Game-Based Learning Vs Gamification

ISTE Certification with TCEA

TCEA Certification: Cohort Deuce ✌

A great group of people from Texas, Lousiana, and Arkansas make up Cohort Deuce ✌for ISTE Certification through TCEA. The face to face training was held on October 16-17, 2018 at the TCEA headquarters in Austin, TX. Educators including teachers, coaches, instructional designers, and professional developers made up this motley crew.

Special thanks go out to Dr. Bruce Ellis, Peggy Reimers, and Miguel Guhlin for making this two day event interactive and engaging.

This certification brings rigor and critical thinking needed to be an educator in the 21st Century. This isn't the typical read through a module, take a test kind of certification. This certification is extensive, time consuming, and cumulative. Think twice before you take on this challenge!

So many great conversations on standards, pedagogy and resources were had at the two day experience. One resource that I've begun to use immediately is a Chrome extension called Toby Mini. Do you have numerous tabs pinned and/or open on a daily basis? Tabs that you use everyday? Or tabs that are open because you are working on a lesson or research project? If you're answer is yes, you're not alone! In my browser, on any given day, I have approximately 10-15 tabs open for a variety of projects.

Chrome Extension Toby Mini

The Chrome extension called Toby Mini will help you solve your tab affliction or affinity. Toby Mini allows you to categorize your tabs into collections. So if you're working on a research project, or a lesson on the American Revolution, you can keep all of your tabs in one category. You can create several categories for your immediate need. And when you're done with the project just close remove the category.

Each time you open the Chrome browser Toby will be there waiting for you. Give it a try!

Hyperdoc

Using Canva

Below you will find the documents used in the Using Canva professional development session.
The presentation can be found here. You can find free copyright free images from Pixabay.com and free icons from thenounproject.com.

Uploading a screencast to youtube

Putting your screencast on youtube by lfraga

Using Videos With A Purpose

Using Videos With A Purpose

This presentation is about using EDpuzzle in your courses. 

Gamification in Education

Presentation on Gamification

Presentation Software with a Difference

Hello! Thank you for attending the presentation. 

This presentation goes through two alternative software applications that can be used instead of PowerPoint. As an instructor, many times we ask our students to present the content in which they have learned. Most students rely heavily on the bulleted PowerPoint presentation where the information is read from lengthy text on a slide. These two alternatives provides a different way for instructors as well as students to present content in a more visually appealing way. 

Thought Provoking Questions

It has been suggested that promoting active open discussions begins with thought provoking questions… questions that support more active participation. Many professors are looking to provide opportunities for their students to critically think about the content. But how do we get passive learners to participate with the intent to engage with you, others and the content? Professors can begin to focus on the kinds of questions that are asked. Are the questions open-ended to further critical thinking or just one-word responses?

The following provides suggestions to build engagement in the classroom through thoughtful questions. Based on the list compiled by Tom Drummond, North Seattle Community College.

·      
    Description: What did you see? What happened? What is the difference between…?

·      Reflection: What was interesting, Why? What was surprising, Why?

·      Analogy: What else does it remind you of? What else does it look like?

·      Purpose: What is the purpose of…? What is the function of…?

·      Procedures: How was this done…? What is usually

·      Possibility: What else could be done…? If we didn’t have, or couldn’t use, …, what could …?

·      Prediction: What will happen if…? What will you see? What will be the effect?

·      Justification: How can you tell? What evidence led you to…?

·      Rationale: Why do you think that? What is the reason…?

·      Generalization: What is the same about…?

·      Definition: What does _______ mean?  

Finally, after posing these questions, learners need time to process. Wait time is crucial in allowing students to articulate their responses. Allowing students at least 5 seconds of think time can encourage more thoughtful answers.

For more information about asking thoughtful questions, please visit the following link. http://tomdrummond.com/best-practices/

Reference:

Drummond, T. (2012). A Brief Summary of the Best Practices in Teaching. North Seattle Community College. Retrieved from http://tomdrummond.com/best-practices/.

Time to Rejuvenate

The semester is ending and as we begin counting the days down to a much-needed break, remember to take some time for yourself. During the break we relish in the time when there aren’t any papers to grade or meetings to attend. However, this is usually a time when many finish writing or begin to write. As a reminder, our brains need a break as well and when that time comes… stop and take some time for yourself. Some will take a walk, watch a mindless show or read a book. If reading is your outlet, here are a couple of books that will help to reenergize and inspire you.

The Element: How Finding your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson

The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the Element and those that stifle that possibility. Drawing on the stories of a wide range of people, including Paul McCartney, Matt Groening, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Bart Conner, he shows that age and occupation are no barrier and that this is the essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities in the twenty-first century.

A breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement from one of the world's leading thinkers on creativity and self-fulfillment.

Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson

From the Inside Flap

There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt. Too often they say they can't find them. Why not? In this provocative and inspiring book,

Ken Robinson addresses three vital questions:

•       Why is it essential to promote creativity? Business leaders, politicians and educators emphasize the vital importance of promoting creativity and innovation. Why does this matter so much?

•       What is the problem? Why do so many people think they're not creative? Young children are buzzing with ideas. What happens as we grow up and go through school to make us think we are not creative?

•       What can be done about it? What is creativity? What can companies; schools and organizations do to develop creativity and innovation in a deliberate and systematic way?

In this extensively revised and updated version of his bestselling classic, Out of Our Minds, Ken Robinson offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding creativity in education and in business. He argues that people and organizations everywhere are dealing with problems that originate in schools and universities and that many people leave education with no idea at all of their real creative abilities. Out of Our Minds is a passionate and powerful call for radically different approaches to leadership, teaching and professional development to help us all to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and working in the 21st century.

Increasing Communication with Students

Below is the screencast that coincides with the presentation. 

How to Use Podcasts in the Classroom

12 active learning techniques for the university classroom

You’ve been to training sessions or workshops that encourage you to move away from a traditional lecture based course to adding more active engaged learning techniques. Adding active learning techniques can help engage students with the content and support deeper learning environments. So how do you do that? What does it mean to provide active learning?

The following list is part of a list compiled by the University of Waterloo Center for Teaching Excellence that provide various active learning techniques that you might use in conjunction with the traditional lecture format. These techniques are suitable for any size of class.

Brainstorming:
In this activity, students generate ideas that you record on a whiteboard or computer screen. When beginning a new topic, you might begin by saying, “Tell me everything you know about…” You may decide to put the students’ comments into categories, or you might ask students to suggest categories and comment on the accuracy and relative importance of the array of facts, impressions, and interpretations. The main rules of brainstorming are to acknowledge every offering by writing it down and save any critiquing until after the idea generation time is over.

Case study:
                        Special features:

The case-study method was pioneered at the Harvard law and business schools. Business and law cases tend to be very detailed and long, and take several classes to analyze, but instructors can apply a simplified case-study method (described below) for teaching in many disciplines. Applying theory to an instance as described by some source material can demonstrate the applicability of the course material beyond the classroom.

A good case study:

Presents students with a situation they can relate to from their own life experience.

Includes realistic information. Examples can include scripts of exchanges that took place between key parties, news articles about situations of interest, background information about the organization of interest, etc.

Has a conflict that students can resolve.

            Procedure:

Get source material (short story, news articles, account of a decision or procedure, video, role-play script, etc.) to use as the basis for the case study.

Provide students with a focus or framework to use in doing their analysis.

Give students time to analyze the case individually or in groups, and to write down their analysis. Begin a discussion of students’ analyses. Act as a mediator of the discussion. Don’t offer your own opinion except to provide guidance on the process (remind students of the framework if discussion becomes unfocused). After analysis has been completed, show how the case study illustrates application of theoretical or background concepts in course material.

           
                        Function in the class:

Use a case study to lead into a discussion or lecture of course material, showing its relevance by referring back to the case study.

Debates:
Debates allow you to add a participatory dimension to your lecture without compromising your control of the class. One strategy is to divide students according to where they happen to sit. Another approach is to ask them in advance to seat themselves in the section representing a particular side of the debate. When some students refuse to choose one side or the other, create a middle ground and invite their reasons for choosing it. Before concluding, you should ask two or three volunteers to make summary arguments for each side.

                        Special features:

Debates can be formal or informal: what follows is about informal debates (i.e., debating as a method of class discussion). See Bean (1996) for instructions for holding a formal debate – a much more complicated and lengthy process that can be a focal point for an entire segment of course material. A debate is a good way to encourage class participation in large groups without losing control, and they can work in any discipline. Instructors can plan debates beforehand, or they can emerge spontaneously from classroom material.

                        Procedure:

Describe the background context, and explain why you are having a debate.

Consider establishing ground rules for the discussion (ex. Disagreements are welcome name-calling and interruptions are not) Decide on the two (or more) sides to the debate. Physically group the class according to points of view: either assign students a point of view depending on where they sit, or ask people who want to argue each point of view to move to sit together. Invite someone from one side to begin the debate by stating his/her point of view. Invite someone from the other side to state the opposite point of view. Open the floor to comments that question or expand on the issues that were raised. For large groups, you may want to have speakers raise their hands while you moderate, but for small groups, anyone can speak up. The debate will probably start slowly at first, but the intensity should pick up as the students become more comfortable with the new style of in-class interaction. You, as moderator, can ask provocative questions, but don’t express judgment on any point of view or students will hesitate to bring out new ideas for fear of being embarrassed. After 10 to 15 minutes of debating, end the debate.

                       
                        Function in the class:

            Use ideas and conflicts from the debate to lead into your presentation of course                         material.

Formative (ungraded) quizzes:This technique involves writing quiz questions on the board, project on screen, or a handout and giving students an appropriate time to respond. You may wish to collect anonymous responses, or if the question entails multiple-choice responses, students can raise their hands in agreement as you announce each response. A quiz at the beginning of class allows you to determine how familiar students are with important terms, facts or concepts prior to the lecture, while a quiz that follows a lecture segment can reveal how well students understood the material.

                        Special features:

An ungraded quiz encourages students to pay attention during lectures by presenting them with a short-term, non-threatening learning objective. It can be done very quickly, and also provides you with a source of candid feedback on students’ knowledge level.

                        Procedure:

Write question(s) on the board, computer screen, or handout

Give students five to ten minutes to respond on a blank sheet of paper (depending on the atmosphere in the class, you may keep the quiz anonymous or ask students to put their names on papers) Collect papers and report on responses next time the class meets
One variation: Prepare multiple-choice answer options and present each one in turn, asking for a show of hands.

Another variation: Before (or instead of) collecting quiz papers, have students exchange and "grade" each other’s quiz papers based on the answers you present. This grading is to allow students to provide the students with timely feedback so that they can gauge their understanding and should not be used as a formal assessment.

                        Function in the class:

Use ungraded quizzes at the beginning of a lecture to determine the level of knowledge, or at the end of a lecture as a review and incentive for students to retain and comprehend information. Alternatively, use an ungraded quiz at the end of a lecture to gauge how successful you’ve been in teaching the material.

5Guided analysis:

            Special features:

This technique helps students develop their analytical skills in any field by observing your analytical skills in action.

           
                        Procedure:

Select a document (a short review, section of computer programming, poem, proof, chart, abstract from an article, news item, etc.) to analyze as an example. Make enough copies of a similar document to distribute to all class members or to small groups (depending on your preference). Perform an analysis of your document in front of the class, making clear the procedure you use to reach your assertions, and using visual aids and supplementary material as necessary. Give students five to ten minutes to analyze their document: the conclusions they reach will be their own, but they will have learned rigor and analytical skills from you. Depending on class size, have students (or representatives from small groups) present their analysis, and respond to each one.

                        Function in the class:

An entire 50-minute tutorial or lecture can be structured around this exercise. Consider leading into the exercise with a mini-lecture on the type of document you and your students will be analyzing.

Modeling analytical skills:This involves viewing and analyzing passages of text, paintings, sonatas, graphs, charts, artifacts, etc. together with your students. You should make sure students have a copy of the document in front of them (or visual access through slides or overhead transparencies), and then follow three steps: model the analysis, let the students practice it, and then give them feedback.

One-minute paper or short writes:Punctuating your class with short writing assignments is a powerful way to assess the degree to which students understand presented material. You might ask, “What was the most important thing you learned during this class?” “What questions remained unanswered?” or “Summarize the main point of today’s lecture in one sentence.”

                        Special features:

The one-minute paper and the ungraded quiz that follows are both examples of ungraded, written, in-class activities (see Davis, 1993 p. 209-212 for more options). These activities are a flexible way to acquire candid feedback on the course material and your presentation style. The one-minute paper can be done especially quickly and it shows students that they can write quickly and spontaneously, and enhances general writing ability.

                        Procedure:

Give a prompt for the paper such as “what was the most important concept of this lecture?” or “what was the muddiest point of this lecture?” Give students one or two minutes to think about the topic without writing anything. Give students a short period of time (1 minute?) to write as much as they can. Collect papers (depending on the class atmosphere and the types of questions used, you may ask students to put their names on them but generally these ungraded assignments are left anonymous to encourage open responses to the questions.)

                        Function in the class:

Assign one-minute papers at the end of a class to gauge comprehension, provide general writing practice, and give students an incentive to absorb and comprehend course material. Consider using the content of one-minute papers to plan content of upcoming classes: when students see that the instructor responds to their concerns, confusions, and questions in future classes, they will be motivated to participate.

Pro and con grid:The pro and con grid lists advantages and disadvantages of any issue and helps students develop analytical and evaluative skills. It also forces students to go beyond their initial reactions, search for at least two sides to the issue, and weigh the value of competing claims. Let students know how many pros and cons you expect and whether they should use point form or full sentences.

                        Special features:

This technique helps students develop analytical and evaluative skills, and encourages them to go beyond initial reactions to complex issues. It can be used in any discipline: students can evaluate the pros and cons of a procedure, technique, conclusion, action of a fictional character, political decision, etc.

                        Procedure:

Divide students into small groups, if necessary. Specify how many pros and cons you’d like each individual or group to develop. Allow five to ten minutes for discussion or silent thought. Ask for input: write pros on one side of the board and cons on the other side. Combine pros and cons that are very similar, and count the number of times they recur to show their perceived importance.

                        Function in the class:

Consider using the pros and cons as the basis for a debate, or for a discussion/lecture structured around the evaluation of course material.

Problem solving: demonstrations, proofs and stories:Begin a lecture with a question, a paradox, an enigma, or a compelling, unfinished human story. Solving the problem, depending on what it is or in what field, may require a scientific demonstration, a mathematical proof, an economic model, the outcome of a novel’s plot, or a historical narrative. You refer back to the problem throughout the lecture, inviting students to fill in imaginative spaces in the story (or model) with their own solutions. Students fill in their successive answers passively, or the instructor elicits responses which are recorded on the board and discussed. Example questions include: “What do you think will happen?” “Which solution, outcome, or explanation makes the most sense to you?”

Questioning:
Questions are the simplest form of interaction and can occur at any time during the lecture. By asking questions, you not only turn students into active participants, but you can also get a sense of their interest and comprehension. You might try asking questions at strategic points or asking for comments or opinions about the subject. Vary the timing of your questions though to avoid creating a known pattern for students that can lull them into passivity.

                        Special features:

Questions are the simplest form of interactive teaching tool. They are useful in any discipline. They can help make students active learners and gauge their level of interest and comprehension.

                        Procedure:

Develop key questions before class. They won’t occur to you on the spot.

Decide when you’re going to ask them. Thinking ahead also allows you to plan your time. Ask questions that can be answered, but favor open-ended questions over yes/no questions. Vary the form and level of the questions. Questions that have multiple correct answer or that rely only on general knowledge are good for encouraging participation. More complex questions can be used to gauge student knowledge.

Ask only one question at a time or you will confuse the students. Pause between asking and accepting replies (pausing gives students a chance to think of an answer, and by not asking the first person who raises his/her hand, you encourage quieter students to participate). Acknowledge all answers – thank students for participating, repeat their comments so the class can hear and/or write them on the board. This supports continued participation. Keep the whole class involved in the question and answer exchange. Move around the room when trying to elicit participation. When responding to a student question or comment, split your attention so that you are focused on the class in general 75% of the time and the student commenter 25% of the time.

                        Function in the class:

Questions are integral to the success of discussion groups. They can also be the organizing principle behind a tutorial or lecture. During lectures, ask questions early on to stimulate interest and gauge students’ level of knowledge; in the middle, to break the pace of the lecture; and/or at the end, to review main ideas and gather ideas for future classes.

 Role playing:The first step in this lecture variation is to give a mini-lecture to establish the context and setting for the role-playing. Then divide the class into a number of small groups of varying sizes (if you have a large class, you may have to assign duplicate roles). Each group is assigned a clearly delineated role and given a specific, concrete task – usually to propose a position and course of action. To bring closure to the topic, a debriefing exercise is necessary to help identify what students learned and make the transition to the next topic

                        Special features:

Role-plays can be used to allow students to experiment with different styles of interaction, practice new communication techniques or explore complex issues. They are generally used in classes dealing with social issues (social sciences, management sciences, etc.) or communication strategies (interviewing techniques, conflict management, etc.). If possible, participate in a role-play yourself before trying one in class. Essentially, a role-play is a form of interactive case study where the experience of participating in the role-play is the basis for further discussion.

                        Procedure:

Get scenarios and characters for role-plays from news stories, history books, generic business situations, or by writing them yourself from scratch. Explain why you are using a role-play to cover course material. Describe the background context or setting to the role-play. Give roles to “players”: hand them a card with a brief description of the character they’re playing, their point of view, characteristics, etc. For groups with more students than possible roles, you can either assign “observer” tasks to non-players (e.g., taking notes on a particular player), or assign identical roles to sub­groups of students (e.g., one student can play a city council member, and a sub-group of four or five students can play a homeowners’ coalition). Ask for volunteers for certain roles or observers: you may use this as one way to allot bonus points to students. Allow a few minutes for students to prepare for their roles. After 10-15 minutes, end the role-play.

                        Function in the class:

Debrief and discuss the role-play. Use players’ perceptions and observers’ notes to lead into discussion of course material. Pay special attention to conflicts, ambiguities, etc.

Think-pair-sharing:In its simplest form, students think about a particular question or scenario then they pair up to discuss their ideas. They then share their results in a large class discussion. Think-pair-sharing forces all students to attempt an initial response to the question, which they can then clarify and expand as they collaborate. This process should take five to ten minutes, depending on the question’s complexity. An extension of this format is to have two pairs join each other and compare answers.

References:

Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. 2nd edition. San Francisco: Jossy-Bass.

Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Center for Teaching Excellence. Nine alternatives to lecturing. The University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada. Retrieved from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/alternatives-lecturing/active-learning/varying-your-teaching-activities.

Davis, B.G. (1993). Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Newble, D. & Cannon, R. (1989). A Handbook for Teachers in Universities and Colleges: A Guide to Improving Teaching Methods. New York: Kogan Page.

Prégent, R. (1994). Charting Your Course: How to Prepare to Teach More Effectively. English edition. Madison, WI: Magna.

Prichard, K.W. & Sawyer, R. M. (1994). Handbook of College Teaching: Theory and Applications. Westport, CT: Greenwood.