Second Life Screenshot

Used SmartBoard tools to take screenshot.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43439166/Second%20Life.notebook

Gamestar

When used properly, gaming can motivate, teach, and encourage students of all levels to succeed or work harder.  If you can really implement gaming and use them to their fullest extent, you can motivate poor performing students, or even help bright students ask important relevant questions about their worlds. 

I do feel that gaming can and should be infused into every subjects lesson planning, but as a professional you need to ask  “Is a computer game the right choice in this situation?”. I would first start with thinking of the learners, their needs, or any disabilities they have.  It is important to know if your students can draw inferences from experiential activities.  One of the most important points is to make sure you have a proper structure so students can stay on task.

After doing some research online and with these websites, teachers are using games in a number of ways and with great success.  Most teachers recommend playing the game first, using the exact technology that students will be using to avoid any problems down the line which will through the whole class out of whack.  Working kinks out prior can be all the difference when using something like a game.  Considering time can be crucial to how much they get out of this gaming experience. Although some parts of some computer games can be completed in 40 minutes, it would be much more beneficial to use 3 or 4 40 minute classes.  Spend the first time learning how to use the game, the second just playing around with the game, and the third and fourth playing the game with good instructional design.  Educators should take outcomes into account.  Make sure that the games are linked to state standards/common core, and be able to justify your teaching methods to administrators before implementing.  

4 important things to get right when using gaming in the classroom

It has to work right and well.  Technical problems are disastrous in games in education. Short classes and limited technical support make technical problems a serious issue. 

It has to be fun. It doesn’t get boring.  A guiding mantra should be “if it’s not fun, why do it?”.  This is why we always think about the game first and then educational potential.

It has to be challenging at different levels of abilities.  Some students are naturally interested in technology and games, others are not.  As much as something which is very difficult can cause problems, so can something which is very easy.  Levels of difficulty help alleviate this situation.

The game needs to be accessible for different types of players. There should be something in the game for everyone.

Philosophy of Using Gaming in the classroom

It is my position to incorporate gaming into my teaching methodology.  Gaming will support students in becoming active problem solvers and innovators of the 21^st century. When used properly, gaming can motivate, teach, and encourage students of all levels to succeed or work harder.  My goal is to use gaming to help students learn to reason about their world.  The use of gaming will help students to understand many of the unintended consequences associated with using digital media, which will lead to a stronger sense of digital citizenship. 

Enhancing Learning Through Edmodo

Students can collaborate in real time, just like they do with Facebook, with their classmates and teacher. Students will have opportunities to reflect on pieces of writing, use the embed feature to publish student work for portfolios.  Edmodo can be linked to twitter and students can receive messages or important announcements.  The Poll feature can be used as a springboard to discuss questions on class/homework. You can also use the embed feature considerably more to bring other tech tools into your classroom environment.  It allows you to embed Google forms from your docs, which can be great for surveys or quizzes.  Anyone can embed their google calendar, wallwish, glogter, and other student made media project, like YouTube videos.  This is such a great tool.  Another educational social networking site that is exactly like this and maybe better is MyBigCampus. Very cool, check it out!

Game Scenario/Script/Powerpoint

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43439166/ELA%20Game%20Scenario.pptx

Edmodo ELA Benefit

Edmodo presents so many benefits for the ELA classroom.  There are unlimited applications through this program to promoting writing, reading, listening, and even speaking.  The promotion of this new literacy should considered by teachers, not just ELA.  The reason this website can be such a valuable tool for adolescents is because  of the friendly and familiar user interface.  Students love to spend on average 50 percent of their time on social networking sites communicating with friends and family.  Because of this, teachers need to get on board with social networking and accept that students will be more prone to complete their work if it is made available at their fingertips just as facebook.

Edmodo

Work in progress
www.edmodo.com/mathcity