30. November 2005 by MrBall.

Adding a term to my I.T. vocabulary ‘Finishing Tools’. All too often our computer labs take a step up from expensive room heaters or video game machines to the use of finishing tools. I’m experiencing this right now a little bit in my classroom. Students want to type up their good copies. They want to put their notes into PowerPoint. It takes a lot of work to plan and prepare a lesson that will use computers as learning facilitators.

Technocrati tag: finishing tool

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24. November 2005 by MrBall.

Here a Link there a Link, everyone should share a link.

In support of Fair Trade I wanted to post this link from the Bits and Bytes crew (meaning Brian Metcalfe) who thought our grade three webpage was a “Educational Blogs Worth Visiting”. There are some great articles written by Brian about the use of Tech in the classroom. Give it a read if you have the time.

“Bits and Bytes” is an educational publication for the students and staff of the Winnipeg School Division.
Brian Metcalfe - Editor: bitsandbytes@wsd1.org
Copyright © 2005 (ISSN 1195-5864)
Last revision date: November 16, 2005

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17. November 2005 by MrBall.

What authentic means tonight…

I’m working on report cards for my grade 3 class and I’m trying my darndest to keep the comments authentic. Fighting to keep the ideas relevant for parents while still giving my students hope and encouragement.

Is there a report card making video game out there for teachers yet?

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17. November 2005 by MrBall.

Had the math consultant into our school today to discuss with us the concept Mathematizing. I don’t know of anyone else who gets as excited about math, except for maybe me. Mathematizing is sort of a transitive verb for doing math. The author (we’re getting the book and I’ll reference it then) feels that a valuable math ‘lesson’ forces students to “interpret, organize, inquire about, and construct their own meaning”. The thoughts were valuable but now I need to construct my own meaning and make the ideas relevant for my students.

In reading the article today for math professional development I came across a phrase that struck a cord in how I want my classroom to operate. “Community of Discourse” (Fosnot, 1989) seemed like a great way to express an on going development of ideas. Catchy phrase!

The author wrote about a ‘Landscape of Learning’ based on a better understanding of a child’s knowledge rather than specifically on a learning goal. The analogy was that of a sailor who plots a course and while journeying has to make changes to that course. Accounting for wind direction and current, stopping for supplies, and steering course away from storms while still aiming for the destination (the learning goal).

I can see video games having the ability to steer students away from misunderstandings and refocuing their attention on learning tasks all in an effort to aid them in constructing their own meanings.

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14. November 2005 by MrBall.

So here is where it stands so far. After writing the literature review I think that I have a good theoretical basis for what I want to do, now I just have to put it in practice.

The questions that I have to answer for myself as I move forward go something like this…

1. How valuable is the teachable moment if it causes the learner to be removed from the learning environment or the interactivity that is within a video game?

2. Without breaking into the roleplay or taking students out of the virtual world teachers can apply appropriate scaffolding to aid students in learning?

3. Can teachers catch up to meet the new generation of learners? Will educators’ content be tainted by the way they use, retrieve and post information?

I realized long ago the simulation I want to make is more of a proof
of concept rather than something an ordinary teacher could use - the
authoring tools for NWN seem very time consuming. I’m looking into a modification of Neverwinter nights that was used to recreate Colonial America (it’s called Revolution). I want to see how they implemented their learning goals (my goals will be based around the Alberta Program of Studies) and what kinds of player and non-player interaction they relied upon to create a socailly rich environment.

I don’t want to include violence or magic in the game but I do want to create a rich roleplaying environment. What questions or concerns have you got for me?

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6. November 2005 by MrBall.

As I piece together my literature review for my research methods course I have to keep re-focusing my thoughts to the question of “Can teacher guided Multi User Domains be used effectively as learning environments?”

I am getting close to the deadline of the 8th and I’ve run into the problem defining a MUD (Multi User Domain). So often it is being referred to as text based. I don’t want to dwell in the text based realm and so I am looking for the first definition that I found which included movement and 3D space. My end project is to test out NWN Aurora toolset and the DM side as a teaching platform.

If you have time check www.mark.blogspot.com he’s got some great note on the Serious Games Summit. Oh how I wish I could have been there. But my students were amazing again this week so I can’t really complain.

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