The Endless Adventure

This post is based on a Games based Learning (gbl) project, using Endless Ocean 2, that I was able to implement during my recent placement.

Background of placement

This placement was a three week block based in the nursery.  There was a two week block in the same school in February.  As the school that I was placed in had a morning only nursery I was also placed in a primary 3 class in the afternoons.

The school is situated in a deprived area with high levels of unemployment, drug and alcohol misuse and crime.  Many of the pupils have a difficult home life.  The area is undergoing regeneration with support from The Coalfields Trust.  The school encourages parental involvement and is currently developing more ways to extend this.  Parents are very supportive of the school and the local community holds a very high opinion of it.


Consolarium Visit

As part of our ICT elective we looked at the advantages and disadvantages of using games based learning to support and enhance learning in the primary school setting.  The potential for developing motivation that mirrors intrinsic motivation in pupils through the use of games based learning is something that I believe strongly in.  While this is not something that I have always been aware of; I was never adverse to the use of alternative methods to provide children with a stimulating learning experience.  Yet as part of my own learning experience I have discovered a love for the use of technology.

Game format

Endless Ocean 2 follows a storyline with characters searching for the solution to 'The Mystery of the Song of the Dragons'.  The use of a story as opposed to the exploration element of Endless Ocean 1 had both positives and negatives.

Distraction - At times the story got in the way of the exploration.  This caused me more frustration than it bothered the pupils and once passed the initial tutorials this became less of a problem.

Focus - Despite the story distracting from the main focus of my intentions it also sparked motivation in some of the pupils.  Again, for me this highlights the individual learning styles of each child.  Some were simply engaged through the explorations while others thrived on having a structure to follow in a storyline.


Planning

When planning I had the use of the teacher's previous planning and assessment schedules.  This led me to identify a series of appropriate curriculum for excellence outcomes which I then broke down into smaller targets.  Many of these were generic targets in relation to literacy and health and wellbeing.  With the list of outcomes that related to the needs of the children in terms of progression I created a curricular overview for the three week block.  Using the overview in association with the work the children completed I then made both weekly and daily plans.

The reality

With the structure of the placement not being focused on the primary 3 class it was difficult to achieve as much as I had planned.  There are several reasons for this; the class had 3 non contact slots per week during my afternoon sessions; I overplanned in relation to the time available and I had to ensure that the focus of my workload was on the nursery area of my placement.

The pupils did benefit from the project in a variety of areas.  My focus was on literacy, however, the class gained a great deal of experience in group decision making and found that they respected a democratic process when presented with choices.  To begin with they would vote on a decision and argue against the result, after discussing the need to respect the choices of others they began to accept the decisions reached.

The game play was planned for a maximum of two twenty minute sessions per week.  During the game play sessions pupils would take turns reading the instructions and the story, they would take turns using the controller and they would record certain things in their log books.  The use of log books mirrored the use of a log in the game.  If there was a word that they were unsure of they would record this in their log book and research it following the game play session.  They would also record how they were feeling periodically and this was an individual choice task.  The final instruction for recording during the game play was to record details of creatures that they encountered during the game.

The majority of the game play sessions were minimally led and I only intervened to highlight important facts or pose questions for recapping on experiences.  The class were fantastic at developing their own aims and leading their own learning.  This links well to my personal educational philosophy in my belief that teaching is so much more than passing on facts from one generation to another.  A learner who is in control of their own learning is more likely to engage fully and I believe that a teacher has a powerful influence in encouraging this from an early age.

I had concerns that the game play would need to be limited to whole class sessions due to the distraction factor of a group using the wii when others would be doing other tasks that may be seen as less exciting, yet as time went on I realised that this was not the case (at least for this class).  Although I did not have the opportunity to introduce this idea I believe it would have been able to have been implemented after the first fortnight.

In the classroom we set up a display area for art work, log books and other project related material.  The class took the lead again in developing this and created the display themselves.

We had two paradise fish arrive during the final week for a visit.  They now live at home with me.  The children relished the responsibility of caring for them, with many of the children not having had a pet previously.  When the fish arrived they came with a note for the children:

Hello Marine Adventurers

    We heard that you are exploring the ocean for your project with Mrs H and we wanted to come and visit you for a week. 

We need to be given a tiny pinch of food every day and Mrs H will need to clean our tank out on Friday when we leave.

We have never been to a classroom before and we are looking forward to watching you do all of your class work.

We don’t have names but we thought that maybe you would be able to name us.  Mrs H has a blue box for you to put suggestions into for our names.  If you write one name on each piece of paper then put it into the box Mrs H will have a draw to choose our new names on Tuesday.

Thank you for letting us stay in your classroom.

Fish         

The fish were a big success and reinforced my opinions on the benefits of having a class pet.


The surprise

The reading ability of the pupils was highlighted in a different way than had been during group reading sessions with reading books.  Pupils showed a different ability in decoding with some demonstrating an ability above that which they would normally display.  There were also pupils who struggled with the language when it was least expected.  The class teacher commented on the value of the reading activities within the game.  The environmental language also encouraged exploration of language through the recording of words within pupil 'log books'.

What next?

Hopefully my next placement will allow time to integrate gbl into my planning.  The further I progress with the course the more responsibility I will have to implement my own strategies.  I understand there are some concerns relating to the use of gbl on behalf of some schools yet I do believe in the great potential when managed carefully; but this is true of any teaching strategy and resource.

Now if only the Consolarium had summer interns for students ;0)

module completion (but not the end of the blog)

 My second year is now complete and, as this blog was set up for the ICT elective, I think it is only right to post my elective essay as this was as much a part of the assessment as my blog was.  So you can read the essay below:

Personal Digital Literacy Development

“Creative Pedagogy taps into your students creative wellsprings to make them more aware of their innate intelligences…Merged with technology, creative pedagogy provides stimuli through multiple media” (Carlson, 2004).

Children grow in such a way that without measuring them sometimes it takes you to stand back just to notice the change.  The same may be said about my personal progress in the ICT module, my development has taken a steady progressive route that has enabled reinforcement of existing pedagogical aspects and the development of more innovative principles that can be applied to my professional practice.  There has been a strong sense throughout the module of highlighting the difference between the ability to use a subject or tool and the understanding required to embed that subject or tool into practice.  This point is highlighted within a report from Futurelab on the integration of commercially produced games in education.  The report discusses the variation between teachers who were game literate and the teachers who were curriculum literate. 

“Where teachers were experienced in the subject/ curriculum area they were addressing, they were able either to appropriate only those game elements that would support their teaching… or to scaffold students’ use of the game appropriately…there were a minority of teachers who were perhaps more fluent with the game than in the relevant curriculum… [their] lessons didn’t go as far in addressing their stated learning aims” (Sandford, Ulicsak, Facer, and Rudd, 2006).

As the report describes curriculum literacy can be more influential than the format of teaching.  In a world where children expect instantaneous responses the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning can have a profound difference.  The balance between pace, challenge and meeting the needs of the learner can be coupled with differentiation and cooperative working groups to link together both learning and psychosocial development through the use of technology. 

During the module a further element that has been evolving is the concept that technology learning and skills development can often occur implicitly within other curricular areas.  The animation and digital movie making tasks provide perfect examples of the cross curricular practice that is achievable; within the larger module group there were a number of smaller working groups consisting of 4/5 students.  Each group chose a different theme for their personal projects relating to multiple areas of the curriculum.  Any teacher created resource can be easily manipulated to suit a desired purpose but the real benefit of using a resource such as a wiki is to foster student ownership (Tonner, 2010).  Within the primary school this may be achieved in a number of ways.  A teacher may choose to create a resource that pupils will access in order to enhance their learning through interactive media, the teacher may create a foundation area where pupils will add information under certain headings and under instruction or the teacher may choose to allow pupils to create their own area focusing on a particular topic, perhaps following a class project.  The later description, although being the most lengthy is perhaps the best format for allowing pupil ownership of a project.  When working collaboratively there is room for individualized contributions within a wiki.

Children are exposed to technology on a daily basis and, whether they have the equipment in the home or not, children are drawn towards technology.  “For a large number of young people exposure to computers begins at home, at an early age” (Vekiri, 2010)  In a classroom of 28 pupils it would not be uncommon that if a problem occurred with the interactive whiteboard you would suddenly find yourself surrounded by  approximately 26 ‘experts’ all willing to provide a solution.  When any student displays this enthusiasm and confidence in their ability then the obvious choice would be to capitalize upon this as a motivational factor. 

When planning for implementation of any lesson careful consideration must always be applied to resources and their suitability must always be critically assessed.  If you are planning a literacy lesson with a poetry focus you would not plan to use a calculator.  When planning to use technology within a lesson it must be appropriate for the purpose, the progression of the students and beneficial to the completion of the task; the needs of the learner should always override the desire of a teacher to use any resource.  ‘‘Nobody wants to use technology to recreate education as it is” (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994, p. 256, cited in Girvan, C & Savage, T. (2010)).

 Variety in activities will ensure that skills developed in any learning experience are transferable and integration of technology should allow for this. 

The module layout encompassed a range of tasks that were designed to develop us personally and that could be implemented into our teaching practice.  We were to keep a reflective log of our experiences in each input and in relation to any other relevant material.  This was to be published via Blogger™.  Whilst reflecting on our own experiences we were also encouraged to read the entries posted by our peers and comment on these in a formative manner.  For me personally the benefit of maintaining our personal blog has been structured upon reflective practice.  During placement reflection is a critical element of our learning journey and practice in this area has provided me with a clearer focus on which to reflect.  Reading the work of others and having the opportunity of insight into their personal experience of the same event enables a greater clarity when planning for differentiation and learning styles with a class.  This form of empathy for other learners highlights the fact that your experiences can be very different from those of others and this is dependent on many contributing factors; previous experience, prior knowledge, historical viewpoints, cultural differences, variety in learning approaches and willingness to embrace new things are just some examples of influences on personal experience.  It is important that teachers recognize and incorporate many of the theories surrounding learning styles and learning theory (Gardener (2006), Klob (1975), Butler (1988), Sarasin (1999)).  The nature of learning needs to focus on the learner as the core.  Without the learner the process would be pointless, Christensen, Horn and Johnson (2008, P.39) state that

“Student-centric learning opens the door for students to learn in ways that match their intelligence types and at the paces they prefer by combining content in customized sequences.”

Technology allows there to be a regime where students can have individual and personalized learning plans, devised by themselves in conjunction with the teacher as the “guide on the side not a sage on the stage”

In discussing the use of virtual worlds Girvan and Savage (2010) reiterate the fact that the use of technology should bring an extra element to the teaching and learning:

“ there is a need to consider which pedagogical approaches can provide an opportunity to do more than recreate the traditional classroom by leveraging the unique characteristics and potential that the technology can offer.”

There are many tools available for collaboration but many of these could be termed asynchronous (Tonner, 2010).  For true collaboration real time editing is essential for users to benefit from instantaneous reactions and participation.  Without the real time function there is a danger of users switching off and becoming disengaged.  An example of a real time collaborative tool would be PrimaryPad™, this is a tool that has a writing area and a separate chat area.  It is now widely accepted that conversation is beneficial in the classroom therefore it is only logical that conversation be possible in a virtual classroom.  The Vygotskian perspective of the Zone of Proximal Development (Kyriacou, 2009) and the extension of this with Bruner’s scaffolding metaphor are relevant in the area of Collaborative working as the onus falls on the student to progress with the aid of both the teacher and their peers within and beyond the collaborative working group. 

As children are drawn towards technology, in particular new technology, and the fact that the world is becoming more technologically driven on a daily basis educators have a duty to capitalize on these in order to spark motivation in their students.  The motivational and engaging element of technology is not entirely focused on technology itself.  The delivery method and the presentation of a particular tool is the selling point for students if they are to continue to be engaged beyond the initial ‘wow’ reaction.  It is not necessarily the tools that promote engagement but a myriad of effective, comprehensive planning, clear curricular links, an enthusiastic approach and a relevant context.

The possibility of extending learning beyond the classroom confines is a reality.  It always has been, to a certain extent, but developments in mobile technology enable more opportunities for comprehensive and active learning, with the support of technology such as handheld learning devices.  There are less barriers in learning for those who may not meet the traditional persona of the pupil.  The thread of inclusivity for all is very strong when using a multi-pronged approach to teaching and for pupils who may struggle in a traditional learning environment this is more important.  Developing contexts for them to construct meaning can often take untraditional formats.  A prime example of this would be the increase in games based learning projects in schools throughout Scotland and beyond. 

Games based learning incorporates a mixture of both contextualized learning and the tools that pupils choose for their leisure time.  Popular examples would be Guitar Hero™, Nintendogs™ and Myst™.  When introducing a console game into a classroom it is very probable that the majority, if not all, of the pupils will have had experience of the game play.  An outsider may view the pupils as the game experts while the teacher could be considered the curriculum expert.  It is when these two concepts marry that collaborative exchange and synchronous learning between the educator and learner takes place.  For pupils the process of discussing the game with the teacher and other pupils will increase their metacognition and awareness of their own learning journey, from experience in the classroom this can stimulate pupils into leading their learning rather than being led in their learning.  Gee (2007) describes the “Psychosocial Moratorium Principle” in relation to games based learning and a real life context for learning. 

“Learners can take risks in a space where real world consequences are lowered.” 

Risk is a vital element of life and experience of calculated risk taking will provide skills necessary to make judgments regarding risk taking in the future.  The immersive nature of gaming therefore becomes a safe place to experiment with risk. 

Linking back to the earlier analogy of development going by unnoticed, I would say that while I was enthusiastic about the use of technology and willing to try tools in practice, I was naive in the supporting evidence to substantiate this.  I still am greatly unversed in the theory and current research as the field is so broad and moving at such a pace yet I have a much better understanding of the need for theoretical influence and the extent that research informs practice both explicitly and implicitly.   Critical evaluation and the rules of engagement are the areas in which I have developed greatest during the course of this module.  Critical evaluation of resources, activities and tasks and personal critical evaluation and reflection have been an underlying theme of the module which is something that I would say is highlighted within my blog.  Rules of engagement, how students engage with their learning, how they are motivated (intrinsically and extrinsically) and the resulting effect that this can have on enjoyment during the learning process and on retention rates are all areas that I aim to research further as a result of my experiences within the module. 

“Unless students (and teachers, for that matter) are motivated, they will reject the rigor of any  learning task and abandon it before achieving success” (Christensen et al, 2008, P.7).

References and Bibliography

Butler, K. A. (1988)  Learning and Teaching Style: In Theory and Practice. Columbia: Learners Dimension

Carlson, G.  (2004)  Digital Media in the Classroom. San Francisco: CMP Books

Christensen, C.M., Horn, M.B. & Johnson, C.W. (2008)  Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.  New York: McGraw Hill

Gardener, H. (2006)  Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books

Gee, J. P. (2007)  What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Girvan, C & Savage, T. (2010)  Identifying an appropriate pedagogy for virtual worlds: A Communal Constructivism case study in The Journal of Computers and Education: 55: 342-349 Available via www.elsevier.com/ locate/compedu

 Accessed (19/04/2010)

Kolb, D. (1975) David Kolb on Experiential Learning. Available via  http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-explrn.htm accessed (19/04/2010)

Kyriacou, C. (2009) Effective Teaching in Schools Theory and Practice (3^rd Ed) Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd

Sandford, R. Ulicsak, M. Facer, K. & Rudd, T.  (2006) Teaching with Games Using Commercial off-the-shelf computer games in formal education Bristol: Futurelab

Sarasin, L. C. (1999) Learning Style Perspective: Impact in the Classroom. Madison: Atwood Publishing

Tonner, S. (2010) Social Media Tools. ICT elective module, School of Education, Social Work and Community Education, University of Dundee.

Vekiri, I. (2010) Boys’ and Girls’ ICT Beliefs: Do Teachers Matter? In The Journal of Computers and Education: 55: 16-23 Available via www.elsevier.com/ locate/compedu

 Accessed (19/04/2010)

Zooburst

Today I found a new toy.

It is a digital storybook creator, named Zooburst, that allows the user to create and read 3D pop up books.

It also uses Augmented Reality to bring your book to life.  To use zooburst you will need a web browser (I use google chrome but Safari, IE and firefox are also compatible), a webcam and a marker.

I created a sample book which you can view above.  To use the Augmented Reality aspect you need a marker which you will find here.  (Rather than printing the marker it is possible to use it on the screen of your iphone/ itouch etc)Then click webcam mode.

The potential for use in the classroom to develop many areas of the curriculum beyond literacy is what really excites me.  Pupils love trying out new things and the quirkiness of this tool is a sure way to engage learners who may not be stimulated by the thought of traditional class work.  Variety drives pupil motivation and if a tool such as this will enable motivation and progression while being relevant then why not use it?  Zooburst recognise the potential for classroom use and this is an extract from their FAQs page:

"In the very near future we will be releasing a "class management" feature inside ZooBurst that will allow teachers to set up classes, create assignments and set up usernames & passwords for your students. In the interim you can always log into ZooBurst on behalf of your students. ZooBurst will allow you to access your account from multiple computers at the same time, so if you are in a computer lab simply log into the site for each student and have them create their own books"  (Zooburst)

My sample book is not very exciting and I have only added basic graphics but I wanted to see how easy it was to create a book.  See what you think for yourself.




{Edited} zooburst example is now on the right hand side of my blog (main page)