I have sorted through some of the footage from the neurotransmitter 2.0 map, and I must say I am disappointed with myself. I had given the students a pre-test to determine what they already knew about some of the concepts and ideas I wanted to cover in the lesson, it contained 11 questions, and broadly about 8 concepts. After the game (a full day later) I asked the students the exact same questions. Today I spend some time sorting through and collating the responses into a format I could use.
What I am really disappointed about, having gone through the footage, is how many 'teachable moments' I missed the opportunity to grab a hold of an use. Of the 8 or so concepts I think I actually managed about 2 of them to a level I deem as successful.
Most of the students have proven to me that they know that neurotransmitters get broken down by enzymes, which is something they did not know before. They have also shown that they now know the the 'job' of a neurotransmitter is to send the message on, but they are not clear where the message has come from, or where it is going to.
So what did I miss? Where neurotransmitters are stored, I did not explain to them that the chamber they were in was a vesicle, and that this vesicle was in the axon terminals of a nerve cell. I thought I explained diffusion is enough detail, but after chatting to the students about it, they made the comment that I didn't use the 'word' enough to get it stuck in their heads. The real disappointment for me was the 'explore' area of the map. The concepts there were completely missed, I still think the models were valid, but perhaps needed explanation, and so did the students.
As I said in my previous post they students gave the lesson an overall 3 out of 5 for learning, but with further discussion they would have liked me to guide them through the models, explaining the concept. I also, after reading the post test answers, think that this would allow much more learning of the concepts and a much clearer understanding. If we walked around the game as a group, and I talked to the students about each model, what it was showing, explaining the concepts behind it and also get them to try and work out the limitations of the model. I think that if the students can explain the limitations of the model then they really have a good grasp of the concept.
So where do I stand with the 'let kids just play in a world of my creating with learning opportunities for them'? At this stage, I am thinking that it doesn't work for me, or my students YET. This was the first time that this class has used games in the class, so perhaps some of the 'novelty' might wear off after a few more times (Is that a good thing or bad thing?) and they would begin to explore the learning opportunities available to them instead of running around the world exploring.
I think I have ranted enough for today, still trying to get my thoughts in order and sort out a plan for next time. Perhaps I will steal a class off another teacher at school to teach them about neurotransmitters and improve my skills that way, then I could see some improvement of my own skills and grabbing those teachable moments and also see if this map can be as effective as I think it can. Keep an eye on my youtube channel (EduElfie) for the footage, it will go up progressively over the next couple of weeks, as will some other interesting footage from a solids, liquids and gases introduction in Minecraft.
Feel free to comment, and thanks for taking the time to read.
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Monday, 26 March 2012
Post Game Reflection.
Well the class is over, now to have a think about how much learning happened, what I would do different next time and my overall feeling about the effectiveness of the map in general.
The good.
Students 'got' the idea behind neurotransmitters. I am confident that they understand that neurotransmitters move randomly (diffuse) across the synapse to receptors and 'stick' to the receptors on the next nerve cell. They also understand that it takes a certain number of neurotransmitter molecules binding to receptors to send the signal on. I am sure that they now understand is that neurotransmitter molecules are broken down by enzymes in the synapse and why that happens. The last thing I am certain they have is that the ratio of neurotransmitter:enzyme molecules is important, too many neurotransmitters and the signal will repeatedly send, too few and the message wont get sent on. We also had some great discussions about the content, concepts and also about the learning that was happening.
The Bad.
Some of my demonstrations did not work out entirely as I had planned (I also built some things in the wrong places). There were some glitches that prevented the enzyme demonstration working properly, redstone is still testing, and still fairly glitchy. The nerve demonstration area was nowhere near as 'good' as I would have liked it to be, students I don't think could see the links between the content and the demonstrations.
Where next?
The level of excitement in the room as we started 'playing a game' was palpable, this led to a fair amount of distraction at the beginning which slowed our progress through the map. Next time, I would seriously consider letting the play and explore part happen before the 'lesson' to get it out of their system. What I found most interesting was that my idea that these kids were older and therefore would not be as excited or distracted was completely incorrect. They were almost more excited than the younger kids, maybe it has something to do with learning in a different way after a longer time in a 'normal' classroom.
The redstone issue. I really don't know where to go here, it was rumored that they had fixed those bugs in 1.1.0, it still appears in 1.2.3, now the rumor is that it has been fixed in 1.2.4 So what next? Nothing I can do, except stop relying on it, which I had minimised as much as I could in this map, very basic circuits are still prone to bugging out. I had a series of pistons delayed by repeaters, and some of the repeaters were staying lit even though there was not a charge going into them.
The demonstration area is not secure, or complete. My plan was to get the students to have some input on the remaining demonstrations, by the time we got there, they were too eager to run around and explore the game, so I let them do that instead. Where next? I thought, as mentioned, that being older students they would be able to stay on task and that I would be able to trust them not to do the wrong thing, I was wrong, but hey I learnt something. So I will be securing the area to keep them hemmed in until I am ready for them to go free, and I have got feedback from the students about the instructions and links to the concepts that I will work through and try to improve the connections.
Overall thoughts.
It was a great lesson, the reflection time I had with students at the end was very powerful, interestingly when I asked them to rate the lesson in terms of learning out of 5, most said around 3, some of the issues for them was the time to learn the game and waiting for those who were slow to move around. The server issues we had (that is what you get when testing of course) impacted on their opinions, as they prevented some of the activities working as I had designed. They all however felt that they had learnt something, and that they were more likely to remember it than if they had learnt it in the traditional way. Will I do it again, yes, here comes Neurotransmitter 3.0 :D (in 12 months time).
Thanks for reading, don't forget to comment if you want.
The good.
Students 'got' the idea behind neurotransmitters. I am confident that they understand that neurotransmitters move randomly (diffuse) across the synapse to receptors and 'stick' to the receptors on the next nerve cell. They also understand that it takes a certain number of neurotransmitter molecules binding to receptors to send the signal on. I am sure that they now understand is that neurotransmitter molecules are broken down by enzymes in the synapse and why that happens. The last thing I am certain they have is that the ratio of neurotransmitter:enzyme molecules is important, too many neurotransmitters and the signal will repeatedly send, too few and the message wont get sent on. We also had some great discussions about the content, concepts and also about the learning that was happening.
The Bad.
Some of my demonstrations did not work out entirely as I had planned (I also built some things in the wrong places). There were some glitches that prevented the enzyme demonstration working properly, redstone is still testing, and still fairly glitchy. The nerve demonstration area was nowhere near as 'good' as I would have liked it to be, students I don't think could see the links between the content and the demonstrations.
Where next?
The level of excitement in the room as we started 'playing a game' was palpable, this led to a fair amount of distraction at the beginning which slowed our progress through the map. Next time, I would seriously consider letting the play and explore part happen before the 'lesson' to get it out of their system. What I found most interesting was that my idea that these kids were older and therefore would not be as excited or distracted was completely incorrect. They were almost more excited than the younger kids, maybe it has something to do with learning in a different way after a longer time in a 'normal' classroom.
The redstone issue. I really don't know where to go here, it was rumored that they had fixed those bugs in 1.1.0, it still appears in 1.2.3, now the rumor is that it has been fixed in 1.2.4 So what next? Nothing I can do, except stop relying on it, which I had minimised as much as I could in this map, very basic circuits are still prone to bugging out. I had a series of pistons delayed by repeaters, and some of the repeaters were staying lit even though there was not a charge going into them.
The demonstration area is not secure, or complete. My plan was to get the students to have some input on the remaining demonstrations, by the time we got there, they were too eager to run around and explore the game, so I let them do that instead. Where next? I thought, as mentioned, that being older students they would be able to stay on task and that I would be able to trust them not to do the wrong thing, I was wrong, but hey I learnt something. So I will be securing the area to keep them hemmed in until I am ready for them to go free, and I have got feedback from the students about the instructions and links to the concepts that I will work through and try to improve the connections.
Overall thoughts.
It was a great lesson, the reflection time I had with students at the end was very powerful, interestingly when I asked them to rate the lesson in terms of learning out of 5, most said around 3, some of the issues for them was the time to learn the game and waiting for those who were slow to move around. The server issues we had (that is what you get when testing of course) impacted on their opinions, as they prevented some of the activities working as I had designed. They all however felt that they had learnt something, and that they were more likely to remember it than if they had learnt it in the traditional way. Will I do it again, yes, here comes Neurotransmitter 3.0 :D (in 12 months time).
Thanks for reading, don't forget to comment if you want.
Sunday, 25 March 2012
Pregame Nerves.
OK it has been a fairly long time since my last post. I have been very busy, 2 family weddings over the last 2 weeks and having reports due have meant that there has not been very much time for keeping you guys in the loop. Don't worry though, I have still been using MinecraftEdu in my classes and building the Neurotransmitter 2.0 map.
The reason I have pregame nerves is because tomorrow is the first time I have invited someone into my physical classroom to observe what happens in one of these classes. To see what learning can happen when using Minecraft, and to decide whether I can have the money I need to buy the licenses for the school computers (I have been using some test licenses from the Edu crew). The visitors I have coming in are my principal and assistant principal, but they also want a video recording, of the physical classroom, not just the video I normally record from in the game.
No don't get me wrong, I am a very strong believer that this program is well worth the money, and I think that perhaps if they say I can't have the money, I will be asking for permission to gather donations or fundraise so that we can continue using this great educational tool in our classes (I honestly don't think it will come to that). The map that they are coming to see is the new neurotransmitter map. I have some screenshots here for you, as I have not shown you any of my builds for a while.
These are the 6 'test chambers' where I will demonstrate how neurotransmitter work by making the student be a neurotransmitter themselves. Each test will add to their understanding of what neurotransmitters do and how they do it.
This shows the platform where the students can explore some of the other concepts to do with nerve cells, synapses and the action potential. The purple stripe is a sort of visual demonstration of how the electrical impulse travels along the axon.
These 2 chambers explain why neurotransmitters must be broken down.
This hall shows the students how the ions are involved in generating the action potential, and also that there must be a cooldown time for the neuron to 'reset' its charge.
All of these are untested, tomorrow as I have mentioned is the big test. After students have been subjected to being a neurotransmitter and have also explored my demonstrations I am going to give them time to plan (and hopefully build) a nerve cell that they can walk through, or any other model explaining a concept or idea to do with nerve cells or the nervous system, I might make some suggestions, like a negative feedback loop.
I have also given the students a pre-test to determine what they already know, so I am going to be asking them for real feedback and also gathering some data from a post-test to see how much of the information that I am trying to teach them they have retained. OK enough about that, onto another topic.
I must say that there are some awesome blogs popping up on the internet written by teachers using Minecraft in their classes, I find it very interesting reading how other teachers are incorporating this game. If you have not already checked out the links I have to other blogs, please do. One thing I really like is seeing how to use it in other subjects, as I have an English teacher eager to join me in using this in our school, but she and I were both struggling to see how it works, and to find the time to sit down and nut it out. Thanks to this blog, which you can always find on the blog links to the right, the path we have ahead of creating Minecraft English is much clearer for both of us.
OK time to get to more work, as always thanks for reading and feel free to comment.
The reason I have pregame nerves is because tomorrow is the first time I have invited someone into my physical classroom to observe what happens in one of these classes. To see what learning can happen when using Minecraft, and to decide whether I can have the money I need to buy the licenses for the school computers (I have been using some test licenses from the Edu crew). The visitors I have coming in are my principal and assistant principal, but they also want a video recording, of the physical classroom, not just the video I normally record from in the game.
No don't get me wrong, I am a very strong believer that this program is well worth the money, and I think that perhaps if they say I can't have the money, I will be asking for permission to gather donations or fundraise so that we can continue using this great educational tool in our classes (I honestly don't think it will come to that). The map that they are coming to see is the new neurotransmitter map. I have some screenshots here for you, as I have not shown you any of my builds for a while.
All of these are untested, tomorrow as I have mentioned is the big test. After students have been subjected to being a neurotransmitter and have also explored my demonstrations I am going to give them time to plan (and hopefully build) a nerve cell that they can walk through, or any other model explaining a concept or idea to do with nerve cells or the nervous system, I might make some suggestions, like a negative feedback loop.
I have also given the students a pre-test to determine what they already know, so I am going to be asking them for real feedback and also gathering some data from a post-test to see how much of the information that I am trying to teach them they have retained. OK enough about that, onto another topic.
I must say that there are some awesome blogs popping up on the internet written by teachers using Minecraft in their classes, I find it very interesting reading how other teachers are incorporating this game. If you have not already checked out the links I have to other blogs, please do. One thing I really like is seeing how to use it in other subjects, as I have an English teacher eager to join me in using this in our school, but she and I were both struggling to see how it works, and to find the time to sit down and nut it out. Thanks to this blog, which you can always find on the blog links to the right, the path we have ahead of creating Minecraft English is much clearer for both of us.
OK time to get to more work, as always thanks for reading and feel free to comment.
Sunday, 18 March 2012
Sharing the Journey.
Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the journeys we take in our lives, and that all of the information and reflections on our decisions could be valuable to someone. The reason I am realising this is not only through my use of MinecraftEdu, but through another project I am involved in at school. Every time I meet with someone and say I want to perfect my journey before I share it, they shoot me down and try to explain the above to me. It has taken me a while but I think I finally get it.
I think that the reason I have finally understood is because I had a meeting with a couple of people regarding bringing the Edu mod into their school. One was the school technician, the other a classroom teacher. The Minecraft journey I have been on took me about 3 hours to share with them, and every lesson I have run, every decision I made, I have reflected on. Sharing those reflections alongside the lessons has great power in helping people to see the path towards bringing this type of learning into their own repertoire of teaching practice.
What was very exciting for me was sharing my passion with another teacher, and seeing that teacher 'get' how it could be used. As I was sharing my custom maps and ideas with him, he was already actively thinking about ways he could use this tool in his classes to teach students mathematics concepts. At the end of the meeting he said he was going to go home, buy Minecraft and have a play with it. (The tech has already bought MinecraftEdu for the school)
So, is my Minecraft journey complete? No. Is it perfected? Not even close. Do I know all the answers? Certainly not. There is, however, a stack of valuable information in the journey so far that could help others begin their own journey. So where to from here? I am going to keep doing what I have been doing here and on youtube, but I am also going to start sharing in other areas designed specifically for like minded teachers who are interested in pushing the current boundaries of teaching practice.
As for the other project I am involved in, I wont share that here with you guys, but I will be starting to let people see the decisions and reflections that have been made so far. So if you are a Victorian government teacher and are interested in trying to utilise the Ultranet drop me a line and I will share that journey with you.
As always thanks for taking the time to read, and feel free to comment.
I think that the reason I have finally understood is because I had a meeting with a couple of people regarding bringing the Edu mod into their school. One was the school technician, the other a classroom teacher. The Minecraft journey I have been on took me about 3 hours to share with them, and every lesson I have run, every decision I made, I have reflected on. Sharing those reflections alongside the lessons has great power in helping people to see the path towards bringing this type of learning into their own repertoire of teaching practice.
What was very exciting for me was sharing my passion with another teacher, and seeing that teacher 'get' how it could be used. As I was sharing my custom maps and ideas with him, he was already actively thinking about ways he could use this tool in his classes to teach students mathematics concepts. At the end of the meeting he said he was going to go home, buy Minecraft and have a play with it. (The tech has already bought MinecraftEdu for the school)
So, is my Minecraft journey complete? No. Is it perfected? Not even close. Do I know all the answers? Certainly not. There is, however, a stack of valuable information in the journey so far that could help others begin their own journey. So where to from here? I am going to keep doing what I have been doing here and on youtube, but I am also going to start sharing in other areas designed specifically for like minded teachers who are interested in pushing the current boundaries of teaching practice.
As for the other project I am involved in, I wont share that here with you guys, but I will be starting to let people see the decisions and reflections that have been made so far. So if you are a Victorian government teacher and are interested in trying to utilise the Ultranet drop me a line and I will share that journey with you.
As always thanks for taking the time to read, and feel free to comment.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Neurotransmitter 2.0
I had a massive brain wave the other night, to the point that I couldn't sleep, on a way to improve the neurotransmitter map, not just visually, trying to tie in both teacher directed learning and 'adventure' map style learning. I think I need to thank 'miggttor' on youtube for some of the inspiration. The great man did some video responses to my videos, the first I have received, where he showed me the power and application of another mod called worldedit and how easily you can build structures in a map with that.
But more importantly for me he discussed how he saw maps in Minecraft being educational, one thing sticks out in my memory, if you have time go check out his videos, at one point in his video he showed the internals of a mitochondria, it was just a hollow cylinder, but then he began to provide me with a picture of a maze inside that the students need to navigate, and that maze shows them as they go how folded the cristae of the mitochondria are. At the end of this maze was the 'prize' which I think in this case might be information that the students need for a scavenger hunt.
So the new neurotransmitter map will have a better version of the 'synapse' and several 'test chambers' where the students can explore the life of a neurotransmitter under teacher direction. Once the teacher has finished this section there will be a 'museum' of some description with displays and models that the students can explore and learn from. I am hoping to have this map ready in the next couple of weeks, which means the cell build is on hold for a while, until I evaluate where I want to go with it given the discussions I have been having with other teachers about game based learning.
On a collaborative note, I have finally decided to attempt to have a 24/7 MinecraftEdu server for teachers who have the mod to come and learn some of the tools, and also to collaborate on some map builds if they want. I will update you with the server address once I have done some more testing. I do however have a map running at the moment that I would like some beta testers to run through.
It is a map (hopefully) designed to help teachers learn about the custom blocks and build tools available to them in the Edu mod. So I need testers of varying abilities, a big thanks goes out to @Tonnse for helping me to build it, and to @MinecraftForMac for being my first beta tester. If you are interested, you must have the Edu mod, drop me a line in the comments or dm me on twitter and we will go from there. [EDIT: The admin at my school has put a temporary hold on these plans, I am not able to open it up fully, but still happy to have beta testers come and test the map. Sorry]
As always thanks for reading, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below and keep an eye on my youtube channel for more classroom videos and a tour of the 'teacher map' on my server.
But more importantly for me he discussed how he saw maps in Minecraft being educational, one thing sticks out in my memory, if you have time go check out his videos, at one point in his video he showed the internals of a mitochondria, it was just a hollow cylinder, but then he began to provide me with a picture of a maze inside that the students need to navigate, and that maze shows them as they go how folded the cristae of the mitochondria are. At the end of this maze was the 'prize' which I think in this case might be information that the students need for a scavenger hunt.
So the new neurotransmitter map will have a better version of the 'synapse' and several 'test chambers' where the students can explore the life of a neurotransmitter under teacher direction. Once the teacher has finished this section there will be a 'museum' of some description with displays and models that the students can explore and learn from. I am hoping to have this map ready in the next couple of weeks, which means the cell build is on hold for a while, until I evaluate where I want to go with it given the discussions I have been having with other teachers about game based learning.
On a collaborative note, I have finally decided to attempt to have a 24/7 MinecraftEdu server for teachers who have the mod to come and learn some of the tools, and also to collaborate on some map builds if they want. I will update you with the server address once I have done some more testing. I do however have a map running at the moment that I would like some beta testers to run through.
It is a map (hopefully) designed to help teachers learn about the custom blocks and build tools available to them in the Edu mod. So I need testers of varying abilities, a big thanks goes out to @Tonnse for helping me to build it, and to @MinecraftForMac for being my first beta tester. If you are interested, you must have the Edu mod, drop me a line in the comments or dm me on twitter and we will go from there. [EDIT: The admin at my school has put a temporary hold on these plans, I am not able to open it up fully, but still happy to have beta testers come and test the map. Sorry]
As always thanks for reading, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below and keep an eye on my youtube channel for more classroom videos and a tour of the 'teacher map' on my server.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
I can do both!!
Thanks to Mr.Marshall for his comments regarding the 'Just in Time vs Just in Case' post, it made me reflect even more on the two maps, how they are designed what they are teaching and perhaps more importantly given the discussions over the last few days who is doing the teaching. Here is part of the comment I made to Mr.Marshall about the differences between the tutorial map that comes with the Edu mod and the treasure map I created.
"The discussions I have had with people (yourself included) since I wrote this post now let me see these two different maps from another point of view.
One has me on the side doing 'nothing' except maybe helping those that are struggling while the other has me at the forefront providing the students with the knowledge I have. Both of these are two very different approaches to game based learning, I just need to work out which I prefer, and which is going to be best for each different group of students."
So which of these is best? I think that wholly depends on the teacher, the group of students and the dynamics of the classroom. Which do I prefer? Neither really, both as far as I am concerned have basically the same learning happening. The only difference really is that one makes me feel like I am doing my job, teaching the students, the other allows students to learn about the game 'without me'.
This is one of the shortest posts I have done in a while, thanks for taking the time to read, and as always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
"The discussions I have had with people (yourself included) since I wrote this post now let me see these two different maps from another point of view.
One has me on the side doing 'nothing' except maybe helping those that are struggling while the other has me at the forefront providing the students with the knowledge I have. Both of these are two very different approaches to game based learning, I just need to work out which I prefer, and which is going to be best for each different group of students."
So which of these is best? I think that wholly depends on the teacher, the group of students and the dynamics of the classroom. Which do I prefer? Neither really, both as far as I am concerned have basically the same learning happening. The only difference really is that one makes me feel like I am doing my job, teaching the students, the other allows students to learn about the game 'without me'.
This is one of the shortest posts I have done in a while, thanks for taking the time to read, and as always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Setting Boundaries
So after much thinking about my last post, and many discussions with random people (and some not so random) I think I have come to some sort of conclusion about where I am, and where I think I should aim to head towards.
I don't think that always 'just letting the kids play' is going to cut it, they may learn to work together, treat each other with respect, manage their time effectively and plan instead of jumping straight in. And while these are great life skills to be learning, they are not the sum total of the curriculum designated by powers higher than me in my education system. They are most certainly a part of it, so there is 'room' if you will for this type of learning to happen, if I can give the students the time.
But, there is so much more to teach these students. One thing that keeps coming to mind is that in the real world there are rules, and restrictions. If I was speeding down the road at an obscene speed, would the policeman pull me over and slap me on the wrist and say 'naughty boy, don't do it again'. Certainly not, they would be taking my car away, and my license. So how can I be producing functioning members of society if I hamstring myself from 'punishing' the students.
We as a school have adopted the "Restorative Practices Approach" to behaviour management, and on the whole this works great, but if/when this fails with some students we still fall back on the punitive system. When I got pulled over for accidentally running a red light (honest mistake) the policeman did not sit down with me and discuss how me running the red light affected him, or how it could have affected other motorists, he wrote me a ticket and treated me like a criminal. Does this mean that the punitive way is better, I don't think so, but it is the way society deals with those that don't follow the rules.
So the discussion on twitter started around the student control features of MinecraftEdu and traveled a very long way into how a game based learning environment is 'supposed' to look. I may have mentioned in my last post that I would prefer to have the tools available and not have to use them than to not have access to them and want them. I don't think my basic premise here has changed.
Why is there a threat of fines if we get caught breaking the law? My understanding is that it is a deterrent designed to stop us breaking the law. Apply the same idea to a classroom, why would I want the 'threat' of being students being muted in game? To make sure that the chat does not distract from the learning I am trying to get done. Why would I like to be able to threaten students with being frozen in the game? To make sure they are using the time available in my class to the best benefit.
So do I in principle disagree with the control tools included in the Edu mod? No I certainly do not. Do I think they could be misused to remove the power from students and cause disengagement from the game? Yes I do, and now that I have had this discussion and listened to 'the other side' I can see some merits in the utopia they describe, and will endeavor to use them only when necessary.
Now for the real question. Do I think I can get to that utopia that would require me not to have the threat of these tools? I think it is possible, but a lot of work would need to be done in terms of respect for teachers, respect for schooling and respect for learning, something which I myself can endorse in my own classes, and can push in my own school to a certain extent, but I will have a very minimal impact on Australian society as a whole. So I feel that until there is a shift in societies value of both education and teachers, that having the threat is better than not having it.
Will I give students time to just play? I already do this at lunch and recess, and will be thinking of ways I can do this in my classes and still reach my teaching goals. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share your thoughts on this tricky issue.
I don't think that always 'just letting the kids play' is going to cut it, they may learn to work together, treat each other with respect, manage their time effectively and plan instead of jumping straight in. And while these are great life skills to be learning, they are not the sum total of the curriculum designated by powers higher than me in my education system. They are most certainly a part of it, so there is 'room' if you will for this type of learning to happen, if I can give the students the time.
But, there is so much more to teach these students. One thing that keeps coming to mind is that in the real world there are rules, and restrictions. If I was speeding down the road at an obscene speed, would the policeman pull me over and slap me on the wrist and say 'naughty boy, don't do it again'. Certainly not, they would be taking my car away, and my license. So how can I be producing functioning members of society if I hamstring myself from 'punishing' the students.
We as a school have adopted the "Restorative Practices Approach" to behaviour management, and on the whole this works great, but if/when this fails with some students we still fall back on the punitive system. When I got pulled over for accidentally running a red light (honest mistake) the policeman did not sit down with me and discuss how me running the red light affected him, or how it could have affected other motorists, he wrote me a ticket and treated me like a criminal. Does this mean that the punitive way is better, I don't think so, but it is the way society deals with those that don't follow the rules.
So the discussion on twitter started around the student control features of MinecraftEdu and traveled a very long way into how a game based learning environment is 'supposed' to look. I may have mentioned in my last post that I would prefer to have the tools available and not have to use them than to not have access to them and want them. I don't think my basic premise here has changed.
Why is there a threat of fines if we get caught breaking the law? My understanding is that it is a deterrent designed to stop us breaking the law. Apply the same idea to a classroom, why would I want the 'threat' of being students being muted in game? To make sure that the chat does not distract from the learning I am trying to get done. Why would I like to be able to threaten students with being frozen in the game? To make sure they are using the time available in my class to the best benefit.
So do I in principle disagree with the control tools included in the Edu mod? No I certainly do not. Do I think they could be misused to remove the power from students and cause disengagement from the game? Yes I do, and now that I have had this discussion and listened to 'the other side' I can see some merits in the utopia they describe, and will endeavor to use them only when necessary.
Now for the real question. Do I think I can get to that utopia that would require me not to have the threat of these tools? I think it is possible, but a lot of work would need to be done in terms of respect for teachers, respect for schooling and respect for learning, something which I myself can endorse in my own classes, and can push in my own school to a certain extent, but I will have a very minimal impact on Australian society as a whole. So I feel that until there is a shift in societies value of both education and teachers, that having the threat is better than not having it.
Will I give students time to just play? I already do this at lunch and recess, and will be thinking of ways I can do this in my classes and still reach my teaching goals. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and share your thoughts on this tricky issue.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Control?
An interesting discussion broke out on twitter today, I probably
should have kept my mouth shut, about the 'control' options included in
MinecraftEdu. I was saying that they are handy to have, and that it is
better to have them and not use them than to want to use them and not
have them. The people 'arguing' the other side were of the opinion that
it would be better if they weren't so handy, as this is what takes the
power away from kids.
I do, on occasion, use the 'freeze student' command to get the students attention, is this taking away their power and making the learning less? I am not sure, it gives me the reassurance that the students are focused on 'me' or what I am saying and not on running around the world doing what they want. So for teaching a concept I don't think it lessens the learning. As for the relationship the student and I have it doesn't seem to have a negative affect their either, I think they understand why I do it and that I don't do it just because I want to, but because I want to make sure they are listening to my instructions.
I used the 'mute students' once in a class when the chat was going silly, does this bring the focus back to the learning, or does it take the power away from students to freely express themselves and therefore damage the learning? I think it brings the focus back.
As the discussion progressed it seems to me that perhaps I have the game based learning thing all wrong. The reason I am using games is to engage students in learning, to make it more interesting and more memorable so that perhaps they will remember it when needed. This does not seem to be what game based learning is all about. One tweet sticks in my mind.
“@Vormamim: @Tickleme_elfman not teacher/facilitator/mentor/instructor - in #gbl you're the play-maker. You are a non-playing character at most.”
Now this intrigues me. If I am not the teacher in my virtual 'classroom' and I am a 'play maker' as Dean suggests then the game is the teacher, what am I getting paid for? This is a massive shift in my 'teacher' self from someone who is 'in charge' of a group of students learning, to someone who, it appears, has no charge over students learning, other than creating the world that is in front of the students.
If this is the case how can I tie these two teachers together, remembering that not all of my class time is spent in a virtual world. Do I set up missions in which the students wander the virtual world gathering knowledge (how do I make this fun?) and then use real world time in class for them to demonstrate that they gained the supplied knowledge from the game?
I also need to take into account that it can not be just random knowledge gained (although incidental learning is great) it needs to be knowledge specific to what I am supposed to be teaching them according to my curriculum.
So where do I go from here. No idea at all. Do I keep creating concept specific maps like neurotransmitter map? Do I find a middle ground like my 3d cell map, where students have the learning already and use Minecraft to demonstrate knowledge gained? Or do I head into completely uncharted territory, for me at least, and make some more 'freeform' maps that do something?
My issue is that the impression I get is that if am going to use game based learning properly it needs to be the third option, but the reason that ends in 'something' is because I have no idea how to get there, I have no idea what it is, how it looks or how to go about building a map that suits it.
So as always I am opening up the floor to you, my loyal readers. Is what I am doing currently great work, or just a mediocre attempt to combine games and curriculum? Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying what I am doing too much to stop, but if people who have been doing this longer than I are saying that what I am doing is not quite right, or not the best for the students, then I need to change what I am doing so it is better for the students.
I do, on occasion, use the 'freeze student' command to get the students attention, is this taking away their power and making the learning less? I am not sure, it gives me the reassurance that the students are focused on 'me' or what I am saying and not on running around the world doing what they want. So for teaching a concept I don't think it lessens the learning. As for the relationship the student and I have it doesn't seem to have a negative affect their either, I think they understand why I do it and that I don't do it just because I want to, but because I want to make sure they are listening to my instructions.
I used the 'mute students' once in a class when the chat was going silly, does this bring the focus back to the learning, or does it take the power away from students to freely express themselves and therefore damage the learning? I think it brings the focus back.
As the discussion progressed it seems to me that perhaps I have the game based learning thing all wrong. The reason I am using games is to engage students in learning, to make it more interesting and more memorable so that perhaps they will remember it when needed. This does not seem to be what game based learning is all about. One tweet sticks in my mind.
“@Vormamim: @Tickleme_elfman not teacher/facilitator/mentor/instructor - in #gbl you're the play-maker. You are a non-playing character at most.”
Now this intrigues me. If I am not the teacher in my virtual 'classroom' and I am a 'play maker' as Dean suggests then the game is the teacher, what am I getting paid for? This is a massive shift in my 'teacher' self from someone who is 'in charge' of a group of students learning, to someone who, it appears, has no charge over students learning, other than creating the world that is in front of the students.
If this is the case how can I tie these two teachers together, remembering that not all of my class time is spent in a virtual world. Do I set up missions in which the students wander the virtual world gathering knowledge (how do I make this fun?) and then use real world time in class for them to demonstrate that they gained the supplied knowledge from the game?
I also need to take into account that it can not be just random knowledge gained (although incidental learning is great) it needs to be knowledge specific to what I am supposed to be teaching them according to my curriculum.
So where do I go from here. No idea at all. Do I keep creating concept specific maps like neurotransmitter map? Do I find a middle ground like my 3d cell map, where students have the learning already and use Minecraft to demonstrate knowledge gained? Or do I head into completely uncharted territory, for me at least, and make some more 'freeform' maps that do something?
My issue is that the impression I get is that if am going to use game based learning properly it needs to be the third option, but the reason that ends in 'something' is because I have no idea how to get there, I have no idea what it is, how it looks or how to go about building a map that suits it.
So as always I am opening up the floor to you, my loyal readers. Is what I am doing currently great work, or just a mediocre attempt to combine games and curriculum? Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying what I am doing too much to stop, but if people who have been doing this longer than I are saying that what I am doing is not quite right, or not the best for the students, then I need to change what I am doing so it is better for the students.
Friday, 2 March 2012
Just in Time Vs. Just in Case.
Today was the trial of my 'treasure map' map. I was working with students who had not played Minecraft before, and I thought I would try something different for the introduction to the game and how to play it with this class. The tutorial world is good, but that takes a lesson to complete, and since I only see this particular class for 3 lessons per week time is short. So I decided not to use the tutorial map and just teach them what they needed to know as they needed to know it while getting them to create a treasure map.
So the map was designed (video of map is on my youtube channel here) so that the students would follow me on my treasure map, built in game using signs. This would teach them the basics of moving around in the world of Minecraft. After we had run through my map, I explained that their task was to create their own. This map also takes advantage of the new teleport blocks, so after my explanation the students headed to the teleport block to choose a starting point. From there the students were choosing land marks and writing down their treasure maps.
Some students ended up in caves, so there was a need to give them all torches and explain how they can be placed. Other students were beginning to finish their treasure maps so I needed to give them all a chest and a diamond for the treasure, teach them to place the chest down and then put the diamond in it. Some wanted to bury their treasure so there was a need to explain how to place blocks over chests.
This is where the reflection comes into this lesson. Do these students understand the basics of Minecraft, we spent a lesson in-game, had they been in the tutorial world they would have basically completed it. So was the learning the same? This really comes down to the 'just in time' vs 'just in case' argument of teaching.
The tutorial world teaches the students how to navigate through the world and how to break and place blocks. This is 'just in case' they need it, I know they will probably need it in future lessons, but they are completing the tutorial map so that we can move on with other lessons.
On the other hand the lesson today was the 'just in time' side. Students learned how to move around the world when they needed to follow me, they learned how to place and break blocks when they needed to place torches, or their treasure down.
So which is better? Honestly I have no idea. Each has different outcomes, the learning about the mechanics of the game in the tutorial world is much better so after a lesson in the tutorial world the students have a good understanding of how to move and how to use blocks, but there is no learning of the subject I am teaching, only Minecraft.
After a lesson in the 'treasure map' map I think that the students understand how to move around in game, so that outcome is the same, however I don't think they have the same understanding of the blocks. But there was subject specific learning happening, students were learning things like how to produce a treasure map and what makes a good landmark for a map.
So I ask you for your thoughts. Each lesson has a good outcome, they are slightly different but both are valid in terms of the learning produced. But if you were in my position and had another class that you needed to introduce to Minecraft, would you use the tutorial world or would you use another map that has some subject specific content in it? Thanks as always for your time.
So the map was designed (video of map is on my youtube channel here) so that the students would follow me on my treasure map, built in game using signs. This would teach them the basics of moving around in the world of Minecraft. After we had run through my map, I explained that their task was to create their own. This map also takes advantage of the new teleport blocks, so after my explanation the students headed to the teleport block to choose a starting point. From there the students were choosing land marks and writing down their treasure maps.
Some students ended up in caves, so there was a need to give them all torches and explain how they can be placed. Other students were beginning to finish their treasure maps so I needed to give them all a chest and a diamond for the treasure, teach them to place the chest down and then put the diamond in it. Some wanted to bury their treasure so there was a need to explain how to place blocks over chests.
This is where the reflection comes into this lesson. Do these students understand the basics of Minecraft, we spent a lesson in-game, had they been in the tutorial world they would have basically completed it. So was the learning the same? This really comes down to the 'just in time' vs 'just in case' argument of teaching.
The tutorial world teaches the students how to navigate through the world and how to break and place blocks. This is 'just in case' they need it, I know they will probably need it in future lessons, but they are completing the tutorial map so that we can move on with other lessons.
On the other hand the lesson today was the 'just in time' side. Students learned how to move around the world when they needed to follow me, they learned how to place and break blocks when they needed to place torches, or their treasure down.
So which is better? Honestly I have no idea. Each has different outcomes, the learning about the mechanics of the game in the tutorial world is much better so after a lesson in the tutorial world the students have a good understanding of how to move and how to use blocks, but there is no learning of the subject I am teaching, only Minecraft.
After a lesson in the 'treasure map' map I think that the students understand how to move around in game, so that outcome is the same, however I don't think they have the same understanding of the blocks. But there was subject specific learning happening, students were learning things like how to produce a treasure map and what makes a good landmark for a map.
So I ask you for your thoughts. Each lesson has a good outcome, they are slightly different but both are valid in terms of the learning produced. But if you were in my position and had another class that you needed to introduce to Minecraft, would you use the tutorial world or would you use another map that has some subject specific content in it? Thanks as always for your time.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Virtual Teaching.
Something very interesting happened today. I went out the front to get the newspaper and this is what I saw.
Somewhere under all that water is a road. It was too deep to drive my car down the drive and into the water(road). So I rang up and told work that I wouldn't be in until later in the day, and of course I then had to write down what work my classes could do in my absence. My first class, starting at around 9:05 was supposed to be doing some building in Minecraft, they were going to build a model of a Bunsen burner, labeling the parts.
My first thought was, oh well, guess they wont be doing that, they will have to keep working on the famous Australian scientist assignment that we started yesterday. Then I thought, well I can at least give the substitute teacher the option of choosing between the two. So I wrote step by step instructions that would allow the students to log into the same server that I could access externally, emailed them off and then set up the server through remote desktop. I then connected and waited to see if I could be a virtual teacher or whether the substitute would choose the assignment option.
The kids started logging in, much to my surprise. It took a bit longer than normal to get them all in, but they were really good at helping one another to get into the world. So once all of them were in, I had to teach my class by typing text in-game and explaining what the task for the lesson was. For my first time being a virtual teacher I think it went very well. I now realise the power of speech at getting your point across, the tones of excitement do not translate into text. On reflection I am amazed at how much impact my tone must have on engaging students in their learning, and how much I rely on the tones in their voices to gauge how involved they are in the task. Don't get me wrong the students were involved in the activity, but I have no idea what the general feeling in the room was like, did they like the activity. This experience has shown that for me it is really hard to reflect on a lesson without that auditory feedback that I normally take for granted.
Did the students achieve as much as if they would have if I was a physical presence in the classroom, no I don't think that they did in terms of the actual task I had set, typing into text takes a bit longer than talking to them. However as the lesson progressed I realised that while they may not have completed as much of the task as I would have hoped there was a different learning happening in the room, the main reason it was different was because I was not there.
My goal or learning intention at the start of this lesson was "Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the parts of a Bunsen burner." The work that students put into helping one another as they were having issues, and teaching others how to do things in the game that they were having trouble with was just astounding. The ability to be able to support each other and work as part of a team effectively are skills that while not being taught explicitly, were still being learned by students.
I feel that if I was there in the classroom that a lot of these problem solving and teamwork skills would not have been developed as much. It would have been me helping students with their issues, and me teaching them how to do some of the different things in game.
There is only one thing I would change if this situation occurred again, I would like to have live audio from the classroom. I would not use audio to talk to the students, but being able to hear what the kids were saying, how they were explaining things to one another, what support were they giving each other and who was providing it would allow me to reflect on this lesson better.
One concern I have with having the audio during the lesson is that it may impact on the lesson progression, so instead of responding to what was happening in the world, I might end up responding to things that were happening in that room. If this started happening it would in my opinion take something away from this lesson. What it would take away?
There was something happening in todays lesson that I have never experienced before. I think it was that I was not responsible for their behaviour in the class room, I was however responsible for their behaviour in the virtual world, having the link between these two areas of behaviour management 'missing' is what made this lesson special and so different for me, and I think that is what having the live audio feed would take away, that 'missing' link between the virtual and real worlds.
On an ending note, I did make it to work, the water went down enough for me to get the car out not long after the lesson finished, one of the first things I did when I got into school was go and find the class that I 'taught' and thank them for the great effort and support they gave each other and me. Of course there was also a very big thanks to the substitute teacher for taking such a big risk on an untried or untested way of teaching (at least at our school). I did record the in-game footage from my perspective and will publish that to youtube soon. [EDIT: Here is the link to the footage.]
As always thanks for taking the time to read and feel free to comment.
Somewhere under all that water is a road. It was too deep to drive my car down the drive and into the water(road). So I rang up and told work that I wouldn't be in until later in the day, and of course I then had to write down what work my classes could do in my absence. My first class, starting at around 9:05 was supposed to be doing some building in Minecraft, they were going to build a model of a Bunsen burner, labeling the parts.
My first thought was, oh well, guess they wont be doing that, they will have to keep working on the famous Australian scientist assignment that we started yesterday. Then I thought, well I can at least give the substitute teacher the option of choosing between the two. So I wrote step by step instructions that would allow the students to log into the same server that I could access externally, emailed them off and then set up the server through remote desktop. I then connected and waited to see if I could be a virtual teacher or whether the substitute would choose the assignment option.
The kids started logging in, much to my surprise. It took a bit longer than normal to get them all in, but they were really good at helping one another to get into the world. So once all of them were in, I had to teach my class by typing text in-game and explaining what the task for the lesson was. For my first time being a virtual teacher I think it went very well. I now realise the power of speech at getting your point across, the tones of excitement do not translate into text. On reflection I am amazed at how much impact my tone must have on engaging students in their learning, and how much I rely on the tones in their voices to gauge how involved they are in the task. Don't get me wrong the students were involved in the activity, but I have no idea what the general feeling in the room was like, did they like the activity. This experience has shown that for me it is really hard to reflect on a lesson without that auditory feedback that I normally take for granted.
Did the students achieve as much as if they would have if I was a physical presence in the classroom, no I don't think that they did in terms of the actual task I had set, typing into text takes a bit longer than talking to them. However as the lesson progressed I realised that while they may not have completed as much of the task as I would have hoped there was a different learning happening in the room, the main reason it was different was because I was not there.
My goal or learning intention at the start of this lesson was "Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the parts of a Bunsen burner." The work that students put into helping one another as they were having issues, and teaching others how to do things in the game that they were having trouble with was just astounding. The ability to be able to support each other and work as part of a team effectively are skills that while not being taught explicitly, were still being learned by students.
I feel that if I was there in the classroom that a lot of these problem solving and teamwork skills would not have been developed as much. It would have been me helping students with their issues, and me teaching them how to do some of the different things in game.
There is only one thing I would change if this situation occurred again, I would like to have live audio from the classroom. I would not use audio to talk to the students, but being able to hear what the kids were saying, how they were explaining things to one another, what support were they giving each other and who was providing it would allow me to reflect on this lesson better.
One concern I have with having the audio during the lesson is that it may impact on the lesson progression, so instead of responding to what was happening in the world, I might end up responding to things that were happening in that room. If this started happening it would in my opinion take something away from this lesson. What it would take away?
There was something happening in todays lesson that I have never experienced before. I think it was that I was not responsible for their behaviour in the class room, I was however responsible for their behaviour in the virtual world, having the link between these two areas of behaviour management 'missing' is what made this lesson special and so different for me, and I think that is what having the live audio feed would take away, that 'missing' link between the virtual and real worlds.
On an ending note, I did make it to work, the water went down enough for me to get the car out not long after the lesson finished, one of the first things I did when I got into school was go and find the class that I 'taught' and thank them for the great effort and support they gave each other and me. Of course there was also a very big thanks to the substitute teacher for taking such a big risk on an untried or untested way of teaching (at least at our school). I did record the in-game footage from my perspective and will publish that to youtube soon. [EDIT: Here is the link to the footage.]
As always thanks for taking the time to read and feel free to comment.