Early information on the wedding is now on its own page on this blog however if you have any questions please add a comment here and that way we can share any information I may have missed out with everyone.
The link for the wedding info is
http://hazel4.edublogs.org/wedding/
Thanks, I am trying to be organised so will see how I go!
I watch this video and although i did like some aspects of it, some of it was also a bit scary. Are these games setting kids up to expect quickly gratifying results. The experts may argue that it takes a long time to master a game but in the end you succeed, unfortunately really life does not follow the same pattern as a computer game. There is no guarantee that eventually you will win. Also how social is gaming really? What about when you have to interact with real people in real social situations, does spending all your free time including school solitary gaming on the computer really help you integrate with people, I dont believe so!
I enjoyed reading Ronnies post about social networking that is allowed in schools
http://ronie.edublogs.org/2008/11/05/if-we-cant-use-it-at-work-why-can-students-use-it-at-school/
and I really think that sites like Elgg are definetly the way of the future. Rather than simpy baning students from utilising the type of technology they are all familar with, we need to focus on the students being able to use alternative censored content sites.
From my KLA which is science I can imagine video casts of students performing experiments and research projects, imagine how amazing and interactive this would be for the students.
I dont know if you can be reactionary to your own posting but to following on from my previous post
Basils blog is exactly what i am talking about
http://basilcapizzi.edublogs.org/2008/11/07/digital-video-a-motivating-force/
I feel like if I had been given more time with this subject then I may have gotten closer to Basils standard.
I am genuinely interested and now that the subject is over, I dont know where to take it from here.
Blogs are also aboubt begining able to use your voice and express your opinions and I feel I would really like to say something about the digital subject.
I feel I have definetely learned some useful information and skills that I will use later on and I have found it to be a very interesting subject. I would however like to point out one thing that the work load is quite high and it might be far more useful to future students if it were a 6CP subject and they were allowed more time to really immerse themselves in the skills and learning experiences of this subject.
The subject should also be in semester one so whatever we learn can them be applied to the other subjects. If I had been made start a blog in the Autumn semester I would have utilised it and kept it running accross all my subjects.
This website is brillant, I only wish i had more time to spend reading on it. Unlike the futurelab article is outs you on the forefront of educational gaming.
There were a couple of game, particularly the envirnomental chemist one that I would love the opportunity to play and I am far from being a devotee of computer games.
The useful links page even outlines how you can get access to try these games out.
http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/vision/VISION_01.pdf
I found this a dissapointing articel and would not put it up there on the must read about gaming articles and education. Author is still harping on about how cames can help us learn, an already established fact! Maybe because it is a couple of years old, 2004?
It seems almost like a history lesson as gaming in education is not the future, its already here!
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0620.pdf
Instead of the usual ditribe on the merits of gaming in education the author moves forward and actually explains why we can learn through the medium of games.
The processes where we propose hypothesis, try them out, often fail and have to go back to the drawing board, so to speak ie cognitive disequlibrium
It is easy to recognise the key elements in Kaylas instruction. I am however skeptical that any teacher would be able to achieve these high levels of motivation and dedication with a group of high school students over such a prolonged period.
There is more than simply a constructivist approach to learning being applied in Kaylas class. The article never focuses on the critical factor of intrinsic motivation tfor the adult students. Many of these adult students may be in high achieving or comission based roles and as such their motivation is probably renumeration or a step up on the career ladder rather than their actual enjoyment or desire to construct the new educatinal concepts simply for the joy of learning.
The desire to see computers in every classroom may result in the loss or reduction of important programs such as music and art being compromised. Very topical in Australia at the moment after current political parties claiming that every child in the classroom would have a laptop.
This line of thought is too simplistic, computers need to be identified and distinguished as a tool of trade rather than a stand alone subject for the most part. Computers are the modern day pen and paper and should be utilised as such. The focus should be on, how computers can better help teachers, teach their subject rather than a paranoid fear of computer replacing the need for their subject.
