As we enter the 21st century technology has advanced from where it was back in the 20th century. Where before we would have games that were in 2D such as Mario Brothers by Nintendo, we now have games that are Virtual Reality where a player can literally step into the video game and be a part of that world. Gaming has become such a big part of our society many businesses and schools has been using this new technology into their curriculum allowing students to learn more, topics are more interactive due to games, and more fun the student. There are two ways games has been used in our society that can help train / teach students: Gamification and Game-based learning.
Gamification is the idea of adding game elements to a nongame situation. For example I love Starbucks. Starbucks has done a fine job of getting me to spend more money through their rewards program. It’s not the most sophisticated form of gamification, but I am rewarded for making purchases and can earn extra levels by earning stars based on the program structure. Programs like this have added a scoring game mechanic to commerce. In the classroom, I use Kahoot! or Quizzizz as an example of Gamifcation. It takes the ordinary way or studying for an upcoming quiz or test into a form of a game. The kids love playing it and love competing against each other. Game-based learning relates to the use of games to enhance the learning experience. To be honest, I have not really used this method as much but will begin to use it more. I have used Game-based learning especially in Economics when I am teaching my students about stock market and they would play the stock market game.. The Stock Market Game (SMG) is the right tool that helped my students build a fundamental understanding of investing while providing them with real world skills practice in math, English Language Arts, economics, social studies, and other subjects. They break up into groups and love to compete with each other. My students learn more about stocks and bonds than the did by learning out of a book. Another game-base lesson I use is my Government senior project where my students create a fictitious business where they will support a non-profit organization. My students learn more about civil responsibilities, empathy, and social justice playing this game compared to defining the definitions. For the same reason why social media should be used more in the classroom, students learn best when they learn from each other. When students study together, they earn higher grades, are more engaged, and are more motivated. For that reason, teachers should incorporate more game-based learning and gamification into their lesson plans.
4 Comments
The first tool I used was EdPuzzle. EdPuzzle is the perfect tool for allowing students to watch and engage with videos while the teacher gathers data throughout the lesson. As teachers dabble into the flipped classroom philosophy, EdPuzzle is the perfect enhancement tool for videos to be watched at home instead of eating up valuable class time. Allowing students to watch the video the night before a lesson and quickly looking at the results is beneficial for utilizing class time efficiently. As I move towards flipping more of my lessons, I would like to start screen-casting more of my lessons and enhancing them with EdPuzzle.
The next tool I used was iMovie due to the iPad our district gave all staff members a few years ago when FSUSD was thinking about going Apple but instead went to Chromebooks. The positive things about iMovie is that it is clean and has a pretty interface, but that is expected by an Apple product. Another positive about this free app is that the special effects and titles within this app is really good and makes a big impact. However, the negatives is that it is an Apple product that will only work with Apply products. That would be hard to do when Droid is cheaper and most of my students have some kind of Droid phone. The last tool I experimented with was Adobe Spark. I think this is my favorite app just because of the ease of the app and that it works well with Google. Teachers can easily give students the choice about what they create and use this as the backbone to student-created products in their classroom. Logistics wise, signing in is seamless with the login connection to Google Apps for Education and the interface is very user-friendly. Everything auto-saves, so work is not lost. Using the computer microphone to record a voice over worked flawlessly. However, there aren't any editing features to that voice over. All three of these tech tools I can easily use within my classroom. By using all of these tech, or any tech like these, can make learning more fun but more importantly more interactive for my students. Some of the barriers that may come across is the time within the classroom to try to teach how to use these tools to the students without hampering the already tight timeline we teachers face every year. Another barrier is that teachers can not assume that students will have access to these new tech at home due to living situations, home life, or just lack of resources at home, such as Wifi, to be able to use these apps at home instead at school. I am very lucky that I have been using Google apps for awhile now and have been using Google Forms almost exclusively. I find Google Forms very helpful in everything that I do in education and in coaching. Before I started using Illuminate, a online grading platform where it also allows teachers to create different forms of assessments, I used Google Forms to asses quizzes and tests to my students. With the addition of Flubaroo onto my Google Forms, grading assessments on this was a breeze. Knowing that Flubaroo was a big factor on why educators used Google Forms, Google themselves then updated their own program now to correct assessments without adding Flubaroo into their forms..
As a coach I use Google Forms in multiple ways. I use Google Forms as a Qualitative data collecting method, asking my student-athletes their opinions on certain plays, players, or even advice on how the team can grow and get better. I also used Google Forms as a Quantitative data collecting method, where I ask my student-athletes to tell me their shirt sizes, jersey sizes, or if they will attend the many passing league tournaments this summer to prepare them for the upcoming season. I thank GOD almost everyday that Google was created and they have so many apps that is teacher accessible but also teacher friendly. As for using Google Forms in my driving question, this was the main way I used to collect both my Quantitative and Qualitative data. It was super simple and my students had a lot of experience already with Google applications in my class. With this fact, my students felt more at ease and not stressed out when they were answering my Google Forms because they have done it before for other classes and have used other Google applications. As for using new apps on Google Form, I am open and willing to use new techniques that can make my data collecting and data presentation more effective. I love Google and all its power! ISTE reminds me when I attended GAFE (Google Apps For Education) where many different vendors and teachers come together to share their ideas on how to use technology in the classroom and make our students more technological savvy. This conference also reminds me at a glance when I attended the Illuminate Conference where well established teachers and administrators would tell their little tips and secrets on how to get the most out of their students or reach their students by using technology in the classroom. As a coach this also reminds me when I took my coaching staff to Glazier clinics where well established coaches from the Pop Warner level, Div. I College Level, to NFL coaches status would share their do's and don'ts and also new technique to teach the newest fad in the sport.
Based on the subject I teach I was very interested in participating in a Twitter chat on Project Based Learning. This topic is very close to my driving question and my main goal of getting more students involved and learning outside the stereotypical classroom and their books. I like the idea of interacting in a Twitter chat because of the instant feedback I would receive or learn from other teachers who may have the same questions or concerns I may have. Also, Twitter chat is an inexpensive way of getting professional development and becoming a better teacher just sitting at home. At first, I was very tentative and quiet during the Twitter chat because of my inexperience and not knowing when to chime in. However, as time went on I found the courage to start to say little things here and there to get involved. It was an interesting conversation and at times funny, especially when some of the participants started using GIFs in their Tweets to support their point. I believe the more I participate in Twitter chats can help me gain more insights on how I can become a more interactive teacher and can help me focus more on my driving question.
Social media or Social Network Sites (SNS) can be a positive and negative experience for people depending on how they use their SNS. Social Network Sites appeared to be a critical factor in information dissemination, search, marketing, expertise and influence discovery, and potentially an important tool for mobilizing people. Social Network Sites (SNS) have become very popular, especially among adolescents and young adults. In a positive way, SNS can be used in many different ways to promote and influence people anywhere in the world. For example, political leaders began to use them for their campaigns to try to persuade voters to vote for them.
In Williams and Gulati’s (2008) research, they also investigated the influence that SNS had on the 2008 Presidential election. In their study, they discovered that more Americans use the internet to stay current on social issues and voice their opinion on these issues as opposed to receiving their information from T.V. Ever since the creation of SNS, SNS has been used as a linkage institution delivering important information to the people and to our government leaders. Social Network Sites, such as Facebook, have influenced the youth to participate more in politics over the last decade. However, SNS can be also a negative experience for the user, especially for their future opportunities. Just like in the article written by Patrick Larkin. In the article he is concerned about the lack of Digital Citizenship and Digital Responsibilities with today's youth that they don't truly understand of the " ramifications" of their actions online. For example, I had a student who graduated a few years ago and she would post pictures of her partying and showing inappropriate behavior online. Then a few months later she complained on her SNS that she is having trouble finding a job. Today's youth don't understand that what they put online is there forever and that people, like future employers, will "troll them online" to find out what kind of person they are before they offer them a job. Due to this, I direct message her and told her my "two-cents" worth and advised her to take down those pictures and anything else that makes her look "unprofessional" to employers eyes. Another example of a poor choice by youth when posting / tweeting something online is when a student posted money and his collection of hand guns just to show off to his friends. When I saw this I quickly reported him to my Principal and his counselor. With no hesitation I reported this to the authorities at m school site because this can be a sign of this student reaching out for help. Especially with the recent gun violence at schools within the United States, this type of behavior must be reported immediately. Depending on the situation online will depend on the type of reaction and conversation that is needed with each person. This past year at my school site 1/2 of the staff has been using PearDeck as their way to lecture to students in the 21st century. Pear Deck Slides is the quickest way to transform presentations into classroom conversations. Design beautiful slides and engage your class with interactive questions, discussion starters, formative assessments, checks-for-understanding, and exit tickets that get every single student actively thinking and participating.
The typical flow of a Pear Deck lesson has 4 main parts:
One of the many features PearDeck provides is that students' screens will stay synced with the teachers, so they will be able to see the slide content by either looking at the projector screen or at their own devices. When the teachers gets to an interactive slide, students will also see an answer input on their screen, which will look different depending on what kind of question you made. Another great feature about PearDeeck is their student paced mode and the ability to publish student takeaways. These two features are great when students are absent and need to go through the lesson on their own, or sometimes the teacher want students to go back through the content to review and reflect. I love using PearDeck and the many features that gives old lesson plans new life in this new age of technology. Learning PearDeck was super easy and fun to do. I can take my old Google Slide presentation and upload it onto PearDeck and make it into a interactive lecture. Here is an example PearDeck I have used: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12ZP1jRucvSzavVF8ZBFqFtkWBVsNczi0/view?usp=sharing Teaching digital literacy goes hand-in-hand with teaching digital citizenship. Both are very important for our students to learn, understand, and be able to implement if they want to be able to succeed in today's technological age.
When teaching digital literacy to my students, I would want my students to be empowered learners. After reading ISTE standards for students, I also believe that the first step for students to know how to be digital literate is by allowing them to "leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences." By giving students the ability to choose and participate in the decision making process, it gives the students ownership of their work and connects them more to the topic that they are trying to learn. Just like in the article "To Keep Teens Safe Online, They Need To Learn To Manage Risk", the more power or "ability to regulate their own behavior", the teen will learn more rather than being dependent on their parents. Moving into the digital age and more students are becoming digital natives, I believe that teachers must help facilitate students to become more digital literate. Just like in ISTE standards for teachers, we teachers must use our vast knowledge and experience in our field to promote more "creativity & innovation" within our classrooms using technology. Updating our old lesson plans to fit more with this generation of digital natives. In other words, give our old lesson plans a face lift. For example, instead of giving the same old lecture using Power Point I instead created a simple rubric where students create their own lecture with a new twist of using Screencastify and allow students to narrate their work. Students are still learning the same material but now in a more modern and interactive way. According to Wikipedia, digital literacy would showcase student's "grammar, computer, writing, and typing skills on platforms, such as, social media sites and blog sites." To achieve this goal of empowering students and promoting more creativity within student work I would use multiple platforms such as Peardeck, iMovies, Google suite, and many more apps that I yet need to learn to "keep up with the Jones's." I currently teach Seniors, 12th grade, Government and Economics at my school site. A lot of my assignments are asking my students to write and support their claims with primary resources to get them ready when they go to college. Some of the work students submit has some sort of plagiarism in their writing, due to intentional or unintentional reasons. I believe teaching Digital Citizenship to our students is a valuable lesson that needs to be taught because a lot of our students do not understand what they do online has positive and negative consequences. We need to teach these types of strategies to our students entering who are in 21st century of education.
I am happy that FSUSD, especially at my school site, our librarian and tech liaison teaches these type of lesson to our students about digital citizenship for the past few years. Teachers makes an appointment with these two ladies to bring their classes to the library and they will quickly teach them the good, the bad, and the ugly of being online. I like this also because it gives us teachers one day of freedom to catch up on grading or lesson planning. The sooner we can teach our students about this topic, the sooner they will be ready for the 21st century. The three ways I would make learning digital citizenship personal for your students are: #1. Just like in the video,Making Digital Citizenship Personal, I would bring up case studies for students to read, interact, and reflect on. This is an excellent technique and goes well with the lessons I try to teach my students about Government and being proactive. #2 I would allow my students to explore and play with the Digital Compass for them to understand their actions while online have positive and negative effects for them now and in their future. Lastly #3, I would have my students read and reflect on the article, How to Keep Your College Admission Offer: Start With Digital Literacy, because most of my students are planning to apply or transfer to a four year college and in the 21st century many colleges are not just reviewing students college application but also researching them through Social Network Sites to determine whether or not this student is "college material." |
|