3D Gamelab

It took me a lot longer than it should have, but I have completed enough of the GameLab quests as a teacher to be able to use this amazing tool in my own class. I look forward to teaching Civics next year using this model; however, I have a very daunting task ahead of me. It is going to be very difficult and time consuming to build the curriculum for this course, but I think it's worth it.

I am excited, but also apprehensive. It is difficult to flip education as we know it upside down. This new questing model that focuses on student achievement rather than the 0-100 scale does not fit well into the traditional model of grading. For example, I have to make my tests worth 60% of the grade in the class. Also, 20% of the grade is a nine weeks test at the end of the second nine weeks (no nine weeks test at the end of the first quarter). So, if you do the math for that second nine weeks, of the 80% remaining after that one test, only 40% can be considered a "daily" grade. So, you end up with something that looks like this: 9 weeks test = 20%, other tests = 48%, "daily" (GameLab) = 32%. That is a little disheartening. I hate high stakes testing.

To get around this problem, I have spoken with my department chair who suggested adding projects to GameLab and count them as a test grade (which leads to more math). Basically, I can "steal" some of that 48% and add it to the daily percentage if some of those quests are quite hefty (time consuming). I don't think it's an ideal solution, but I like it well enough. By the way, the ideal solution would be to get rid of tests altogether and let the students' work speak for itself. But, the way testing is structured, my class wouldn't have anything to do to keep them busy during the semester-end exam times. Plus, they would go around telling other students that they never have tests in my class, which is bad for the morale of other classes.

All in all, it's going to be good. A revolution has begun.

Sweatin' Outside My Comfort Zone

I spent a few minutes with my mother-in-laws exercise bike yesterday--30 minutes, to be exact. It was a leg/cardio workout. If I were to exercise I normally would not spend my exercise time on a stationary bike because I have not been exposed to any avid male "exercise bikers." I feel like this type of workout is usually associated with women--especially moms and grandmas--so I really don't feel drawn to it. Give me some barbells! <cue Tim Taylor grunt>. I will probably stay away from the exercise bike in the future, but would really like to spend some more time on my regular bicycle. The type of exercise is great, I just can't get past the "mom" stigma <shrug>.

Classroom of the Future--1980's Style

I always enjoy watching movies from the Eighties and Nineties and seeing how they portray life in the Twenty-First Century. One of my favorites is Demolition Man. I especially like the part about the three seashells--classic! Obviously, the writers got a lot of it wrong, but that's what makes it fun. These three videos are a glimpse into Twenty-First Century education from the mind of the 1980s:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I'm kind of impressed at the accuracy with which these videos portray the abilities we currently have due to the advance in technology in the past 20+ years. I know in 1987 videoconferencing was not widely available (if at all). Now, with web apps like Skype or Apple's own Facetime, we can videoconference with people around the world.

The way he locates information about Marathon is similar to using websites like Wikipedia, or the many iPad apps that integrate Wikipedia into their interfaces (Qwiki, for example, even reads the text to you).

I didn't see any blatant, funny errors in these videos similar to the three seashells from Demolition Man. I think that everything in the videos is doable, if not, already being done.

iBooks, iBooks Author

I die a little on the inside every time I see someone's face light up when they see the relatively new iBooks 2 and its integration of textbooks. Textbooks! What a novel idea! The quality of our education system has waned over the past five to six decades and how does Apple suggest we fix it? Textbooks!

Insanity--doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Don't get me wrong. I think being able to carry all your textbooks on an iPad is great for students, but more from a physical, I-don't-want-my-kid-to-be-a-hunchback sort of way. I don't understand why people get so excited when you dress up a turd and put a bow on it--it's still a turd. A textbook is a textbook is a textbook, no matter how much you can interact with it, no matter how colorful the pictures are, no matter how much it costs or how much you update it--IT'S STILL A TEXTBOOK. Textbooks and their publishers have been the bane of many educators for decades and this tool isn't going to change that. Apple's really good at marketing though, cudos.

Now, I do think that the iBooks Author is a good idea. The problem with textbooks is that they are made by textbook publishers. Textbook publishers know all the right stuff to jam into a textbook to really impress parents and school administrators--"Hey look, there's a table here that has all of the standards on it," "Look at how this picture has the standard below it, this is how you're going to KNOW your students are learning, just read these certain pages for these standards." While linking the standards and inserting "expert teacher" advice and colorful pictures make you feel good, they're not going to make a mite's difference in the education of our children. Good teachers are needed--teachers who know where the textbook errs and where, in Social Studies, for example, the publishers are putting a liberal or conservative spin on the content. Teachers need to smart enough to present "the other side" so our students get a multi-faceted education as opposed to the brainwashing some of our textbooks provide. With iBooks Author, teachers can create their own textbooks that have all the "flashy" new features of the publishers' books, but better content that is tailored to the specific class being taught. Hopefully we will see many open-source books in the the future that educators can choose to use in their classrooms in lieu of the outdated, old world, textbook publishers' books that are so last century.

Covert Front

Covert Front is a little less fun (in my opinion) than Peasant's Quest. I've tried to get into games like this before--the type where you are shown a screen at a time and are allowed to interact with the objects in the room. This can be through reading papers left on a table, picking up items off of shelves, or opening and walking through doors. I remember a noire style game like this I used to play on the NES, though I don't remember the name (because I didn't play it very much/long). Though I personally dislike this type of game, I do see the merit it has for learning. Players are given the opportunity to use critical thinking and problem solving skills in order to progress through the game. For example, I found some scissors in a box outside of a house and picked them up. Later, on the other side of the house, I found a power circuit that I was able to "short out" with the scissors in order to get the door to open. Had I not been searching every nook and cranny of the environment, I wouldn't have found the scissors and been able to get into the house to proceed further into the story.

Peasant Quest

I just beat Peasant's Quest. OK, I had the walkthrough open the entire time. But I still played from start to finish.

The graphics and music of the game are reminiscent of 8 bit RPGs I used to play as a kid. In most cases, the story really makes or breaks a game like this. I remember trudging through hours of gameplay to try to beat the evil monster at the end or save the princess, all along the way you have to follow the story like a detective, trying to figure out which item you need for the next part of the quest, where it is located, who you have to talk to in order to obtain it, fighting monsters all along the way. I really learned a lot about critical thinking and problem solving through this type of game. Peasant's Quest is a little different in that the player isn't locked down with certain functions and it isn't obvious (at all) what you're supposed to do next. One could spend hours meaningless meandering, trying to figure out where to go and what to do (hence my use of the walkthrough).

Evernote in the Classroom

Evernote is a great tool for note-taking on any mobile device. If you have multiple devices, Evernote will sync every note you take across all of them--laptop, iPad, iPhone, etc.

Concerning education, Evernote can be a very useful tool, especially in a 1:1 setting. Students can create a notebook for every class they have. In each notebook they can insert relevant pictures, or audio clips to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom. The teacher can actually email photos to students they want their students to include in their Evernote notebook. Notes can be added as well. By the end of a unit, students can have an in-depth study guide for the unit that is more than just words on a page, but words accompanied with pictures, and voice clips to help ensure recollection.

I would use Evernote much like Rob Van Nood, where students upload their work into a notebook throughout the year that can be used as a portfolio to gauge student learning. It can be a place to reflect, create, and share learning experiences with classmates.

Teachers can also create a notebook that has tons of information in it, utilizing the audio and picture capabilities of Evernote, then share the entire notebook with the class to help them understand the big picture. This is huge for social studies teachers. I know I struggle with getting my students passed the knowledge and comprehension levels. As students see Evernote modeled correctly by their teachers, they will be better-equipped to use it to attain the synthesis and evaluation levels of the taxonomy.