One of my favorite aspects in my role as a student services director is seeing things click for students, and at ASU Online at Arizona State University, we've often seen "aha moments" result from game-based learning.
One of the primary benefits of game-based learning is that…… (Continue Reading)
We may think we’re pretty smart, but in fact we have very little notion of how humans learn. Kids know: They play games. Until, that is, they go to school. That’s when the games stop. And often, so does the learning.
That was the sad panorama... (Continue Reading)
This webinar will show you step-by-step how to create your first serious game with ITY studio's new release. No technical skills required!!
Gaming the Classroom: The Art and Science of Game Based Learning
“Gamification should be about driving learning and behavior change” — Karl Kapp, professor of instructional technology, Bloomsburg University
Gaming in America
Gaming in the Classroom
Frequency of Play
How effective are video games in the classroom?
Pros:
Cons:
Teachers’ Pick Top 10 Games for the Classroom
10. Chess Pro, with Coach
9. Bridge Constructor
8. Blox 3D
7. Bio Inc
6. Bastion
5. Banner Saga
4. Assassin’s Creed 3
3. Armadillo Run
2 Animate Me (3D Animation for kids)
1. 80 Days
Via: www.online-education-degrees.net
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6 Common Misconceptions About Blended Learning Infographic
When implementing blended learning, stakeholders may have preconceived notions about this model of learning. The following outlines some common blended learning myths. The 6 Common Misconceptions About Blended Learning Infographic contains more details, plus questions to ask yourself when considering implementing blended learning:
Myth #1: Students work in isolation
In order to be considered blended learning, students need opportunities to interact with peers and the instructor in live, real-time settings.
We live in a social age. Today’s learners want to incorporate social and collaborative approaches in all aspects of their life, including learning. Online courses with the best practices in online learning are socially constructed. Students in online courses designed this way frequently report they have more social interactions with their peers than they do in traditional, face-to-face courses.
Because teachers are not tied up with direct instruction during physical classroom time, online learning options can serve as a means to increase interaction and personalized contact time between students and teachers.
Myth #2: Students complete online content by working primarily asynchronously at school and at home
Some educators believe blended learning is when you put your entire course into a learning management system and students work on it 100% asynchronously. Students may physically come to class but they work individually on the online course during class time. This model ignores some of the positive benefits of face-to-face interactions that can occur in a classroom.
Myth #3: Blended, hybrid and online learning are less work than traditional, face-to-face instruction
Many instructors, institutions, and students mistakenly believe online instruction is easy. In reality, blended learning can require more time and effort from all parties (for more details on this, see “The Time and Effort of Face-To-Face Classes Versus Online Classes” section in the infographic below).
Myth #4: Blended learning is a linear process
When done correctly, online learning is not a linear process. Much of the learning is completed through a community of practice, and then knowledge and expertise is distributed among the group. So a participant may post to a discussion and log in several days later to see additional posts that broaden the discussion or cause the learner to consider things in new ways. This may then cause the learner to grapple with new ideas or work to defend their original thoughts. As such, it is definitely not a linear process.
In online learning, students often work at their own pace. A blended course may be competency based in which students are pre-assessed and can test out of sections of the course. If a course is outcome based, students may have choices in how they demonstrate proficiency and may take assessments or continually improve work until they meet specified outcomes. New tools in learning management systems allow instructors to create individual learning paths for students.
Another powerful benefit of technology is the ability to personalize learning experiences. For example, students at one reading level could view materials based only on their Lexile level. In these types of learning environments, the teacher role changes dramatically. The online course is not just a repository of resources that students need to view and read and then take assessments on. Instead, the teacher constantly checks for understanding and helps students meet learning targets.
Myth #5: Online learning is only for gifted students or credit recovery
While blended and online learning are often used as interventions and extensions for these two groups of students, the truth is all students benefit from blending learning models.
Myth #6. All blended learning classrooms are student centered
Just because a teacher uses online learning resources to supplement their teaching does not automatically translate to a student-centered learning environment. In both the face-to-face and online components, students need opportunities to express their voices and make decisions about their own learning in order to foster a student-centered learning environment.
It is important that all stakeholders understand that blended learning does not take less time than traditional instructional models. It also does not mean that students work in isolation or that learning is a linear process where one size fits all. When combined with research-based strategies, blended learning can provide new opportunities for students that meet a variety of different learning styles and change the learning landscape for the better.
Via: gettingsmart.com
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How can you utilize the game “Pokemon Go” in your classroom in a meaningful way? Student excitement about this game can be easily harnessed to support all kinds of fun and pedagogically-sound lessons and activities
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
One of the neat features of the “Pokemon Go” game is, when students find a Pokemon in the wild, they can turn on an augmented reality version of their mobile device screen which puts the virtual Pokemon into the live scene where their camera is ……. (Continue Reading)
Blended Learning 101 Infographic
The term “blended learning” seems to be infiltrating the education industry—and, for good reason. Blended learning, when done right, has the potential to infinitely expand student learning and engagement, while reshaping the role of the teacher in exciting ways. If you’re new to the term, the Blended Learning 101 Infographic offers a brief overview of blended learning. You may find you’ve already been creating a “blended classroom” without even realizing it. But once you understand the basics, you can delve even deeper into blended learning and refine your approach to maximize student learning.
Read also: 6 Blended Learning Models: When Blended Learning Is What’s Up For Successful Students
The post Blended Learning 101 Infographic appeared first on e-Learning Infographics.
A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults — and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age….. (Continue Reading)
Technical innovations have enable us to design nice 3D educational games, graphics, and environments, but what are the best practices to integrate them in eLearning?
When designing 3D educational games, the first thing to do is setting up the graphical environment of your module. Indeed, a well-rounded graphical environment is a solid foundation to a...(Continue Reading)
How to Cope With Stress During Exams Infographic
Stress during exams is a serious threat for students, as it can affect their sleep, appetite and trigger depression. How can they cope with the stress?
Research reveals that 1 in 2 students have skipped meals while studying for an exam and 1 in 7 said they have used alcohol as a way of dealing with exam anxiety. As if this wasn’t enough 2 out of 3 said it affected their sleep and are seeking professional help to ease their concerns. According to the research, the stress students are experiencing comes from not wanting to disappoint their parents, fear of failing and overall academic pressure.
The How to Cope With Stress During Exams Infographic presents the results of an exam stress survey 2000 undergraduate students participated in and shows the impact anxiety has on their exam performance. To help students out, it also suggests some ways to relieve exam stress and how to study effectively. Have a look! If you know anyone who is suffering from exam anxiety, send them this infographic to help them out. The tips it provides could make a real difference!
View also:
Via: www.studymedicineeurope.com
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World of Cheddar just created a 10 page guide filled with FREE financial literacy resources for financial educators. We’ve included sources for:
To receive your FREE copy, go to the World of Cheddar website at www.worldofcheddar.com and subscribe to our mailing list.
There are a LOT of discussion boards. I chose only one to follow so that I could experience a discussion board in a class with 71,000 students from 147 countries. The board I chose to follow is “Is Gamification Unethical?” You may recall that I posted on this topic in this blog. I posted a similar statement in that discussion board, and received a couple of replies.
The range of sub-topics within this discussion board is insightful. It seems that many discussion board participant believe that gamification is unethical. Sub-topics revolve around:
Those are the themes I recall; there were SO. MANY. POSTS.
The major themes seem to be:
And to me, the underlying idea behind these posts is that a person who is exposed to a gamified process has no choice over their actions in the process, including the choice to participate. There’s no free will once a system or process has been gamified. I thought games were all about choice and free will participation, so wouldn’t gamification be, too?
What are your thoughts? Does gamification assume that the target audience loses his or her choice to participate? If you decide to gamify a class or topic or some part of the educational process, are you limiting student choice in a negative way?
You can listen the latest episode of the World of Cheddar podcast series by visiting the the World of Cheddar Website at www.worldofcheddar.com and clicking the Podcast square. In Episode 4 Vicki talks about Financial Well-Being.
You can also listen to the podcast on iTunes. Go to the iTunes Store, select podcasts and search for World of Cheddar
The EC Network has a cool video that gives some ways to gamify education. Looks easy enough to me, but then, I don’t run a classroom. I’d love to hear what you teachers think. Could you apply any of these ideas THIS semester? I betcha that you could do a variation of the connection game around financial literacy topics.
Click the link below to watch the video.
Author Savita Iyer-Ahrestanin at AdvisorOne.com published a nice article on August 27, 2012, on Vicki Brackens and her work with financial literacy improvement through game-play, and about a game that Vicki is developing through Syracuse University’s iSchool call Cb3d (Cheddar Bowl in 3D). You can read more by clicking this link:
Here are the Week 1 statistics for this free online gamification course that I’m taking through Penn/Wharton School:
The figures are incredible! I can’t imagine teaching 71,000 people. As a student, the numbers haven’t impacted me. One of the assignments is a peer-reviewed paper. We’ll see how that works.
Just thought I’d share.
The World of Cheddar website just published reviews of three more games:
You can read these reviews at www.worldofcheddar.com.
We’ve included links to the games, so go play them yourself and then come back here and tell us what you think!
Do you have first hand experience using these games with your students or other young people? If so, please share your experiences here.
On Monday the Penn/Wharton online gamification course offered through Coursera began. I mentioned this game in an earlier post. Having listened to an interview on NPR about Coursera and the huge course enrollment sizes — 100K students — I decided to enroll in the course. I wanted to experience an online certificate-granting course that aims to teach tens of thousands of students at a time.
The course uses video lectures to deliver content; students should be able to complete the assignments from watching the video lectures. Each module has several videos that range between six and 17 minutes. No textbook is assigned, however, optional online materials are provided. During the videos students are asked to answer a multiple choice question or make a reflection (not an online reflection). At the end of Week One, students took an multiple choice quiz. This week’s quiz was only five questions. All told, I spent about two hours total on Week One.
There is a HUGE discussion forum. Lots of discussions from which to choose, and there is a wiki. Navigating and participating in the discussion forums take more time than the course work.
I’ll be sharing some of the links and ideas from the course in future posts.
My initial impression is: So far, so good.
In my August 21 post about IDEO Design’s website Design Thinking For Educators I mentioned that you can download a FREE Design Thinking For Educators Toolkit. Well, I decided to download and explore the toolkit.
This is a 94 page PDF document that describes the IDEO Design design process. The beginning of the document immediately points out that educator problems need not be solely content delivery problems. Examples include:
This is not simply a “teacher effectiveness improvement tool, but a school effectiveness improvement tool. This tool can improve creativity and innovation on a personal, classroom or school level — even a school- community level.
Its a five phase process that starts from defining the problem, identifying solution possibilities, selecting the “best” solutions, implementation and evaluating the results for continuous improvement. IDEO Design specifically describes this from an educator’s/school’s perspective.
Here are the five phases as they describe them:
The process is completely collaborative. It cannot be implemented by a single teacher. And the toolkit reminds educators that while the process looks straight forward, it can be challenging. But the creative process is challenging. It is iterative, and require using new brain muscles to grapple with unfamiliar ideas and skills to give birth to something innovative. (Just like what we require of students.)
The document also includes case studies of educators experiences in using the toolkit.
Download the document, peruse it, then come back and tell us what you think.
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