Categories
Uncategorized Digital Learning

Ian Jukes – Education in the Age of Disrupted Learning – Region 13 Video

Region 13 Education Service Center Presentation

Ian Jukes presents (Education In the Age of Disrupted Learning: Welcome to the Digital Revolution – August 2017) to the Education Service Center Region 13 staff members.  Education Service Center Region 13 is one of twenty service centers that serve the Texas’ educational needs. Education Service Center Region 13 purpose is to aid teachers and administrators in their role as educators. Education Service Center Region 13 serve as a liaison between the Texas Education Agency and the local school districts and the schools they serve by disseminating information, conducting training and consultation for both federal and state programs.

https://region13.wistia.com/medias/br1709vc52

Categories
Gaming Reinventing Learning

TeachThought Podcast Ep. 81 Reinventing Learning: Why Are Kids Different Today? –

Reinventing Learning For The Always-On GenerationSummaryEpisode 81 of the TeachThought Podcast is the first in a 12-part series on reinventing learning for the ‘always on’ generation.In this series, Ryan Schaaf takes a look at what a modern learner ‘is’ and how teachers can adapt to and serve them. Ryan is Assistant Professor of Technology, Notre Dame of Maryland University and on the  Graduate Faculty, Johns Hopkins University. He is also Director at InfoSavvy21.

Source: TeachThought Podcast Ep. 81 Reinventing Learning: Why Are Kids Different Today? –

Categories
Uncategorized

3 Ways to Integrate Students’ Love for Gaming in the Classroom

Written By Becky Koza

info_savvy21_gamingWhen I entered my first classroom, I was taken aback. Not because I was excited to make the classroom mine, not because I was anxious to rearrange furniture, and not because I was overwhelmed with the amount of work that needed to be done. I was taken aback because in the technology-centered year of 2012, there was an overhead projector in my classroom!

Continue reading “3 Ways to Integrate Students’ Love for Gaming in the Classroom”
Categories
Digital Learning

What Will the Learning Device of the Future Look Like?

Dian Schaffhauser from THE Journal interviews a young innovator, a futurist and the CEO of the One-to-One Institute to capture their thoughts on what students will be using for learning one day. Here are their predictions, from the fantastical to the practical.

Continue reading “What Will the Learning Device of the Future Look Like?”
Categories
Digital Learning Gaming

Video Games: A Powerful Medium for Learning with a Bad Wrap

Video games are a collaborative effort. They bring together different people and cultures that would normally never communicate with one another. Hordes of players from different continents and time zones ‘game’ for a shared goal. Despite many of the popular video game titles being interlaced with violence and vulgar material, many games have been published for an educational purpose and can bridge different cultures and teach tolerance and peace. Written by Ryan Schaaf and Nicky Mohan, this is an InfoSavvy21 original.

“We can’t undo the past, we have no idea what the future holds. Today, we have the ability to do something which can shape our lives and the lives of those around us.”
— Unknown

While many observers consider playing video games to be a complete waste of time, gamers play with extreme commitment and passion. What motivates gamers, especially those of the digital generations, to devote countless hours to their gaming worlds; and can education benefit from the use of gaming in the classroom.

Continue reading “Video Games: A Powerful Medium for Learning with a Bad Wrap”
Categories
Disruptive Innovation

Schools Need Redemption, Not Innovation

Jordan Shapiro at Forbes explores the mindsets associated with how schools should serve their students in the 21st century. His arguments do not mean to condemn schools, but to shine a light on them and determine if they are constructed to prepare students for the future, not our past.

Continue reading “Schools Need Redemption, Not Innovation”
Categories
Digital Learning

Create a Class of GPS Explorers with Geocaching

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor navigation and orienteering activity using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location. Cheryl Phillips at eSchool News introduces us to the exciting activity and links it to learning experiences in the classroom.

posted by Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Several years ago I attended a Discovery Education Teacher Institute in San Francisco, and was pulled into the adventurous world of geocaching. It was there, near the windy shores of the San Francisco Bay, that I experienced my first techy treasure hunt. After giving a speedy lesson how to use a GPS device, facilitators helped split attendees into groups of three as we locked in a given set of coordinates to begin our search for a series of “caches,” or containers with coupons for free swag hidden inside. It was a terrific bonding experience for the group and friendships were quickly formed.

Geocaching is a location-based technology treasure hunting activity that combines the great outdoors with technology and learning. With a GPS device in hand, one can look for hidden containers anywhere on earth—anywhere! Like a homing pigeon, the device zeroes in on a hidden cache and the hunt is on—often through terrain and landscapes that otherwise go unnoticed. Most containers include a logbook of those who have found it in the past, and as a result, connect a community of geocachers.

As my school’s Instructional Technology Coach, I’m constantly in search of new and inventive ways to incorporate technology both inside and outside the classroom. And as I soon learned, geocaching is not only a unique way to integrate your standards, it also teaches responsibility and caring for the environment, as geocachers are expected to adhere to the movement’s creed of “Cache In Trash Out.”

Moving into fields and forests and making learning different and more enjoyable, geocaching creates unforgettable experiences for students that go well beyond the four walls of the classroom. Of course, there are a few hurdles to jump before diving in, but with a bit of planning teachers can be on their way to creating a fun activity for their students. First and foremost, a GPS device is needed, along with a solid lesson plan, and a safe place to hide the cache.

Geocaching no longer requires expensive equipment, making it much more accessible to beginners. For students, an expensive and elaborate GPS device isn’t necessary. GPS enabled smartphones offer the most economic option for geocaching, as many students already own the equipment, and need only purchase a geocaching app to participate.

For younger students, or those without smartphones, look for a device that is user friendly for inputting waypoints, accessible—and most importantly—durable. Expect to pay around sixty dollars per unit. I use the Garmin eTrex 10 Worldwide Handheld GPS Navigator with my students—though it is a bit more expensive than the Geomate Jr. Geocaching GPS.

Most geocaching is done in groups, so regardless of the device used, a successful geocaching lesson only requires a few devices. I have seven devices, which works out beautifully with a class of 25-30 students. For financial support, don’t forget to use the school’s PTO/PTA grants, fund raisers and Donors Choose (of course, purchasing a device will be a tax write-off!).

Here are a few of the smartphone apps I use with my students:

Geocaching ($9.99). The official geocaching app from Geocaching.com (the Mothership of geochaching), this is the most expensive app on the market as well as the highest quality. Users will get access to the locations of registered caches and clues, and the app even offers the ability to submit your finds. This app is very easy to use and perfect for beginners and pros.

Geocaching Intro (Free). This is the free version of the GroundSpeak geocaching app, the company that runs the Geocaching.com website. This is the app that I recommend to my students. While limited, this app reveals three geocaches near your current location per day; provides the necessary coordinates, hints, and descriptions; and delivers the directions to the hidden cache. I love the vibrating-chirping alert that warns you when you’re getting close to the cache site—a feature not included on the more expensive sister geocaching app.

Once equipped with devices, it’s time to engage the students in a meaningful lesson that will challenge their map-reading skills while affording them opportunities to work collaboratively and solve a problem.

There are several activities I have done with my students, from upper elementary to high school. To start, all students were taught how the device worked and learned how to input data as well as retrieve and set their own waypoints. Our fifth grade students became such experts that the principal asked them to lead the staff in professional development. From there, our principal hid staff handbooks all around the campus and had the teachers use the coordinates (and help of their fifth-grade buddies) to locate their handbook.

Activities can range from solving riddles to searching for hidden rubber ducks to embarking on geometry scavenger hunts. For a beginner lesson, hide caches near a specific tree, bush, or flower. Once students have located the cache, have them take a picture and identify the species of flora. (Placing a leaf from the tree or plant in the container would also work). You could also place a toy animal, picture, tooth, claw or hair sample inside the cache container and have students identify the object. Once all caches have been found, have them create a photo/identification booklet.

If you want students to develop curiosity about geography, math, science, and the world around them, then give geocaching a try. It’s a great activity for ESL and special needs students, allowing them the opportunity to work collaboratively and solve problems while incorporating the characteristics of an active and engaged learning environment.

For more, check out GoingApeForApps – Geocaching with Mobile Devices, which includes more lesson plans and ideas for getting started. Happy hunting!

Cheryl Phillips is an instructional technology coach in Prince William County, Va.

Categories
Digital Learning Gaming

How Video Games In The Classroom Will Make Students Smarter

Jordan Shapiro has written a wonderful post at Forbes identifying video games as wonderful tools for deep and immersive learning. Many game designers and educational advocates are crafting games to play in school. Games provide a natural space for rewarding metacognitive skills – the more the gamer plays and reflects, the more the gamer learns through experience and failure.

posted by Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Around a billion and a half people all play video games of some sort. That’s more than 20% of the world’s population. Video games have become a part of life. They are now more than just leisure and entertainment. They are mainstream media, an everyday method of storytelling and representation. Games have become a common form of rhetoric for the 21st century.

Therefore, it is not surprising that educators, policy makers, investors, and developers are trying to build games for schools. However, the real reason game-based learning is so popular is not only because video games are extremely effective teaching tools; they are also relatively inexpensive to build and to distribute. In other words, they’re scalable, and replicable, and extensible, and all those other buzzwords that philanthropists, and venture capitalists, and policy makers like to hear. Video games have a lot going for them in a world that loves digital technologies and worships the concept of innovation.

Source: Forbes
Source: Forbes

Luckily, it is not all about semantics. Using video games as classroom tools that help teachers do their jobs with more impact is also good pedagogy. Video games can be exceptional teaching tools. To understand why, you don’t need any fancy education or psychology terms. All have to do is think about the avatar…the game character. In video games there are almost always two “I”s. There’s the “I” who holds the controller and the “I” that’s within the bezel of the monitor. Gamers are distanced from their avatar and are accustomed to thinking about their actions like an outsider looking in.

The fancy way to say that is: there is a metacognitive distance built right in. The term metacognition is a key term in educational psychology. It describes the ability to think about your own thinking. Strong metacognitive functions give students an awareness, or an understanding, of their own thought processes. Metacognitive functions provide one with autonomy or control of one’s own intellectual capacity. This matters in education because strong metacognitive functions lead to good academic skills. Through metacognitive functions, learners recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and adapt or iterate their performance accordingly.

In other words, academia can be understood like a video game: something students play again and again, practicing and improving with each new attempt. But what about the digital divide? If video games are so great, doesn’t that mean equal access to educational technologies is even more important? Certainly. But in an imperfect world, it is also important to remember that you don’t need fancy laptops or tablets to implement game-based learning. It is really just about imaginative play.

In his excellent soon to be released book (April 21), “The Game Believes In You: How Games Can Make Our Kids Smarter,” Greg Toppo writes: “Kids make mud pies and paper airplanes, they climb trees and play the piano. The entire time they’re exploring and learning about the world.”

This is why folks have been using play therapy with children for more than a century. Both the Kleinians and the Jungians fill their consultation rooms with toy menageries and mandalas and sandboxes. They’ve always known that games and play strengthen metacognitive functions. They’ve always known that along with the guidance of a mentor–a great teacher–games and play can help individuals learn to recognize their own context. Play helps one recognize the structures, the systems, and the economies in which one participates.

Toppo continues:

What looks like escapist fun is actually deep concentration. What looks like instant gratification is, in fact, delayed gratification in clever disguise. What looks like spectacle is a system that’s training players to ignore the spectacle and focus on the real work at hand. What looks like anything-goes freedom is submission to strict rules. What looks like a twenty-first-century, flashy, high-tech way to keep kids entertained is in fact a tool that taps into an ancient way to process, explore, and understand the world.

In the presentation that I gave at the 2015 Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, I explain how and why learning games and game-design-thinking can help to develop students’ metacognitive skills. I also explain why this is an essential part of creating innovative citizens. What’s more, I make a philosophical argument that this kind of thinking is an foundational component of basic human dignity.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNo8Fxn238Y

Jordan Shapiro is the author of FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide To Maximum Euphoric Bliss and The Mindshift Guide To Digital Games and Learning.

Categories
Uncategorized

Pre-Order Using Digital Games as Assessment and Instruction Tools

The pre-release page for my new book has launched on the Solution Tree website. As part of the Solutions for Digital Learner-Centered Classrooms series, Using Digital Games as Assessment and Instruction Tools is a book filled with ideas on finding and incorporating digital games into the learning and assessment process. It is jammed-pack with practical content that a teacher can turn around and use in their classroom the very next day.

posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Using Digital Games as Assessment and Instruction Tools

Click HERE to order!

Combine hard work and deep fun in classrooms with digital game-based learning. Students of the always-on generation gain information through different tools and learn differently than generations before them. Discover how to incorporate digital games and use them to craft engaging, academically applicable classroom activities that address content standards and revitalize learning for both teachers and students.

Benefits

  • Gain practiced guidance for implementing digital games for the classroom.
  • Consider research and theory that confirm the power of play in childhood development and learning.
  • Explore the positive and negative characteristics of different gaming platforms.
  • Review classifications of games, including the prime educational uses for short- and long-form games.
  • Examine the different types of assessment, how they can factor into digital games, and the roles facilitators and students play with each.
Categories
Gaming

Battling Depression through Video Games

Video games have the power of storytelling and elicit powerful responses from the human brain. Depression is a silent epidemic, and now many are crediting video games as a potential therapy for the infinite sadness. Sampson at Kernal shares these insights with us.

Posted by: Ryan Schaaf

Original Source

Maximilian Dichtl reads the news just like anyone else. He’s seen what politicians, psychologist, and concerned parents have to say about video games and their impact on children—that games cause violence, bad grades and depression.

That last one really piques Dichtl’s interest, since he’s dealt with depression for most of his life. Now in his early 20s, Dichtl is still an avid gamer. He doesn’t blame gaming for kick-starting his depression. No, that would be when his mom and stepdad decided to start hitting him.

“It’s ironic that people look at this link between kids and video games and decide the games are what’s causing them to act a certain way,” Dichtl told the Kernel. “For me, video games were a way to escape the things that were causing my depression.”

Dichtl is one of many young gamers trying to upend the conventional wisdom about gaming and depression. He started a blog to chronicle his story, while developers and other gamers around the world are trying to prove that video games can be a healthy vehicle for dealing with despair.

They are running up against an entrenched narrative. In 2011, the New York Times made hay out of two separate studies that tracked the social characteristics of young gamers.

“For me, video games were a way to escape the things that were causing my depression.”

One, published in the journal Pediatrics, tracked more than 3,000 school children in Singapore over several years. The study found that heavy gamers—those who played more than 31 hours a week—were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, or social phobias. That same article cites a Chinese study, published in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, which found that teenagers who spent excessive amounts of time on the Internet in general were more likely to suffer from depression.

No longer a lonely pursuit

Folks like Dichtl (pictured right) don’t necessarily disagree with those sociological findings, but they do take issue with the assertions others make based on this evidence. He said too many critics paint with a broad brush when talking about the actual relationship between games and players.

“Whether you play Angry Birds on the train into work, slice a few fruits on your tablet while you are in the waiting room at the dentist, or spend eight hours a day perfecting whatever game it is you enjoy, we are all gamers,” Dichtl said. “It isn’t fair to fit every single one of us into this huge mold and then berate us, but media outlets do it anyways for their own motives.”

On the surface, Dichtl may look like the kind of young adult profiled in earlier studies, but he said his relationship with video games is more nuanced.

“We are all gamers.”

As an only child who moved around a lot following his parent’s divorce, it was hard to make friends and form the kind of social support network most teens need to navigate adolescence. In video games, however, he was able to connect with others, including his best friend. They met playing Call of Duty nine years ago and have forged a “brotherly bond.” Though they live across the country, a combination of MMORPG and video chat have allowed the two to stay close. These virtual friends were there for Dichtl as he dealt with a difficult home life and thoughts of suicide.

Dichtl has even found a career goal thanks to gaming. Though he currently works in distribution, a trip to a gaming conference inspired him to try and become a community coordinator—a liaison between online gaming communities and developers.

“Gaming has been a positive force in my life when a lot of people weren’t,” he said. “Some of the best friendships I have wouldn’t exist without video games.”

A more emotionally mature game

It’s not just players who are challenging the conventional wisdom related to video games and depression. The rise of indie game developers means the medium is changing and learning to address more emotionally mature issues.

“I think adulthood is extremely underrepresented in video games,” said Will O’Neill, a game developer from Toronto. “Adult in video games means violence and pornography a lot of the time, but rarely does it delve into what it means to be an adult.”

That’s something that O’Neill is trying to change with his first video game outing, Actual Sunlight. The free PC game is O’Neill’s autobiographical take on depression. Released in March 2013, the game was praised for how it handles such psychologically complex issues.

Like Dichtl, O’Neill is a longtime gamer who’s suffered from depression. He dabbles in several different kinds of creative expression—writing and stand-up comedy—but in the medium of video games, he’s found a unique vehicle for exploring depression. As where most video game protagonists grow in ability and gain more freedom as stories progress, in Actual Sunlight, the character has fewer options as the game goes on, simulating depression’s ability to make us feel trapped.

“That’s a feeling that can uniquely be recreated in video games,” he told the Kernel.

Some of the video game industry’s biggest players want games to grow up and begin reflecting the psychological and emotional complexity of other types of media.

O’Neill expects a lot of lifelong gamers to resonate with Actual Sunlight‘s themes. In his younger years, O’Neill allowed gaming to consume a significant amount of his time—time he said could have been better spent on other pursuits.

That’s why he wants to challenge the video game industry to mature, offering games and stories that will allow gamers to seek personal growth and insight.

It’s not just O’Neill. Some of the video game industry’s biggest players want games to grow up and begin reflecting the psychological and emotional complexity of other types of media.

“I know so many game developers, and so many of them are wonderful, smart, creative, considerate and adult, and somehow those personalities are not always reflected in the games that we make,” said freelance game writer Susan O’Connor at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in 2013.

In addition to gaining legitimacy as an artform, such a shift in the game development could allow users to reap greater emotional and psychological well being. Because at the end of the day, O’Neill, Dichtl, and others say the link between gaming and depression is all about the player’s individual relationship with the games they play.

“Depression lead me to my love of video games,” Dichtl said. “Video games did not make me depressed, or increase the severity of it.

“I actually believe that gaming has combated the depression to a level that is not detrimental to my well-being.”