Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). He has worked with many at-risk school districts nationally and is a thought leader in on-line and blended learning.
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This is pretty amazing as a teacher (Jeff Piontek) I remember going through the process and it was daunting.
Have you ever felt that your online students needed more direction on how to approach a discussion board? Have you thought that with just a bit more assistance students would really engage in the forum and take it to the next level, rather than just do the minimum required to get points?
I have written several useful tips that I would encourage you as faculty to share with your students. These guidelines will assist students as they complete the online discussion board assessment that is inherent in every online course.
Dear students: in order to make this essential assessment both worthwhile and meaningful please take a moment to review these helpful tips and thoughts on how to approach an online discussion board:
1. Firstly, be sure to read all the submissions by your classmates. Most learning platforms, like Blackboard, give your instructor and option to see which students have read what. However, please don’t approach an online forum with the reduced mindset that you HAVE to participate and that I am checking up on your level of engagement, because then in reality you will lose sight of the point of the exercise. For example, if you were in a brick and mortar classroom you would “hear’ all the comments, so why wouldn’t you read all the comments in an online class? The more you participate in the forum the more you will get out of it.
2. Despite what I just said please recognize that an online forum does not translate exactly to a discussion in a traditional class. Because the discussion board is asynchronous the responsibility is on all the members of the class to make sure that the conversation flows, and this only happens if students buy into the assessment and do the work. I promise it will pay dividends.
3. When you are commenting on the posts of your classmates, stay away from the “That’s a good point, Joe.” Or “I agree, Sue.” Those types of comments good places to start but please do not end there. Give your fellow classmates feedback and tell them why it is a good point or how it resonated with you. Put yourself in the role of your teacher and critically evaluate the post of your classmate by providing substantive feedback in the form of a detailed and well thought out response. Peer feedback is the most powerful kind! In addition to assisting your classmates it will help you learn how to critically evaluate a piece of writing. This is a life skill that will serve you long after you leave the classroom.
4. Remember that an online forum is meant to be a discussion, so always respond to those classmates that respond to your original posts. This develops community and rapport and quite frankly it is the polite thing to do. You wouldn’t ignore someone if they spoke to you, would you?
5. Finally, feel free to discuss your opinions on the topic, but always remember to be respectful of different positions that maybe voiced. If your opinion is backed up by facts, be sure to reference your sources appropriately. Some discussion boards are designed to not have a right or wrong answer whereas others ask for research to support a position. Be sure to recognize the difference and respond accordingly.
Jeff Piontek my comments: As a leader in educational technology and online learning I believe that how students communicate with each other and their teachers.
by: Janna Anderson, Lee Rainie
Tech stakeholders and analysts generally believe the use of game mechanics, feedback loops, and rewards will become more embedded in daily life by 2020, but they are split about how widely the trend will extend. Some say the move to implement more game elements in networked communications will be mostly positive, aiding education, health, business, and training. Some warn it can take the form of invisible, insidious behavioral manipulation.
“The development of ‘Serious Games’ applied productively to a wide scope of human activities will accelerate simply because playing is more fun than working,” observed Mike Liebhold, senior researcher and distinguished fellow at The Institute for the Future.
Click here to view credited survey participants’ contributions to the discussion of the future of the Internet and gamification by 2020
Click here to view anonymous survey participants’ contributions to the discussion of the future of the Internet and gamification by 2020M
The survey results are based on a non-random, opt-in, online sample of 1,021 Internet experts and other Internet users, recruited via email invitation, Twitter or Facebook from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University. Since the data are based on a non-random sample, a margin of error cannot be computed, and the results are not projectable to any population other than the experts in this sample.
Click here for full report
There are so many people out there in education who truly don’t understand the power of games and gaming in education. I have been fortunate enough to work with a few people who are experts in the field, Henk Rogers (Tetris) and Mark Loughridge (F9 Entertainment) in the development of games, animations and simulations we have used SUCCESSFULLY in education. You can see some of our work on our website and if you are interested in collaborating then contact us.
If it’s true that 97 percent of teens in the U.S. are playing digital games, then the focus on how games can fit into the shifting education system becomes that much more important. Schools, districts, and individual educators are trying to figure out how games and learning can fit into the current complicated landscape.
The newly released report Games for a Digital Age: K-12 Market Map and Investment Analysis,released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Games and Learning Publishing Council,describes the many different criteria in play in detail, including obstacles from the policy standpoint, lack of teacher development, as well as how the Bring Your Own Device movement is influencing the push towards games and learning.
“Games are more popular than ever with youth today with many students spending hours a day playing them,” said Michael H. Levine, executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. “What we don’t know yet is whether and how they can be a key ally in driving pathways to academic success.”
Though it’s well worth reading the report in its entirety, below are excerpts pulled from the report, conducted and written by Dr. John Richards, Leslie Stebbins and Dr. Kurt Moellering.
The school day is divided into class periods, and this division limits lesson length. Furthermore, the combination of standards and the scope and sequence tied to core curriculum create “coverage” requirements that place practical limits on the number of lessons that can be devoted to a single topic.
Nearly all games fall clearly along a continuum ranging from short-form to long-form with a critical distinction and a bi-modal distribution pattern based on fitting in a class period. As noted by Rob Lippincott, Sr. Vice President of Education, PBS, “Games don’t fit the time box of a class period; a game succeeds when it is sticky and gobbles up more time. You want games in school to finish quickly and speed up learning.” (CS4Ed interview, April 2012).
We placed games into these two time-based categories, short-form and long-form. Within these broad areas fall dozens of different kinds of games, ranging from three-minute apps to open, immersive Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) that involve lengthy game playing. In addition to the length of play, the mechanics of a gaming experience varies broadly, with simple “add-on” gamification-type reward systems falling typically at the short end of the time continuum, and more complex, multiple-path, role playing games falling at the long end. In longer-form games, the game mechanics are typically intrinsic to the learning experience rather than placed at the end of or external to the game play itself.
“Games don’t fit the time box of a class period; a game succeeds when it is sticky and gobbles up more time. You want games in school to finish quickly and speed up learning.”
1. Short-Form Learning Games
In most K-12 schools the day is organized in blocks of time that average 40 minutes or less. Transition time and time for instruction or discussion connected to curricular material frequently leaves only 20 to 30 minutes for actually using a learning game. Short-form games are interactive digital activities that fit within a single class period and have some components common to all learning games. They focus on a particular concept or on skill refinement, skills practice, memorization, or performing specific drills.
Successful short-form games meet an important and defined market need, whether it is by demonstrating a concept to the whole class on an interactive white board, or by providing individual students with practice on a specific concept or skill. Short-form games include drill and practice, brief simulations, visualizations, or simulated training tools, and different types of “game-like” interactive learning objects. These types of games have the potential to be embedded in personalized learning environments or adaptive engines that combine data and feedback loops that are becoming increasingly popular in schools.
This type of game product is starting to gain traction in the K-12 market, due in part to its alignment to standards and to extensive product lines that cover many topics within the curriculum or meet an important, albeit narrow, market need. Teachers find such games easy to access and understand, and the games fit neatly into the short blocks of time available in the structured school day.
2. Long-Form Learning Games
Long-form learning games extend beyond a single class period. Typically game-playing is spread over multiple sessions or even several weeks. Long-form games lend themselves to the development of 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, creativity, and communication. Kurt Squire, [co-founder and current director of the Games, Learning, & Society Initiative] underlines the distinction between the sophisticated learning skills developed through immersive experiences versus games where students are rewarded for memorizing vocabulary words or performing math drills. Squire views games such as Civilization III as having the potential to push students to engage actively in problem solving, reflection, and decision making related to historical and political situations (Squire as quoted in Klopfer, Osterweil, Groff, & Haas, 2009). Other researchers concur, and view long-form, immersive game play as a critical factor supporting a broad arena of social and cognitive learning (Shaffer, 2006; Bogost, 2007).
A number of individual studies have demonstrated that specific long-form games perform better when compared to typical lectures. Examples from research studies include Supercharged!, an electrostatics game that showed a 28% increase in learning (Squire, Barnett, Grant, & Higginbotham, 2004); Geography Explorer, a geology game that showed a 15 to 40% increase in learning (McClean, Saini-Eidukat, Schwert, Slator, & White, 2001); Virtual Cell, a cell biology game that showed a 30–63% increase in learning (McClean et al., 2001); and River City, a game that showed a 370% increase in learning for D students and 14% increase for B students (Ketelhut, 2007).
Recent research also points to the significance of the engagement factor produced by long-form learning games. Engagement fosters motivation and keeps students involved in the learning experience. While many educational software products have focused on extrinsic rewards for skills practice, longer form games where game play and learning are closely connected have been proven to be even more engaging than following a learning task with an external reward (Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011).
The authors of a report issued by the Committee on Science Learning at the National Research Council concluded that simulations and games have great potential to improve science learning in the classroom because they can “individualize learning to match the pace, interests, and capabilities of each particular student and contextualize learning in engaging virtual environments” (Honey & Hilton, 2011). The authors also echoed previous research demonstrating the appeal and engagement of learning games, and indicate that games can help support new inquiry-based approaches to science instruction by providing virtual laboratories or field learning experiences that overcome practical constraints.
The time required for playing long-form games has proven to be a significant barrier
to their widespread adoption. As Dave McCool, co-founder, President and CEO of Muzzy
Lane Software explains, “For us, with Making History3, it was a matter of having a product that was deep and narrow and was only needed for content that was covered for one week of the curriculum” (CS4Ed interview, February 2012).
In our interview, Scott Traylor, CEO and founder of 360KID, argued that long-form games can more easily fit into the homework side of the equation and that class time can be reserved for discussing results of the homework activities, strategies, and content learned (CS4Ed interview, March 2012). This “flipped classroom” model addresses the classroom time factor in that teachers can control how much time is spent on discussion sessions. However, there remain challenges with connectivity for students from lower-income households. As more schools experiment with various forms of online and blended learning, a better fit between available class time and long-form games may emerge.
The language of gaming and learning games is still in flux, and there has been little agreement between experts in the field about what falls under the category of “learning game” and what is not a game, but has “game-like” elements. Not surprisingly, the literature of games contains no agreed upon definition of a learning game. When we asked our interviewees what they considered a game, we found no consensus. One extreme cited any “formative assessment based on an adaptive engine,” while the other cited products with aspects of game mechanics such as badges, rewards, and points. Although the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Codie awards category is for “Games and Simulations” (and researchers are sometimes careful to distinguish between simulations and games), for the purposes of this report we have included simulations in our broad definition of learning games.
… longer form games where game play and learning are closely connected have been proven to be even more engaging than following a learning task with an external reward.
Such a wide range of products is confusing to the K-12 audience, because “games” can vary from products that are prototypical to ones that only leverage somewhat extraneous game mechanics to engage and to motivate. Confusion among types of games is of particular concern when examining the research evidence of the effectiveness of games in learning. Most university-based research evaluates learning games in environments that engage students for several weeks with immersive, challenging experiences. Thus, when researchers argue that learning games are efficacious, promote critical thinking, and engage 21st century skills, it is not necessarily clear that these conclusions apply to many shorter forms of learning games.
All games have game mechanics that are the central element of the game and, to some degree, are integrated with the learning content. As James Gee argues in his keynote at the 2012 Games for Change conference, the extent to which the mechanics of creating motivation and directing attention is intrinsic to the content of the game can greatly influence learning outcomes.
Gamification is the use of game-based elements or game mechanics to drive user engagement and actions in non-game contexts. In gamification, the game mechanics are divorced from the content being taught and are instead added in the form of some sort of reward element after completion of an activity. For example, a short-form math game that involves answering math questions where correct answers are followed by a badge or the reward of playing a “dunk the clown” game would be called gamification. David Dockterman, Ed.D., Chief Architect, Learning Sciences with Tom Snyder Productions/Scholastic is concerned about this use of game mechanics, stating “Gamification can begin to undermine a kid’s desire to learn” (CS4Ed interview, March, 2012).
The systemic barriers to entry include:
However, recent trends provide an increasingly positive arena for learning games and other digital products, including:
To understand where we’re heading in education and edtech, it’s important to look back at our educational roots.
As we searched for some of most memorable moments and discoveries in the history of education, we found there are lots of things that haven’t changed in hundreds of years! The groundwork for clunky, physical textbooks was set by the Ancient Greeks, and in the Middle Ages, the lecture format of teaching emerged.
Today, we’re excited to be part of a bustling edtech community modernizing and improving education. Free digital textbooks, open online classes, and open educational resources make education more affordable and accessible for students around the globe. For a full look at the past, present, and future of education, check out the infographic below!
– See more at: http://blog.boundless.com/2013/02/the-history-of-education-infographic/#sthash.YXVaYsUn.dpuf
This is a great article by a great leader who understands what needs to be done for our students, teachers and parents and is actually not afraid to do it!!
Hesitation on administrators’ part is often cited as a top barrier to incorporating more social media tools in classrooms. But with a carefully crafted social media policy, educators and administrators can learn to use social media tools effectively with students.
Advocates of social media in the classroom say that, when used properly, social media tools can boost student engagement, link students to content experts and real-world examples of classroom lessons, and help them establish an online body of work.
“I think we need to rethink the way we’re doing education,” said Patrick Larkin, assistant superintendent for learning for Burlington Public Schools in Massachusetts. (For more on the district’s technology efforts, read abouteSN’s 10th annual Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards. Burlington Superintendent Eric Conti was one of the 10 winners.)
Larkin said that social media tools can help students develop proficiency with technology; learn to create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia text; and manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of information.
School leaders “have to get teachers comfortable with it first, before students will learn how to do it responsibly and effectively,” Larkin cautioned, adding that educators often have to learn and develop comfort levels with social media policy and new concepts associated with social media tools.
Shortly after Conti assumed the superintendency in Burlington, he expanded the district’s technology experimentation and social media policy, which Larkin said was very restrictive prior to Conti’s arrival.
“It has to start with the leaders in the schools embracing [social media] and modeling it, not just talking about it, and that trickles to the teachers, because eventually we want it to end up in the classroom,” Larkin said.
Along with its expanded social media policy, the district embraced Project 365, a popular concept in which schools post daily blog entries featuring a student, educator, parent, or other school-related idea or news.
Incorporating social media tools into classroom instruction has helped the district expand its reach and educational abilities, Larkin said.
“To be able to know where to find people and connect is one of the most important things we can teach our students to do,” he said. “If we can find out how the world is ticking and how things are changing from [using] social media tools outside of schools, I think it’s past time that we started embracing this tradition in our classrooms.”
He added: “Whether we are embracing these tools in our classrooms or not, most likely, your students are using Twitter.”
Larkin has many student followers on Twitter and follows those who follow him. He locked his account so that fellow Twitter users could not view the students’ accounts.
Advocates of social media in the classroom say that, when used properly, social media tools can boost student engagement, link students to content experts and real-world examples of classroom lessons, and help them establish an online body of work.
Twitter’s emergence gave the district the chance to impart a valuable lesson to students.
“We know that colleges are Google-searching our kids; we’re heard it first-hand from admissions officers,” Larkin said.
Larkin took actual Tweets that used foul language from students, made the users anonymous, and presented the tweets to students and asked them what they would think if those tweets popped up during a college admissions officer’s search.
Students were shocked to see how easily that information appeared online, he said, adding that many students didn’t know that unless they made their Twitter accounts private, anyone could view their Tweets—even if that person did not follow them on Twitter.
“If we’re not having these conversations in our schools and as a community, I think you’re doing your kids a disservice—and the parents; parents need help, too,” he said.
And students need more than rules on what not to do, Larkin said.
“If the only thing we’re saying is, ‘Don’t do something wrong,’… Our goal should be to not have empty Google searches when someone does a search of our students, but that they find amazing work when they do those Google searches,” he said.
Students and teachers in the district are working to make sure that examples of student projects, research, and extracurricular activities appear online.
Too often, school social media use only appears in the news when it concerns something bad, Larkin said, and his district strives to spread the word about students’ responsible and positive social networking.
“The fact that we’re able to share good news—that’s what our goal is; to share what students are doing and what teachers are doing,” he said.
“I think we really have to focus on the ability that our students have to be creators,” Larkin added. “Social media is the way to get that out.”
Opening up lines of communication via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking tools also helps students check on their peers’ safety. In one case, a student saw something alarming on a friend’s Facebook page and reached out to Larkin because he was worried. The student in question was safe.
“He reached out to me because he could—we’re connected, which is great. The times I’ve been contacted, it’s been when people needed to contact me,” Larkin said.
“The positive examples don’t get the play in the news media,” he said. “But our job in our schools is to show that these things are used responsibly and well, routinely, and that’s been the case for us.”
Schools can follow a few basic guidelines for using social networking in class, and they can add to or customize the rules according to their unique needs:
Teachers often create Twitter hashtags specific to class projects or initiatives so that students can collaborate, discuss the subject matter anytime they wish, and then locate all tweets that include that specific hashtag.
“[Teachers have] access to tools, but we still ask teachers to think about their goals and objectives,” Larkin said. “A crappy lesson with an iPad is very similar to a crappy lesson without an iPad.”
The district’s ultimate goal is to be a BYOD school, and grades 6-8 one-to-one implementation begins in February after an initial implementation at the high school level.
BYOD plans will progress, but initially, Larkin said that district leaders “didn’t feel that the adults were ready to have a bunch of kids with different devices and platforms.”
In addition to iPads and Twitter, the district uses NetTexts for eBooks, Edmodo, Twitucate, EverNote, and Notability.
“Make sure administrators support you first; make sure parents know what is coming, and pay attention to age specifications on sites,” Larkin said.
You don’t have to be in a 1:1 classroom to infuse technology into your instruction. If you have one iPad in your classroom, turn it into a technology station during literacy or math small group work. A group of 3-4 students can work collaboratively on one iPad with these fantastic free apps:
1. Toontastic: Students can work in small groups to write a script based on a story they know or one they’ve created. Toontastic allows users to tell their story by choosing a setting, creating characters, and moving each character while they record dialogue. Students must identify the tone of a story, sequence events, and act out the different parts. Each child can play the role of a character, or take on jobs like set designer and director. Using Toontastic students can draw and record their tale, creating a final product that’s perfect to share with the class or on a back-to-school night. These videos are also great for digital portfolios.
2. Math Fluency: Instead of having students use paper flashcards to quiz each other on math facts try one of the free iPad apps – there are many to choose from – that quiz students on addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Using just one iPad (or iPod Touch) students can work in teams to quiz one another to reinforce these basic skills. Fluency is an important foundational skill and digital flashcards are an easy way to create a technology math station.
3. Camera: The iPad camera offers many opportunities for students to work together collaboratively. Students can snap pictures of their group acting out scenes from a story or describing the feelings of a character. Whether they’re filming public service announcements, retelling a story they’re read, giving a book recommendation or conducting interviews, small groups can work together to complete a task using the iPad camera.
4. Screencasting: Doceri and ScreenChomp are two fantastic free apps that students can use in small groups. Have a team solve a math word problem and document the steps they’ve taken to find their answer. Students can each take on a role (as speaker, writer, timekeeper, director) or each model a different part of the problem. These tutorials can be shared with the whole class or included in digital portfolios. Differentiate the task by having students work on problems at their level or in a heterogeneous group. These screencasts can be used as a form of assessment to see if students can explain their thinking – and work collaboratively.
5. Teleprompter: Students can practice choral reading to build fluency using the iPrompt iPad app. Choose a famous text – or one you and your students have written – and cut and paste it into the app. Change the font size and speed of delivery to meet the needs of your students. Have students read in unison or act as a timekeeper for another child. It’s a great way to connect to the Speaking and Listening anchor standards of the Common Core.
Editor’s note: Daniel Burrus is a leading futurist on tech trends and innovation. He is the author of six books, including the New York Times best seller Flash Foresight.
Today’s smartphones are much more than phones — they are powerful, networked multimedia computers, and over the next 10 years they’ll get far more advanced. As a result, mobility is transforming many day-to-day processes — including how we sell, communicate, collaborate, train, and educate.
Here are six key technological developments that will revolutionize the smartphone over the next decade.
3–D display
Your smartphone will have a 3-D display and a 3-D web browser, and you won’t need special glasses to view it. So instead of just viewing web pages on your smart phone, you’ll be able to go into environments (or stores or showrooms) and maneuver around in them, just as you do on devices like the Xbox.
Alternatively, you’ll be able to see things sticking out from the screen, again without the special glasses. So the 3-D web on your smartphone will be a game-changer for business.
Biometric security
Rather than have to remember numerous passwords, you will be able to access data and sites on your smartphone using multiple biometric authentications. Advanced screen resolution and sensors on the phone will make this possible.
For example, when you touch the screen, it will recognize you based on your fingerprint. In addition, your phone’s front-facing camera will use facial recognition to identify you. Everyone’s voice is unique, so voice recognition will also be part of the identification/security process.
How you handle the phone — your keystrokes and touch/maneuver patterns — are also unique. The number of biometrics used will depend on the level of security you want based on what you are doing. For example, if you’re accessing your Facebook account, you may only want one biometric for authentication. However, if you’re doing a high-level security activity (such as banking via your smartphone), you’ll likely want to use multiple biometrics.
Wireless payments
Your smartphone will become your wallet. Credit cards are easy, but e-wallets are easier. Currently, Google has a mobile wallet that works with Citi MasterCard, and in the future it will work with other credit cards. It is secure and enables you to make payments with your smartphone.
In the near future, as every financial service firm gets into mobile payments, you will move very quickly from a leather wallet to a smartphone wallet.
In the near future, as every financial service firm gets into mobile payments, you will move very quickly from a leather wallet to a smartphone wallet. One example of an enabling technology is NFC — near-field communications chips — which are being built into smart phones as you read this article. They allow for secure and easy payment, so be ready for it.
Personal concierge
Your ultra intelligent agent will get smarter. The first ultra intelligent agent was Apple’s Siri. As Siri-like agents advance, they will turn into personal assistants and will be able to search the web for you and bring back focused, highly relevant information based on how long you have used your e-agent and how well it knows you.
In other words, your ultra intelligent agent will know your preferences, your likes, and your needs and will automatically compile, present, and share what’s pertinent to you.
Additionally, your ultra intelligent agent will have a face when you are looking at the screen and a personality that you choose. You’ll even see celebrities licensing the rights to their digital likeness and personality to be used as ultra intelligent agents.
No more screens
Some of your smartphones will be screen-less. The traditional smartphone with a screen will not go away, but you will have an option for a screen-less smartphone. This will be a very popular and highly adopted smartphone because without the screen, you get rid of much of the need for a big battery.
Think of the screen-less smartphone like the little piece of jewelry people wore on the old “Star Trek” TV show. The screen-less smartphone will be touch and voice activated. When you tap it, you’ll be connected to your ultra intelligent agent, which is part of a super computer in the cloud. Whatever you need, your ultra intelligent agent will be able to verbally give you the information, such as turn-by-turn directions, reading your email to you and so on.
Hyper-connectivity
Your smartphone will interface with smart surfaces. We are already seeing the beginning of using touch and voice-operated intelligent screens as tabletop computers that can access the internet. Simply by placing your smartphone on these surfaces, the two will link together. Additionally, your ultra intelligent agent will flow from your smartphone to the screen.
This is just a small sampling of what we’ll see for future smartphone technology. All of these advancements are in their early stages today. So keep in mind that if it can be done, it will be done. The question is, who will be first?
