Coding, Makerspaces and Learning Games
Global Day of Design (May 6, 2019)
- The website has a great selection of design & making challenges including STEM design challenges for children's books
Link to a free site for teachers from Common Sense Media that evaluates learning apps, games, websites and other digital tools. The site was launched in June, 2013.
Interactive Software
This software, devised and developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, specifically aims to interest kids in using data analysis for their own purposes and questions.
- Just as SCRATCH was developed to put the power of programming and all of the math that this entails into an engaging, creative software for teaching children, Tinkerplots endeavors to achieve the same goal with data analysis.
- Read the information and view the movies about it. You can TRY THE PROGRAM by USING IT on a computer IN FURCOLO where we have TEAMS.
http://www.umass.edu/srri/serg/projects/tp/tpmovie.html opens the movies where you can view, TinkerPlots Basics.
Getting Started With Scratch
Scratch is a programming language that is easy enough for kindergarteners to play with and challenging enough for college students and everyone beyond the age of 18 to learn. As an interactive activity, the language utilizes creativity and multiple intelligences first, appeals to both girls and boys, teaches far more than is obvious, and is a way for teachers to differentiate instruction with computers.
Please view the video and consider its great usefulness for teaching math
Scratch: Teaching the Difference Between Creating and Remixing
Robots and Robotics
Roboworld: Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
LEGO Mindstorms: A History of Educational Robots
The world is entering a “Fourth Industrial Revolution ”characterized by unprecedented “developments in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and biotechnology.”(World Economic Forum)
Four Fundamentals of Workplace Automation
- 45% of work activities could be automated using existing technology
- 60% of all occupations could have 30% of their activities automated
- Only 5% of all occupations could be entirely automated using existing technology
- 60% of all occupations could have 30% of their activities automated
The Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford (Basic Books, 2016)
10 Jobs Where Robots Really Are Replacing Humans, Disruption (May 2017)
What is a Robot? PBS Learning Media
Robots: Is Your Job at Risk? CNN Money (September 15, 2017)
Learning to Code
Code with Google (Resources for exploring coding in K-12 classrooms)
For coding apps and learning to code strategies, see Chapter 9 in Kids Have All the Write Stuff by Sharon Edwards, Robert Maloy and Torrey Trust (University of Massachusetts Press, 2019).
Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education from Gallup and Google (August 2015)
- 90% of parents see computer science, or CS, as "a good use of school resources" (and 67% say CS should be required learning alongside other core classes), fewer than 8% of administrators believe parent demand is high
- Some groups are particularly unlikely to access myriad online tutorials to teach themselves coding at home: 75% of Hispanic students have a computer with Internet access at home, compared to 98% of white students and 85% of African-American students
- Girls overall are less likely than boys to have had access to learning CS," says Hong, with 57% of boys versus 49% of girls reporting past exposure to computer science.Nearly six in 10 (58%) students in grades seven to 12 say their school offers classes dedicated to computer science. Among students:
- Slightly fewer (52%) say computer science is taught as part of other classes at their school.
- Less than half (43%) say their school sponsors a computer science group or club.
- One-quarter (25%) report having no access to a computer science class or club at school.
Women Who Choose Computer Science--What Really Matters: The Critical Role of Encouragement and Exposure from Google (May 26, 2014)
'Disrupting' Tech's Diversity Problem with a Code Camp for Girls of Color, NPR (August 17, 2015)
3D Printing, Makerspaces and the Maker Movement
See 3D Printing 4 Teaching & Learning for an informative blog about classroom applications of 3D printing
The Resurgence of 3D Printing in Modern Learning Environments (June 10, 2019)
Using 3D Print Models in the Classroom, Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Yale University (2019)
3D Printing Will Disrupt the World in Ways We Can Barely Imagine, War on the Rocks, December 29, 2015
President Obama Gets First Ever 3D Printed Portrait from YouTube.
Maker Culture Has a "Deeply Unsettling" Gender Problem
Nation of Makers website from the White House
Digital Learning Games
Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked, Henry Jenkins
Children Should be Playing More Games in the Classroom. Here's Why. World Economic Forum (May 11, 2017)
5 Ways Educational Games Improve Learning, According to Teachers. eSchoolNews (October 19, 2017)
- Link to study: Substantial Integration of Typical Educational Games to Extended Curricula
- Bodies of research show that successful edgames must accomplish two goals: 1) Edgames must engage students, 2) Edgames must produce meaningful and substantial learning outcomes as defined by the curricula.
- The style of game play — digital quizzes, commercial games applied to the learning environment, or immersive games designed to help students learn — doesn’t ultimately matter.
- What matters is their ability to reach and teach students.
- Bodies of research show that successful edgames must accomplish two goals: 1) Edgames must engage students, 2) Edgames must produce meaningful and substantial learning outcomes as defined by the curricula.
A Must-Have Guide to Gaming in the Classroom from EdTechReview (June 2013).
Serious Games for Education and Training, Alessandro DeGloria (February, 2014)
Guide to Using Games for Learning, Institute for Play
2011 Game Player Data from the Entertainment Software Association.
- Adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13 percent).
- 72 percent of American households play computer and video games.
11 Virtual Tools for the Math Classroom from Edutopia (October 25, 2013).
Simulation Games as a Learning Resource
Teacher Jeremiah McCall on Simulation Games:
*McCall, J. (2010). Analyzing game principles can teach as much as game content. Teachinghistory.org. Retrieved December 8, 2011, from http://teachinghistory.org/issues-and-research/roundtable-response/25084McCall, J. (2011). Gaming the past: Using video games to teach secondary history. New York: Routledge.
*McCall, J. (2011, October 3). Jeremiah McCall on Using Simulation Games in the History Classroom. Teachinghistory.org. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/25117
McCall, J. (2012). Navigating the Problem Space: The Medium of Simulation Games in the Teaching of History. The History Teacher, 46(1): 9-28.
TOADY Awards 2012 (Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children) from the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. These "awards" are given every year to identify harmful toys and counter the influence of consumerism on the lives of children and families.
Math Apps for Preschool Children
Field Testing the Math Apps, from the New York Times (September 3, 2013) explores new games for preschoolers to learn math.
Graph below shows how much rice grains the website FreeRice has donated from 2007 to 2008
Research on Learning Games/Serious Games
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal. Penguin Press, 2011.
Synthesis Report on the Games, Learning and Assessment (GLA) Workshops
From Wellings, J. & Levine, M. (2009, October). The Digital Promise: Transforming Learning with Innovative Uses of Technology. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center.
- "Three-quarters of American children, including a significant portion of children from economically challenged families, play computer and video games" p. 10).
- Although games are criticized by many commentators as escapist activities lacking educational value, researchers have contended that games promote critical thinking and problem solving.
For more, see Thai, A.M., Lowenstein, D., Ching, D., & Rejeski, D. (2009). Game Changer: Investing in digital play to advance children’s learning and health. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center.
Our Princess is in Another Castle: A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming in Education from the Review of Educational Research, March 2012.
Gaudelli, W. & Taylor, A. (2011). Modding the global classroom? Serious video games and teacher reflection. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 11(1), 70-91. AACE. "Serious video games, or those that simulate the real world, motivate players, require decision-making, and encourage student learning about an issue, have the potential to educate students about global issues."
Fisher, S. (2011) Playing with World War II: A small scale study of learning in video games. Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, Vol 5(8): 71-89.
Video games focus players' attention in ways that can promote engaged learning about topics. Study by York University Professor Stephanie Fisher found that teenagers who played video games about World War II were more interested in learning about history than teens who did not play.
News Games
"I Played the News Today, Oh Boy," Laura Bennett, Boston Sunday Globe, July 3, 2011, pp. K1-K2.
Game developers are beginning to explore ways to present current events using video games.
- Cutthroat Capitalism uses the Somali pirates to examine the economics of piracy in the modern global world.
- Credit Crunch addresses the causes of the 2009 world financial crisis.
- Fallout 3 explores the wreckage of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Japanese nuclear power plant
- Peacemaker focuses on negotiating peace in the Middle East from the perspectives of a Palestinian president or an Israeli prime minister.
Newsgames: Journalism at Play. Ian Bogost, Simon Ferrari, & Bobby Schweizer. MIT Press, 2010.
Gentile, D. (2012, February, 23). Are video games beneficial? WAMC New England Public Radio. Retrieved February 29, 2012, from
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1905687
California 10th Graders Improve Their Writing Skills—Through an Interactive Fiction Game, from School Library Journal (April 2013).
Animations as Learning Technologies
Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS)
Bloom's Two Sigma Problem Revisited (January 23, 2013)