Nintendo DS Games - Educational Value?

After playing three different games on the Nintendo DS, each for a short period of time, I looked into what I felt was the educational value of two of these.

 
Word Academy

This game, I felt, would be good to allow the children to practice their spelling. It could be used as additional task for early finishers, for example. One feature of Word Academy I used was filling in the missing letter to complete the word. With this, I found that a lot of the letters I wrote were not recognised by the DS. For example, letter 'U' was often recognised to be a 'V'.
One feature in particular that I found would benefit children in schools was a game testing their ability to match words to their correct definition. This can support language development.
CfE links:

I can spell the most commonly-used words, using my knowledge of letter patterns and spelling rules and use resources to help me spell tricky or unfamiliar words. LIT 1-21a

I can spell most of the words I need to communicate, using spelling rules, specialist vocabulary, self-correction techniques and a range of resources. LIT 2-21a

Hotel Dusk - Room 215

When I first picked up this game, it struck me as a game which children would find very engaging.

When I started playing the game, however, it became clear that there was a lot of reading involved: the game is constantly telling a story in which the player is required to listen to/read carefully and take clues from to solve a mystery. After around 10 minutes, I began to lose interest as there was not much active involvement. Despite this I did continue with the game for approximately another 15 minutes. There were opportunties to move the character around and explore the surroundings, however, the time-consuming story continues throughout the game and I felt that children would not have the patience for this.

Week Seven - Crazy Talk

This week Collette introduced us to a prgramme called Crazy Talk.
This is a programme which allows you to use either a picture of your choice or one of the pictures already on the programme and create your own animation. The programme allows you to record add voice to your character or photo, use an automated text-to-voice function, use the different functions to allow the mouth of your character to move when talking and chose a mood for your character (which will change the facial expressions).

To begin with, I found the programme quite difficult to make sense of as there were so many different controls to make your character do dfferent things. However, Collette pointed us in the right direction and we were able to watch some different Youtube videos giving step-by-step guides of what to do.

The following videos can help with the basic face fitting and creating a script:






First of all, to practice we made an animation which we could use on our Wikispace regarding the importance of exercise in staying healthy.
We choose the athlete, Kelly Holmes, and she tells us a bit about herself and the importance of exercise. As you can see, her mouth is moving when she speaks:




We then created an animation which links to a Curriculum for Excellence experience and outcome.

As I listen or watch, I can make notes, organise these under suitable headings and use these to understand ideas and information and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.  LIT 2-05

The following animation created by Mandy and I, features the pirate, Blackbeard.
It is an example of how Crazy Talk could be used in the primary classroom: as part of a language task, the children are being given instructions from Blackbeard.

With our video, the class teacher would have to pause it as the correct points, for example, when certain questions are asked before the piece of text is read to the children. The children have been learning about verbs and adjectives and their task is to listen to the piece of text and using their worksheet, identify the verbs and adjectives and put them under the correct headings in the table.

As an additonal task, the children would then use come up with words with a similar meaning to those in their table (using a thesaurus if necessary).

The video below is simply an example of the kind of thing which could be used with a class. We have used the automated voice, however, if we were creating this to use with a class, we would have recorded our own speech.




In my opinion, using a programme such as Crazy Talk could bring benefits to your classroom - it can add that little bit of excitement needed in a lesson to keep the children motivated. Using a tool like this would be much more effective than you as the teacher simply reading out a piece of text. It should, however, be used selectively as not only is it very time consuming but it is important to get the balance right regarding just how much technology you use in the classroom to replace you as the teacher.

I am still in two minds about allowing the children to use this programme as it can be very confusing and time consuimg.

Week Six - Games Based Learning

This week we were introduced to some of the different games which can be played using technology in the classroom. There are a variety of different games for the Nintendo Wii which can be used in the classroom - for example, Just Dance, Wii Fit, Big Brain Academy and many more.

However, in this session we focused in particular on Guitar Hero for the Wii. To begin with, we worked in a group and were left to our own devices to try and set up the Wii without any help. If I were to use this is in my classroom I would definitely need to practice setting it up on my own...
We then took it in turns to play against each other (starting on the easiest level!)

When we had all taken a turn and were used to exactly what is required of Guitar Hero, we started to look at how this could be used in a context in the primary classroom. We looked into the different curricular areas and as a group we came up with some ideas which would cover the curricular areas. Here are just some of the ideas we came up with for the upper years stage. Next to them I have added in colour-coded keys of how they would link to a Curriculum for Excellence. The outcomes and experiences can be found using the link in the reference section.

Language

• The children could could write their own review of a gig. LIT 2-29a, ENG 2-30a.
• They could also write a script for their own radio interview in pairs, record this and edit it using Windows Movie Maker. This would of course also involve some ICT. I have seen an upper years class making their own radio broadcasts before and they too used WMM and this worked really well. LIT 2-09a, LIT 2-26a, TCH 2-03a.

Art

• The children could design their own band T-shirts to sell. EXA 2-03a

Maths

• Depending on what the children were doing in maths at the time, the band T-shirts could be used. For example, buying and selling (money), percentages of the profit, etc. or shape and symmetry of the design on the Tshirt.

Music

• Again depending on the level of ability, the children could work in different groups to experiment with some different instruments which may be added into a Guitar Hero song. Some children may even be willing to sing. EXA 2-17a

ICT

• As well as the radio interview mentioned above, the children could film their own video to go along with a certain band song. Dance Ejay could also be used to create a backing track. TCH 2-04b.

Dance

• As a class, they could create a dance to go with one of the songs. The boys would be more likely to take part in a whole class activity like this rather than if they were split into groups and had to perform to each other at the end. EXA 2-08a.

Groupings and how the children would be organised would depend on your class and how well they are able to work together.

Prensky (2006, page 4) stated the following:

“Today’s kids want to be engaged, and their games not only engage them, but teach them valuable lessons in the process – lessons we want them to learn. Video and computer games, in fact, are an important way that our kids are learning to prepare themselves for their twenty-first century lives to come.”

I believe games are a fantastic way of engaging and motivating children and they can learn lots from using a particular game in a context. New technology in increasing rapidly and I think it's really important for teachers to keep up with this as it's going to play a large part in our lives in the future - games based learning is a great way of keeping up with new technology.

There are some disadvantages of games based learning: the games themselves may distract the children from the actual learning and it can sometimes be difficult if the school, for example, only has one Wii and the children need to work in groups for certain activities.

However, in my opinion, if the learning has been well planned and there are good organisational skills involved, it can work well and can be very beneficial to the children.

References

Scottish Government (2009) Curriculum for Excellence. Available: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/all_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539562.pdf [accessed 05/03/2011]

Prensky, M. (2006) Don't Bother Me Mom  - I'm Learning! United States: Paragon House

Week Six - Finishing our Wikispace

In this session, we were given time to complete our wikispace on staying healthy.
I really like the idea of allowing children to work in a group and create their own wiki, however, it would take much longer when doing it in the primary school.

In ICT, we have learned the basics on how learning can be effective in this way. If there is a page on each wiki for each child, then every pupil will have a responsibility and feel included.
It is, however, very important to have good organisational skills and have planned exactly what you want to do with the children and how they will be grouped for the lessons to be successful.

I found the following video useful - the teacher discusses some of the ways she has used wikispaces in her classroom. She has demonstrated that they can be used in the classroom to engage pupils who are perhaps not participating in their work in other ways.



Allen, Potter, Sharp and Turvey (2007, page 182) stated the following about virtual learning environments: "There are two main elements to VLEs currently. Firstly, a VLE can be seen simply as a dynamic web space in the sense that the content can be easily updated or uploaded without the need for any knowledge of html code. This means that information and files (including multimedia) can easily be made available to children beyond the limitations of the school timetable and building. Secondly, many VLEs offer a range of online tools such as discussion forums, blog sand wikis. Such tools offer yet further opportunities for children to extend their learning beyond the classroom environment, for example by continuing a debate about the differences between the children's lives in Victorian times compared with today."

From this quote, we are able to see just some of the potential brought into the classroom simply by introducing the children to wikis and different virtual learning environments. Mandy and I worked together to create our wikispace - we shared the workload equally and each created two pages each. Click here to see our wikispace so far.

References

Allen, J., Potter, J., Sharp, J. and Turvey, K. (2007) Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.

Week Five - CollaborativeTask and Using Animoto

Today we completed a collaborative task based around handheld learning.

The first tool we used was a collaborative Google Document. We were given exactly on minute and were instructed to write down as many words relating to 'handheld learning' as possible.
We ended up with a page of random words... However, we then copied these and using the website Wordle, were able to create our own eye-catching word picture (shown below):

I have seen several pictures which have been made using Wordle displayed in schools: they are often used for titles on wall displays. The children could, however, do as we have done today and make use of the website to make a front cover for a piece of work.

Working in a group of three, I then took part in creating an acronym using the word 'mobile'. When we had made our acronym, we worked together and made a word mosaic for them.

Here is our acronym:
Motivating Manageable Messages Meaningful
Opportunity Observation Online
Banking Bold Blogging
Interactive Innovative Independant
Learning Linking Lesson Literacy
Engaging Entertaining Experimental

When we had our wordle and our separate word mosaics saved, we then moved on to use a different piece of software, Dance Ejay. This programme allows you to create your own copyright free piece of music. This could then be used in, for example, a movie the children had created. In this case, we created our own short piece of music to play along with the wordle and word mosaics we had created.

To bring all of our work together, we used a website called Animoto. This is a site which allows you to create a slideshow of images or a video and add music to this.

Here is the slideshow we created using Animoto:

  

A collaborative task like this one if definitely something I would consider using with children in the upper primary. I particularly liked the fact that each individual's ideas can all be brought together as the children would all be able to add information to one document at the same time. If I were to use any of these ideas for a collaborative task, I would have the children bringing their ideas together to begin with. However, I would then have them working individually to create their own pieces of work.

My understanding of collaborative learning is that we all share our own ideas but do not necessarily need to come together as a group to do this. Cooperative learning, however, is what I what I understand to be everyone coming together to play their part in creating one specific piece of work or reaching a certain goal for example.

Williams and Easingwood (2007, page 17) have stated that "Another advantage of using ICT is that it acts as a very effective focal point for collaborative work. This is particulary important in the primary school, where the development of personal and social skills is traditionally seen as being as important  as the more academic aspects of school life."

In the above quotation, it is said that collaborative work is an advantage of ICT. Not only is it that: it can help the child to develop in other areas as stated above - it can develop their personal and social skills which is crucial in a child's life.

The following outcome would fit in with a collaborative task like this one.

Scottish Government (2009): "As I extend and enhance my knowledge of features of various types of software, including thise which can help find, organise, manage and access information, I can apply what I learn in different areas."

TCH 1-03a/TCH 2-03a

References

Scottish Goverment (2009) Curriculum for Excellence - Experiences and Outcomes. Available: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/all_experiences_outcomes_tcm4-539562.pdf [accessed 24/02/2011]

Williams, J. and Easingwood, N. (2007) Primary ICT and the Foundation Subjects.
London: Continuum International Publishing Group

Week Five - Smart Board Training

In this session, we were introduced to using a Smart interactive whiteboard in the classroom. IWBs are becoming more and more common in classrooms nowadays and are replacing blackboards and white pen-boards. They bring many opportunities for active learning in the classroom - there can be opportunites for the children to come out and write on the board, take part in different interactive activities or it can simply be used to display certain text or images to promote thinking.

Barber, Cooper, and Meeson (2007, page 32) stated the following: "The IWB is an engaging and potentially powerful tool. However, as with any tool, it is only of any benefit when it is used appropriately and in a way that adds value to your teaching. This is a consideration that should inform your use of the IWB, but even the most careful planning and the most imaginative development will count for nothing if certain organisational matters are not addressed."

As demonstrated in the quote above, an IWB is a fantastic tool to have in a classroom. However, it is only valuable when it is used correctly and the teacher using it must be familiar with it's functions. As teachers, it should be our priority to be well organsied and to have planned exactly how we are going to use the board in our lessons. For example, are the children taking part in a whole class activity and taking inidividual turns to use the whiteboard or are they working on different activities in groups one of which includes using the whiteboard? Or are you going to use it simply to display an example and to promote further thought.

In this session, I was able to gain a good insight into just how many different ways the smart board can be used in the classroom. We were given demonstrations, starting with the basics, and were able to try the software out for ourselves using laptops.
It was demonstrated in the presentation that if you are not aware of the full potential of the whiteboard and are not aware of it's uses, you will not be able to use it to benefit the children in your class.

By the end of the session, we were each able to begin creating our own flipchart which related to a previous topic we had been working on for the early years stage. The session benefited me greatly and I would now feel much more confident going into a classroom and making good use of the Smart interactive whiteboard.

References

Barber, D., Cooper, L. and Meeson, G. (2007) Learning and Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards - Primary and Early Years. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.

Week Four - Presenting our Movies

The day of the premiere of our movies had finally arrived!

However, before the movie premiere, Sharon discussed collaborative blogging with us.
We were shown a Google Document which she had set up and we were all able to choose one aspect of handheld learning using iPads and iPhones.

Our task was to each write a small paragraph about one way in which handheld devices could be used for learning in the University - this included both the advantages and disadvantages. The following is what we ended up with on the collaborative document:

iPhone Collaborative lecture
Advantages: Tutors can receive instantaneous feedback from us during lectures, using poll4.com for example (like Sharon used the other day). With it being anonymous students are more likely to participate rather than having to put their hand up and share their ideas in front of 90 other people.
They can also be used to contribute to collaborative documents while information is fresh in your mind, even just placing a reminder there for expansion (by yourself or others) at a later stage.
Disadvantages: They can be quite fiddly to use and may result in you losing concentration on the content of the actual lecture.


iPhone Personal lecture
A way in which the iPhone can be used in personal lectures is by using QR codes. Lectures would create QR codes which they will display on their Power Points in their lectures. These QR codes would link to articles and websites relevant to the lecture they are presenting. Using the iPhone, students will be able to scan the QR code and will be linked straight to the relevant article or website. This will be useful because it will give the students instant access to the information and they will not have to spend time typing in complicated URL’s. It will also be effective because the students will be able to view the relevant information whilst the lecture is talking about it. This will also save the lecture time when creating their PowerPoints because they will not have to spend time selecting examples of information from the websites or articles to put into their PowerPoint.

Keira

iPhone Collaborative tutorial - Tamar
iPhones can be hugely useful in a tutorial for personal use and collaborative uses. I initially thought i was looking at personal uses so here are how you could use it for your own individual use.
One obvious use for it is to take notes. There are a variety of apps you can use to take notes on and edit them at a later.  I really like “document” apps because it is very simple to use and use can create different folders to keep your lectures organised.
Another use for an iphone in tutorials is to use the internet. By having the internet on the iphone you would be able to bring up any relevent web pages, useful link and resources online.
Another app that I personally use is the “stickies app”, I find it very useful for recording all of the work I still have to complete and any other notes I must remember. This app would allow you to write anything relevent and tasks you need to complete for your tutorial.  

iphones can be used to help encourage collaboration in tutorials. One very useful app is “bump”, personally I think this is a very useful app that allows people to work together, share ideas annd then gather them all together on the main device. Bump allows you to literally drag information across from one device to another. The app I mentioned earlier, “stickies” is useful to use along side bump. It means that people can write their thoughts and ideas down on the post it’s and gather them together on another device.
Using google docs on an iphone would allow everyone in the tutorial to simultaneously add their ideas and opinions into one document.

Although I have only mentioned a few ideas of how to use an iphone personally and collaboratively. I feel that an iphone can be a very useful resource to have in a tutorial.

iPhone Personal tutorial


IPad collaborative lecture (Lyndsay)

For this collaborative task I chose to look at the IPad and how it can be incorporated into a collaborative lecture. I selected this area to reflect on as I have used the IPad in lecturers previously and have an understanding of how they can be used, but using them as part of a collaborative lecture is something I needed to research further.

There seem to be many different advantages of using the IPad in this way which could enhance learning. The first advantage that came to mind was using the device, so that lecturers can receive instantaneous or real time feedback. Tools such as Poll4 can be used for simple questions or to elicit deeper responses and are quick and easy to set up. Google Docs is another collaborative tool, which can be used to create and edit documents in real time by a number of people. I believe that by having this anonymous exchange of information, alongside verbal, can encourage interactions from the students. Anonymity may encourage more students to have a voice and be supported in their learning. Many students have answers to the questions being asked or have extra information, but never put their hands up. Lecture theatres can be a daunting place for some people.

An app I would like to discuss is Dropbox. Dropbox is a web based file hosting service, which enables users to access and share files on different devices using ‘cloud computing’. Using this app, lecturers could drop their power points into the Dropbox or students could download them from Blackboard dropping them into their own Dropbox. The IPad can then be used in lectures to pick up the power point and add notes. Students can not only add their own notes, but the lecturer may wish to add extra notes as well to enhance the lecture, personalising the learning to the particular class.

Good Reader used along with Dropbox is another tool to encourage collaboration. This app allows pdf files to be annotated, highlighted and drawn upon. Once this has been done the document can be shared among the lecture theatre. E books can also be highlighted and shared in a similar way giving access to more information.

There seems to be many advantages in incorporating the IPad into a collaborative lecture and am aware I’m just scratching the surface, however, it is important to look at the negative side too. As with most technology once you get used to using it it’s hard to live without. It is inevitable that at some point there will be some sort of fault and for this reason it is important to have a backup plan.

Changing the structure can be a good thing, however, it also means that time and effort must go into training and figuring out how to use everything. This will be easy for some people, but others may struggle or lack of time may be an issue and let’s not forget the people who don’t like change.  

Using new technology is always exciting, but I feel that some may become distracted and lose focus on the lecture. Students could be looking at their Face book, checking their email.... instead of paying attention to the lecture and it could go undetected. Some students may be one step behind and miss out on important information while they are concentrating on something else.

There are always two sides to a story, but I think in this case the positive would outweigh the negatives. There are always going to be people who don’t want to pay attention in lectures, however, people need to take responsibility for their own learning.

By Lyndsay

iPad Collaborative Lecture
Nicole
As I have previously blogged about in my post “iPads – How exciting!”, I am very interested in the educational value of the iPad, both for us as university students and for our future practice in the classroom. I found the Apple In Education website to be very informative whilst completing my research on the subject. Through this I found out more of the educational benefits of the iPad, and the features programmed to aid the teaching process. For example, the clip shows students in Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, attending a lecture where each student has their own personal iPad with them. As the lecturer goes through the of the slides on their powerpoint, each student can add their own personal notes on to their iPads. The key collaboration aspect comes in to place as the lecturer is also able to add key notes onto their powerpoint, and these will also show up on the students screens. Whilst watching the video, I was intrigued as to how this process would work and showed an interest in finding out more about this area. Sharon then took this on board, had a play with various apps to find a solution and incorporated it into our next input.
We used Dropbox, an online program in which you can save your files, to test this function. As the video on the website states, Dropbox allows you to hold all of your files in one place, so you can access them wherever you are – very handy when you need a powerpoint, ebook or journal whilst sat in a lecture theatre! These files can then be opened up on your personal iPad and annotated with your own notes, or by the lecturer. I think this is a very useful function of the iPad as it allows you to have any file you may need at your fingertips, all within the space of one small gadget instead of carrying around folders or individual sheets of paper.
Another useful function of an iPad in a collaborative lecture, is the use of sites such as Poll4, which allows the lecturer to share a question on the screen, and receive responses from the crowd through their handheld devices. This system allows contributors to submit their answers anonymously, therefore encouraging those who may not usually speak out in class, to do so with confidence. The lecturer will then receive a wider range of responses displayed on their screen, which is also useful for them to look back over, rather than forgetting answers submitted orally.
I am interested in testing out the other apps available for the iPad in the future, as the Apple In Education site has a number of apps built for teaching here, which I will hope to test when I next borrow a device.

iPad Personal lecture - Kirsten
An iPad can be a very useful tool to support our learning. With access to the Internet, users are able to access online documents or lecture notes for example.
One piece of software on the iPad which I was impressed with was ‘Good Reader’. It allows you to open a document and annotate. The following are just some of Good Reader’s features: it allows you to write your own notes straight onto your P.D.F. file, use different shapes and lines to annotate your work and to use a highlighter tool. One feature in particular that I liked was how you are able to attach a sticky note to your page if you needed to leave yourself a reminder or just some additional information.
To me, this would be very beneficial as it is easy to use and is much more efficient than having handwritten notes.
When you have finished annotating your document, it can be transferred and stored on your own personal computer. One recommendation that was made to us was to make use of Dropbox, a website which allows online storage. By using this you are able to access your own personal documents when you need them no matter where you are, as long as you have Internet access.
Another benefit of having an iPad for personal use in a lecture is that if something is mentioned that you are not entirely clear about, again if you have access to the Internet, you are able to do a quick search to help your understanding.



We each used a different colour so we are are now able to see clearly who has written each part and we have ended with a very detailed account of the advantages and disadvantages of using handheld learning devices.

We then went to a lecture theatre to watch each others movies. Each group told everyone a little about their movies before they were shown and both Sharon and Carrie gave feedback at the end in terms of the foreign language aspect and the technological aspects.

Ager, R. (2003, pg. 84) stated the following regarding digital movie making:   "Many digital still cameras are able to produce short sections of video as well, and there is software downloadable for free from the Internet that is able to edit together video shots on a computer.
Because of it's relative simplicity, compared with even a few years ago, and the fairly minimal costs involved, primary children can easily be encouraged to put together short digital videos, rather than, for example, being asked to produce two pages of writing, as a means of recording some aspect of their work."

The book, Information and Communications Technology in Primary Schools can be found by clicking here. This quote demonstrates the simplicity of using digital filming devices in the classroom. It also demonstrates the benefit - rather than children constantly doing written work, they are able to develop their language skills through technology in the upper stages of the primary school.

We were also able to implement technology into the movie premiere too - we used our mobile phones, iPads and iPhones to allocate the movies a score using the website, Poll 4.

This could be used in the classroom in numerous different ways. It is similar to using the specific voting systems which can be good for when the children are taking part in a quiz or questionairre.

Here is our movie: