Networking Now!!!

"Certainly, Web 2.0 has opened the flood gate on a dam on creativity that we weren’t even fully aware existed, and the explosion of content creation is an indication of the latent energy that’s released when anyone and everyone is able to participate more actively in the different spheres of their lives."

Check out this paper by Steve Hargadon Educational Networking: The Importance Web 2.0 Will Play in Education. He not only offers a great overview of what exactly Web 2.0 is (namely, Educational Networking); but also explores the possibilities and limitations of these technologies in our classrooms.

I have also done some work on Educational Networking for a PD project.  Check it out at Educational Networking: Towards the Twenty First Century Classroom.  The site chronicles my use of the web platform Edmodo with my Social Studies 10 and 11 classes during the Fall of 2009; I also explore limitations and possibilities associated with Educational Networking, and Edmodo in particular.

Network Away!!!

Gaming in the Twenty-First Century Classroom

While teaching high school social studies, working at the local Blockbuster, and sitting in my own living room, I have become aware of the incredible educational potential of some popular video games.  My grade eleven students asked me about the depictions of World War II in the popular game "Call of Duty: World at War", and my grade ten class enjoyed a class of playing Risk and thinking about world domination.  In both cases the students were genuinely engaged and thinking deeper about the media that they are exposed to.

However, some would argue that video games have no place in the classroom, and that we should be discouraging students from engaging in this type of entertainment.  Due to these protests, any teacher interested in bringing commercial games into their classrooms must be aware of WHY.  That is, what does the research say about this?  How can we justify using video games in the classroom?

I was assigned a literature review in one of my classes at the University of Lethbridge, and was immediately eager to see what research there is to support (or discourage) the use of video games in the classroom.  My main concerns were that the articles be empirical (that is, based on real data collected systematically in the classroom), and that they consider commercial, as well as educational, video games. The results of my labor are summed up in the following review...

Gaming in the Twenty-First Century Classroom

I also found this incredible study by Richard Sandford, Mary Ulicsak, Keri Facer and Tim Rudd; in collaboration with EA Games and futurelab.  Teaching With Games: Using Commercial Off the Shelf Games in Formal Education 

Prezi soon to come!!