October 2007 Belmore South Public School

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Do 21st Century students need to be exposed to a

different kind of learning? • Google now indexes 24,000,000,000 pages • Today’s children will be adults in a world where computers may

be 1,000,000,000 times more powerful than today Prensky (2005)

• Less need to teach facts and lower order skills

• More need for higher order cognitive and metacognitive skills

www.istockphoto.com://www.vleuk.com

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Constructing new ideas or concepts based upon current / past knowledge

The learner * selects and transforms information * constructs hypotheses * makes decisions relying on cognitive structures to do so

Seymour Papert . . . Constructivism

www.connectedfamily.com/.../seymour_idit.jpg

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Games are the most ancient and time-honoured vehicle for education. They are the original educational technology, the natural one, having received the seal of approval of natural selection. We don't see mother lions lecturing cubs at the chalkboard; we don't see senior lions writing their memoirs for posterity.

The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford 1982

http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html

Chris Crawford

http://www.etravelphotos.com/photo.php?pid=2164

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6530827.stm

http://photovault.com/show.php?cat=People/Little/gPlaygrounds?tg=PLGVolume01/PLGV01P08_18

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

an education science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, advocates that school-going children should be permitted to play video games in school.

According to Shaffer, video games will help attain a higher order of learning for today’s generation of kids who are tech savvy. www.techshout.com/gaming/2007/13/

David Williamson Shaffer

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Literature on school improvement is full of exhortations to make the content of instruction

"relevant.“

if one does belong to a culture in which video games are important, transforming oneself from a consumer to a producer of games may well be an even more powerful way for some children to find importance in what they are doing.

Situating Constructionism By Seymour Papert and Idit Harel, the first chapter in Seymour Papert and Idit Harel's book Constructionism (Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1991). http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html www.connectedfamily.com/.../seymour_idit.jpg

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Al and Jas what could they be so animated about ?

Al and Jas (Year 4) were filmed and interviewed by Marcella (Year 6)

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

• Process information using their preferred cognitive structures

• Enjoy completing challenging relevant and meaningful tasks

• Publish work to an audience that is authentic for them

• Value interactive ongoing conversation that is developed within a community that is wider than the school / educational community

Students as learners

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

• Programs exist which make this relatively easy, eg Game maker, Scratch, Mission maker, Greenfoot

• Motivating and excellent introduction to programming• HOT (higher order thinking) activity• Provides an opportunity for all to experience

programming in an interesting context (game making is not for all but at least students have chance to accept or reject from an informed position)

• Does not require a teacher to understand programming

• Does need teachers who have a sound learning theory and clear understanding of today’s learners

• To enhance communication and collaboration

Digital Game making in the classroom

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

At what age can the games begin?

Gavin 7 and Lucas 8

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

In summary . . .

• Children's enthusiasm for playing games easily gives rise to an enthusiasm for making them,

• This in turn leads to more sophisticated thinking about all aspects of games.

• The games they can make (may) generally lack the polish and the complexity of those made by professional designers.

www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Remember … the idea that children should draw, write stories and play music is not contradicted by the fact that their work is not of professional quality.

www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html

www.theartgallery.com.au/KidsArt/IanCorvette-Jordan/index.html

www.theartgallery.com.au/KidsArt/NevanaConstant/index.html

www.theartgallery.com.au/KidsArt/Paula.html

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Well what do you think . . .

Our Panel of experts . . .

Jasmeen Issar Martin HoudekSharliyah Richards Bill PhungSam James Nyugen Yilmaz Cerim Kuma

Farabee Kabir

Our Chairperson Naomi Nyugen

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Mission Really Impossible

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Space Challenge

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Maze Panic

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Space Adventure

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Space Maze

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

… hard fun

• They (kids) mean it's fun because it's hard. Listening to this and watching kids work at mastering games confirms what I know from my own experience: learning is essentially hard; it happens best when one is deeply engaged in hard and challenging activities.

• The game-designer community has understood (to its great profit) that this is not a cause for worry. The fact is that kids prefer things that are hard, as long as they are also interesting.

• The preoccupation with "Making It Easy" is self-defeating and cause for serious worry about the deterioration of the learning environment.

www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

1. Recognize that talking about games and learning is an important activity

2. Engage in conversations with kids about learning and do this in a spirit of respect for the kids who have as much to teach as to learn in

this area

3. Encourage children to become game designers themselves

Paperts’ strategies . . .

www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

By engaging children in conversations about learning new games, I observe most directly the greater sophistication about learning that is developing among children—for example, by asking a child to help me learn. To do this, you have to listen sensitively because most do not have a developed vocabulary for talking about how to learn. But if you take the time to listen, you will find that many surprisingly young people have very definite and sensible ideas on the subject. You will also verify that the level of discourse and the kind of help they can give you is dramatically superior to what you hear if you try to get them to talk about learning school math. www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html

Have you listened to the children ?

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

* Deep knowledge* Deep understanding* Problematic knowledge* Higher-order thinking* Metalanguage* Substantive communication

1. Intellectual quality

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

• High expectations

• Explicit quality criteria

• Social support

• Students’ self-regulation

• Student direction

• Engagement

2. Quality learning environment

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

3. Significance

• Background knowledge

• Cultural knowledge

• Knowledge integration

• Inclusivity

• Connectedness

• Narrative

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Links and References

Belmore South

Game maker

Wiki

Never Winter Nights

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Game Making Links

Mission Maker

Thinking Worlds

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Links and References

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

The computer is a medium of human expression and if it has not yet had its Shakespeares, its Michelangelos or its Einsteins, it will. …. We have scarcely begun to grasp its human and social implications. (Papert 1990)

http://www.stager.org/homepageimages/paperteasel.gif

Michelangelo

www.aip.org/history/einstein/ae78.htm

Einstein

Aisha and Sam-James ?

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Not rocket science

• Nor are any of the philosophical underpinnings new

• Educators have for centuries been advocating active engagement of students in their own learning

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

Plutarch (46 - 127)

www.sgipt.org/hm/gesch/plut0r1.jpg

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

John Dewey

• Knowledge and ideas emerge from experiences that have meaning and are

important to learners.

• Students and teachers create a community of learners who build their knowledge together.

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Jean Piaget

• Discovery• Reconstruct by rediscovery• Production • Creativity • Not simply repetition (1973)

www.facade.com/celebrity/photo/Jean_Piaget.jpg

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Lev Vygotsky

• Learning is a social process

• Zone of proximal development

(just in time learning)

• Scaffolding is provided to ensure non-intrusive intervention.

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Transferable cognitive skills• Cartesian coordinates• Negative number• Position, speed, acceleration• Algebraic variables• Relative & absolute value• Estimation• Chance• A programming language similar to Visual Basic• Planning • Managing time• Proofreading and editing• Grammar and spelling• Substantive communication• Metalanguage

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Digital Game making develops the following skill domains

• Cognitive skillsLearning skills in areas such as mathematics and literacy, writing the narrative and programming for games promotes skills transfer to the more traditional areas.• Meta cognitive skills

The reflective / evaluative self management skills employed when learning. Games encourage students to think while working on them, they reflect on how to improve on them while they are away from them. They work and rework on them to ensure they are the best they can be.• Affective skills

Attitudes reflected towards school, teachers and classrooms. Students who enjoy attending school learn more readily and willingly.

October 2007 Belmore South Public School

Where to next . . .