Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Gaming in education
Today I attended a seminar at Penn State about gaming in the classroom. This was presented by Chris Stubbs.
What is a game like element?
Gamification - takes pieces of games to make it more compelling (improve engagaement or change behavior) - takes these elements and use in different contexts
How can we use these elements in the classroom?
Risks
Examples of frameworks that already have this to import into your class:
- Games can integrate and add value to lessons.
- All games can be use in education
What is a game like element?
- needs to be compelling
- can be used to alter motivation
- piece of a game that adds something to it
- objectives - can be overall objective, can be spelled out or subtle embedded within a game
- scaffolding - gives a player enough information to play, but not so much that it keeps them from playing. (WOW- great example), constantly reuse skills or topics learned and reflect, start off easy, use it!
- expression and progression - progression bars, meters, fill up bars, level up
- feedback - sound cues, grades, meters, numerical, fail or “die”, progress, success
- competition
- achievements - badges, developer creator goals, objectives of the game (mini quests), about feedback, accomplishment, positive reinforcement, allow for reflection, shareable and social
- narrative - gives background information, gives context, story telling
- role play
- choice - character, reactions, gives ownership to players
- fixed rewards
- interval rewards
- lottery
- modifiers
- ownership
- status
- ranking
Gamification - takes pieces of games to make it more compelling (improve engagaement or change behavior) - takes these elements and use in different contexts
How can we use these elements in the classroom?
- Attendance
- Extra credit ball - 4 x a semester a ball is tossed out (inside the ball are numbers) the ball gets tossed out into the crowd a student picks a number, whatever number is pulled, that's the number of extra credit points is given that day to students.
- A code is embedded in a presentation to unlock quizzes or extra credit points given to students who attend class
- Experience and meters
- Start out with an F in course, each item handed in then meter goes up, shows progression throughout course
- Give objectives that are clear (a rubric)
- Blogs - start a leader board (based on comments) - bring your A game to a blog post
Risks
- extrinsic motivation
- competition doesn’t work for everyone
- over justification effect - constant feedback etc. ask to do without an extrinsic reward - the motivation is at times lost
- privacy - use systems that are not all about grades, most items are not required
Examples of frameworks that already have this to import into your class:
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Apps, apps, apps, and more apps!
I would like to take some time to share some of my favorite app resources and sites with you. Here they are in no particular order:
- Intelliapp
- Study by app
- Voice thread - Yep you read it right, voice thread has an app!
- There's an app for that - List of great apps all reviewed by respected panelist
- 10 apps for the visually impaired
- App Maker
- Fun educational apps
- Special ed apps
- 20 must have educational apps
- Apps for Autism
- Apps for those with significant disabilities
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Sam's Super Diigo Finds! 10/22/2011
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Bloomfire | Social Learning Software | Social Learning, Collaborative Learning Environment
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Get A World-Class Education With YouTube EDU and iTunes University
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self_regulation_in_web-based_course_case_study_etrd.pdf (application/pdf Object)
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Home - Learning Designs - Products of the AUTC project on ITC-based learning designs
Friday, October 21, 2011
Guest post - Elaine Hirsch - iOS vs. Office
This week's blog post was created by Elaine Hirsch. Elaine Hirsch is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and
history, to medicine and video games. This makes it difficult to choose
just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various
education-related sites and writing about all these things instead.
Productivity Programs: iOS vs. Office
Microsoft Office is the desktop productivity suite familiar to users from elementary school to online PhD programs and used on a daily basis for word processing, spreadsheets, and preparing presentations. However, what happens when you need to make a few edits on the go? Thankfully, Office isn't without competition, and Apple has you covered with apps that perform the same functions as Office on your iOS devices.Word Processing
One of the best programs available for iOS is the Pages app, which was recently made available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The document editor offers the ability to change settings for just about anything, including text weight, height, headers, and even editing tables on the fly.
While it may seem like a hassle to perform these tasks on a small mobile touchscreen, Pages' interface is rather intuitive, so you quickly get used to editing and performing the functions you're used to doing in Microsoft Word. What makes Pages so great to use even on the iPhone is the smart zoom feature, which zooms in on the part of the document you're editing, then zooms out when you're finished so you get a good overview of everything.
The only downside is Pages currently has no syncing options, not even with Apple's new iCloud service. Dropbox support would be nice, but without syncing, files have to be moved manually to the phone using iTunes which can be a hassle.Presentations
Microsoft PowerPoint has long been the default tool for creating presentations, and Apple has tried to mimic and surpass it by making Keynote available for mobile devices. While Keynote does get a lot of things right in terms of being able to create elements from scratch, one problem that does pop up with the iOS version is importing presentations. Images can only be selected from their respective photo albums, and adding audio has to be done by importing a presentation with audio attached, then pasting the audio where you'd like it to go within your presentation.
For all of its problems, Keynote is a decent presentation editor for people on the go, but the lack of features designed for importing make it an impractical choice for users who want to begin a presentation on their desktops and move to their mobile devices. Microsoft's importing feature goes off without a hitch, and the ability to get started quickly probably makes it a superior program even in the face of Keynote's mobility.Spreadsheets
Although Numbers can now import Excel files, it still fares far worse in our comparison, as several major design flaws make it nearly impossible to use as a day-to-day spreadsheet editor. The biggest problem is simply that Numbers doesn't support landscape orientation on the iPhone, thus making it very hard to edit spreadsheets with any efficiency. Thankfully the iPad interface is much better, as it supports landscape orientation by default and sports a dedicated undo button instead of the iPhone's annoying shake-to-undo gimmick.
In terms of how it performs against Microsoft Excel, the editing functions are similar and anyone familiar with one should be able to use the other without issue. Thankfully Numbers does support integration with iCloud, so you can instantly synch spreadsheets on all your devices.
Overall, Apple's productivity apps are undeniably better than Microsoft Office when it comes to their mobility. However, they're lacking in important areas such as the ability to edit in both landscape and portrait orientations, and in terms of easily importing and synching files. Perhaps with the exception of dedicated iPad users, it's hard to imagine anybody using the iOS productivity suite as a complete alternative to Office. It may not be long, though, before Apple fixes these usability issues and stands a real chance of eclipsing Microsoft's long dominant workhorse software.
Microsoft Office is the desktop productivity suite familiar to users from elementary school to online PhD programs and used on a daily basis for word processing, spreadsheets, and preparing presentations. However, what happens when you need to make a few edits on the go? Thankfully, Office isn't without competition, and Apple has you covered with apps that perform the same functions as Office on your iOS devices.Word Processing
One of the best programs available for iOS is the Pages app, which was recently made available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The document editor offers the ability to change settings for just about anything, including text weight, height, headers, and even editing tables on the fly.
While it may seem like a hassle to perform these tasks on a small mobile touchscreen, Pages' interface is rather intuitive, so you quickly get used to editing and performing the functions you're used to doing in Microsoft Word. What makes Pages so great to use even on the iPhone is the smart zoom feature, which zooms in on the part of the document you're editing, then zooms out when you're finished so you get a good overview of everything.
The only downside is Pages currently has no syncing options, not even with Apple's new iCloud service. Dropbox support would be nice, but without syncing, files have to be moved manually to the phone using iTunes which can be a hassle.Presentations
Microsoft PowerPoint has long been the default tool for creating presentations, and Apple has tried to mimic and surpass it by making Keynote available for mobile devices. While Keynote does get a lot of things right in terms of being able to create elements from scratch, one problem that does pop up with the iOS version is importing presentations. Images can only be selected from their respective photo albums, and adding audio has to be done by importing a presentation with audio attached, then pasting the audio where you'd like it to go within your presentation.
For all of its problems, Keynote is a decent presentation editor for people on the go, but the lack of features designed for importing make it an impractical choice for users who want to begin a presentation on their desktops and move to their mobile devices. Microsoft's importing feature goes off without a hitch, and the ability to get started quickly probably makes it a superior program even in the face of Keynote's mobility.Spreadsheets
Although Numbers can now import Excel files, it still fares far worse in our comparison, as several major design flaws make it nearly impossible to use as a day-to-day spreadsheet editor. The biggest problem is simply that Numbers doesn't support landscape orientation on the iPhone, thus making it very hard to edit spreadsheets with any efficiency. Thankfully the iPad interface is much better, as it supports landscape orientation by default and sports a dedicated undo button instead of the iPhone's annoying shake-to-undo gimmick.
In terms of how it performs against Microsoft Excel, the editing functions are similar and anyone familiar with one should be able to use the other without issue. Thankfully Numbers does support integration with iCloud, so you can instantly synch spreadsheets on all your devices.
Overall, Apple's productivity apps are undeniably better than Microsoft Office when it comes to their mobility. However, they're lacking in important areas such as the ability to edit in both landscape and portrait orientations, and in terms of easily importing and synching files. Perhaps with the exception of dedicated iPad users, it's hard to imagine anybody using the iOS productivity suite as a complete alternative to Office. It may not be long, though, before Apple fixes these usability issues and stands a real chance of eclipsing Microsoft's long dominant workhorse software.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Happy and Haunting Halloween activities
Looking for some happy and haunting halloween activities to do with your students?
One of my favorite activities to do with my students was jibjab. Jibjab has great halloween videos that your students can star in! I used this Math, I had student count money to watch the movie. They had to count out money to get their picture taken, to get their picture in the video, to buy a ticket to watch the video, popcorn, juice. Students really enjoyed watching themselves do silly dances, but they really enjoyed putting their teachers or principal in the video.
Here is a list of some great ghoulish games:
One of my favorite activities to do with my students was jibjab. Jibjab has great halloween videos that your students can star in! I used this Math, I had student count money to watch the movie. They had to count out money to get their picture taken, to get their picture in the video, to buy a ticket to watch the video, popcorn, juice. Students really enjoyed watching themselves do silly dances, but they really enjoyed putting their teachers or principal in the video.
Here is a list of some great ghoulish games:
Halloween safety - Play this halloween safety game, first go over the rules then play the game.
18 educational apps - Here is a great list of apps that are educational and have a halloween theme!
Frankenpup - cute text to speech tool just in time for the halloween season
Be witching cat cute text to speech tool just in time for the halloween season
Be witching cat cute text to speech tool just in time for the halloween season
Halloween hide and seek - Halloween hide and seek Disney game
Things that go bump in the night - Interactive halloween e-card watch it turn from day to night. Great for cause and effect on the Interactive whiteboard
Ben & Jerry’s Pumpkin Patch! Touch the things in the pumpkin patch and watch them do, well, something!
Halloween card maker - Choose the hallloween theme and make a great card to print and share. Great activity to do with switches.
Pumpkin puzzle - Interactive pumpkin puzzle
Cyberhaunt’s Virtual Pumpkin Carving Use a cute pumpkin pattern and carve your pumpkin's face.
Pick a Pumpkin to Carve Carve a pumpkin with a click and drag type feature.
Happy Halloween!
Cyberhaunt’s Virtual Pumpkin Carving Use a cute pumpkin pattern and carve your pumpkin's face.
Pick a Pumpkin to Carve Carve a pumpkin with a click and drag type feature.
Happy Halloween!
For more bewitching games with a spooky Halloween theme please visit Wednesday's with Sam
Perfect Pumpkin games click here
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Sam's Super Diigo Finds! 10/18/2011
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goQ : Home of wordQ + speakQ : Word Prediction, Spoken Feedback & Speech Recognition Software
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"Our intuitive and user-friendly interface will have you taking notes, creating lesson plans, importing photos and designing customized keyboards in no time. An integrated filing system allows you to create folders to manage your notepads and keyboards. "
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Tons of great web 2.0 tools
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Designing and Developing an Online Course: A Guide for Educators
"This ebook covers the practical questions that often arise when designing and developing an online course. Topics were collected and assembled from questions asked over my years of working closely with educators. It is designed to help educators create an online course that is usable, accessible, and engaging so students get the most out of an online course. "
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Interest survey with open ended questions
Monday, October 17, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sam's Super Diigo Finds! 10/16/2011
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One Per Cent: Tablet app puts Braille keyboard at your fingertips
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Smore - Design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly
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Top 8 “Apps” for PE Teachers – Part 5 « Mr Robbo – The P.E Geek
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100 Seriously Cool Classroom Blogs for Teaching Ideas & Inspiration | Online Classes
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Web 2.0 College Olympics - 50 Social Media Innovators In Higher Education - CollegeSurfing.com
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Workshops and Programs by Topic - Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
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