ideas | Steps in Teaching and Learning

Set learning free in 100 words

December 14, 2011 in learning, thoughts

Where ever I am

1 – Throw away your planning and be the teacher you always should have been. Listen to your class, respond to what they need to push their learning forward. Assess their learning as you go, feedback to every learner. Try not to overplan, forget the detail and be confident in changing direction as and where learning takes you. Let the learners control the learning, give them opportunities to decide what they want to learn. Give them control to set their own learning agenda even if it means they only do Maths all day. Take back learning in your classroom.

Set learning free.

Tags: creative, creativity, ideas, inspiration, Inspirational, inspiring, learning, teaching
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#gamification day 2

November 22, 2011 in gamification, lesson ideas, thoughts

Upon the advice of Alex Moseley, I thought about my “subjects, topics and learning objectives in game terms, rather than simply applying a layer on top“. For today’s Numeracy lesson I built up a strong narrative around the learning objective. I created a fictitious character, The Dangerous Spy, who was making his escape using his clever understanding of time. I broke the gamelearning into 3 stages, each having to be solved and demonstrated before moving onto the next stage and finally capturing the spy. And there was going to be a lesson observation by my Head Teacher too

Stage 1
Children had to demonstrate they could read the time using o clock, quarter past, half past and quarter to. This was used as my review lesson to gauge understanding of basic time concepts. For the class it was their first chase after the missing spy. With every moment that passed the spy would be getting further away so the discussions around the room centred immediately on who was able to complete the first mission accurately. These children then used their expertise to teach others and demonstrate how to read the analogue clocks. All but 3 children completed this stage and they insisted on ‘replaying the level’ with me on the carpet.

Stage 2
Children now had to demonstrate they could read time to 5 minutes and had the option of writing their answers in digital format. I used digital format as an extra skill point and to my surprise, every learner tried to achieve it. This was all done with no IWB or whiteboard demonstration from me. Children who could do this appointed themselves group experts and advised their team players how to do it. My role became one of facilitating learners who found the stage difficult and I returned to my ‘traditional’ teaching role at these times. Four children found this stage challenging but enjoyed it as they wanted to catch the spy.

Stage 3
No one managed to get to this stage today and it has been left until tomorrow which left a dew children on the edge of their seats as they desperately wanted to complete the stage and catch the spy. The stage involved the use of real life skills – children would have to use the national rail website to find a train that would leave Leicester and arrive in London before 2pm on Saturday 26th November. Only by providing the times of departure, arrival and the journey length would the players be able to have completed the stage and face the final End of Level Boss – a question to test their overall understanding of reading from a timetable.

The dangerousspy missingtime

View more presentations from Kevin McLaughlin

Points to note
I found a couple of children who found this work difficult and they had sat back in their groups to let the rest get on with the problem solving. Gamifying lessons or a series of lessons is a fantastic approach to enlivening lesson content and learning but I need to ensure that every child has access to the learning and does not feel left behind. Telling the time is a difficult concept and many children require many lessons to succeed, I have explained to my class that they can return to this stage of the game at any point in the week or coming weeks. The content, as it is, can be reused and ‘played’ again.

Positives to consider
Continued cooperation throughout the gameplay learning stages.
Discussions between learners demonstrated high levels of understanding and use of language to instruct others.
Learners were open to learn from others and not just me.
Learners felt more comfortable expressing their desire to replay the stage when their learning wasn’t complete.

Final note
I am finding more and more that using this approach in class can not only benefit the learners but the teacher and your assistant (if you have one). My head teacher said the lesson was Good with outstanding points noting the ‘creative problem solving’ techniques the children used during the lesson and was impressed with their desire to learn. I am enjoying gamifying my lesson content more and more and I am now devising a block of learning that will involve a strong narrative, characters, sets, scenes – just like a game.

Tags: collaboration, creativity, discussion, ideas, inspiration, learning, maths, resource, sharing, teaching
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Gameplay Learning – gamification of learning begins

November 21, 2011 in gamification, learning, thoughts

I began using the techniques of gameplay as a learning style with my class today and it was a frantic, fast paced, period of learning. The buzz in the classroom was quite noticeable with another teaching assistant remarking at break how engaged the class were yet it was not all positive and that is to be expected with such a new approach.

Throughout these posts I will refer to gamification as gameplay learning (GPL) as that is the name my class have decided to call it.

I began the morning with a discussion about playing games. We created a list of gameplaying techniques that gamers use when playing games. I then got the class to help me create a learning in the classroom list that compared with the gameplay list. The similarities had the class in slight disbelief that gameplaying is tied to learning but they soon made the connections. At this point I played my introduction video (watch here) and they were literally sitting on the edge awaiting the rules of GPL. These rules are a first draft and will change.

To start I set the class one challenge in Numeracy – Can you tell the time to the minute using hands on a clock? This is taken from the UK National Curriculum objectives for Maths at Year 4 (age 8-9) and is an end of year target that children at this age have to achieve. No harm setting the first challenge very high I thought. The children got straight to the task immediately, focusing on the ‘expert game players’ for their lead. Any child could come to me for help, advice and explanations throughout the GPL challenge yet only a couple did so. What I saw amazed me, children who normally would not work together were engaged in the activity and helping each other with no issues at all. Every child was focused, every child was trying, every child was ‘playing the learning game’. Throughout the challenge a group would ask me for the End of Game Boss level so they could prove their understanding. This was an essential part of the learning as I needed to know that each child in the group could solve the problem and show how they did it. To start with, only a few children in each group could show me confidently but by the end of the session every child in my class bar 2 could show a full understanding of the given challenge.

I was literally gobsmacked – it made me question my teaching style and whether I needed to improve. I loved it! Here were the learners in my class cooperating in teams to solve a given problem but at the same time demonstrate that each group player could do so independently. It wasn’t all a complete success as there were some learners who found the approach confusing and/or the work difficult. I soon returned to a more traditional teacher led approach with a small group of learners which quickly reduced in size to two children by the end of the session.

Tomorrow I have a lesson observation by my head teacher, I have described this approach to her and she is looking forward to it with an open mind. I have received a number of comments on Twitter and this blog which are helping me to clarify my thinking and develop my use of GPL throughout this week. I leave you with a few thoughts from my Game Playing Learners.

listen to ‘Alex describes his gameplay learning’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Maddy describes her gameplay learning’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Scarlett describes her gameplay learning’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Owen describes using Gameplay learning’ on Audioboo

Until tomorrow gamers.

Tags: activities, games based learning, gamification, ideas, inspiration, learning, resource, sharing, teaching, technology, tools
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Gamification for learning in the classroom

November 20, 2011 in gamification, learning, lesson ideas

Earlier today this tweet was posted by @dughall

An interesting 10 mins on gamifying education http://t.co/wWQ3imEs

November 19, 2011 5:00 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite

@dughall

Dughall McCormick

and after watching the video, it got me thinking, why can’t I do that? Well, there’s nothing to stop me apart from the unknown, but that hasn’t stopped me before. I am going to use the techniques of gaming in my classroom teaching and learning.

What is gamification of learning?

In it’s basic form it is using the techniques behind gaming as a basis for classroom learning. Gaming involves problem solving, replaying parts of the game again and again until you get to the next level, finishing off an end of level adversary and can involve multiplayer opportunities where teams work together to solve the problems they face. As players progress through their games they collect power-ups, extra skills and always win points. A defeat encourages further gameplay until progress is made. Now imagine tying that into learning. Read more here.

How can it be connected to learning?

The gamification of a classroom requires a lot of thought and careful planning. It can’t be just used without some thought given over to the process of using gaming techniques as a method of learning. If you visualise your termly plan as a game to play through then that will give you a start. Each subject you teach during the term could be a mission that has to be completed by the learners (players) and at the end of each mission the gamers/learners have to defeat an end of level boss to demonstrate their learning or work with a team member to help them progress through to the next mission. That’s the general idea.

Over the next few weeks and then throughout the second school term I will be using these gaming techniques with my own class. Will it help to improve learning? Will it motivate my class, engage them? I’m willing to find out and I’m looking forward to the next few months ahead. I will post regular updates here on my blog and hope that it will help others to ascertain whether gamification of learning can be an effective form of engagement in your classroom.