In this task we were introduced to a number of Video Libraries:

  • YouTube (obviously)
  • TeacherTube (similar to YouTube but teacher-reviewed content so as to ensure everything on there is `safe’).
  • ClickView (similar to TeacherTube, and each video includes all the resources needed to use it as part of a lesson).
  • TED (Ted Talks).
  • AITSL Illustrations of Practice (for professional development).

We then went through a bunch of `Learning Objects’:

  • The Learning Federation Objects (included in Scootle now),
  • Merlot.org (alternative but Scootle is best for Australia)
  • NSDL.org (alternative but Scootle is best for Australia)
  • Skool.com (alternative but Scootle is best for Australia)

Finally we went through competitive learning and gamification. Top ten examples of gamification list:

  • DuoLingo
  • Ribbon Hero
  • Class Dojo
  • GoalBook
  • World Peace
  • Coursera
  • Mr. Pai’s Class
  • CourseHero
  • Brainscape
  • Socrative

We also talked about Classcraft as a method for making ordinary learning into a game.

We had three questions to reflect and post responses too, these are included in my post to the discussion board, which follows:

Question 1: Countries of the world challenge??

I loved the countries of the world challenge! I’m going to come back and play this more when I have some free time to better learn the countries of the world. I played it about 4 times on my laptop, rapidly going from 10ish to mid 20s in score, then I got so frustrated that I moved to a computer with a mouse and played another 8-9 times, eventually getting scores up to about 40 (using a mouse was better, but the scroll wheel still didn’t work so I’ll have to try again later at home and debug why the scroll wheel wasn’t working). It was heaps of fun! Easily my favorite ICT task so far by a wide margin.

Question 2: Learning objects?

I like the idea of using something like socrative for “pre-tests” to establish prior knowledge, and maybe more, and for maths I really like the idea of interactive objects in things like GeoGebra or Desmos to play with. For chemistry, there are alot of nice little animated interactive slideshows on Scootle explaining all sorts of concepts. This one for example shows Rutherfords gold foil experiment and (in very rough broad terms) explains how it was used to distinguish between different atomic models. There are plenty of such things on Scootle… I’m not the biggest fan of them to be honest, but some are better than others, and in a pinch they could be useful. Obviously it would be preferable to make such things yourself to tailor them to your students, and also because… you could probably do a better job.

Question 3: Gamification?

Prime Climb is a game that can actually be scaled up to use people as the pieces (David Butler actually did this at the 100 Factorial Puzzle Club at the University of Adelaide), and involves addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in order to move up and down a number line starting at zero and going all the way up to 101 (a prime number). You pair up into teams of two, and each team gets a turn — on their turn they roll 2d10 (often spinners are used), and each of the two number can be used to move one person (can move the same person twice, or one each), by either adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing the number they are standing on with the number rolled. The goal is to get both players on your team to 101, and when you do, you WIN. The only extra rules are:

  • If you land on a prime number, you can roll an extra bonus d10, and apply the result to ANYONE on the board, even someone on someone elses team. You can only do this once per turn.
  • If you land on a space already occupied by another player, that player gets moved back to zero.

For awhile I was abit stumped, I thought the idea of gamified learning was fantastic but I couldn’t think of an application to my teaching areas in which it would be both fun and effective. But after some more reflection, I realised Prime Climb would be a perfect example! Hahaha I am so happy with that idea :)

Just for my own personal future reference, I have another maths concept I really want to find a way to gamify into a maths lesson, and it is called Conway’s Rational Tangles. Here is an example of it in practice in a lesson, but I would want to modify the teaching approach to be abit more dynamic to this if possible.

Note: APST standards linked are as specified by Jarrod Johnson (who ran the ICT component).