Educating the Players: are Video Games What We Need to Boost Learning?

The article below describes reasons as to why technology can be used as a tool for learning....not education....LEARNING!!! It states that people are often taught, and at the end of it they might know things without actually understanding them. We are taught to remember and know things, but we might not fully understand why that is the case. So an experiment in learning with using technology was done. Boxes of tablets were delivered to an Ethiopian village. No instructions were given, just boxes lying around. The children, within minutes, had figured out how to open the boxes, turn on the tablets, and start playing around with them. Within months, these children had learned their ABCs. So with that knowledge, can these children with the gift of technology teach themselves how to read and write? 

"If they can learn to read, then they can read to learn."

The article goes on to elaborate that we need to engage children in learning rather than talk at them. They will not learn this way. So now research is being done alongside professional video game companies such as EA to hopefully better understand the influence of "play" in learning.

I personally loved this article. This is mainly because I have always had the mentality of play being the most important aspect of a person's social learning process. Not only do we have fun while we play, but we learn behavioral skills, become aware of and adapt to our surroundings, learn about how to interact with various objects and organisms, and really connect with the world around us. What better lessons can you get from just reading a book or being lectured at? We need to make learning more engaging and interactive for students. Technology can be a tool for this, but mainly the teachers are who need to take the tools at their fingertips and implement them in their classrooms in a way that will inspire the students to actually want to learn. I was very impressed to hear that pro video game companies are starting to see the value (even if it is monetary) in doing research to produce games that offer educational inspiration to our kids.

What type of game do you think might be educational? Is any game that a kid picks up educational in some way?

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/educating-players-are-games-the-future-of-education/

Does Technology Help or Hinder our Education?

The article referenced below talks about issues regarding technology in education. It specifically tries to address how technology can improve student learning, or to also show that it does not. The article basically recommends the "flipped classroom" setting, in which students learn the content of a lesson at home and then come back to learn more about it in the classroom. Students learn more effectively by becoming actively engaged, and following a flipped classroom setting allows more in-class time for activity and engagement. The article also goes on stating that technology should be used as a tool to get away from strict math and language skills and focus on creative skills as well. Yet there are issues with implementing technology worldwide. There are countries where internet is not everywhere, and it would be difficult to implement the same quality of lessons produced by technologies than it would in countries such as the U.S, where we can find internet on just about every corner of our streets. The primary goals one way or another should be the improvement of primary and secondary education.

This article was short but sweet. It talks about how flipped classrooms and technology are the best way to go when it comes to running a virtual classroom nowadays. But if it can not be done right, then in my opinion it should not be done at all! If you do not have up-to-date technology, or slow internet, or students with no access to materials at home, then the technological classroom should not be implemented. Our main focus should be the students, not the methods. As teachers, we are professionals and we should be expected to adapt to teaching situations as much as we would expect a customer service representative to know how to deal with and handle all sorts of various situations. Teachers need to remember that, while technology can be an extremely effective tool, it is NOT always the best option!

What do you think? How will you implement technology in your classroom? What would you do if your students were not able to access the technology at home?

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/how-can-technology-improve-school-education/

Personal Learning Networks (PLN), Useful or Time Consuming?

So after creating my first Personal Learning Network (PLN), I have to say that there are both advantages and disadvantages to creating a PLN. My PLN consisted of subscribing to various RSS feeds using Feedly, subscribing to Twitter and following various posters, using Classroom 2.0 Ning, and various other forms of social media. After using these different applications and sites over the last few weeks, I can definitely say that I have very clear observations about both as to which I think are useful tool for the modern educator as well as which ones I think should be left in the dust.

So the first tool that I played around with was RSS Feeds. I have been a user of RSS feeds for almost a decade now, but I was always using them in a less than normal methods (I had always used RSS style website builders, like Wordpress, to make my own customizable personal websites over the years). RSS feeds are particularly useful for news or blog sites that have a constant level of information being put on them. But putting them on an RSS feed style website means that a person can easily subscribe to those feeds and get the most up-to-date news from those feeds. They can also take these feed subscriptions and put them all into one place, which is what I did using a website called Feedly. Feedly allows you to put all of your RSS feed subscriptions in one easy place for you to refer to for all of your news information. This was a tool that I actually liked. It put a lot of the RSS feeds that I was particularly interested in into one place. I subscribed to various educational feeds as well as TED Talks feeds (which I was particularly interested in seeing more of on a weekly basis). So now instead of checking multiple news websites, I was able to get relevant information and news that I am particularly interested all in one easily acceptable place. By using this you avoid looking at a bunch of fluff articles that you are uninterested on mainstream news sites. So Feedly is definitely a site that I will be using in the future to contain all of my relevant information.

While I like Feedly and the RSS subscriptions to cater to my news needs, I also realized that while the topics are interesting that I just did not have the time in my week to read every one that I wanted to. But this is one thing that I liked about creating a Twitter account. I had a Twitter account many years ago as a personal account, but I never really liked it because I never really saw the point in only being able to post a short amount of words or phrases in a "tweet". To some extent, I still do not get the hype. However having the same RSS subscriptions that I had on my Feedly put onto my Twitter account was great. I would get a short, abbreviated post about various topics via my Twitter that I could easily check on multiple times a day without it taking too much time. I followed @TEDTalks, @SanDiegoCounty, @UTNorth, and of course @TheEllenShow since Ellen Degeneres is always amazing and hilarious! While I liked to see the posts from the various followings and such, I did not get into following specific #hashtags in particular. I tweeted several times and made my own hashtags, but I did not find myself following any particular ones. I put out several tweets and responses to several other posts. However the only real reaction I got to most of them was people "liking" them with the heart symbol. I never really got to experience much conversation. While I know Twitter can be used as a conversation and marketing tool, I still found the most use of it from an educational standpoint in order to subscribe to various bits of information.

The website tool that I definitely disliked the most was Classroom 2.0 Ning. I found this website to be outdated and completely confusing. You go to the homepage, and it is not clear exactly what the purpose of the site is supposed to be. It says that it is a social network on the homepage, but since there are links to videos, product ads, upcoming events, forum links, award banners, etc. (seriously...the list could go on!). I went on multiple times to try to get involved and experienced in this tool, and I ultimately believe that it is just messy and outdated. It is used by too many learning settings and even various languages, so it is just muddy looking and difficult to use. I can easily say that I learned nothing from this site because it was so difficult to effectively understand it or to become fully engaged in it. I read several group posts from a Teacher Education group, and the information was interesting but outdated as it was posted back in 2010. Because of the information being so stale, I could not take the information seriously and with credibility. Therefore I believe that this tool is too outdated, messy and unused to consider ever utilizing it in a modern PLN.

Overall I liked creating and using my PLN. I believe that I will continue to add to and learn from my PLN as both a college student and as an educator. I would definitely recommend being cautious using Twitter for social uses other than subscribing to other posts. As a professional, we need to make sure that we have a minimal and completely professional appearance when it comes to our profiles on social media. I should not create a professional Twitter account and then post inappropriate presidential debate posts using that account or showing anything that could get me in trouble with my position as an educator. This goes for all social media, such as Facebook. we as educators need to be professional and responsible for anything that we do online to not only protect ourselves, but our students and faculties as well. Overall I believe having a PLN can definitely be a very useful tool for any professional trying to stay more connected to social news and media. 

Scratching the Surface

We had an interesting web application project that came up in my Educational Technology class this last week. It is a drag n' drop type web application called Scratch that allows you to make and animate simple sprites to program games and videos.

Needless to say I did something fairly simple since our project did not require a ton of programming to be done, and I simply do not have much time this month due to an overabundance of final school projects! However I did enjoy using this once I figured out the basics, and I wanted to share this on my blog with others who may not have heard about this website. There is also a version called Scratch Jr. that is even more kid friendly and encourages kids to learn the basics of what programming is and how it works. So here is my Scratch cartoon...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCRATCH PROJECT.

Thomas Suarez: A 12 Year Old App Developer

  

This kid is amazing! As I watched this video, not only was I impressed with his skills of app creation, but the fact that this twelve year old boy can stand up in front of a crowd of adults and speak with such knowledge and confidence is astounding! It really made me wonder how much technology might have played a role in his developmental and speech skills.

As I listened to this boy's talk, I wondered how many other boys and girls are out there that would like to create an app. I know that when I was a kid, I would see people paint a picture and then I would also want to learn how to paint a picture. My mother started sewing me costumes, so then I wanted to learn how to make costumes. So how many other students are out there actually WANTING to learn how to create apps and games using modern tech tools? I would have never dreamed of having my students create an application in the classroom. Now I am feeling that, over time, the process of app creation will be even more simplified for users to be able to create their own projects. Just imagine the possibilities! You could even make your own custom app as a teacher that would be specific to your classroom alone. I know that I am going to be looking into what app creation tools are now at my fingertips to utilize in my classroom in the future.

What do you think? How might you use app creation in your classroom? What do you think about teaching kids to create their own apps and games?

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkd9TWUtFm0

Communicating with Students Through Technology

I read this article on the NEA website mainly because of the title alone. I chose this title because I truly have a passion for technology in the classroom. I have always believed that staying current with new technologies, as a teacher, should be a necessity. We as teachers should not know less than our students when it comes to devices and resources that are available to our students.

The main points of this article basically state various resources and tools available to not only teachers, but to all students as well. The first point discussed was that the use of technology offers a new way to give feedback to students, parents, and even other colleagues. There is no longer a common need to bust out the “red pen” for grading. Instead of just giving small red pen notes on research papers, we can now have students submit papers in an online format where the teacher can then add detailed comments and feedback with ease. This is also good because it is not wasteful. The teacher can even give feedback using podcasts or personal videos that the students can access individually. The article also points out the very important uses of Google. Google now uses Google docs, which makes it easy for anyone with a Google account to create and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. This makes it easy to create works that are collaborative between students and teachers. The last point of the article goes over some specific tools to integrate different styles of learning. One app called Animoto easily creates professional videos for the classroom. VoiceThread is an app that allows students to give verbal responses to a question online for submission, like a spoken forum. There is even an app used just to take polls and surveys. Overall the article sums up that there are many new tech tools that are easily accessible to teachers for use.

I agreed with the points and information in this article for the most part. Many of the tools that were mentioned are ones that I have experienced using. I particularly agree with the use of Google docs in the classroom. Every student should know that this tool is available to them. I remember a time when only a handful of students in a class even had computers at home, and less of those students had a computer that had a full version of Microsoft Works which included Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Now if someone has a computer and an internet connection, but can not afford to purchase the license for those programs, they are not completely out of luck. They can create a free Google account online, and they will have access to those basic programs for use through Google Docs. They can then email and share those documents for various projects and assignments.
The only part of the article that I actually did not particularly agree with was the first quote: “It’s never been about the newest technology – a printing press, a computer, an app – but it has always been about the creative ways in which teachers use technology to meet learners’ needs. The challenge is in choosing the right tool for the task.” I agree with this statement mostly. However the part where it states that, “it’s never been about the newest technology” does not sit right with me. I think that any technology that is new must be tested and tried to evaluate its possible applications. We never know if it is a good tool or resource until it is thoroughly tested and tried. While all apps and tools that are available to us as teachers are not always appropriate for classroom use, I do believe that teachers should be pushed to consider the newest technologies simply because there are so many new possibilities at our fingertips! We only have to reach for them and think of ways to use them to further engage our students in the classroom, involve the parents outside of the classroom, and help our colleagues alongside our classrooms.

Article Link: http://www.nea.org/tools/52048.htm

UDL: A Way to Meet the Needs of All Students

Universal Design Learning is an idea that basically wants to help all students by breaking down learning barriers. These barriers are things that might keep a student from absorbing the material. All students learn differently, and we need to make sure that students are getting the access to different mediums they need in order to learn successfully. This video about UDL gives a good general overview and definitions about what UDL is and how it can help our young students.

This article about UDL goes into more detail about what these learning barriers are for our students.  There are several reasons that students can be struggling to learn, such as physical disabilities, emotional/behavioral challenges, learning disabilities, autism, attention issues, lack of knowledge, and language barriers. All of these things can contribute to a student not being able to really learn. However this does not mean that they can not! We just need to better understand our students so that we can help knock down learning barriers. Technological development can help bring down some of these barriers. Simple printed text does not do well with various students. But with digitized text it can easily be altered to change the size, content, and can even focus on just one section of reading much more easily. It also gives more access to these materials. UDL encourages instructors to use various media in order to represent the new materials for students. Teachers can use books, pictures, videos, interactive activities, art projects, etc. With all of these new learning materials the students will hopefully become more engaged overall in what is being learned, since more barriers have been removed. They must also be allowed to make their own mistakes so that they can learn to cope, and progress through it. The lessons must also be engaging, and must be encouraging students to complete it and get to the next one. One of the toughest things to work with though regarding UDL is making it work alongside state standards. Standards have to be taught and enforced in the school curriculum, but the teacher needs to make sure that their classroom is being run efficiently using UDL techniques. This will help their students to be more engaged and excited about learning in the classroom.

The Pros and Cons of the Flipped Classroom

The article "Flipped Classroom: Pro and Con" is an article that summarizes the good and the bad of using a flipped classroom setting. A flipped class is when the students are expected to read the book, view a lecture, or otherwise learn the content of their subject at home. Then they are expected to come to class with the knowledge, and then they can do more activities, have more teacher to student time to work through problems, and can have more interactions in the classroom. The pros of this method are that it centers the learning that is occurring around the students. They are able to learn more at their own pace, and can have more teacher help in the actual classroom. The cons of this teaching method are that the students may not all have the same access to technology at home, and it is not often convenient for the parents to have to take them somewhere for several hours a night just to use a lab computer.

Ipads in School: Various Considerations as Future Educators

I was actually really surprised to see iPads in an elementary setting, mainly because I am amazed that schools are actually able to approve a budget to provide such expensive devices to smaller children. However I was still very glad to see this technology implemented in younger classrooms.

Some of the main controversies surrounding iPads in the classroom that were discussed in our Technology class today involved how much impact iPads really have. Does it actually have a large effect on upping our learning for the kids or is it just a shiny new toy to keep them occupied? I think that the issues that one might have in the classroom is not the technology itself, but that the technology is actually used properly by the educators. If the educators are not trained to properly implement the technology in the classroom, or are unaware of supportive applications and programs to use, then the teacher should receive more training to properly implement the technology to the classroom. 

Digital Tools Evolving to Track Students' Emotions, Mindsets: Effects of Emotion on Cognition

In the article Digital Tools Evolving to Track Students' Emotions, Mindsets written by Benjamin Herold, academic researchers are now exploring new ways to actually track a student's emotions while they are put into a learning situation. Cognitive learning is closely linked with a student's emotions and attitudes, so researchers are now looking to develop new technologies to actually read a student's emotion as they are progressing through a technological learning program. The program will then be prompted to assist them depending on their current state of mind. Therefore if a child is struggling, the program might offer the child a hint and tell them "good job" after they have successfully completed the task. There is still no technology of this matter on the immediate horizon (estimated about a decade away), but developers are currently working towards creating this type of technology in order to understand how a student might perform a certain way based on their emotions.

Herold writes this article as an informative to his audience, and does not offer much of his personal opinion on the matter. Personally I think that this type of technology potentially has both good and bad aspects to it. It could be a good tool if it is used as a tool for gathering research data, so that people can actually better understand how a student's emotions might effect their cognition (wether that is in an "in-the-moment" type of scenario or a long term issue). If teachers can better understand how their students perform under emotional pressures (ex: test anxiety) then perhaps teachers and educational policy makers can create new curriculums to better assist students to meet their educational needs.

Your Brain on Video Games: A Scientific Look Into the Effects of Action Video Games on the Brain

In this video lecture, Daphne Bavelier explains the effects of video games on the brain by showing various results from scientific experiments and tries to persuade her audience that fast shooter/action video games can actually have several mental health benefits. She uses empirical evidence based on various mental tests. Daphne Raveler is a cognitive researcher who has been studying the effects of memory, vision, attention, and various other mental capacities by those who particularly have been playing fast-paced action/shooter video games. There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet regarding whether or not video games are bad for you. Some say that it is good, and improves your dexterity and reaction time. Others state that it can be bad for your vision and that it is a distraction that affects learning and attention issues. However Bavelier shows in this lecture that fast-paced action games can actually improve one's brain in various different ways. She compared people who had not played these games to those who had, and overall the gamers had better vision, better reaction times, better puzzle solving capabilities, and could pay better attention to multitasking situations.

So why is it that people have such an issue with video games? It seems that anywhere you can look online, there is an argument for as well as against video games when it comes to mental health. I personally have played various types of games all of my life. I can admittedly say that I have played just about every type of game there is on the market...action games, shooters, role-playing games, dance games, guitar games, you name it and I have probably played it at least once. And I can definitely say with confidence that I believe that gaming has been a positive influence in my life, both socially and mentally.

Intro Post

Well...this is my first post! This is mainly just there so that I can make sure that everything on the blog is up and running before I actually start putting up posts with real content! Hopefully everything works. I need to make sure that links work, comments are posting, share buttons are operable, and that there are no unused gadgets/widgets in the sidebars that are just taking up space or look distracting. So far it looks like everything is working so woooohoooooo!