1. June 2010 by MrBall.

The 1:1 netbook intro has been a rollercoaster ride. Staff and students understand the engaging power of all things on the internet that is 2.0. I have shown them ietherpad and Edmodo that can be used as collaboration tools. We have created things using Notebook Recorder and Audacity on the laptops, much to the delight of students. I did a demo with grade 1 students yesterday. It was so exciting to see how quickly and easily they logged in. One little girl was rubbing the side of her netbook saying “Come on little bud.” in an effort to get it going faster.  All are genuinely excited to have new outlets of expression.

There is a ‘but’, things aren’t as smooth as they should be. The seemless learning environment has not yet been achieved. The wireless connection is flakey. In a class of 25 students I can get 18 online right away. When I get five more another five students lose their connections. Student accounts aren’t syncing up so the things they create are often not saved.

On the bright side the admin and teaching team are on top of the whole thing. Students here are super patient and very polite when things aren’t working. They try to do their own trouble shooting and only call for help when they have exhausted all their options. The administrators are working with tech support constantly to fix things up.

Next year they are pairing with 2Learn.ca on a digital leadership program. This is a new wireless network/1:1 laptop school and they are quickly getting the barriers out of the way.  I am very excited about the future of this school and all the possibilities for the staff and students.

Posted in 2.0, 1:1 Laptops, Engagement | No Comments »

14. May 2010 by MrBall.

One of the main worries I have had in my job as a consultant is classroom management. Should I have to manage someone’s classroom while they are in the room?

Usually classroom visits are great. I am bringing in cool tools and the kids are totally engaged in learning about them. Sometimes I deal with the small distractions: use proximity, remind them to focus, give them count downs, help them to cope with me the new person in the class. Sometimes it gets out of control and since I have very little follow up time with students after and no knowledge of many of the school procedures I have to do discipline on the spot.

I have had it happen a couple of times where the students are quite disrespectful and the teacher does nothing. I’ve had teachers leave the classroom (which they should know is a ‘no no’) and I have brought a lesson to a complete halt because there were too many students off task and not willing to listen.

I was thinking about all this yesterday while I was watching a student teacher do a lesson on bullying. The class was disruptive and unruly, basically bullying the student teacher. The student teacher was presenting and the classroom teacher pulled out a newspaper and started cutting out coupons! The kids started to get very disruptive so I started to float around and put out small fires but still it was no good. The student teacher did a fabulous job trying to bring the class back with some Brain Gym exercises and still the classroom teacher just sat as students called out. This was not my lesson and I did not want to intervene but I thought I should help her. In the end I complimented her on her efforts and her patience.

What do you think? Should I take over a class if the teacher is not helping. How much control do I need to take?

Posted in Management, Engagement | No Comments »

7. April 2010 by MrBall.

As I was reading through the TPACK framework here I noticed that one of the papers it refers to is Homemade Power Point games (citation at bottom, link here). At first I was seriously skeptical about the power (sorry) of power point games but they are interesting tools for student review. Not review with any deeper understandings attached. I can’t see the engagement level of these games being very high. I am sure it would be useful for those skill and drill type learning needs.

Here are some examples of the ppt games they have listed. These are taken right from their page.

At first glance they probably don’t seem exciting. All 6 that l have viewed have the same structure. Menupage with a story, directions, and the much needed Play the Game button.

Seems to be a Webquest without the web. What do you think would you use these in your class? Would you consider these are ‘games’ for learning?

Barbour, M.K. , Reiber, L.P., Thomas, G., & Rauscher, D. (2009). Homemade PowerPoint games: Constructionist alternative to WebQuests. Tech Trends, 53(5), 54-59.

Posted in Engagement, Games | No Comments »

16. March 2010 by MrBall.

4 Freedoms of Play

What are the barriers that are preventing these from entering the school system? Is it a deeper part of our social structure that dictates that school has to be serious? From the idea that hard work is more important than perhaps joyful work. When we get over the fact that work can and should be enjoyable then I think we will see a shift in education that will dictate that learning should be fun. It can’t always be fun but it should be enjoyable and purposeful.

Posted in Engagement, Games, Presentation | No Comments »

5. March 2010 by MrBall.

I was at the opening of Empire Avenue last week at Transcend and I had a chance to meet the Empire Ave team. They were all very friendly and approachable group. They, like I, believe in word-of-mouth marketing. Empire Avenue hasn’t evolved into the marketing tool that they talk about here but I think it is on its way.

I was lucky to be invited in on day one and I have been having a hoot. Buying stocks in the people I feel are influential and trustworthy in what they create online.

Most of the community so far seems to be of the early adoptor tech crowd. I am eagerly awaiting the Ed. Tech community to join in, especially the educational video game crowd, to see what their thoughts are. I think that there is a high level of engagement that goes along with this site that is further reaching than a video game. It is a peer and computer coded feedback system that as @MrTedMartin says- “#empireavenue Has me, for the first time, really thinking about my online presence… and what I can do with it.”

The current creators like #yeg ’s Mack D. Male  @mastermaq have been doing their work pretty much for free.  I am curious if EmpireAvenue is changing the way they measure their success or how and what they post about.

At this point I am reluctant to admit complexity in the market because I think there are more variables than I could dream up. The basics are like this: 

1. You buy stock in someone you feel is a creator on the interweb.

2. If that person creates content they are rewarded by the market and you are rewarded through dividends at the beginning of the next trading day.

Yeah yeah! I know it is more complex than that. That is why I called it the basics. The market has it s ‘ups’ and I’m sure it will eventually have its downs. It seems to be a bit like a popularity contest right now but I think that will be solved with larger numbers of investors. The market setting right now is one of high volatility. Not a big deal. The beta is small, currently 280 (March 5th 10am), and with those lower numbers there is going to be high volatility in the peoples market. There were some players who are taking advantage of this. These people are just players not content creators so as the market moves forward they will lose value and probably be sold quickly. I hate to burst their bubble (that’s my joke).

If you are lucky enough to get in on the beta of EmpireAvenue.com get me on your ticker by buying ABALL.

Posted in Reflections, Fun, Engagement, Games | No Comments »

18. February 2010 by admin.

Criteria for evaluating games in education
1. The game has an educationally-accessible context (historical, contemporary, hard science-fiction).
2. Game play has genuinely educationally-accessible content.
3. Success depends on intelligent choices and decisions.
4. Failure exists and teaches when it happens. It is possible to lose.
5. The tutorial is crystal clear, and checks for understanding.
6. There are multiple victory conditions.
7. The feedback model is short - students can quickly see how a decision effects a larger whole picture.
8. The game becomes increasingly challenging and difficult.
Taken from:
http://www.mackenty.org/index.php/site/comments/criteria_for_evaluating_games_in_education/

Websites of note:
http://digiplay.info/
Research papers and other publications on the topic of understanding digital games.

http://powerup.wikispaces.com/ -
Mark Wagner is completing his PhD.

http://www.furl.net/member/ewagner -
A list of educational games.

http://www.socialimpactgames.com/index.php -
Entertaining games with Non- Entertaining goals. (Serious Games)

Games:
Starfall (K- 2)
Multiflier (Gr. 3)
Plupon (3- 6 warm up)
Third World Farmer (Gr. 6-
Games for the Brain (Gr. 7-9)
‘Speare (Gr. 10- 12) password needed
Not a game- Game Maker (Gr. 8- 12)

Posted in Fun, Engagement, Games, Edutainment, Presentation | No Comments »

18. February 2010 by admin.

We built roller coasters in class today. It may not seem like the safest thing to do in an Elementary school but we had the situation under control. We built the roller coasters so we could learn more about materials in science. We used:

1. 1/2 inch Pipe Insulation- The insulation keeps things hot or cold, it also flexible so that we can bend it to make hills, loops, and turns.
2. Marble- The marbles are round and can roll. They are also hard.
3. Tape- The tape is sticky which helps us attach our tracks to the walls. It is also flexible!
4. Desks, chairs, hundreds flats, and boxes- These were strong and light so they could hold up the track.
5. Staples- These are light weight and helped our tape to stick on the walls better.

We decided that fun roller coasters have loops, drops, hills and turns. When we made our roller coasters we incorporated all of these things.

Posted in Fun, Engagement | No Comments »