“U.S. Spies Use Custom Videogames to Learn How to Think” (WIRED)

Even the DIA are using Game-Based Learning!

excerpt:

“The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has just taken delivery of three PC-based games, developed by simulation studio Visual Purple under a $2.6 million contract between the DIA and defense contractor Concurrent Technologies. The goal is to quickly train the next generation of spies to analyze complex issues like Islamic fundamentalism.”

See e-Clippings Blog article here.

21st Century Teaching and Learning, Part 1

Ruth Reynard discusses emergent skill sets for teachers, looking at different ways to engage digital native students and make teaching more effective:

“while we do not know enough about long-term affects on thinking and perception, we can make sure of the technical capabilities and work hard to develop in ourselves the instructional skills we need to meet students where they are in terms of expectations and familiarity. We can also become more critical ourselves in how we perceive our own disciplines and more mobile in how we distribute content and intentional in how we stimulate student response. While mobile technology is coming at us via communication demands, we can monopolize these technological advances and think through how we can use them for instructional benefit and effectiveness.”

Author: Ruth Reynard, T.H.E. Journal, 27th April 2008

Full article available here.

A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?

Zaid Ali Alsagoff posted a great list of free learning tools. Zaid has suggestions for almost every learning issue and below are some of them:

• Microblogging tool? Twitter
  
• Directory of edubloggers from around the world? International Edubloggers Directory
• Wiki tool? PBwiki
• Encyclopedia, which I can add to or edit? Wikipedia
• Audio recording tool? Audacity
• Tool to host my audio recordings? Odeo
• Tool to transform media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting? VoiceThread
• Tool to tell a story? Here are 50!
• Screencasting (recording) tool? Wink
• Hosted screencasting tool? Jing
• Mindmapping tool? FreeMind
• Tool to make screenshots from different browsers with one click? Browsershots
• Easy-to-learn 3D authoring software tool? Google SketchUp

See the full article here.

TeachMeet North East London 08 Event

FutureLab has posted up another Education & Technology event:

“19 May 2008
Redbridge Teachers Centre, Ilford

TeachMeet NorthEast London is a chance for education stakeholders to share effective, exciting and innovative uses technology in schools in an informal environment. If you come for the evening, then you can either present, or just listen to inspiring presentations on ICT in schools. People attending previous TeachMeets before have found them to be inspirational and a great form of CPD.”

According to the TeachMeet site you can also join the event via Flashmeeting and there is a Facebook page too.

Reaching Out With Your Conference

Dave Warlick provides advice for organising social networking for conferences:

“I would love to see more education technology conferences adopt this sort of out-reach. Conferences have never been an integral part of the job for most classroom teachers — and with budget cuts already starting to snip their way across the fabric of our education institutions, fewer educators will likely be packing up and driving or flying to the city convention hotel for three days of shared learning and energy-generating friction.

It’s all the more reason why education conferences need to shine more, to radiate ideas rather than rattle them in a box.”

Author: Dave Warlick, 2cent Worth Blog, 20th April 2008

Full article available here.

Are Schools Inhibiting 21st Century Learning?

Dave Nagel on Project Tomorrow Speak Up survey findings:

“Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they’d like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would “like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum,” according to the survey.”

Author: Dave Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, 19th April 2008

Full article available here.

See also Project Tomorrow website.

Dave McDivitt on using InQuizitor in School

“I heard quotes like, “this game is awesome even though I don’t know the answers.” But what continued to happen is that student after student kept taking the quiz over and over again. Which obviously exposes them to material again and again.”

Author: Dave McDivitt, 18th April 2008

Full article available here.

Games on the curriculum – Scottish schools

Daniel Livingstone wrote a post today regarding an article on game design being taught in Scottish schools. He provides some interesting responses to the curriculum guidelines. Worth a read.

“I spotted this intriguing piece earlier in the week -” ‘Games’ to be taught in Scottish Schools”
The article doesn’t reveal much in the way of details but claims:

Scottish schoolchildren are to be taught the basics of video game design as part of the country’s new national curriculum – dubbed the ‘Curriculum of Excellence’.

According to the Press Association, the move is to designed to ‘create the next generation of young programmers’.

Schools minister Maureen Watt unveiled the scheme … and added that the new lessons will teach children how to use computer software to create animations and feature films.”

See the full article here.

iWalkthrough™ – Great Schools Partnership

The Great Schools Partnership have developed the iWalkthrough™ tool for use in schools to observe teaching and acquire data for feedback:

“The tool allows administrators or other instructional leaders to make a five to ten minute classroom visit yet dial in on the instruction they witness. During the training process, observers are encouraged to observe in the room then record after they leave so as not to be a distraction to the students or the teacher.

To be effective, the Walk through concept must be done frequently, with observers visiting the classrooms multiple times. Because the device is convenient to carry and the process so time effective, administrators and teacher leaders can do a number of such visits to several different classrooms in the time it would have taken to do one such formal observation previously.

But it is later, after the data has been collected from a multitude of such visits and collapsed by the software that the device shines. The iWalkthrough can generate customized reports that easily sort, compare, and visually display a wealth of data.”

Author: Tom Hanson, OpenEducation Blog, 16th April 2008

Full article available here.

Pedagogy / Andragogy – it’s not the technology

“The term pedagogy has been in use since the early 16^th century to describe ‘the art and science of teaching’ (amongst other definitions) particularly focusing upon the teacher’s role in a young person’s learning. More recently of course, it has formed part of the ongoing cry ‘it’s not the technology, it’s the pedagogy…’ which is raised at every conference, at every turn.

Andragogy, on the other hand, only became well used in 1913 after Malcolm Knowles developed a theory of it to describe adult learning – specifically focusing upon how children and adults learn differently (and as such require different forms of teaching).

One of the key differences is the description of the learner.”

Author: Dan Sutch, Flux Blog, 16th April 2008

Full article available here.