Edmodo and ClassDojo

Peter McAsh is Computer Studies (programming, applications) and Geography teacher who has been teaching since 1979 and is a self proclaimed advocate of  integrating technology into all areas of education.  From viewing his blog http://dcvi.typepad.com/mcash/, Twitter page https://twitter.com/#!/pmcash and Edmodo site http://www.edmodo.com/pmcash , I have learned a lot about gaming in the classroom and the use of Edmodo as a teaching tool. Here is a good review of Edmodo as posted by AppAppeal:

"Edmodo.com is a private online social platform for teachers and students to share ideas, files, events and assignments. Built on a microblogging model, the site allows teachers the ability to handle a good deal of class activity online. Teachers can send out assignments, receive completed assignments and assign grades using the online platform. In addition, they can maintain a class calendar, store and share files, have a public (RSS) stream, and conduct polls. Teachers can also use the site to send text (SMS) alerts to students. Users have a home page where they can see a summary of recent activity for their class. The home page allows the teacher to make a new assignments, assign an event to the calendar, send out an alert, write a note to an individual or a group of students, and share links or files with students. When a link or file is shared, a message can be added that explains the contents. A number of filters can be applied to the summary view, including notes, alerts, events, assignments, links and files. Teachers can also assign grades to assignments, and students can easily view a summary of their grades on all assignments. " This looks like a cool teaching tool and I plan to try using it.

One more teaching tool that was introduced to me through Peter's bloggs is ClassDojo:

"ClassDojo is an in-classroom tool that helps teachers manage behavior and boost engagement in class. ClassDojo enables you to recognise specific behaviors and accomplishments in real-time, with just one click of a smartphone or laptop button. ClassDojo works by setting up real-time feedback loops in the classroom, to recognise and reinforce desirable behaviors and values. All recognition is logged automatically, and student behavior records are automatically created and updated.  ClassDojo automatically generates analytics, shareable character report cards and insight into your classroom that has never before been possible."

These are two web 2.0 teaching tools worth checking out.

Jane McGonigal's "Gaming can make a better world"

I was tweeting with Peter McAsh ("Computer Studies (programming, applications) teacher. Interested in the integration of technology in all areas of education. Teaching since September 1979, still enjoying it, and, at least in my opinion, still having a positive impact! ")
about the use of gaming as a teaching tool and he gave me a link to an amazing talk given by Jane McGonigal on Ted Talks. I recommend everyone spend 20 minutes watching this video:

 http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html . Jane McGonigal is a game designer and a researcher. In her talk she makes the seemingly outrageous statement that she foresees we could make the world a better place by increasing our global gaming to 21 billion hours of game play per week in the next decade. She concludes that this would mean individually gaming for 1 hour every day. In her talk McGonical referenced World of Warcraft as the exemplar game. She explained that playing games like this allow gamers to become experts at altruistic optimistic problem solving and relationship building. She quotes statistics that the average child in developed countries currently will have logged at least 10,000 hours of gaming by the age of 21. This is remarkably aligned with the number of hours spent in school for a child with perfect attendance from grade 5 to graduation. 10,000 hours is the recognised standard requirement for study/practise at any particular field or skill in order to achieve "expert" status. Thus McGonigal states we have  a generation of gaming experts. Why is this a good thing? McGonical and her associates have developed on line games such as "World without oil" and most recently "Evoke". Over 8,000 on line gamers have played each of these games which are designed such that the gamer must solve relevant real world problems to survive such as lack of non-renewable resources. She believes that as individuals we are not driven to find solutions to these problems but when gaming as our on line persona we believe we are invincible and we play for the "epic win".

I have concerns about my own son playing video games and whether the constant positive stimulation and feedback he gets from this makes it difficult for him to sit passively in the classroom. Perhaps the problem is not only how much gaming he is doing but what type of game. We need to get hooked into this genre and use gaming as a way to engage our students in the subject areas we teach.

Science in a bag for grade 5

I am heading toward teaching I/S sciences and my daughter and her friend asked me to help them develop a science lab project for their grade 5 class. We came up with a fun project that is easy, safe and dramatic. The materials are:

• citric acid (can be obtained for canning or from the drug store)
• baking soda
• water
•  a candle
•  a large and small zip lock bag

Put a Tbsp of citric acid and a Tbsp of baking soda into the small bag. Mix the powders well. Place the small bag into the large bag. Put approximately 15 ml of water into the small bag with the powders and quickly seal both the inside and outside bags. The mixture will froth as carbon dioxide is being produced. The small bag should expand enough to cause an audible POP! If possible to light a small candle the bags can then be opened the gas "poured" onto the candle which will put it out. This is so easy and very dramatic. The students should be able to explain that this is a chemical reaction as a gas is produced. They can see the bubbling of the gas and they can see the effect of the gas when it puts out the candle.

Classrom Live with Beth Still

This was a very informative session discussing a variety of online class organisation systems including Moodle. Beth Still is incredibly knowledgeable about teaching using Web 2.0. Here is a quote from her Edublog "I am a self-proclaimed edtech evangelist! I love finding Web 2.0 tools for my students to use that will help them express their creativity. I believe that by giving students options it empowers them and drives them to succeed."
In the session today Beth explained that she uses tools such as Moodle to allow her students to learn using different platforms and to proceed at their own pace. Her blog link is http://bethstill.edublogs.org/beths-bio/
Moodle stands for modular object oriented dynamic learning environment. It is based on social constructivism allowing variation in instructional materials to meet the needs of all types of learners.
The intro page to Moodle reads:
"Welcome to the Moodle community!
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.
Moodle.org is our community site where Moodle is made and discussed. Please use the menus to explore and join in!"
The link is: http://moodle.org/

Other interesting tools discribed by Beth included:

1. Diigo  http://www.diigo.com/
   "Diigo allows you to take personal notes and highlight text information on web pages just as you would on a piece of paper. You can then bookmark and save this information for further review, while adding tags to keep everything organized. In bookmarking this information, you can also choose to share with colleagues and friends to allow them to access the web page, view your notes and highlights, and add their own annotations. "
2. Linoit  http://en.linoit.com/ 
   lino
3. Live binder     http://livebinders.com/  "LiveBinders is your 3-ring binder for the Web. Collect your resources, organize them neatly and easily, make an Impression."
4. Twitter widget  http://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets "Widgets let you display Twitter updates on your website or social network page
   
   Widgets are compatible with any website and most social networks. Simply choose the one that matches where you would like to include it."

 I do not understand the use of all of these resources yet but I am determined to investigate them and try to encorporate some at least in my future teaching.

Frog Dissection

Virtual frog dissection class for grade 10. The presentation I gave at the beginning definitely helped to get them interested. I showed them some frog diversity slides including The Goliath Frog (size of a small dog) and the smallest frog (smaller than the end of your finger). The students were also engaged in discussion about cutaneous respiration when I showed them an image of The Borneo Flat Headed Frog which has no lungs and breathes 100% cutaneously. I showed the class an image of a frozen frog and we discussed the natural antifreeze that keeps their tissues from being damaged during winter hibernation (not all species freeze). The students were fascinated by this. During virtual dissection discuss how the eyes can be retracted into the mouth to aide swallowing as this may not be discussed in the software you are using. Important to emphasize that because frogs skin is thin and permeable they are very susceptible to toxins such as pesticides and act as environmental sentinels. Many species are endangered because of this. 

Density and Diabetes

On my first teaching block I did a density demo for my Grade 9 academic chemistry unit. This demo is available on the web and is very useful for helping students understand what density is. This demo  is also great for helping them to realize how bad pop is for them. Being an immunologist with a background in diabetes, I feel compelled to spread the word about the evil of sugary drinks whenever I can. These beverages and other artificial sources of fructose are directly linked to the incredible rise in diabetes.

Back to the demo. You have a can of coke and a can of diet coke, a scale and an aquarium filled with water. You may or may not have already introduced the concept of density. Ask the students what will happen when you put the 2 cans in the water. When you do, the coke should sink to the bottom and the diet coke should float. NOTE, I had trouble when I did a run through because my coke can kept floating. I determined that if you put the cans in upright you may get air trapped in the bottom rim of the can, so put the cans in upside down or on their sides. Once the cans have established their place in the aquarium ask the students why the coke sank and the diet coke did not. Now you can discuss that they are the same volume but different mass. Weigh the two cans and then show them the difference by weighing out the equivalent amount of sugar. This is a dramatic demonstration to them just how much sugar they consume from one can of pop.

Easy, cheap, short density/diabetes demo.

Physics at the Fair

I took my kids to The Rockton World Fair on the weekend. As a science teacher in training I am always looking for potential "teachable moments" in real world experiences. This time it took the form of  "The Gravitron". The Gravitron works based on centrifugal force, apparently 4 G's of it! The ride  reaches 24 rpm in less than 20 seconds and the panels that riders stand against rise upwards leaving them stuck to the wall with their feet off the ground. Experienced riders do tricks like moving upside down or vertically sideways as the ride gains speed. Similar forces are used in training exercises for NASA astronauts. After my kids got off the ride we had a great discussion about how it was possible for them to hang in the air, how some people were able to stick out sideways without falling and why they could not move themselves around once they were at top speed. This led to a discussion about the earth's rotation on it's axis and gravity. I will definitely ask my science students if they have been to the fair around this time of the year and if they rode The Gravitron I will get them to tell me how it works.