Catlib

I really enjoyed this project.  I love mad libs, so it was fun to make a virtual one of my own.  It also was a lot easier than I originally thought it was going to be.

All About Me Project

My inspiration for this project was that I wanted to share three hobbies of mine that I really love and enjoy.  My favorite thing to do is compete in marathons and triathlons; I have been swimming, biking, and running for almost five years.  I also love to travel.  I had the opportunity to go to Guatemala last summer and it was an amazing experience.  I really want to travel to more countries in the future.  I am also an avid reader; I could spend hours getting lost in a book.  I included these hobbies because they represent a part of who I am.

The biggest problem that I got stuck on with this project was the timing of the words with the slides they went with.  First, my words were coming to fast and then to slow.  I had to play around with it and try different settings until I got it just right.  It was really just using trial and error until it worked the way I wanted it to.

I am most proud of the way everything flowed together in the final project.  Getting the words, slides, and music all in sync was challenging, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Double Journal Entry #5

“It is less about an account of time and more about an experience of space and people in the past.”

 I have never been a fan of social studies; it has always been my least favorite subject.  I chose this quote because it sums up a big reason I have never liked social studies; all throughout elementary school and high school all we ever did in social studies was memorize peoples’ names and dates of events.  It was the same thing every day and every school year; we would come in, the teacher would project notes for us to copy, he would read the notes to us, and finally we would take a test on those notes.  Having this type of technology would have been so much better.  We could have had the opportunity to explore the experiences of history and what they meant to us instead of just rote memorization.

“…students who tended to have more success in school had more difficulty playing the game.  He found the game appealed particularly well to students for whom traditional instruction was a problem."

I like this quote because it reinforces what we already know about differentiated instruction; every child learns differently and we need to find ways in which to reach every child.  This game would be great for students who are more hands-on learners.  For many kids who enjoy video games it is something that they can relate to and something they already have an interest in.  This would be good resource for teachers to look into if they have students who are struggling with the traditional teaching of social studies.

“Although students generally cooperated with one another, they were often quite conflicted when specific decisions about how to proceed had to be made.  These points of conflict presented the teacher with opportunities to engage students on substantive content.”

What I like best about this game is that it provides so many teachable moments in the classroom.  The game covers such a broad content, that every choice the students make can be related to something in history.  I think this is a great tool to encourage meaningful discussions between the students and the teacher.  The students are problem solving with actual real world problems that society has been faced with in the past; the learning is significant and relatable.

Additional Resource

This blog is written by Dr. Brad M. Maguth, who is a PhD in Social Studies Education.  His posts offer teachers resources to help them integrate technology and social studies instruction.  I like this blog because Dr. Maguth gives a list of games that could be used in the social studies classroom.  Along with a small summary of each game, he gives the teacher ways it can be used and what content it covers.  I think this resource would be great for a teacher who is just starting to integrate technology into their social studies curriculum. 

Resource

Maguth, Dr. Brad M.  Global and Social Studies Education.  n.p.  Web.  Retrieved from http://globalandsocialstudieseducation.blogspot.com/2008/12/video-games-for-citizenship-education.html.  20 February 2013.

 

Scratch Game Ideas

Learning to use the Scratch program has been a little challenging, but I think after completing the tutorial and Scratch cards I am starting to get the hang of it.  Here is the animation I created for the tutorial, and here is the animation I created using the Scratch cards.

My idea for my Scratch game is to use the Whack-A-Mole game I found here and edit it to create a math game for students.  I want the math problems to appear at the top of the screen, and a series of choices will appear out of the holes, and the player must "whack" the correct answer.  I would also like to change some of the graphics, and add sound effects.

Double Journal Entry #4

“Today's youths are situated in a complex information ecology within which video games are only one small, albeit important, part. From this view, video games could no more replace books than television could replace radio; rather, each digital medium settles into its own ecological niche and, as a part of that niche, its own complex relationship with every other medium.”

I chose this quote because I really love the analogy they made about how video games could never replace books, just like television cannot replace radio.  This quote stuck with me because I know I’ve been guilty of thinking the opposite; that a child who spends a lot of time playing video games isn’t reading, but that’s not true.  Children can have more than one interest, and one interest does not take away from the other.  Each medium is a separate source of information and is utilized for the user’s purpose.  They all exist together and can even complement each other, as the article showed us.  The boy liked a video game so much that he read more about it and even created his own stories.  In this instance, the two mediums worked together and enhanced the boy’s learning.

Additional Resource

When I was researching video games and digital literacy I found an article called The Fourth "R".  This article talks about how 65% of students will end up in jobs that haven’t even been invented yet, and how digital literacy can prepare them for that.  I really like the site that this article is on; they are presenting a series of articles/videos during the next year that will focus on the role of digital media in kids’ lives.  The site also has links to related content about technology, and a video about their ideas about learning in a digital world.

Resource

Wisco, Albert.  (2013, Jan 29)  Digital Literacy:  The Fourth “R”.  Retrieved from http://tvoparents.tvo.org/article/digital-literacy-fourth-r.

Scratch Game

Math is one of my favorite subjects to teach, so when I was exploring the Scratch website I did a search for math games.  Many of the games I tried I got bored with very quickly; I usually didn't even finish the game.  I wouldn't want to use those games with a class, because I think if I am bored by them, my students would be too.  The game I chose is called Math Breaker; I chose it because it really held my attention.  It is a pretty simple game; the object is to hit the ball with your paddle and collect all the bricks.  In order to hit the ball you have to answer a math question correctly.  What I really like about this game is that you can fit the questions to cover any topic you choose; it doesn't even have to be math, it could be reading, science, or social studies. 

The link to the game is here.

Double Journal Entry #3

“Persistent virtual worlds literally support hundreds of thousands of users each day, consuming hundreds of millions of man hours per game, sporting economies that surpass the gross national product of many actual countries.”

I chose this quote because the first time I read it I had to go back and read it again because I thought I misread it; those numbers are really surprising.  I knew a lot of people played video games, but I wouldn’t have guessed the number to be in the hundred thousands of people playing each day or that the number of hours played per day was in the hundred millions.  It seems impossible that that much time would be spent on a video game.  If we could find or design games that could captivate students like these games do, they could be really effective in student learning.

“Completing quests requires that students participate in real-world, socially and academically meaningful activities, such as conducting environmental field studies, interviewing families and friends, researching community problems, examining current events from multiple perspectives, writing autobiographical anecdotes, producing advocacy media, or developing real-world action plans.”

This quote intrigued me because I couldn’t believe that students could get so much from one game.  There are multiple types of formative assessment that engage the students in different intelligences.  They are inquiring, writing, interacting with the community, examining artifacts, problem solving, and much more.  There is something to reach every student; and teachers can use the ongoing assessment to see what the students have learned.  These activities aren’t just busy work; these are skills the students will use in the future.

“QA scored significantly higher on the sum of all four dimensions than any other activity in which the students engaged (e.g., non-QA school work, playing with friends, reading books, etc.) The fact that children regard QA as a form of play even though they are doing school work, and that they rate it almost as highly on this dimension as playing video games, is particularly interesting, given that a significant amount of QA activity involves doing academic work.”

I really like this quote because it proves that if you can get students interested in what they are learning, they will want to learn and enjoy learning.  These students were so engaged with the QA activities that they didn’t even notice how much work they were actually doing.  This is the perfect example of students being engaged; these activities meant something to them.  They were motivated to complete them and proud of the work they had done; they even rated it almost as highly as actual playing. 

Additional Resource

After reading this article I was really intrigued about Quest Atlantis.  Since the article was so long, and sometimes used technical talk, I didn’t feel I had the clearest picture of everything that QA had to offer.  So, I went and searched for some videos that could condense the information I had read and also show me some pictures of what the game looks like.  I found the video Quest Atlantis on the Learning Channel and it was really helpful.  In this video, the doctor explains the benefits of QA and how it is being used in schools.  What I really like about this video is that they interview the students playing the game, so you can get their perspective on what they like about the game and what they are learning.

I think this game would be a great tool to integrate into your classroom.  I’ve looked at the website, and I know you have to be a subscriber in a classroom to play, but I would love to play around with it and see all of its features firsthand.  I don’t know of any schools around here that use QA, but I think it would be a great investment to look into.

Source

Questatlantis.  (2009, Nov 4).  Quest Atlantis on the Learning Channel.  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q2sRp5YM8Y.