Making homework fun! How gaming can educate our students.

It is important that students stay engaged in content after school in order to ensure learning is meaningful and impacting our students. Most students do not enjoy doing homework, so why don't we go beyond boring worksheets and make homework "fun"? One way teachers can make learning English for ESL students "fun" is through gaming! The game Trace Effects is a great game for incorporating language and culture learning! This game provides a video at the beginning with photos and written instructions. This will help students with their reading and comprehension skills. Throughout the game the students will interact visually, through listening and reading. A feature of this game I really like is the dictionary that is included with the game so students can look up unfamiliar words. 

The language learning objective for this game would be for students to recognize features of an American campus. This learning objective can be assessed by putting objects from the game on a piece of paper and saying the names of vocabulary and having the students circle the appropriate picture to answer the question.

Another language learning objective would be for students to comprehend the conversations and instructions throughout the game. These learning objectives can be assessed by the completion of each Chapter (the Chapters or "levels" cannot be completed if the student is not comprehending the conversations and instructions they need to follow). 

I played this game up to Chapter 3 on two separate occasions and I really enjoyed it which I hope means my students will enjoy it too!

Here is a picture of what the dictionary feature looks like!

Using games in the classroom

According to the gamification wiki, gamification can be defined as "the use of game design techniques and game mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences." Games can be used in language learning because it can motivate students to learn. Games are fun and enjoyable to most students so it is a great way to "mask learning" so students may not necessarily feel like they are being "forced to learn". According to the blog post on Escape the room games, these types of games can be used for language learning through listening and reading. Escape the room games will include instructions that need to be heard and understood by the students in order to successfully complete the game. The teacher can provide a walkthrough on how to play the game which can be written, spoken, or visual which helps student utilize their listening, reading and/or comprehension skills.

A game that can be used for ESL learners is The Great Kitchen Escape. The first time I tried to play this game I tried to do it without a walkthrough leaving me very confused. Once I watched the walkthrough I played the game several times (3). It took me a few times to refer back to the walkthrough to understand what I had to do in order to beat the game. I think that when using this game in the classroom the walkthrough video on youtube is necessary for students to watch.

The language learning objective for students playing this game would be to be able to recognize kitchen vocabulary words. The students would be actively involved in the game because they would be watching the walkthrough in order to comprehend how to complete the game. They will be looking at vocabulary words in the walkthrough and having to mimmick the walkthrough in their own game. As the students grab kitchen items their name pops up in English. This will help the students learn kitchen item names throughout the game. The students will stay engaged in the game because it is very interactive. The teachers role in the game playing will be giving instructions to the students on how to watch the walkthrough video and monitoring the students as they watch the video and attempt the game. The teacher will provide additional support to any students who are struggling with comprehension by asking students if they understand as the game progresses. In order to measure if the objective was met the teacher can have the exact same items from the game cut out onto cards and can ask the students what each picture is. The teacher can go one step further and have the students copy the spelling of each item. This will help gauge understanding from the game. For a final assessment to ensure that the objective was met, the teacher can do an activity where students need to match the written word of the kitchen items with their pictures.

Microblogging

Until this course, I have only used Twitter for social networking, or so I thought. As I scroll through my twitter feed on my personal account I notice that I follow friends, celebrities, news sources, and politics. I have realized that I use twitter not only for social networking and catching up with friends, but as a way to stay informed on what is going on in my area and the world. If I can use it to follow politics then why not use it to follow educational topics as well? Through my professional twitter account I have noticed the power twitter can hold in an educational setting.

The article, "Over25 Ways To Teach With Twitter" sheds light on the value of microblogging in the classroom. This article suggests 25 ways for teachers to use twitter a few include; asking for recommendations, writing a book list, sharing new studies, starting a twitter book club, and to posting requests for people to speak at your events. These ideas can go both ways, as a teacher you can write a book list and also view other educators book lists for idea. Twitter can connect you with educators from all over the world at all different steps in their educational path. This can make a diverse array of opinions available to you and enhance your educational knowledge.

The article, "Teaching With Twitter" also provides suggestions that are more geared toward students. One of the suggestions in this article is to post "twitter pals" where students find a penpal via twitter from another culture and share ideas with them. This can be very useful for ESL students to learn about American culture as well as practice utilizing the English Language. This can also help connect students with other students in their school to get to know them on a personal level and have interactions with them.

I think that microblogging can be very useful in an academic setting as long is it is utilize properly and safely. The internet is a big place, which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

I followed the #edtech chat on Monday September 30th from 8:00pm-9:00pm. I thought it was very interesting to be involved in a live chat. I am a very big twitter user and oftentimes I use my twitter to follow different hashtags or to communicate with other people who are at the same event as me (ex: concerts). I never thought of using twitter educationally. I created a separate account for my twitter for this course because my personal account is private. My account is private so my students can't follow me. I think twitter can be a great place for professional development but currently, as a college student, I use my twitter heavily for my personal life and I do not think it is appropriate to be mixing the two, I like to keep them separate. I feel much more comfortable that way. On my personal account I would like to add microbloggers to follow as well as other ESL/EDtech related twitter accounts. I also want to check in on some live chats, maybe to just view and not participate on my personal account. I think that the live chats keep educators current in the field. It made me feel like a part of the current education world which is important for an aspiring teacher.

Here is a link to my professional twitter account.

Classroom 2.0

A great resource for educators interested in technology is classroom 2.0! This site is a social networking site for "Social Media, and Participative Technologies in the classroom." This site provides virtual conferences to enhance educators knowledge of technology. This website allows its members to interact with one another through the means of social networking. It is a great way to meet fellow educators and enhance your knowledge with perspectives from all over the world with varying degrees of experiences and interests. There are different groups that you can join to interact with others who share similar interests. This is a great way for any practicing teacher or teacher candidate to enhance their knowledge and expose themselves to new practices.

A learner is like an apple

A learner is like an apple. Apples come from different places, were taken care of in different ways, are different kinds of shapes and colors, some have bruises, some are crispy, some are sweet. Apples, like learners are all different. Learners can come from different places, prior to schooling were taken care of in different ways, learners are all different shapes and colors, some learners have different features than others, and they all have different kinds of personalities.

In the article by Siemen, he quotes Landuar and Dumais (1997) in their statement that "people have much more knowledge than appears to be present in the information to which they have been exposed." This statement is very important to remember about our learners in the classroom. Referring back to what was said about apples, when we see an apple in the grocery store and bring it home, we sometimes forget that this apple has been on a journey that we are unaware of. The apple could have been dropped on the ground, it could have been licked by an animal, or it could have been sitting in the grocery store for days. Looking at an apple you might forget about all of these factors, just like our learners. Learners have gone through journeys that affect their present learning in our classroom. We must acknowledge the interactions they have had because it shapes them as a learner and may have a heavy influence on their knowledge base. Although learners may not be exposing all of their capabilities to us in the classroom, as educators, we can never make assumptions about our learners knowledge base without challenging them to show it to us.


In his video "The Network is Learning" Siemen states, "What we know today is not as important as our ability to stay current. If what I know today is going to change because knowledge changes rapidly, if I am not continually learning I am becoming obsolete in my field." Classroom teachers have to ensure they are staying current in the field so they can be changing with the tides and continually learning, just as our students are. We need to continue to expose our learners to knew knowledge bases and as educators we need to utilize the most current tools to do so to make learning meaningful. Technology is a great resource to stay up to date in the field and to expand our knowledge base. Our students are growing, and changing as time changes. We need to make sure we water our apples with the best water so they can grow nice and ripe.

DIIGO vs. Scoop it

DIIGO and Scoop it are both sites that can be used as an alternative to "bookmarking" websites that people commonly do in their browsers. Both websites make sharing interests on the internet more convenient. Below is a table comparing the two and the features that they offer.

DIIGO	Scoop it
You can highlight texts and when you access the website at a later date the saved highlights will still be present. Multiple tags can be used. You can follow others, they can follow you. You can post comments on the users site. You are not offered suggestions for related articles.	You cannot highlight texts on Scoop it. Multiple tags can be used. You can follow others, they can follow you. You can post comments on the users site. You are offered suggestions for related articles.

According to my personal opinion, there are pros and cons to each of these websites. I see DIIGO as more of a academic research tool. It seems more to be for those who want to use outside sources from websites complied into one page, just like the "bookmarking" feature on internet browsers. DIIGO's ability to snapshot websites as well as highlight texts are very useful resources that are not found on Scoop it. Although Scoop lacks that particular feature, I think overall Scoop it is a better website to fit my needs. The interface of Scoop it is more attractive, it is easy to navigate, and it has more of a social networking feel. In my opinion, it is easier to follow topics and users. Scoop it reminds me of a website I often use called pintrest. I would continue to use Scoop it past this class because I think it is a great resource for teachers.

Shown above are screenshots of the two websites to get an idea of what their interface looks like.