inspiring | Steps in Teaching and Learning

Cross curricular gamified learning

November 28, 2011 in gamification, learning, lesson ideas, Resources in the classroom

Over the next 2 weeks I will be using a collaborative working plan based on the story of Santa being lost as part of my gamified learning in the classroom. I started the plan using Google Docs and posted a link to it on Twitter, within half an hour the plan had grown to 5 pages of cross curricular ideas and activities. You can acces the doc and add your own ideas to the plan here.

To begin the week I used the following presentation. The first slide takes time to work out but my class got there after a few questions and answers. One thing you must try to do is to take a step back, do not rush in with answers. Let the learners find the solution, give them time. Let them finish their ideas and accept every idea as part of the solution because even incorrect answers will help find the correct one. I decided to put ( ) around the 2 numbers and that did the trick, immediately a lot of voices told me the numbers must be coordinates. So off they went to find were the coordinates would lead to. They found Santa was on Henderson Island part of the Pitcairn Islands , located in the South Pacific Ocean. It’s very remote so Santa truly needed their help. The next slides let them think first about what items they would take from the list to help Santa survive. They had to discuss with each other why they would take certain items and I listened in to many interesting suggestions e.g. Santa really needs to take the chocolate because he can not only eat it, he can make a drink out of it so that’s two out of one! Many of the children automatically wanted to build rafts but after looking closely at their Google Map they thought it might be better to sit tight on the island until help arrived.

Searching formed a huge part of the challenge, children had to use search strings to find specific information that could help them decide what to do to help Santa. Wikipedia articles were quickly scanned for important information and shared with the groups. Each group went off on different though flows to begin with and even after collaborating with each other, many stayed on their original courses with just a little variation. One group is convinced that Santa can survive a journey by raft to Pitcairn Island so tomorrow my additional challenge to them is working out how long that journey might take.

Towards the end of the morning one group hit on a fantastic idea. They had been using the Google Map to decide if using a raft would be a good idea but then hit on staying on the island until help arrived. Why? I asked. One girl in the group called me over to demonstrate how she had used Google Maps photo layers to discover that there were quite a few photos taken of the island by visitors on boats! She quickly came to the conclusion that the islands were actually not as remote as first thought and used another search online to discover visitpitcairn. It was an exciting moment as it was one area of Google maps that I had not shown to the class but obviously one learner had. She quickly demonstrated her skill to others and very soon everyone was using the photos plugin of Google Maps to view the photos themselves.

A mystery awaits

View more presentations from Kevin McLaughlin.

Every day I use the gamified approach I am more convinced it is a wonderful method of inspiring children’s curiosity and develop their creative problem solving. With today’s emphasis on assessments for learning, testing for league tables, ‘playing the game’ to stay off Ofsted’s radar, gamifying your learning may be risky to some but it is certainly worth it.

Tags: activities, classroom tech, creative, creativity, discussion, games based learning, gamification, inspiration, inspiring, learning, resource, teaching, tools
No Comments »

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.

Tags: creativity, gamification, ideas, inspiration, inspiring, learning, resource, teaching, technology
8 Comments »

20 time – Your own time for learning

August 14, 2011 in learning, lesson ideas, thoughts

When I attended the Google Teacher Academy in July 2010 I discovered that Google gives its workers ’20 percent time’ so that they can work on projects that they are passionate about. ’20 percent time’ has been used to develop Gmail, Google Talk, Adsense, Orkut and a few other features that would never have seen the light of day unless this philosophy existed within Google. And that got me thinking. In school, we spend almost all of the time teaching from a National Curriculum and making sure that the children in our class meet the targets of that curriculum. Some of us stick to it rigidly, some of us don’t. So trying to fit in any additional learning that doesn’t necessarily come from that curriculum should be difficult to manage. Shouldn’t it? the use of ’20 time’ or any type of project based learning theme is a very effective part of the learning journey that children can make in your class

There’s no room on the timetable
My timetable is full. From Monday morning until Friday afternoon every hour is conceivably covered. I don’t stick to it but I need to have one in place in case someone from outside the school comes in and wants to know what I should be doing at any time according to my timetable. I’ve always hated timetables, a rigid system that restricted my learning. On many occasions I would have preferred the lesson to continue as I was just ‘getting into my stride’. I’m positive the same happens today to many children so I do not adhere to a timetable. But I’m digressing from the reason I’m writing this post. Using ’20 time’ with your own class shouldn’t be difficult as long as you are not a rigid follower of timetables, even then it can be managed. It’s just a matter of thinking outside the box.

So what is ’20 time’ in the classroom?
Well, I have interpreted it in the same way as Google have, I gave my class the opportunity to use any time they had available to them outside of National Curriculum learning as part of their ’20 time’ to explore their own learning passion. I left the children to come up with their own learning themes, a journey that they could take on their own or with others. I set some standards which are outlined below.

Your ’20 time’ can be done whenever you finish any other work you do in class
You must finish your usual work to your high standards
’20 time’ cannot be spent doing nothing
Your ’20 time’ can involve just you or some of your friends but no more than 4 in one group unless you speak to me first
You have access to any equipment and material in class for your ’20 time’ project
You can continue ’20 time’ at home if you wish

My participation was to help children devise their ideas, ask guiding questions to help them develop their ’20 time’ project and offer advice throughout. I allowed the children to follow their own ’20 time’ ideas from start to finish.

How can you fit it in?
I looked at where I could use ’20 time’ with my class before I sat down to consider whether it would be of ‘educational value’. That comes later. Could I fit it in? Of course I could. At the end of any lesson you will always have children who have finished before others in the class. This is the point that ’20 time’ slots in. Instead of giving early finishers extra work, additional sheets, further stretching activities (horrible!), why not use ’20 time’ then? It has worked for my class and it has been such a successful addition to the learning that happens in my class that I can’t wait to begin it again with my next class.

Did it work? What were the outcomes?

Every single child was engaged throughout their ’20 time’ learning journey.
Every child wanted to continue their ’20 time’ during break and lunch times.
Every child remarked at the end of their ’20 time’ that it was the best thing they had ever done.
Every child said they wanted to do it again.

Going with that I’d say the use of ’20 time’ or any type of project based learning theme is a very effective part of the learning journey that children can make in your class.

And the best part of it? They inspired me with their passion for learning.

Tags: creative, creativity, ideas, inspiration, Inspirational, inspiring, learning
34 Comments »

Ancient Egypt comes to life with Skype

February 10, 2011 in learning, raves, tools

Ancient Egypt meets Skype

Last month I posted a tweet on Twitter asking for help to set up a Skype session with an ancient Egyptian museum so that the Year 6 children in my school could have a great learning experience. There were many replies, one great tip led to the Petrie Museum and today that all came to an amazing and successful conclusion with many children describing it as the best lesson they ever had.

I was put in contact with Tracey Golding, who works in the Petrie Museum, and was extremely keen to find out about my suggestion of using Skype to let the children find out more about their current Ancient Egypt topic. However, last week the whole event almost met a sudden end as I discovered that Skype is blocked for use in schools by our network provider (EMBC) but that is another story altogether. I found a way around the issue and after an impromptu test session with Tony Shepperd and I spoke with Tracey for the first time yesterday. Technical issues were sorted and this morning the whole of Year 6 crammed into one room and awaited Tracey’s call. There was nervous anticipation when the arranged time came and went but then the ringing went across the room and a cheer went up. The class were already buzzing before we had even answered the call. Tracey was brilliant especially so as it was her first ever Skype call and it was to a room filled with year 6 children, their teachers and teaching assistants, myself and the head teacher. She walked us around a room filled with artifacts stopping here and there to describe them and answer the children’s questions. At the end we had a question and answer session and then we said our goodbyes to frantic waving and cheering.

It was a very successful session that demonstrated how effective and powerful a tool such as Skype can be in the classroom. Skype have developed a Skype for Education edition which when released to schools and education establishments will help connect learners to others all over the world. Skype breaks down those classroom walls and is a fantastic example of what making education real is all about.

5 tips for a Skype session in your school.

Test Skype first to make sure it works in your school, it may need firewall settings to be adjusted or ports to be opened.
Check the lighting in your room to make sure viewers can see you, and get them to check their own too.
Check sound – make sure you can hear each other. In a class setting it’s a essential to feed your sound through an amplifier.
Hold a test session so that you can iron out any technical issues.
If you are doing a question and answer session, have your class prepare questions first to give the participant(s) an opportunity to put their answers together.