Game based learning support post

We had a lot of fun on Saturday exploring all the facets of Game Based Learning, but as always, when you are having fun, you always run out of time! So this is the first thing that you have to bear in mind when planning a game-based lesson -make sure you allocate enough time for fun!!

Games is a great way to do revision seeing that it is almost the end of the school year. Research (goo.gl/1y34Ny) is showing us that playing educational games, as a way of learning, is incredibly effective! Games also provide a safe place to "loose" and act a a great motivator! The following 2 articles will inspire you to get going:

• What is GBL (Game-Based Learning)?
• GBL Checklist for educators

So what do you need to do to get the Game Based Learning Badge?? 

You need to create a lesson where you will use educational game(s)  for your learners to play and achieve your learning outcomes. The place to start is as always with: "What do I want my learners to learn?"  (your lesson outcomes). You can then go and investigate what educational apps and tools are available that can be used in your lesson to achieve the learning outcomes.

As our "lesson" session topic was "Copyright", we used a quiz to make sure that  all the learning is centred around that topic. Dividing the learners into groups, where each member has to research a section of the work, also resulted in every group member taking responsibility for their learning and contribution to the communal group's quiz knowledge.

You can make use of the Quiz slideshow template in your resource folder to create your own class quiz (goo.gl/gdtQCC ) by replacing the markers with your own questions and answers. You can use the online Quiz maker called Flipquiz (Flipquiz.me) to create your quiz as it keeps track of the teams, categories and scoring for your.

You can create flashcards and use the app Quizlet (see previous blogpost) to re-enforce the gaming topics and to create an automated drag and drop time based game! Remember, any quizlet, flipquiz or slideshow quiz you create for your students can count towards your Content creator badge as long as it is a "freestanding" learning object. In other words, it covers a curriculum subject topic that can be used by another teacher anywhere!

There are many gaming apps for almost any educational topic. As long as it support or extend your learning outcomes, you are welcome to use it.

Here are the criteria for getting your Game Based Learning Badge:

Remember to upload your lesson plan and your learner photos to our shared Google drive folder. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Maggie or leave a message below.

Using quizzes in the classroom

In today's session we looked at (and experienced)  how to use quizzes and games in the classroom. To create a quiz you can

• Use the slideshow template in your module 7 resource folder 
• Create one using Flipquiz.me
• Create flashcards and learnig games using the app Quizlet, which you can also embed in you blog!! 

Module 7- Game Based Learning

During this module we will investigate how we can use Game Based Learning and gamification to create a fun learning environment in our classrooms.


   

Mind mapping badge support

So what do you need to do to earn your Mind mapping badge?

Let's just look at the badge criteria and then  we will investigate some ideas:

App Evaluation badge support

The criteria for this app is as follows:



To earn this badge you will need to evaluate at least 10 apps for their educational value. You can use the apps:

• On your tablet
• On the app sheet
• Or any other app that you think have educational value. 

You can use the following google form to evaluate the apps (goo.gl/Fzy0U0) or use the word document template here (goo.gl/5VquEZ) and upload it to your Google drive online portfolio folder.

You have to answer the following questions regarding the app:

What can you do with  the app? Here you have to describe what the app can do. e.g. Toontastic 3D

With Toontastic 3D you can draw, animate, and narrate your own cartoons. It’s as easy as play. Just move your characters around onscreen, tell your story, and Toontastic records your voice and animations and stores it on your device as a 3D video. Toontastic is a powerful and playful way to create interstellar adventures, breaking news reports, video game designs, family photo albums, and anything else you might imagine!

Blooms taxonomy?
Delete the verbs that is not applicable and add verbs that you think is also relevant. 

• Remembering - Recognising, describing,  retrieving, naming, drawing, recording, animating
• Understanding - Interpreting, Summarising,  explaining, exemplifying, visualising
• Applying - telling, carrying out, using
• Analysing - Comparing, organising, structuring, integrating
• Evaluating - Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, judging, testing, Detecting
• Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making, recording

How can you use it in your subject/with your students? Be specific

• In mathematics I/the learners can use it to create "story sums" that have to be solved. 
• In English we can create stories from written text, breaking news reports. 
• In the IT class we can demonstrate video game designs. 
• We can create school photo albums. 
• It can be used as part of any storytelling strategy....

Can you use it offline or do you have to be connected?   (Delete whichever one is not applicable)

• Online: This means that my tablet have to be able to be connected to the internet before I can use it.  I have to sign in to be able to use the app and must therefore have internet connectivity. 
• Offline: The app can be used without any connectivity
• Both Online and Offline: I can use the app while offline and it will sync when online

Is it free? Yes / No / Lite

Yes : No restrictions- it works well and is a complete app (maybe it has adverts to support the app)
No: You have to pay a small annual or once off amount to use it
Lite: It is free to download but if you want the full version you have to pay or you can purchase in app purchases to get to some of the more advanced features.

Evaluate how the app support 21st century learning? (or will it just help me do what I have been doing in a new technological way)
Think of the app in terms of our 21st century skills:

• Collaboration: Does the app allows learners to collaborate on creating something? 
• Communication: Can you send messages/communicate using the app?
• Creativity : Can you create something new using the app?
• Critical thinking: Does the app allows deep thinking and problem solving? How
• Connectivity: Can you share what you have done seamlessly with others using the app?

Your rating for this app (1-5) ______   (1: poor  to 5 Excellent)
You will give 5 if it is a app that you would like to use regularly in your classroom/personally

You then need to go and complete the self-marking online app test here: testmoz.com/912025.
Just insert your name and click on Continue and so the short little test which should not take you longer than 2 minutes!

Module 5 : Mind mapping

Open and download the mind mapping module resources to your tablet as needed.

Content Creator badge support

This badge you can earn anywhere along your journey and you will probably have many items that you can submit for this badge already! You may place the items in your Google drive folder. So let us first look at the criteria for achieving this badge:

So where do you start?
The main aim is to create an item that is "freestanding" and can be used by any other teacher in their classroom. So, look at what you are doing according to your subject CAPS and decide that you are going to create.....

• A video, soundfile, podcast, slideshow.... explaining/teach something from your classroom related topic
• A ebook pdf worksheet
• ........

Combining it with your learning station strategy is a good idea. For example, you can create a learning slideshow/video to leave at one of the stations that the learners can use to learn the information/ skills that they need for that station. 

Some Examples of various multimedia items:

• My twitter slideshow is an example of a learning object/item that teach a concept. (Why and how to tweet) 
• Solving quadratic equations by completing the square (slideshow)
• The digestive system (slideshow)
• Population explosion (slideshow) 
• Short story for children in english (video)
• Gr 12 Geography: Geomorphology & Climatology (video)
• Mapwork calculations (video)
• The state of maths education in South Africa (podcast)  (podcast) 

I am looking forward to see what innovative learning objects you guys will be designing!

Twitter support

Twitter has consistently won the annual top learning and teaching award for the last 7 year. So it is important that we investigate what makes it such a stunning all round educational tool. In order to do this you will need to get stuck in and make sure that you get your tweet on!! The good news is that the most difficult part of tweeting is to register and remember your twitter password. After that it is plain sailing.

The following is important:

• Upload a profile photo (We do not follow eggs)
• Add a bio so that the right people can follow you. 
• Follow a few worthwhile tweeps from who you can learn a lot. 
• Follow your colleagues and @ict4red and @maggiev
• Retweet some tweets that you feel are good.
• Don't forget to include the hashtags #gapschools #ict4red

For more information and guidelines and why you need to get your tweet on: 

The badge requirements are as follow:

Some ideas:

• Tweet some of the classroom integration photos.
• Post a short video (30secs) of what your lesson is all about. 
• Ask your colleagues for help via twitter. Because it is happening out in the open you will get a lot of additional help! 
• Follow your colleagues and encourage one another! See the list (so far) here:
  https://twitter.com/ICT4RED/lists/gap (if your name is not on the list.... tweet me! Just put @maggiev somewhere in your tweet!!
• Retweet some of @sarahperidis lovely tweets!! 

Module 4: Learning Stations Support

Learning stations works very well when you want your learners to learn different skills and topics relating to a central theme in a hands-on engaged way. So basically you will take your Caps theme for the day and identify different things that they can learn successively. This strategy is also really great to do revision with. Make sure that the station topics do not need to follow on one another as groups start at different stations.

The learners are supplied at the onset with a worksheet (or google form) that has to be completed individually during the course of the learning station journey. The fact that they are moving between the stations as a group must be stressed is so that they have to help one another! You can also tell them that they will be doing an exit test to make sure that they pay attention at every station.

For example: 

1. Maths: Functions 
   Station 1: A video explaining what a function is and they have to come up with some examples
   Station 2: Identifying functions (Video and a testmoz self marking quiz where they have to identify functions
   Station 3: Solving functions (video and apps)
   Station 4: Drawing function with a graphing calculator (apps Algeo Graphing calculator, Functions)
2. Grade 3 Lifeskills: Religious & Other Special Days
   Each station represent a different day where they have to find out what the day is all about. Leave stuff there for them to dress up with (selfie time) with guiding questions about the day. How would you celebrate the day? (Resources: videos, magazines, app: International special days)

For more examples see the "Doing it differently" section in your Course manual

Badges:

You always have to do a lesson plan with a brief explanation of what your lesson is about. (Preferred App: Memoires). You need to create station activities by completing the design grid for at least 4 stations. Make sure that your stations activities adhere to the criteria alongside.

You have to provide me with your design grid (upload to your Module 4 Google drive folder), It can also be a photo of your hand written design grid. You also have to take a photo of each of the stations before the learners arrive to do their stations and upload that to your Google drive folder as well.

You will need to create an evaluation form (see above criteria evaluation form) but it can also be an assessment (Google form/Testmoz self marking test) to check if the learners understood the topic. They can do this at home or they can send you their completed worksheets electronically (a photo if they wrote it down).

Remember to take and submit a photo of the learners busy at each station. You can take a little video if you want and tweet that! (See twitter badge)

Any other questions or if you want to bounce any ideas of me, please submit as a comment below so that we can all learn from each other.

I will be using a badging rubric to evaluate the main badges. The idea is to get some idea of the level of implementation and to identify lessons that would be great for teachers awards. You must achieve at least a level 2 in order to qualify for the applicable badge. The rubric can be downloaded form here:

Module 3: Role play support

In Module 3 we used Role play as a teaching and learning strategy to solve issues, do problem solving and explore the value of peer assessment in a gamified environment. We cooked at some issues that crops up in a ict enriched school milieu e.g. can the school go paperless?  By writing a storyboard for the roleplay that has to explore various issues connected to the topic, learners are forced to come up with various issues and angles and then find solutions. This strategy is a great way to make sure that learners really intimately engage with topics from a problem-solution point of view.

From a technology point of view, various skills can be incorporated to enhance this experience. Firstly, they (the learners) have to design (write) the roleplay and digitise that for sharing and as part of their portfolio. They can either write it out (old school) and then taking a photo or type it out using a word processor or their tablet journaling app (Memoires). The roleplay has to be practised, video-ed and edited and has to clearly adhere to the following rubric criteria:

So the format of the roleplay lesson could be: (Use the roleplay template here: https://goo.gl/UOx8i8 and it could be one lesson with the assessment being the next lesson.)

• Stating the problem in a single sentence
• Exploring what the various issues might be associated with the problem statement
• Assigning roles (who says what)
• Acting the problems out 
• Acting the solutions out
• Taking a video of the role play. 
• Basic video editing
• Upload the video to Youtube and share the link with you in the back channel/email. This can be done after the lesson. 

Assessment:

The next step in this strategy is to have the learners assess each others role play with a view to reward the top roleplays (gamification). This can be in the follow-up lesson or as homework. They can physically swap tablets or view the roleplays on Youtube. This means that they would have dealt with at least 2 issues within the classroom topic (their own and the group they are assessing). You can also ask them to assess all the roleplay videos as assessment (individually or as a group). 

They then have to complete the assessment and score the group according to the given score sheet. This can be done physically (complete the printout and submit a photo of the results-lowtech) or do it using a google form (see example) or online collaborative spreadsheet (see example). The winning team are then rewarded. This can also count as formative assessment grading. 

Debriefing

It is important that ALL the issues are briefly discussed with pertinent questions to guide the discussion. This can be done in the back channel were you will be able to monitor that all the learners are giving input. You can also use a wordcloud application to summarise the main points and contributors (Wordclouds, Wordle, Tagcrowd, or for a list see here: http://www.edudemic.com/word-cloud-generators/) 

Badging

In order to achieve this badge I will need the following from you.

You only have to submit 1 roleplay planner but can submit more than one for this badge. So I would like to know what your lesson was all about as well as what issues and scenarios were given to the learners to contemplate and turn into a roleplay. You can do this in your Memoires with photos and text if you want to. I would like you to upload the best roleplay video or supply the roleplay video link (but you may upload/supply all of your learner groups' roleplays if you like). Upload the roleplay planner(s) to your Google drive  ( I would have send you a link to that) as well as your lesson plan summary.

Assessment is not specifically included in this badge but you will be submitting an assessment badge soon and this can count towards that badge. The assessment part of this activity is very important and serves to expose the learners to different issues and solutions.

Lesson plan ideas: How do I do this in my subject area? 
Now it is your turn to think about how you can use Role play within what you are doing at the moment in your classroom. Consult the "Doing it differently" section in your Course Manual.

If you have any questions or would like to run some ideas past me, please use the comment section below so that we can all explore together.

Module 4 Learning stations

Resource folder:
(Or you can access the folder from your shared Google drive using your Google drive app)

Module 3: Role play

Module material:




Activity 1: Reflection: 

• Backchannel: www.todaysmeet.com/gac
• Access the material 
• Badging: Uplod to Gdrive in future. You will get an invite to your folder. 

Activity 2: Role play demonstration and evaluation

• Complete the Role play checklist: https://goo.gl/forms/knTigEkYhkUcuiAx1

Activity 3: Group Role play

• Scenarios. 
• Role play Planner

Activity 4: Group assessment

Some fun from the first 2 modules at our #ICT4RED #GApschools training

Jolly ending to ict4red training session at #gapschools with @maggiev pic.twitter.com/EI72R7dP7F

— Vicky (@verytrickyvicky) July 23, 2016

Module 2: Storytelling Support

Everybody has got a story to tell! In this module we look at how we can use storytelling as a strategy for learning and teaching in the classroom. We purposely asked you to do a story about yourself during the workshop so that we can get to know you a little bit better and understand what makes you tick! You used a slideshow app to create your storyboard.

You will also remember that you did a video intro showing us what is your inner animal. That also tells a story. So let's look at what I will be badging for storytelling:

As long as I can tick all the above, you can be as creative as you like, but here is a walk through of how you could approach it:

Firstly, you are going to yet again start with what you will be teaching (CAPS). You can use the storyboard template to do your planning. A story has a beginning (intro) a middle part and a conclusion. Then you will actually create your lesson story using a slideshow presentation. Don't put to many concepts on each slide. Then lastly you will present your topic to your learners and ask at least one learner to video you doing this (presenting your slideshow). You can then test their understanding of how they understand the topic by asking them to briefly tell (take a video of) the story of... what was this lesson/topic about? Always try to do it in group context as to not allow for "passive time" e.g each group must create a video story of understanding. Pick a group/learner to present their story to the class using the Random student picker. Sounds good? 

Some ideas (You can consult your storytelling manual to see how you can do it with 1 or more tablets):

Some more ideas:

Suggestions on how to integrate storytelling in lessons #gapschools @maggiev pic.twitter.com/ha43kgP0b5

— Vicky (@verytrickyvicky) July 23, 2016

• Maths: Ask your learners to dramatize the story of a quadratic equation. Each group member must do the follow on line of the solution starting with once upon a time.......
• Questions can be a great way to get learners to think about story-fying a topic. e.g. why does a L look the way it does? 
• If you have any ideas or want to get some feedback from you peers and me, share what you will be doing, are planning to do in the comments below. 

Using technology

Video is of course a great way to record stories. Using slideshows to create your storyboards and visuals can add and provide focus while telling your story. Incorporating photos, cartoons and animations have the potential of really grabbing learner interest. But most of all..... asking them to be creative to solidify understanding is definitely the way to go!! 

Here is the Module resources and I am looking forward to see what you will come up with!!! Jaribaaaa!!!! 

Module 1 Jigsaw support

So you had fun in the workshop! But now you have to implement the Jigsaw strategy in your classroom and you find that, like anything, there will be challenges. So this post will try to tease out the criteria, give some suggestion and encourage you to to take the leap and be innovative beyond expectations! We are looking for the ICTChampions among you and even if you have not been the ICT guru in the past, this is your opportunity to shine!

So lets start with a summary of what the Jigsaw method entails. You take your classroom topic, design 4 (or more depending on how many learners you have in the classroom) tasks that will teach your learners different aspects of your relevant topic. They start of in a home group where you allocate a number and then leave to join a expert task group where they learn 1 (or more, but try to keep it simple) concept or skill. They have to concentrate as they have to explain what they have learned back in their home groups. After a period of time (you can split this over 2 periods) they have to return to their home group and take turns to explain to the rest of their home group members what they have learned.

So this strategy involves 2 processes, figuring something out together as a group and becoming experts, and then explaining your understanding what you have learned to others. So let's get started!

You have to look at what you want your learners to learn. For this you need to consult your CAPS documents and think of how you can use the Jigsaw strategy in what you would have taught ANYWAY in your classroom. So I am not asking you to do anything extra, I am asking you to do it differently!

Then last but not least, you have to incorporate the use of tablets in your lesson plan. It should n ot be the main focus. Think about the different mobile skills that you used in the workshop and then decide how you can incorporate these skills into the various tasks. For instance, you learned how to take photos, selfies and videos, you annotated PDF's and used your Memoires app for reflection. You shared files to one another, you used a back-channel for classroom discussions to name but a few. So ask yourself, how can technology (tablets) be used effectively (and seamlessly) during this jigsaw lesson?

This is what I am going to need from you in order for you to earn your Jigsaw Badge:

So you have to take your topic and divide it into 4 expert tasks. Some ideas to get you started: 

At at least one of the task groups, the learners have to use a tablet(s). It is up to you how they can use the tablet(s). You can leave a video explaining that specific task topic, or simulation, or the learners can take a video of what they have to go and explain back in their Home groups. Important. they have to explain back in their home groups they cant just show the video. See your manual for more ideas of how to use the tablet during this strategy. 

The expert task groups can be bigger (e.g. 8 learners) but make sure that the home groups do not consist of more than 4 members. It takes time to explain each of the tasks. 

Additional assessment. 

To bring the gamified fun and competitive element of gaming into this strategy, you can ask each leaner to evaluate their peers. Use a scoring rubric for this (see example scoring sheet). You can have a prize for the learner with the highest score and collect the sheets for formative assessment. 

So what will happen during badging? 

I will collect the evidence as per the criteria from you:

• Your lesson plan with the 4 tasks as per your classroom topic. You can use the lessonplan template or you can just explain it in your Memoires journal. It has to be in electronic format, so if you have printed the lesson plan, or did it on written piece of paper, you will have to take a photo of it as evidence. You can also take a photo of each of the task instructions before the learners do it in their task groups. 
• Take a photo/short video of the task group figuring out how to do the task and a photo of a learner explaining how to do a task in the home group. 
• You can even add the photo(s)/videos to your lesson entry in your Memoires journal. This will count towards your reflective practitioner badge at the end of this course where we will check if you have reflected on what you are doing all along. As the Memories journal entries are time stamped, you cant wait till the end to  do reflections, you have to record what you are doing as you go along!
• Please save all your evidence in your documents folder using your file manager (or ES File Explorer)  Make sub folders to make it easier to find (e.g 1 Jigsaw, 2 Storytelling..). 
• You can also upload it to your Google drive and share your drive folder with me. (We will look at how to do that at a later stage) 

I will ask you to briefly tell me:

• What your lesson is about.
• How did your learners and you enjoy it?
• What worked what did not work. 

I will check your Memoires journal entries and export it to myself. 

See you guys on Thursday the 18th and Friday the 19th for badging. Training is on the 19th and 20th. 

If you have any questions, feel free to add that to the discussion below where we can help one another. 

Module 2 storytelling

Module 1 Jigsaw fun (Photos and video)

All Module 1 photos are here: https://goo.gl/FdrxLq

Welcome to the ICT4RED teacher tablet training course

Welcome to the first training session of your ICT4RED teacher tablet course. I hope that you will have lots of fun and enjoy learning how to integrate Mobile technologies into your classroom practice.

Registration:
In order to be part of this course, which count 45 SACE points, you will need to commit to the following agreement and complete the online commitment form here: https://goo.gl/TP5oxM

Communication:
We will use various online platforms during the course so as to introduce to you the various ways in which you can use social media in the classroom. We will use a Whatsapp group for our out of class communication, so make sure that you are on the whatsapp group. Please contact Morgan to add you to the group if you are not on it yet!

We will use Whatsapp and our training backchannel to do in-class activities. Our chatroom is here: https://todaysmeet.com/GAC. You will be also be evaluated for your back-channel participation and receive a Back channel badge

• Module 1 and 2  todaysmeet back channel transcript

All the course material can be found here: 

Registration