Christmas diagram.
Christmas mindmap
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Thursday 13 November 2008
'Game theory'
An article published in the Guardian today explores 'what we can learn about learning from video games'. Click here to read the article.
Keith Stuart poses the question, are all games about education? On the surface, things like Brain Training and Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo DS sell themselves as educational learning tools. Stuart explains that games such as SimCity are 'quietly didactic experiences', yet he asks whether we are overlooking the educational value of all games. Stuart explains,
"At the GameCity festival in Nottingham, Jonathan Smith, head of production at UK publisher TT Games, spoke about how he sees games as supportive learning environments."
This is all well and good, however i believe it is up to us, as teachers and/or parents to investigate this further. If indeed the claim is true, then fantastic news. I am sure there is nothing an eight year old boy would love more than to come home from school and settle into his homewrok task of playing videogames for 30 minutes. He would probably willingly play for longer. And what a success, children actively wanting to be part of that supportive learning environment. What skills is he really learning though?
"In a report published by the Primary Review [...] children describe what makes a good teacher, saying that one "explains things clearly", "turns teaching into problem-solving rather than just giving information" and "makes sure it's not too big steps". Smith realises that every point applies to good game design as much as good teaching."
So are games a learning environment in which children are simply taught about games? Or are they in fact a valuable educational resource that have been somewhat overlooked up until now? Smith suggests "that all games, like schools, can teach us about our place in the world, but only by providing a supportive framework to creativity and fun." So then, video games will not as such make children better at numeracy or literacy, but he kind of education they do provide is also valuable. There is little time in the Curriculum for teaching children extensively about their place in the world, so perhaps this is a way around that?
I am sceptical. Not about the value video games can have in a child's learning, but about what learning really goes on when they are engaged in something such as Mario Cart.
References
Keith Stuart poses the question, are all games about education? On the surface, things like Brain Training and Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo DS sell themselves as educational learning tools. Stuart explains that games such as SimCity are 'quietly didactic experiences', yet he asks whether we are overlooking the educational value of all games. Stuart explains,
"At the GameCity festival in Nottingham, Jonathan Smith, head of production at UK publisher TT Games, spoke about how he sees games as supportive learning environments."
This is all well and good, however i believe it is up to us, as teachers and/or parents to investigate this further. If indeed the claim is true, then fantastic news. I am sure there is nothing an eight year old boy would love more than to come home from school and settle into his homewrok task of playing videogames for 30 minutes. He would probably willingly play for longer. And what a success, children actively wanting to be part of that supportive learning environment. What skills is he really learning though?
"In a report published by the Primary Review [...] children describe what makes a good teacher, saying that one "explains things clearly", "turns teaching into problem-solving rather than just giving information" and "makes sure it's not too big steps". Smith realises that every point applies to good game design as much as good teaching."
So are games a learning environment in which children are simply taught about games? Or are they in fact a valuable educational resource that have been somewhat overlooked up until now? Smith suggests "that all games, like schools, can teach us about our place in the world, but only by providing a supportive framework to creativity and fun." So then, video games will not as such make children better at numeracy or literacy, but he kind of education they do provide is also valuable. There is little time in the Curriculum for teaching children extensively about their place in the world, so perhaps this is a way around that?
I am sceptical. Not about the value video games can have in a child's learning, but about what learning really goes on when they are engaged in something such as Mario Cart.
References
- 'What we can learn about learning from video games' by Keith Stuart in The Guardian Thursday 13th November 2008
Tuesday 11 November 2008
IWB
Click here. Something slightly cheesy, but perhaps a worthwhile read on the benefits of the IWB.
From my own perspective, here is a short list of my initial thoughts on the benefits of IWBs.
For the teacher:
15/12/2008
An Guardian article, dated 2005 explains the cautions that should be taken with the use if IWBs. I think it is interesting to compare what we now know.
The article describes how IWBs will be used for teaching ICT, as a 'glorified power point'. What I have seen in classrooms tell a different story. In core curriculum subjects alone, IWBs have been used to enhance children's learning. The learning is interactive, it is within their reach -- they can come up to the front of the classroom and touch it. The children are handed back some of the control.
It is quoted that 'integrating ICT into the curriculum should be a full-time responsibility for an expert member of staff.' If, in 2005 this was not the case, it certainly is now. The majority of teachers, I would suggest, are aware of the benefits that ICT can have in creative an effective learning environment, and they are trained to provide this sort of learning. I do think that three years on, a relatively long period of time in technology terms, some teachers are not reaping the benefits.
I cannot name a single classroom where I have not seen the IWB in full use, to the benefit of the learners. The are a great resource to teachers, and I think we have come a long way, as teachers and users of ICT since that 2005 article. It shows, the older generation are becoming integrated in a digital society, slowly, but nevertheless, surely.
From my own perspective, here is a short list of my initial thoughts on the benefits of IWBs.
For the teacher:
- Resources are easily accessed -- once a resource has been created on Smartboard software is is easily to access and transport as it is all electronic.
- Resources are easily adapted -- once a resource has been made it can be kept, tweaked and changed to use again.
- Resources can be shared easily amongst colleagues -- teachers can share their ideas and presentations and they can be used again and again by whoever you wish to share them with.
- Smartboard presentations can be easily changed within lessons -- giving you and your class freedom for interpretation and adaptation within your lesson. These adaptations can then be saved for reviewing or re-using.
- Interactivity - learning is two sided and it is two way -- it gives children an instant result or output to their work.
- Interesting learning -- when the IWB is not overused.
- It brings learning, teachers and the classroom into the 21st century. It is something technological that children can relate to and it brings the teacher who can use the IWB (successfully) to a place where he or she will be considered modern (to an extent, perhaps).
- Children can put their own work onto the IWB thus giving them an easy way to share things they are proud.
15/12/2008
An Guardian article, dated 2005 explains the cautions that should be taken with the use if IWBs. I think it is interesting to compare what we now know.
The article describes how IWBs will be used for teaching ICT, as a 'glorified power point'. What I have seen in classrooms tell a different story. In core curriculum subjects alone, IWBs have been used to enhance children's learning. The learning is interactive, it is within their reach -- they can come up to the front of the classroom and touch it. The children are handed back some of the control.
It is quoted that 'integrating ICT into the curriculum should be a full-time responsibility for an expert member of staff.' If, in 2005 this was not the case, it certainly is now. The majority of teachers, I would suggest, are aware of the benefits that ICT can have in creative an effective learning environment, and they are trained to provide this sort of learning. I do think that three years on, a relatively long period of time in technology terms, some teachers are not reaping the benefits.
I cannot name a single classroom where I have not seen the IWB in full use, to the benefit of the learners. The are a great resource to teachers, and I think we have come a long way, as teachers and users of ICT since that 2005 article. It shows, the older generation are becoming integrated in a digital society, slowly, but nevertheless, surely.
Friday 7 November 2008
To blog or not to blog?
See video about a blog.
'And so to blogging', he says as my fingers curl up with the fear of revealing the inner-most workings of my brain to the world wide web. Fair enough, it is something I plod on with for means of assessment and published reflection, but what does it mean for a class, for my class? How will, or could, this impact them. How can it help?
As I drive to my first meeting with my new class, the school appears behind an imposing, run down block of flats, graffitied, with a number of boarded up windows. It seems as though my class will not have much experience with blogging It may sound stereotypical, but as it turns out, very few of the children have computer access at home. This goes against everything I seem to have heard so far regarding today's children and ICT.
Blogging, it seems, will not have entered the consciousness of many of these children. How do you then introduce blogging to the class, and how do you tackle the inevitable feedback from parents who cannot provide access to these blogs at home?
"In 1997 Jorn Barger coined the phrase Weblog to describe a site that combined links, commentaries, and personal thoughts and essays from the perspective of the Weblog author." (Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age? 9/26/2002, By Phillip D. Long)
Blogging is a way of sharing news and information with a whole range of people. A class blog would be a fantastic way of sharing news from the class with parents, carers and other teachers, but how do I enable parents to see it without computer or internet access at home? The class can access the blog during their limited use of the ICT suite, yet the question still remains, to blog, or not to blog?
The media suggests that blogging is in my favour. I can share ideas, news, view responses all in one place, which does sound like a good idea. But can the children use this kind of medium effectively? They can type, yes, but they are so used to forming ideas on paper before even sitting at a computer that I feel they would struggle with using a blog as a learning tool., to begin with at least. I know that many children in the class own a games console of some shape or description, proving that they can adapt and learn in a new way, if only they practice it enough. Linking, very usefully to the reflections on Prensky and the Digital Natives Part II (see below), in which he discusses how a persons brain can change and adapt in different circumstances.
Therefore if I can begin to model how blogging works, and the ways in which it benefits its users, surely a class on 24 children can take it on board and will soon enough become effective bloggers themselves.
I am delighted when I hear that the school will be opening up its new ICT suite to parents and children at the end of each school day, turning the idea of a class blog into something that is possible and worthwhile.
The answer it seems is to blog. Lets see how it works in reality shall we?
References
'And so to blogging', he says as my fingers curl up with the fear of revealing the inner-most workings of my brain to the world wide web. Fair enough, it is something I plod on with for means of assessment and published reflection, but what does it mean for a class, for my class? How will, or could, this impact them. How can it help?
As I drive to my first meeting with my new class, the school appears behind an imposing, run down block of flats, graffitied, with a number of boarded up windows. It seems as though my class will not have much experience with blogging It may sound stereotypical, but as it turns out, very few of the children have computer access at home. This goes against everything I seem to have heard so far regarding today's children and ICT.
Blogging, it seems, will not have entered the consciousness of many of these children. How do you then introduce blogging to the class, and how do you tackle the inevitable feedback from parents who cannot provide access to these blogs at home?
"In 1997 Jorn Barger coined the phrase Weblog to describe a site that combined links, commentaries, and personal thoughts and essays from the perspective of the Weblog author." (Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age? 9/26/2002, By Phillip D. Long)
Blogging is a way of sharing news and information with a whole range of people. A class blog would be a fantastic way of sharing news from the class with parents, carers and other teachers, but how do I enable parents to see it without computer or internet access at home? The class can access the blog during their limited use of the ICT suite, yet the question still remains, to blog, or not to blog?
The media suggests that blogging is in my favour. I can share ideas, news, view responses all in one place, which does sound like a good idea. But can the children use this kind of medium effectively? They can type, yes, but they are so used to forming ideas on paper before even sitting at a computer that I feel they would struggle with using a blog as a learning tool., to begin with at least. I know that many children in the class own a games console of some shape or description, proving that they can adapt and learn in a new way, if only they practice it enough. Linking, very usefully to the reflections on Prensky and the Digital Natives Part II (see below), in which he discusses how a persons brain can change and adapt in different circumstances.
Therefore if I can begin to model how blogging works, and the ways in which it benefits its users, surely a class on 24 children can take it on board and will soon enough become effective bloggers themselves.
I am delighted when I hear that the school will be opening up its new ICT suite to parents and children at the end of each school day, turning the idea of a class blog into something that is possible and worthwhile.
The answer it seems is to blog. Lets see how it works in reality shall we?
References
- Blogs: A Disruptive Technology Coming of Age? 9/26/2002, By Phillip D. Long at http://campustechnology.com/articles/39247_1/
- Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II: Do They Really Think Differently? By Marc Prensky at http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part2.pdf
Wednesday 29 October 2008
'In Class, I have to power down'
'In Class, I have to power down' (view Guardian article here.)
Indeed, many of today's primary school children will have had a lot more experience with ICT than that which they will come across in school. Spreadsheets, databases and word documents prompt yawns and a rolling of the eyes from these such children. I admit, they know far more than I do about what is out there in the world of Information and Communication Technology, so why do we not credit this and give way for them to develop and expand within school. If they were musically talented their skills and talent would most likely be nurtured and built upon by a school or outside agency. So why is ICT so limited?
I could speculate for hours about what makes us, as teachers, react in such a way to ICT. I stifled laughter as a teacher told me that the classes first ICT lesson on the half term would not be in the ICT suite. 'They are learning this today, and then they can put it onto the computer next week'. I hope the teacher does not notice my raised eyebrows in response to what I have heard. In school, children have to 'power down':
Both quotes taken from 'In class, I have to power down' by David Puttnam at guardian.co.uk, Tuesday May 8 2007.
The question then, how do we make ICT interesting and exciting within school? There are limitations, it seems, in the amount of freedom and control you can give a class of children in an ICT lesson. There are plans to keep to and things to be learnt, in theory anyway. What is often forgotten, I think, is how much ICT can filter into other areas of the curriculum in interesting and exciting ways. Google Earth, podcasts, blogs and Wikis can all feature in ICT, however they would be of much more use in geography, literacy and science etc. as an enrichment to the curriculum. ICT needs to be taken from the ICT suite and filtered into other areas of education. It will be of much more value to children when they use it in an appropriate context. Then perhaps they may get interesting and exciting.
Indeed, many of today's primary school children will have had a lot more experience with ICT than that which they will come across in school. Spreadsheets, databases and word documents prompt yawns and a rolling of the eyes from these such children. I admit, they know far more than I do about what is out there in the world of Information and Communication Technology, so why do we not credit this and give way for them to develop and expand within school. If they were musically talented their skills and talent would most likely be nurtured and built upon by a school or outside agency. So why is ICT so limited?
I could speculate for hours about what makes us, as teachers, react in such a way to ICT. I stifled laughter as a teacher told me that the classes first ICT lesson on the half term would not be in the ICT suite. 'They are learning this today, and then they can put it onto the computer next week'. I hope the teacher does not notice my raised eyebrows in response to what I have heard. In school, children have to 'power down':
What I do with digital technology outside school - at home, in my own free time - is on a completely different level to what I'm able to do at school. Outside school, I'm using much more advanced skills, doing many more interesting things, operating in a far more sophisticated way. School takes little notice of this and seems not to care.One child explains how ICT lessons only get exciting when you leave the classroom and take what you have back to your own computer:
At school, you do all this boring stuff, really basic stuff, PowerPoint and spreadsheets and things. It only gets interesting and exciting when you come home and really use your computer. You're free, you're in control, it's your own world.
Both quotes taken from 'In class, I have to power down' by David Puttnam at guardian.co.uk, Tuesday May 8 2007.
The question then, how do we make ICT interesting and exciting within school? There are limitations, it seems, in the amount of freedom and control you can give a class of children in an ICT lesson. There are plans to keep to and things to be learnt, in theory anyway. What is often forgotten, I think, is how much ICT can filter into other areas of the curriculum in interesting and exciting ways. Google Earth, podcasts, blogs and Wikis can all feature in ICT, however they would be of much more use in geography, literacy and science etc. as an enrichment to the curriculum. ICT needs to be taken from the ICT suite and filtered into other areas of education. It will be of much more value to children when they use it in an appropriate context. Then perhaps they may get interesting and exciting.
Marc Prensky and the Digital Natives Part II
Part II 'Are They Really Thinking Differently?' (click to view here).
Critical Summary
Prensky explains findings in recent research that the brain is constantly reorganised. It never loses its plasticity, and it changes and reorganises itself differently based upon the input it receives. This has implications for the above theory. Natives and Immigrants not only think about things differently, they actually think differently. Their thinking is determined by what they have experienced, and this will be hugely different for Digital Immigrants and Digital natives. He explains that ‘Children raised with the computer ―think differently from the rest of us’. He suggests then that Immigrants must accept the fact they have entered into an unfamiliar world, and must adapt in order to achieve effective teaching and learning.
Prensky presents extensive evidence in support that games can help develop learning in a way that will help the brain reorganise itself and therefore retain the information put in. For the brain to reorganise itself it needs a consistent flow of information over a sustained period of time, Prensky suggests ‘several hours a day, five days a week, sharply focused attention’, which is reminiscent of the time a child invests in a video game. Prensky is by no means suggesting that children play mindless video games all day to achieve more effective learning, but to use this as a basis for practicing effective learning.
In view of this evidence Prensky proposes that Digital Immigrants must learn to reorganise their own minds. In such a way as people did for reading, for television and now for digital technologies. It seems a fair call that those who are technophobes should not be teaching in a way that seems completely alien to those who are learning. The learners are the future and so should not be dragged back into an old system, just because the teachers are afraid of the new digital technologies. Prensky’s evidence suggests that in fact digital technology enhances learning, and it should therefore be forwarded, not pushed to the back of the line.
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Marc Prensky and the Digital Natives
A short critical response to Marc Prensky's article 'Digital Natives Digital Immigrants'.Part I 'Digital Natives Digital Immigrants' (click to view article here).
Critical Summary
Prensky proposes that there is a mark in the change in which today’s students think, and therefore the way these students learn, ‘Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.’ He suggests that those responsible for these students’ learning (teachers, lecturers etc.) do not think in this same way. This creates a void in the space in which teaching learners communicate knowledge, and therefore that earning is not being communicated effectively. For this communication to become effective he proposes that someone needs to change (someone, either the Digital Native or the Digital Immigrant). Prensky suggests that since the Natives will not revert back to the older ways of teaching – they will not see the need – that this then the Immigrants who need to adapt. And why shouldn’t they, in the inherent native-immigrant analogy. The native world is the one in which we live, the immigrants are required to adapt in order to fit the native way.
Prensky’s proposition is very clear, and I do agree that there needs to be a shift in the direction of digital technologies in teaching. It is very hard however, to pigeon-hole people into the two categories – they are mutually exclusive in the analogy, but realistically this is not wholly true. Many lecturers and teachers are very able to work and communicate via technology, far better in fact than myself. They will have witnessed these technological developments, and the effect these developments have had. They will know the impact of technology far better than a native who has grown up alongside it. To them, it will either be a good or a bad development. Those who see the benefits of digital technologies are perhaps those who are far more digitally literate. Those that see digital progression as bad are those who cannot relate or adapt to today’s students. It is perhaps this opinion that needs challenging, correcting, and taking forward into an effective teaching practice that works both for the student and the teacher, or the Immigrant and the Native.
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