Gaming in the Classroom

I’ve had a couple days to think about my last ECMP 455 class. We had Erik and Marcel come in and talked about Second Life/Teen Life and how they use it with their classes. However, their students are in middle school. I am going to be an elementary teacher and I wonder if gaming is the right thing to use in the classroom. I downloaded Second Life after class and tried to play around with it. I found it kind of silly because I had no real purpose for it and I was just walking around. In class, they did mention that it is best to have someone show you around Second Life to get used to it and see where everything is. I would need to explore this option to help understand the purpose.

Marcel and Erik also mentioned that there students were spending hours at home on homework that was based on Teen Life. That is great and it is neat to see how intrigued the students were by the use of games and technology that there teachers were using in class. When I look at my internship students, many of them didn’t have computers at home. For Erick and Marcel’s classes, did the students that worked online at home receive a better mark in the end because of the time they spent? Or did all the students have access to computers?

I think any form of technology in the classroom to help complement classroom work is a good idea. But can there be too much? For the students that loved using Teen Life for their social class, were they bored in all their other classroom based classes? What about the schools that just don’t have enough resources to accomplish this? At the school I interned in there were 30 computers in the computer lab and 11 different teachers with students. When I wanted to book the computer lab to work with the students online, it was so hard to find an open time where we could go to the computer lab (that fit in our timetable). The schools that have a computer lab and a laptop cart have such an advantage, because two classes can use that technology at the same time. I found it difficult because I would plan a lesson and then find out the lab was booked at all my available times. Also, the computer and projector could be brought into the classroom for just me to use, but they didn’t work at times and sometimes they would not pick up a wireless connection.

Anyways, back to gaming. In a couple classes I found useful games to use with my students that would help them learn something we were doing in a subject. I used it for math, science and health. The students loved the computer lab and also wanted to go in there for all subjects.

The second part of my ECMP 455 class, Sylvia came in to talk to us about gaming in the classroom. She had said that when looking for good games to use in the classroom, don’t search for educational games. She said that many educational games weren’t as good as others and they were usually not fun to play. I think most of the games I used with my class were educational. I spent hours trying to find good websites with games that I could use. I ended up find three good websites for math that worked with my whole numbers unit. Originally when I was planning the lesson, I just assumed it would be easy to find some good websites to use. I was wrong, I ended up spending at least an hour trying to find a website that would hit my objective and also be useful for the students.

Some concerns I have with using gaming or Teen Life in the classroom on a regular basis: Are you encouraging some students that video games are appropriate? This may not be the case at all. For example, I hate video games but maybe if I was introduced to an awesome gaming website in one of the high school classes, I would enjoy video games more now? Who knows really. Or what if the students go home and spend lots of hours on these games, would the parents be upset with the teacher? If it is educational to the students and it deals with their subjects, I guess it is fine…

I don’t really know though, I am still torn on this issue!

Online Learning vs. Correspondence Learning

In my ECMP 455 class we had a discussion about online learning vs. correspondence learning. I want to clear up why I said “having no deadlines is negative.” I meant this relating to my correspondence class through Athabasca. An online class, like ECMP 455, is different because I meet with my professor and class once a week (online or in person). Also being in contact with your fellow classmates at any time also helps build structure in an online class. If I have questions I am able to ask for help and receive feedback. In correspondence there is no other students to talk with and maybe help understand some things. Through correspondence it is just you and if you have questions you need to call someone and wait on the phone for an answer. I actually told my tutor for my Athabasca class to give me an end date just so I had a date at the end of the tunnel. This tutor refused to just tell me a date. I work better with deadlines but I think even knowing the end date of your class helps to see the end of the tunnel and to work towards it. I prefer due dates because then I know when I am expected to have it finished. Some classes without due dates can still work. I think it all depends on what a person is used to and how they like to work. I think different situations and classes give you a different idea of due dates and no due dates. So as you can see, I would rather be part of an online learning class then a lonely correspondence class.

Time and Effort…?

As a university student it is hard to have a stable income. Since my second year of university I have had a full or part time job. The money I make from my part time job goes towards food, gas and bills. My family is middle class but I feel horrible asking my parents to help support me. I am not a party animal or anything like that, so at least the money isn’t being spent mindlessly. These are random thoughts that make me wonder. In a conversation today with a friend, who also has a part job, we both said that it is hard for us to put a huge amount of time into one school project. Well working our other jobs, we are not able to do homework. Each week I think of what I have for homework and when I can make time to complete it. Since most of my education has also been coupled with a job, it makes me wonder if I ever put forth a FULL effort. Then again, what is my definition of full effort and what is your definition of full effort? I guess time restriction is the biggest issue. Thinking back to all my years of university…would my marks and effort be better without a job? At the same time, I don’t think I would be able to live or keeping going to university if I didn’t have a part time job to make extra money. I do know that some people are in the exact same position and they many still put lots of effort into their work and they are very successful at managing their job and their work load. I am not saying I am not successful and that I am lacking in many of my classes but that would be 20-30 extra hours a week for homework (especially working time during the day when I am the most awake). But I guess my question is…would I put more time and effort into my classes and marks? Who knows…and I don’t want to do it all over again!

Celebrities and Twitter

Lately when I have watched tv, I usually hear at least one celebrity talk about Twitter. I may only realize this now because I actually know what they are talking about or Twitter is becoming very mainstream. For instance, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show she talked about Twitter, and joined it also, after she heard about it from Martha Stewart and Sean “P.Diddy” Combs. Ellen set a goal that she wanted to have a million followers by the end of the day (March 13). I have added a couple others celebrities, just out of interest to see what they Twitter about. Ellen was on Jay Leno also and she talked about Twitter and twittering with Jay. Jay also had it in his monologue at the beginning of the show. Maybe Ellen should be the spokesperson for Twitter instead of American Express and CoverGirl – just an idea. I wish I had as many followers as Ellen. I guess if I was a celebrity I would have as many followers – I don’t even know enough people to make up the amount of followers she has. If I hadn’t already joined Twitter, I would have joined it just to follow Ellen! Great marketing?

Here is Ellen talking about “twittering” and “tweets” on her show.

Check out Alec’s post and featured video dealing with Twitter.

Inspiration From a Child

During my internship I was shown this video of Dalton Sherman, who is extremely inspirational. I had an interview this week with Regina Public, just a screening interview. I should have watched this before my interview and then maybe I wouldn’t have been so nervous. I wish I had his confidence and poise when I got interviewed – you have to understand it was also my first teaching interview. Guess that is something I need to work on!

On another note, Dalton points out that, “In some cases, your all we got…” During my internship there were a couple students that I knew this was somewhat the case. Their home lives were not great and it showed by the behaviours throughout the day. As a teacher, that is one of my goals. To be a positive role model in the school and to make sure my students are in a safe and comfortable environment. Sometimes school is the only place a child feels safe.

Wow, it has been a year already…

Today, I logged on to Twitter and noticed that Alec gave a link to another pre-service teacher’s blog. So I checked it out and he has been blogging about his pre-internship. Reading through some of his posts made me think…WOW, it has been a year since I did my pre-internship. During my pre-internship, time went by so quick and it was hard to believe once it was over that I would be teaching for four straight months in an elementary classroom. My pre-internship went by fast and my internship almost went by as fast! It went by so fast it was hard to enjoy some of the things that were going on in my life at the same time. For those four months, my life was grade 5. My evenings consisted of getting prepared for the next day and marking. My weekends also consisted of some other work related to teaching. However, I still had time for other things too. I may have written it to sound like a hassle, but it wasn’t. I enjoyed doing those things every evening and marking. Even looking at this last semester(ish), I would rather be preparing and marking in the evenings and weekends instead of reading hundreds of pages in a textbook and writing essays and reflections.

As I looked at this other pre-service teacher’s blog, it also made me jealous. He has been able to connect with social networking and he has technology resources that I just found out about this semester. Having these types of social networking on you side, it helps a lot. In my pre-internship I did use technology often but my internship was different. I guess the reason for that is we didn’t have many resources and definitely not the resources some other schools had. We had a computer lab and that was about it. In my internship we had the laptop cart which we could bring to the classroom whenever and we also had a computer lab.

I wish I had the information and knowledge I have gained over the last two months, seven months ago (aka. before my internship).

My Acting Debut

In my ECMP 455 class today we used a Flip Video to make a short video. First we had steps to follow and then next we made up a storyboard. I had the chance to make a acting debut today (unless you include me reading a book video). I was the main person in the first video we made. I must say I do like the end result, however in the last clip the beginning got cut off so it makes for a very awkward and funny ending.

For our final project in this class we are doing digital storytelling, so it was neat to actually make our own. We will be making a couple other to post on our Wiki, so it was a good place to start.  Today I wrote up a mini script for a short video and I want to try different ways to compelete it. I was thinking of doing a video and then just pictures with sound. Using both ways will create a comparison to which one works best and how the story comes across.

Hope you enjoy my acting….haha.

Mentorship Update

This week I had a chance to do something with both of my mentorship classes. Since Monday was Read Across America Day, Jen (ECMP 355 student) and myself read an article about twins seperated at birth to our grade 7 class in Alabama. We read this article because the class is doing a unit on genetics. We read the article over Skype and we were put on a big screen in front of the class which was a little uncomfortable. We got introduced to most of the students in the class. It was also neat to hear them talk and to hear there accents. However, they thought we had accents and they did not think they had any accent. It was also funny to hear them say that they had two inches of snow and how suprised they were, even thought it melted that same day. After we finished the class went to Phys. Ed. and Jen and I talked with Chad and were introduced to a couple other teachers in the school. It was a great experience to see and meet the class, even if just through Skype.

In my Kindergarten class I read a book and made  a video for them to watch. I had to make a video because their school district does not allow Skype. I think that is interesting because it takes away the teachers opportunity to communicate with another class anywhere in the world. Unless you are registered you can’t use it, so I guess I just don’t understand what reason to ban the program they have (I’m sure it makes sense). I’m posting the video incase it didn’t work on YouTube.