Amy's EDUBlog Reflections

Let's PLAY!

8/11/2015

Do we let our students PLAY once they get past kindergarten? Play-based curriculum seems to be reserved for kindergarten and early children education programs. In my experience, rarely are students in middle school encouraged to play, unless you count recess when we ban devices and make them “play”.

What about playing as learning? Or for learning? Education has ignored one highly important strategy when it comes to learning- the game, or more specifically, the video game. When I was growing up, I had a Commodore 64 and played Lemonade Stand and Lunar Landing, both of which were games that required me to take in information, make judgements and execute a plan. (i.e., think critically)

If “gamers learn about the game world literally through their controller” (Squire, 2008) why don’t our students have that same kind of resiliency when it comes to school work? It seems that a growth mindset is innate in students when approaching a new video game but yet school work seems unattainable. Why is that? If gaming is learning by doing, learning through failure, and learning through trial and error, then why don’t schools approach learning that way? In theory, I think that is exactly what is school is SUPPOSED to be like. However, we have constructed it such that we award success and punish failure by assigning grades.

So why don’t we start reframing the way we teach to the way students learn? Perhaps gaming can be an example for educators. Video games can be highly collaborative, cooperative and social, just look to Minecraft as an example for how a video game can be used in the classroom. Teachers are beginning to use this game all over the world to inspire students and get them collaborating and building, incorporating it into math and history lessons. Also popular, SimCity is where users actions and decisions affect the success or failure of their community. Students invest in these games because they get to create their own experience; they create, make choices and then adjust. They learn through experience, they learn through doing- a constructivist theory.

Food for thought: Why can’t we use games to teach? Why can’t we incorporate play into classroom activities? The answer is we can. We, as educators, need to start incorporating games into the curriculum- physical games, academic games and video games if we are going to foster 21st century skills. And it is imperative that we start now.

REFERENCES
Squire, K. (2008). Critical Education in an Interactive Age. In Mirror Images: Popular Culture and Education (pp. 105-123). New York: Peter Lang.

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DIY is the new "Go ask the teacher"...

7/27/2015

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DIY, or do-it-yourself, is quickly becoming an Internet wide phenomenon- and is not only used for referring to home improvements. Gone are the days that one has to rely on a publisher to get his/her book to the masses, or market themselves and their talents. DIY communities are popping up all over the web and encouraging people to join a community and collaborate.

This week I read two articles that discuss the area of DIY and technology. In Deborah Fields article, DIY Media Creation, she discusses the increase in the number of social networking sites that focus on writing, drawing or programming and how it has given people a specific audience to showcase their work, get feedback and perhaps even collaborate on projects. In Mandy Rose’s article, Making Publics: Documentary as Do-it-with-Others Citizenship, she discusses the Do-it with-Others ideology as opposed to doing it all yourself. Rose argues that in the case of making a documentary, it is collaborative project by nature and needs to have the input of others so as to invite the audience into the project.

The idea of DIY, or DIWO, in media and technology can mean different things to different people depending on what you are doing. Online tools such as Figment, a networking site for writers, is described as a “community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors.” (Fields, 2014). It is an amazing idea to consider that you can write your first novel while getting constructive feedback and encouragement from other writers acting as your “editor”, for free by being a part of this community.

Consider the idea of DIY in the classroom... Students could take part in an online community, such as Gamestar Mechanic, to create a video game. Not only would they have the teacher guiding them in person, but being part of an online community would open up another level of critique and feedback on their game designs. Similarly, publishing a story on Storybird invites other authors, students and amateurs to read and comment on your work. DIY communities would really allow students to connect and collaborate on their own work while providing feedback for others as well. These communities would empower students to have a voice and to take ownership of their learning and their products. In my opinion, it would broaden the realm of assessment as well to those in a specific audience, especially when a teacher might have a bias or different perspective.

REFERENCES
Fields, D.A. “DIY Media Creation.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 58(1), (Sept 2014) Pp. 19-24.

Rose, M. “Making Publics: Documentary as Do-it-with-Others Citizenship.” DIY Citizenship. Pp. 201-212.

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Boldly Going towards a Social Curriculum

7/24/2015

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Today, teaching is much more than teaching curriculum and testing knowledge. Educators are expected to cover the mandated curriculum as well as address the “hidden” issues of social and emotional curricula. Often this is imbedded into character or health education and sometimes, it is forgotten about. Days are gone where the village raised the child, or parents having the time (or skills) to spend with their children to discuss these important topics. Educating and socializing children is primarily up to schools. But somehow, schools are falling short. Whether it is lack of time or lack of knowledge, schools need to have a social curriculum.

Social curriculum is defined as a means to teach students how to interact and empathize with one another. It is how to ensure students feel good about themselves and their relationships. When students learn a social curriculum they are socially aware and emotionally intelligent (Roig-DeBellis, 2013).

In my opinion, social curriculum is just as important as teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. But what if we could teach student in such as a way that it is relevant to them? What if we could teaching them using an example- using the social learning theory to support it? While reading Karen Anijar’s chapter on Star Trek as social curriculum, I was amazed at how much students could learn about the world, and themselves, just from watching Star Trek.

Imagine being able to teach students about racial diversity, equality, politics and gender roles all from watching one show? The idea of using a television show to illustrate and provide examples for students would touch on the social learning theory, whereby students would learn from example and act accordingly. There is much to be learned from shows like Star Trek, and as I discussed in my previous post, science fiction in general. If one delves into the message behind science fiction it can find meaning in everyday life. Just as many movies and shows examine the struggle between good and evil, zombies and man, aliens and humans; the antagonist in each story if often a reflection of society’s weaknesses and a fear of what we don’t know. Using these as a basis for teaching a social curriculum in the classroom would not only be interesting and engaging, but would allow students to develop a higher level of consciousness, empathy and understanding about living in peace with those around them.

REFERENCES
Anijar, Karen. Teaching Toward the 24th Century: Star Trek as Social Curriculum (Pedagogy
and Popular Culture). New York : Falmer Press, 2003.

Roig-DeBellis, K. (2013, December 17). The Importance of Learning a Social Curriculum. Retrieved July 23, 2015.

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Using Sci-Fi to Teach History

7/14/2015

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As I read the article by Robert Saunders titled, Imperial Imaginaries: Employing Science Fiction to Talk About Geopolitics, I was reminded of a book that I would read my grade 6 students called Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes. In the book, 10 high school graduates are sent invitations to play a secret “virtual reality” game or so they think. In the “game”, they work together to pass levels in a virtual world where they are the only inhabitants. They have to gather and hunt, learn how to make tools, etc. much as the Aboriginals would have had to on Earth. Much like Saunders article, the ideas from history played a significant role in their survival.

If you look at science fiction and the common themes throughout it, you will notice that the writers have actually taken events from real life on Earth and portrayed their occurrences with the invention of new places (ie., another planet). It is amazing how the writers can manage to create a new civilization that has similar problems to the one’s we have on Earth.

“The genre also has a long history of using allegory to critique the actions of political elites, at both national and international level” (Saunders, 2015)

Consider the movie District 9, where the South African government put all of the aliens into camps under the guise of relocating them. This is direct critique of the South African’s treatment of blacks and the subsequent fallout from apartheid. The question is this, do people realize that science fiction does this? That science fiction in fact imagines the world in the future perhaps but warns us of the downfall of our current responses, and judges “us” based on our actions today as what will happen in the future???

“With few exceptions, sf deals with questions of exploration (of territory), exploitation (of resources) and control (of others, usually via technology)” (Saunders, 2015)

I think that this is a great way to examine history and politics in the classroom. Students could really get connected with the content and be able to apply it to their understanding of Canadian history. What if we compare District 9 with Japanese internment camps? Using popular media and specific genres can be another new way to teach...with fresh eyes.

REFERENCES
Saunders, Robert. “Imperial Imaginaries: Employing Science Fiction to Talk About Geopolitics.” Popular Culture and World Politics (2015). Caso and Hamilton, Eds. Pp. 149-159.

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Like Sheep to the Slaughter...

7/14/2015

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In Virginia Funes’ chapter on Advertising and Consumerism, she discussed advertising and the impact it has on students and the classroom. It is a very interesting premise to build one’s teaching upon the idea that students come to class already convinced and already programmed to purchase and support certain products and ideals.

“One of the most serious problems educators should be reflecting upon today is the contradiction that exists between the educational system and the sociocultural environment into which new generations of students are born into and in which they grow up.” (Funes, 2008)

Students don’t come to school to learn as willingly as they used to. In the early 19th century, students came to school instead of working. It became their job and a way to escape the manual labour of the farm. Today, students come to school with a new kind of knowledge- one curated by endless hours of YouTube and with a certain exposure beyond their years- both through advertising and media.

So, how do we turn this into teaching and learning? How do teachers use advertising and persuasive media to get student’s attention? Perhaps, literacy is not just the ability to read and write anymore, but rather the interpretation, critical analysis and understanding of visual, audio and written texts.

“Ads can easily elicit student responses because students realize that ads represent real communication messages containing specific objectives, purposes and target audiences.” (Sinhaneti, 2012)

Ultimately, what and how we teach them should change to meet the needs of today’s students. Thus, if students are being inundated with media messages and advertisements, then perhaps we need to teach them how to critically react to those ads so they do not become mindless consumers and believers of everything.

REFERENCES
Funes, Virginia. Advertising and Consumerism: A Space for Pedagogical Practice; Counterpoints Vol. 338, MIRROR IMAGES: POPULAR CULTURE AND EDUCATION (2008), pp. 159-177

Sinhaneti, Kantatip. Power of Ads as Teaching Materials; Modern Journal of Language Teaching, 2012, Accessed at http://mjltm.com/index.php?option=content&t=co&i=50

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The Fashion of Knowledge

7/5/2015

1 Comment

What if ideas were fashion??? The idea of comparing fashion to education is an interesting one and probably a connection that most people would not make. As fashion is or can be seen as art or the idea of being fashionable, one might argue that education is not and cannot be fashionable. If education were fashionable, it would be a flash in the pan or a fad...a new way of teaching and learning that would not last.

However, I really like the concept of ideas being fashion (or “in fashion”). In the article, If Ideas were Fashion, David Wong and Danah Henriksen discuss the amount of time that students spend on fashion and the impact it would have if they had that kind of investment with ideas and education. The idea is that ultimately, we need to make school more compelling for students.

A lot of my blogs critique and question the state of education today, as I strongly believe that education needs to change. The curriculum itself also needs to change as we strive to connect students to topics that are interesting and relevant to them in today’s technology driven world.

“Educators need to become more attuned to the psychological qualities that makes fashion so engaging/need to create experiences in the classroom with those such qualities.” (Wong, 2008)

As educators we need to tap into students’ interests in order to get them to regard us as relevant and interesting. Fashion is relevant and interesting to which students can easily relate to. I think too often students see teachers as old, out of touch, and uncool. And unfortunately, some teachers may actually be that way. We run the risk of making ourselves irrelevant by not understanding the everyday lives in which our students live, by not bringing the real world into the classroom. As educators, we need to reach our students at various levels, intellectually and also emotionally.

Does the idea of knowledge as fashion come only with experience or age of wisdom? How can we get students to understand and believe that knowledge and the ability to acquire knowledge are desirable qualities? And that these particular qualities are as “fashionable” and as relevant in the 21st century as what Kim Karsdashian wore on the red carpet last week...

REFERENCES
Wong, D., & Henriksen, D. (2008). If Ideas Were Fashion. In Mirror Images: Popular Culture & Education (Vol. 338, pp. 179-198). New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

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Filters...a new reality???

7/2/2015

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I am very excited to be taking the course, Youth and Social Media. Social media plays such a huge role in student’s lives today that to disregard its impact on everyday life and learning would be detrimental. In fact, for a teacher to not acknowledge or somehow incorporate social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter into the classroom would be deeming yourself and your teaching irrelevant in the eyes of students. There is such a division between what we expect students to learn and what they really want to learn or what they determine to be relevant and important. In reading William Reynolds piece, Why Popular Culture in Education matters, I was struck by the depth to which popular culture permeates our society. It’s not just the kids anymore that are influenced by fads and pop culture but most people.

‘Television, music, movies, the new technologies of enhanced video/computer games, and, of course, the ubiquitous Internet have transformed ‘culture, especially popular culture, into the primary educational site in which youth learn about themselves and the larger world’ (Giroux 2000: 108).

At the same time that we are influenced by social media and popular culture, we are fooled (for lack of a better word) into believing and following certain fads through the use of online filters. Facebook is one of the most efficient companies to target advertisements and stories by using filters and placing ads into your news feeds. They have also masked quizzes and games in order to gain more information about your demographics and preferences under the guise of fun. However, they are just another way of gathering information and data on you. In Jill Walker Rettberg’s book, Seeing Ourselves Through Technology, she makes a few comparisons between different types of filters; cultural, technological, algorithmic, wtc. Technological filters dictate what we can or cannot post, cultural filters allow us to post what we deem to be important or relevant, whereas algorithms determine what we are able to see and what is directed to or away from us through the collection of data. Regardless of the depth to which filters, both known and unknown, exist within our society, I find them scary with some, even contributing to the downfall of reality. For example, I find it scary that Google uses algorithmic filters to determine which ads to show me and then purposely (and relentlessly) targets those ads at me. The use of visual filters on Instagram allow people to augment their own photos to look better than they would normally appear- thus creating a sense of supremacy in the eyes of others. On social media, people tend to only post the “good”. In some sense, you could call that a cultural filter, where you only get to see the best parts of their lives, which may lead a person to feel inadequate or depressed about their own lives.

Thus, in order to remain relevant with students, teachers must know and understand social media but must also teach their students to consume it in such as a way as to discriminate and question the validity and sincerity of what they see, be it ads or their friend’s selfie. Filters are everywhere!

REFERENCES
Giroux, H. A. (2000), Impure acts: The practical politics of cultural studies, New York: Routledge.

Popular Culture. Why popular culture in education matters,
William M. Reynolds, Series editor, Cultural Studies Toward Transformative Curriculum and Pedagogy

Jill Walker Rettberg, “Filtered Reality,” Seeing Ourselves Through Technology, Berkshire:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

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Attention or motivation?

6/18/2015

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In a previous post, I discussed how students remember- and that they were more apt to remember something if they had some sort of connection with it (ie., episodic memory).

If something isn’t significant, important, or unusual, why would we want to remember it? (Dirksen, 2012). The truth is that much of what students learn is forgotten the moment the class is over. So what are teachers doing wrong?

Julie Dirksen’s chapter on attention span is particularly interesting. I am constantly hearing information that the length of time students can actually pay attention is decreasing. So we are basing our lessons on the length of time students can be expected to pay attention. But is it really attention that is the problem? Dirksen contends that there really is no length of time a person can attend but rather there is a limited amount of time a person can “force” themselves to pay attention. It’s a matter of choice rather than ability.

So what can teachers do to ensure that students want to pay attention? Be entertaining, ask questions, change it up, have them interact and have them make stuff are all things that Dirksen suggests. And perhaps she is right.

Textbooks are dry but full of information. Instead of reading the text aloud (as many teachers still do) ask questions to stimulate your class; find out their background knowledge. After all it is hard to disengage what you are being asked to think about something. So often, students zone out when they are asked to read a textbook. Perhaps students are just not being engaged in the right way? Schools are still operating as they were created in the late 1800s- to teach students how to read, write and do math. If teachers are losing their students, perhaps it is the way in which they are teaching the curriculum.

Schools really have not changed much over the past two centuries. Their focus hasn’t changed much either, with pathways to either post-secondary or trades being the ultimate goal. So, if the focus hasn’t changed much, why would the instruction? Most middle school and secondary school classes are teacher-centred with direct instruction; a teaching pedagogy of the 1950s. The teacher at the front of the classroom (the sage on the stage) delivering curriculum according to Ministry documents. High school teachers often have a syllabus, what will be taught, suggested readings, a textbook and a breakdown of how a student’s grade will be calculated. Elementary and high schools spend so much time on the content-laden curriculum that students are unprepared for the analytic and conceptual thinking they'll need at university. (Slavin , 2007)

I see schools as following a cognitivist model of teaching whereby students are seen as empty vessels that need to be filled. Therefore, instruction relies heavily on strategies that are mostly teacher-directed. What schools really need is to begin to shift to constructivist and perhaps even connectivist ways of teaching and learning so that students feel like they have a voice and a direction in their education. Education and learning needs to become something that is done with them rather than something that is done TO them.
I believe that Julie Dirksen would agree.

REFERENCES
Dirksen, Julie (2012) Design for How People Learn, Berkeley, CA: New Riders

Slavin, Alan. "Has Ontario Taught Its High School Students Not to Think?” 10 Sept. 2007. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

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A few more thoughts on gamification…

6/15/2015

3 Comments

A few more thoughts on the idea of gamification…

Although I see the benefit of making learning fun, in fact making a game out of it, I worry about the repercussions of this. For one, what are we setting kids up for in the future? What will they expect out of their jobs? Will they expect to be rewarded at every turn or have some sort of incentive for completing a task? That’s just not how the world works, really. Best case scenario, let’s say it does work out that way and they get rewarded (or compensated) for the work they do or the sales they make, or don’t make. I see a lot of unhappy people, making few commissions. After all, not everyone can be at the top.

All of the studies in education/learning contexts considered the learning outcomes of gamification as mostly positive, for example, in terms of increased motivation and engagement in learning tasks as well as enjoyment over them. However, at the same time, the studies pointed to negative outcomes such as the effects of increased competition, task evaluation difficulties and design features (Hamari et al., 2014).

In addition, what are the long-term effects of increased competition? In a school that supports the Tribes philosophy, how does a community support competition? Competition may be a reality in the world today, but how much is really being accomplished, for example, in global development and sustainability if we all don't work together?

Maybe if we look at it another way, in that, perhaps it’s not making the learning fun but rather changing the curriculum so that it is more engaging, relevant and motivating itself? In my humble opinion, we are trying to fit 21st century learning into a 19th century system. It’s just not going to work! We need to change the system so that students find the motivation to succeed without the “dog and pony show”.

At the end of the day, gamification is great if you are looking to motivate a group of learners who just don’t care. But the reality is, it is the curriculum that is holding students back. We need to change the system if we are to produce 21st century innovators!

REFERENCES
Hamari, J., Koivisto, J., & Sarsa, H. (2014). Does Gamification Work? - A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification. In proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, January 6-9, 2014.

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"Gamifying" Learning

6/10/2015

1 Comment

So this week is a follow up to last week’s post regarding the gamification of education. I still have some lingering questions about gamification...How does gamification work? Is it really going to make a difference? How is making learning fun preparing students for the “real world”?

In reading Karl Kapp’s chapter on the Theories Behind Gamification of Learning and Instruction, it seems like motivation is a large part of why gamification works. As mentioned last week, the TED Talk with Gabe Zichermann, when people play games and win at playing games dopamine is released in the brain. Dopamine provides feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate us to do, or continue doing, certain activities (Psychologist World). Thus, people are motivated intrinsically, inside of them, when they are successful at a game or they enjoy a game. The more they succeed or win, the more they want to do simply because it makes them feel good.

In the classroom, creating a game out of completing homework, having a leaderboard or awarding badges, can create similar effects through student enjoyment. “Gamifying” through the use of Edmodo or Class Dojo can extrinsically motivating them to succeed. By providing these external rewards, students are motivated to complete tasks to receive the reward.

So based on these two principles of motivation, what does education currently offer? Why do we need gamification? We have to consider what currently motivates students to do well in school.

Good grades, praise from parents, popularity in the class or an honour roll award are all currently used in schools to motivate students. But are these rewards enough? For some students the answer is yes- but perhaps those are the students who are getting all of the awards? For a greater number of students, however, motivation is lacking when it comes to school.

So the question remains, should we “gamify” the school learning environment to make it fun? Is that what we need to do to engage more students? Honest;y, I am still not sure if this is the answer. After all, work is not a game…

Karl M. Kapp, “Theories Behind Gamification of Learning and Instruction,” in The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, pp. 51-74

Psychologist World, 2015. Dopamine Neurotransmitter, http://www.psychologistworld.com/biological/neurotransmitters/dopamine.php

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Let's PLAY!

DIY is the new "Go ask the teacher"...

Boldly Going towards a Social Curriculum

Using Sci-Fi to Teach History

Like Sheep to the Slaughter...

The Fashion of Knowledge

Filters...a new reality???

Attention or motivation?

A few more thoughts on gamification…

"Gamifying" Learning

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