an image, a hand to “draw” that image or write the text, and then record your voice while this process is happening. The free trial does limit the options for images and other options, but you can still do a lot. My only issue was that I wanted to show a math concept, and I wasn’t able to find a way for me to “draw” the math out like I would if I were writing on a white board. This video making tool would be awesome to describe something conceptual, and/or difficult to understand. I used Kami for my video lesson plan. On Kami you can upload a PDF, annotate, and interact with the document. Students can type, draw, highlight, and more. You can put these PDFs in your Google Classroom to make for a seamless integration. What is great about Cami is that you can draw, not just type, which is exactly what I needed for the math video I created for my students. I used Screencast to record my work on Kami. I created a document with multiplication problems to be used with the Array Method of Multiplication for my students to practice with. I placed this link into my Google Classroom for the students to access. I plan to use the lesson I created with Kami in our small group session rotations. While I am working with my small group of students, another session group will watch the video, and then do the interactive document (which will be linked into my Google Classroom). I am excited to try this out! |
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April 2019
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