Games based learning

Today we looked at how ICT games can aid learning within the classroom. We used a Nintendo wii and games "Dance on Broadway" and "Samba de Amigo". Nicole, Keira and I thought that these could be used for music or health and wellbeing lessons. The dance on broad way has familar tracks which children can relate to. This could be used when teaching rhythm to a class. The good part of the games based learning is that it is interactive, engaging, fun and the whole class can take part together. When trialing the samba de amigo we found that the maracas which connect to the controller were rubbish. They blocked the path to the sensor.

On trying to create a hole for the sensor unfortunately it broke.

One child could use wii remotes and all the other children could use actual maracas and therefore everyone would be involved.

As we encountered several problems it would be fair to say that these games should be tried before using with a class. Another consideration is the impact of dance games amongst the boys in the class. Together we thought that a good way to solve this would be to use Michael Jacksons Thriller as boys may find it easier to engage by dancing like zombies, or to use Just Dance 1 + 2.

By doing this games based learning input at university we are able to critically look at the tools and what would be best for a mixed class. If you were to just do this off the cuff one day it would not work.

Here is my Games Based Learning Powerpoint created online online in google docs.
https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AZG0O9ZMxnvEZHdtcjVmY183MnI2c24yOWN6&hl=en&authkey=CNmMmqAB

ipad

I had an ipad home this week and I am struggling with the pros and cons of this device. It is easily more accessible than the ipod. You can type, read, zoom and search easily due to the larger screen but unfortunately it does not have all the benefits of a laptop. This somewhere in between device has good interactive benefits but as it cannot be a stand alone device in terms of typing and recording documents why would schools invest in them?

One school who have done just this is Cedars School in Greenock. Pupils returned to school in Aug 2010 to find they all had been given an ipod. This mammoth purchase by the school has been justified by the amount of interactive learning they can do across the curriculum. To read the article in TES Scotland click here.

I was looking after a 9 year old autistic girl this weekend and found she became animated and enthusiastic when using the device. Although she cannot read or write and was able to interact and play a phonics game. She did not become down heartened or upset when she could not complete the game but carried on. She also tried a flying pigeon app which involved hand eye coordination, hand dexterity, left and right. Although her scores were not amazing she was definitely learning.

Perhaps this is a way forward for apple, to design software and devises for children who struggle to interact with the world. Could you imagine if apple made computers for wheelchairs or devices for children to communicate in the classroom? They would have personal wi-fi, interactive media, buttons for everything and would be aesthetically pleasing.

The problem I have with the ipad is that I feel it is a solitary, stand alone device which is very expensive. The reason it works so well in both the above cases is because they have one each. Perhaps I am greedy but if I invest in an ipad i want it to do more. I want it to have a camera, a dvd drive and access to all windows programmes.

My Wordle

I created this wordle from a list of words my class had collectively thought about hand held learning. I like the look of these 'word clouds' because they are attractive, aesthetically pleasing and give instant information. The larger the word the more it appears in your passage. These are already being used in advertising and on media. I have seen the University use a wordle on their website. I think this could be used in the class room as a way of displaying ideas and thoughts in a clear interactive way.

here is a presentation showing how to use wordle in the classroom. I like the idea of using it for poetry and to introduce new vocabulary.

div style="width:425px" id="__ss_585291">Using Wordle In The Classroom

View more presentations from murcha.

My animoto

Today I uploaded images and music to create a video in animoto.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

We used collaborative learning to create a video with pictures and sound. The video was about hand held learning.  We used wordle to create the title screen then used image chef to create several word mosaics to create slides about mobiles. The word mosiacs are not the best as the pictures would be clearer if they had a larger amount of words. The image chef site is also not suitable for children as it has links to dating sites on it.

You could use the word mosaics to create the names of your class groups or a sign on the door of all your pupils.

The animoto site is good for creating quick movies as it does the linking between static images for you and also adds a patterned background making it look very professional. We only used the quick 30 sec free demo. This would be good for displaying pictures of a class trip or photos for a presentation.

To add music we experimented with Dance ejay 2005. This product is specifically designed for school and therefore has large buttons, interactive colours easy layout and instant playback. This is an excellent product for children who like music but struggle to read notes or follow it on paper.

Last week

So much to reflect on this week

I had an iphone for the week - what did I learn. I found the iphone easy to access the internet compared to my blackberry. If an area has good wifi then the iphone is good for quick google searches and instant information. Unfortunately I did not have many apps stored on the iphone and did not have a password to access the store. This I found could be disruptive when teaching, if you were trying to use an app during a lesson and all the iphones did not have the same software i think pupils would become disruptive and switch off quickly. There is this culture now that the internet and technology should be quick and people do not like waiting. I found this out myself last Thursday.

Movie editing

To edit our movies we had to convert the flip camera videos to windows media files. This was so we could access them on other computers. This was a huge problem. I spent 3.5 hours trying to convert them. I first tried zamzar. This not only took a while but the files once downloaded were corrupted. I then tried win X
after this the files were not corrupt and could be viewed on the screen but when trying to upload them to windows movie maker they did not have the correct file name and were unable to be recognised. The one I found that worked eventually was Freeware.

On reflection any task you wish the children to do you should know exactly how to do it yourself. You should know what programmes work, what is installed on the computers and how to do it.

The holistic approach

I would see myself as having a holistic approach to teaching. I believe that teaching should be based around the child's needs and be individualised. I developed this approach while working at The New School, Butterstone. This special needs school works on the basis of every child being individual and every child having an IEP. The reason for this blog is because I was wondering how to bring ICT into my theory? Can ICT be a benefit for every child? Last week on facebook I got a link from another blogger who visited the school.
Blog post

On reading this post I reflected that ICT can not only be used in the classroom but as a way of getting your message across. The approaches we use as teachers can go around the world in seconds using the web. Perhaps one day a visitor to my class will be blogging about their experience and what they have learnt.