Blogalisation

Found an interesting talk on the TED website tonight on creativity in schooling.

Anyway, here’s the link

No gamer left behind is a vodcast regarding the use of gaming technology in leraning, it may be accessed here. The video presents a number of examples where gaming is being used for educational purposes to great effect. The U.S. military is a high profile example of simulation gaming being used for training purposes. More relevant to the secondary school is the example of using civilisation to interest students in social sciences/history. The students in the video use the COTS (commercial off the shelf) game of civilisation to learn about how civilisations have been constructed and the different influences which shape the ways in which the different societies develop. The video states that the students in the program have become A grade students after the introduction of using civilisation as a means through which to learn the subject. I have always enjoyed computer games, I feel they have been a great help to my own development of problem solving abilities among other skills. Of particular interest to me as a language teacher I’m very interested in the use of MMORPGs as a tool through which learning can occur. I have recently taken to playing a free MMORPG by the name of Rappelz which can be accessed here (French version). The reason I chose to start playing the French version is because I see this game as being a means through which I can foster a virtual French community with my students, however fantastic the community may be, it’s a medium through which I can provide my students with the opportunity to create meaninful language in a context that interests them. All of the games quests, characters and beasts have French names, and communicate with the player in French, meaning if the students are to succeed in the game, they will have to understand the language. Further to this, the game has a guild function, through which I can organise a team with my students and we can play through the world together, communicating solely in the target language to achieve our goals of slaying whatever beast or conquering whatever quest is thrown at us. I find the idea of this game very exciting, I have mentioned the game to students in my class before who have already mentioned that they play it and other games such as silk road, which is another free MMORPG. Finding the right game to use to stimulate the interest of the class is something a teacher will need to consider, and also whether the RPG type game is more suited to boys or girls or whether both can play, however I feel at the very least this type of game can provide a very meaninful learning experience to students in the language subject area.

Van Eck has written an article on the use of digital game-based learning, it may be accessed here. The article discusses the history of technology in education and details the struggle to have game based learning accepted by the educational community as a valid means through which students can be educated. The main arguments put forward for the validation of this teaching method is that learning conducted through games is meaningful by the way that the knowledge learnt is learnt in a specific context and must be applied within that context in order to succeed at the game. Secondly, play is a ‘primary socialisation and learning mechanism’ the article uses lions as an example of a way in animals (just like people) learn how to conduct themselves through the use of play, and that the lion learns to hunt through playing as a cub.  The article then continues to discuss why games better teaching/learning. Primarily the article mentions Piaget and that games are masters of creating cognitive disequilibrium and resolution through assimilation and accommodation, and according to Piaget, this is how we learn. The article proceeds next to discuss the different types of games and their differing strengths when it comes to education… for example a card game is best for “promoting the ability to match concepts, manipulate numbers, and recognise patterns.” Finally the article discusses the difference between using media and integrating media. It mentions that a major flaw of the use of technology in education is that it has been ‘used’ not integrated into the learning process. Integration requires analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the media and then making any necessary accommodations for weaknesses and employing the strengths of the media. It also makes note that if the media has no significant strength… it shouldn’t be used. Seems common sense, however a lot of technology has been used simply because it’s novel and seems attractive. This point is at the heart of designing learning for a digital generation… to make learning meaningful to our students we must integrate technologies into our classrooms, not only deliver the same old instructional methods through the new media. The real strength of ICT at the current point in time, in my view is its ability to allow students to learn independently, through creation and discovery, this type of learning is the deepest level of learning and will be life long for our students… the next question then is how to we guide this discovery learning to areas applicable to the curriculum? A somewhat difficult question… ideally we could throw away the curriculum and have students learn things they’re truly interested in in any given subject, unfortunately this too has its problems. Things to think about.

Please find the the ABC’s Australia Talks: Education Revolution podcast to which my podcast relates here.

blog-post-abc

Virginie published a post on the tenth of October regarding the use of video in schooling. The post can be accessed here.

I decided to write a reply to this post because it relates directly to my last post on the use of play in the classroom. The project which Virginie describes is a perfect example of both the ideas Riebel discusses in his article. The students are incredibly motivated by the project because they are all able to pursue their own interests related to film making. The students are also involved in the design process, through which they all have different opinions and areas of expertise and they can all contribute to the project in a way that suits their talents, thereby increasing their self confidence and desire to learn.

I agree whole-heartedly with Virginie’s comments that a video production project offers amazing benefits to the languages classroom and hope to include this type of project in my own classes.

I’ve just finished reading Rieber’s Article on designing learning environments that excite serious play. His article discusses the definition of play and what play can offer to the educational context, especially by way of learning through designing. I found the article interesting on two levels, though a little unfocused because of these two aspects. Firstly the concept of play as means by which things are learnt excites me incredibly, I’m a defiant individual and who hates being told what to do, another facet of this same characteristic is that I will not be defeated by anyone or anything, this has made me a resilient learner who has been able to survive his education through sheer refusal to give in. On the other hand, I have learnt myself a great number of things through interest, things that I have learnt more deeply and have sustained in my knowledge far longer than those things I have learnt so as to survive a course. For this reason the type of teacher I want to become is one who doesn’t have an air of forcing students into learning something, I want to inspire play from my students. To me, students will learn best, both in terms of understanding the knowledge taught to them and in terms of how well and how long they are able to use the knowledge/skills if they learn it through play. It’s great, to me, to have read that there is a movement in educational philosophy which values the fact that people play and learn through playing. Secondly the article discusses the benefits of using a designing for learning method, which also seems to be an encouraging and progressive form of education; one where students control their own learning and become specialists in fields relative to them through skill, interest and desire. The implementation of these two educational techniques will take an enormous shift in attitude for most teacher and an equally sized shift in the organisation of schools to accommodate the ‘studio’ atmosphere Rieber describes. Overall I found this article uplifting and it gives me hope that teachers and students of the near future will both play in the classroom.

I’ve just read Georgie’s post regarding blogging for learning which may be accessed here. I found this post quite exciting, mainly for her comment on the effects of having an audience on the student’s motivation levels. This is something I hadn’t thought about previously with relation to ICT in the classroom, however I completely agree with the notion that having a published work will increase the motivation of students and therefore improve the quality of their work through inspiring pride. I would like to see more creative ideas for using blogs or other web 2.0 features/tools to aid education, currently I’m very excited about what can be done and how it might benefit the classroom however I have very little idea of how to actually implement the technology in my own lessons. Some exploration into voicethread will be a good starting point for myself to perhaps germinate some ideas of what I can do in my lessons.

I’ve come across a website run by a government office known as the Australian Agency for International Development. On their site, here, there are quite a few links to articles concerned with the implementation of ICT in education. The articles vary in their focus from how lesser developed countries can deliver ICT based lessons using larger class sizes and fewer computers to the article which I’m writing this post about, which is a list of things that should be kept in mind when implementing ICT based educational programmes. The article may be accessed here. In this article the department details 14 lessons which they have learnt through their own research into ICT programmes and implementation in Australian schools. Some of the more poignant points to me were, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13. The other points are still valid, I just found them either a little too obvious in nature or a little too lofty in their ideal. Points 3 & 8 inform us that for collaborative online communities to be truly successful it helps if the collaborators have physical contact and/or a history of collaboration in a physical environment. I found this interesting as I know there are interest groups on the internet that have enormous amounts of collaboration from people who’ve never met before or had any prior dealings with each other. It does make sense, however, that if people have met and have an intrest in each other, the motivation to collaborate online will be stronger. Points 4 & 5 warn against the use of ICT by teachers who have only moderate computer skills and mentions that ICT programmes work best when implemented by teachers who use ICT for simulation or applications that are associated with higher learning. This is an interesting contrast to an article I commented on in a previous post in which the author mentioned her concern for ICT making students skim the surface of the world and not digging deeper into topics. I agree with this site that higher order thinking is an area of education which ICT can really enhance and believe this should be a focus for teachers wishing ot use ICT in their lessons. The other points relate to time constraints on using computers across schools and windows of opportunity due to schedule differences between the schools, the fact that teachers who are pressured for time by examinations will not be able to implement ICT effectively and that a collaborative, group-working focus should be adopted for ICT, something like a wiki where the students can co-author the online work.

Overall I think the article gives some practical points to keep in mind when thinking of using ICT or implementing an ICT programme in schools. I think the mother site has some great links relating to ICT that I’d like to explore and find more about.

Chris Betcher posted a list of 11 things that would positively influence the introduction and use of ICT in the classroom. The article may be accessed here. Chris asks if the list still holds up as it is about 5 years old, I believe it still does, schools have changed in the time since the list was originally posted, unfortunately teachers have not. Teachers still fear ICT, they still begrudge being forced to use ICT and they still use ICT as a means to deliver antiquated teaching methods. One of the factors that I believe influences a teacher’s use of ICT is their age, that is not to say that being young is a distinct advantage in the use of ICT however I have come across a number of individuals who are teachers of a more mature age that feel ICT is just beyond their realm of comfort, the feeling is that they won’t be able to use the technology, and if they try, they’ll probably break it. I believe people need to be comfortable with a technology to be able to use it effectively in the classroom. For instance, I’m not comfortable using a whiteboard as my handwriting is lacking on paper let alone on a slippery vertical service. Because of this I only use the whiteboard when I must, and then only for the bare minimum. On the other hand, I grew up using computers I’m completely at ease with them, so anything I can type on the computer and project onto the screen for the class to read or write, I will. This is not to say that I’m using ICT only as a replacement media to produce the same results as older technology, but there’s nothing to say one can’t do this. My point here is that because I’m comfortable using ICT rather than the whiteboard I do use the ICT rather than the whiteboard, whereas for a lot of teachers, it’s the other way around. I’m not sure how to go about it, but I feel the older teacher who fear using technology should have the option of doing a series of basic computing courses so that they do feel truly comfortable with a keyboard and mouse, a projector and remote control. It’s this comfortability which allows teachers to research in their own time the benefits of using ICT in their classroom and really find out just how beneficial and can be to their cause.

One of the best points in the post to me was point 9, linking home with school. I’m a big believer in making learning something the student enjoys, I feel school is a place for students to encounter a multitude of interesting subjects from which they can develop hobbies and interests and hopefully find something which they want to turn into a profession. It’s because of this that I feel the school should morph seamlessly into the home and community, school should be a gateway of interesting resources that students can access wherever they are, and students should want to access the resources the school has to offer. If a school site can provide students with the necessary resources they need to study for their classes and also provide them with a pass-time which they enjoy, ICT will surely revolutionise the quality of teaching our students receive.

I’ve just had a look at the Berwick Secondary College website in which it has a page discussing the use of ICT in Language classrooms. The page can be accessed here. The page has a section entitles why use ICT in the teaching of LOTE, however this section is a little superficial in its reasoning for why to use ICT in LOTE. I agree with the value of ICT for live interactions with people from the target language, this has obvious benefits for the listening to authentic productions from the target language and for interaction with native speakers of the language, however it mentions that the use of ICT can provide innovative teaching programs to compliment face to face teaching and explicitly mentions that it isn’t to replace face to face teaching. A little more explanation on the ways in which ICT can be used innovatively to teach LOTE would have been helpful. The page also had a section for ICT resources related to LOTE, however this, too, is a little superficial in that the resources provided are few and very obvious in nature, such as the department of education’s page of teaching resources for the subject. The learning federation link provided however does have some useful resources for LOTE teachers. The site may be accessed here. The resources are arranged in two main categories with is useful, multimedia and interactive programs. The multimedia resources include videos and audio recordings and the interactive programs include games that students can play and learn useful language related skills in the process. One which I previewed involved teaching students how to relate kanji by their radicals in Japanese and also find commonalities in meaning from looking at the radicals. It also taught students how to look kanji up in a kanji dictionary by way of radicals, all these skills are taught through playing a treasure hunt game for the different kanji on an island, the places in which the students find the kanji relate to the meanings and I believe the game was quite well set out overall. More investigation is needed to find programs and multimedia that are relevant to the classrooms in which I’ll be teaching adn that are beneficial and not just superficial however the site looks promising in terms of starting a resource pool of activities/media/resources that can be used in the classroom. I would like to develop a website myself in which resources can be pooled together under various menu types, by topic/grammar structure/resource type or at least provide links to relevant resources under these different headings.