Evaluating Online Games

We were asked to find three educational game sites for our content area and evaluate them. I chose to evaluate a classic game that I played as a child, along with two new sites that I found recently.


Oregon Trail : http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html

1. Who created the web site: 
Oregon Trail was created by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971. The game was produced by MECC (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium) in 1974.
2. Why was the gaming site created? While this is a very entertaining game, it has a lot of educational value. The game was created to teach school-aged children about the realities of life on the Oregon Trail.
3. User Friendly? The graphics in the original version that I have linked to above were engaging for the time that the game was created.  Now the graphics are severely outdated.  However, there are apps and other updated versions of the game with updated, engaging graphics.  The game is very simplistic and easy to play. 

4. Fun Factor?
I remember playing a version of this game when I was in elementary school. It is fun enough to span the generations. Children can learn the educational concept without being bored.

5. Wisconsin, Common Core State Standards, and/or WMELS: Make a list of two or three standards the games meet. Choose two from your discipline and one outside your discipline. If you are Early Childhood and/or Elementary, list Language and Literacy and one other core content area.

I actually had a lot of trouble coming up with standards for this game.  I had always believed that it was very educational, but it doesn't seem to meet state standards.

6. Ease in Finding an Educational Game Site: 
The site was not difficult to find. I just had to download a new plug-in in order to play the game.

7. Bilingual: 
The original version did not have an ELL component, however, the updated versions do.

8. DI: Could this game be used to differentiate instruction?
This would not be a good site to differentiate instruction. This game doesn't really have a lot of adjustment options for difficulty level. Since this game is heavily strategy-based and not so much content knowledge-based, the game is not set up to differentiate.


FunBrain: www.funbrain.com

1. Who: The site was founded in May 1992 by Pearson Education, specifically by the division known as the Family Education Network.  

2. Why was the gaming site created?
This is another site that is educational in nature but is incredibly entertaining. The site was designed to foster skills in math and reading.

3. User Friendly: 
The site is very easy to navigate.

4. Fun Factor: I thought the games were quite fun. I specifically enjoyed the math arcade. It is a collection of 25 mini-games that are all math related.

5. Wisconsin, Common Core State Standards, and/or WMELS: 
Number and Operations in Base 10

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

6. Ease in Finding an Educational Game Site: This was a very easy site to find.  It is the top search result for "funbrain" and it has a very basic url that is easy for children to remember and type.

7. Bilingual:
This site is available in English only, which is it's main major drawback.

8. DI: Could this game be used to differentiate instruction?
This site is a great way to differentiate instruction. The grade level/difficult level of the game is easily adjusted. This way the students can all play the same game, regardless of ability level.

ABCya: abcya.com

1. Who created the web site: ABCya.com, LLC

2. Why was the gaming site created? This site was created purely for educational purposes, but the games on the site are fun and engaging.

3. User Friendly ABCya is a very user friendly site that is easy to navigate.  The graphics are colorful, bright, and engaging to young students, as well as adults.

4. Fun Factor : I found the games fun and engaging.  The nice part about the site is that there are a wide range of different mini games to play.  I played around in the 4th grade level and found several games that I found interesting.

5. Wisconsin, Common Core State Standards, and/or WMELS: 
Phonics and Word Recognition
Measurement and Data

6. Ease in Finding an Educational Game Site: 
When typing "educational games for kids" into a google search, this site will be one of the first in the search results. It is very easy to find with a clear, concise url.

7. Bilingual: While the site teaches Spanish vocabulary to English speakers, it does not have ELL capabilities.

8. DI: Could this game be used to differentiate instruction? This site could be used to differentiate instruction. It is quite easy to adjust difficulty/grade level in the games so that each student can play regardless of ability level.

Using Data to Drive Instruction

In class, we took a quiz and collected data on the results.  This is a really good way to drive instruction.  For example, by using data collection we can see if the majority of students are getting a question right or wrong.  If there is a question on a quiz that only 30% of the student answered correctly, we know what we have to reteach.

I personally will use data to drive my instruction.  I believe that it's important to give lots of short, simple quizzes to students to constantly assess comprehension.  I would use the results to see which concepts need to be retaught and which concepts the students already understand.  This is crucial at all grade levels, but especially so at the elementary level.

Wallwisher

We did an activity in class where we discussed a chapter of the text using a website called Wallwisher.  The site allows for a person to create a board and for people to create "sticky notes" to attach to the board.

This site has a lot of strengths.  I like the ease of access and the simple nature of the site.  The best part is the moderator approval.  The owner of the board can choose to have all posts approved before being accessible to the general public.  As a teacher, this would be very useful because this would prevent bullying via the notes on Wallwisher.   In terms of weaknesses, my group actually had a couple of technology glitches with Wallwisher.  We aren't sure whether it was the web browser or some plug-ins not being up to date, but Phyllis and I did not have the same capabilities for moving and editing the notes as Jason and Jenny. Also, it is impossible to "comment" on another person's note.  This could make the site confusing if somebody wanted to respond to something someone else had written.

In a K-12 setting, this could be a great organizational tool that would be much easier to read than sending a chain of emails.  This could be useful for setting up group projects or any collaboration of the sort.  Also, it can be a great way for students to give feedback on a unit or a book.  I think in an elementary school classroom I would use it as a place for students to put up a favorite quote from a book or ideas for a class project.

WTI: Wisconsin Technology Initiative

On Saturday November 10th, DC Everest hosted a teaching conference called the Wisconsin Technology Initiative Academic Forum.  I went with my friend Christina Lang, and we spent the day learning about different technologies to incorporate in our classrooms.

The first session that we attended was about the site Edmodo.  Edmodo is like the Facebook of education.  It's a great way to share information and connect with students.  Unlike Facebook, we control who can be a part of our groups and students cannot have private conversations via Edmodo.  Everything that a student posts, we can see.  The second session and third sessions were about podcasting, vlogging, and flipping the classroom.  These were things that we have discussed in class. We had a lot of good discussion about creating content and having students learn at home and practice at school instead of the other way around. The final session was a workshop in iPad apps.  I had a lot of fun working with my peers discovering new apps to use for education.  It was especially helpful because I was working with people who educate grades 3-5, which are the grades that I'd ideally teach.

Overall, the conference was a great experience.  It was a nice, informal way to introduce me to teacher conferences, which was great since this was my very first one. I had a great time and can't wait to go to my next one.

Creating a Professional Learning Community

Recently, three of my friends and I created a Personal Learning Community to look at how ereaders and tablets can be used in the classroom to better foster learning. The site can be found here. 

I think that we all contributed pretty equally on the PLC.  The only extra little thing that I did was create a Google Doc so that we could get our thoughts organized in advance. 

There is a great value in comopleting a task such as this.  One important part was learning how to use Google Sites.  Another important aspect of working together on the PLC was just that, collaborating with peers.  Finally, this task required us to research an issue related to educational technology and explore the answers.  

Completing the PLC page will help me because through this assignment I found a lot of really good apps for foriegn language education.  Also, I realized how easy it is to create, edit, and maintain a google site.   I hope to use a site such as this one when I am a teacher.  

Another Podcast Reaction

I had a good time working with my group to prepare a podcast about Chapters  2-3 in the Rethinking Education text. What we did was set up a Google Doc a week in advance and we edited it and created questions through out the week. As the facilitator, I took everybody's input and selected a few questions that we would discuss in detail during the podcast.  Some topics that we discussed were barriers for the use of technology in schools, our overall philosophy of technology in education, and specific programs and equipment that we would like to implement in our future classrooms.

We actually attempted to do the entire podcast in one straight shot to avoid editing, but we ended up needing to make a few small edits. When it came to editing the podcast, the first thoughts that went through my head were, "I HATE AUDACITY WITH A PASSION! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!"  We had issues cutting parts out of the podcast and it took a lot of trouble-shooting to actually get the lead-in and lead-out music into the podcast. I'm not sure why, but I have this problem every time I work with the Audacity program.

I actually like the idea of using podcasts with my younger students. I believe that it is a great way for students to show off what they've learned in a creative, interactive way.  I would use it to allow students to report on what they've learned in a given unit, and I think it would be especially useful for foreign language learning. However, I very much dislike the editing process.  Hopefully there will be a program that I can agree with once I actually get out into the field.  I know that Garage Band is a pretty good program, but it is only available for Mac users.  New programs and technologies are coming out every single day.  I await the next revolutionary podcast program.

Self-Grading tests

Recently in class we worked with self-grading online quizzes.

I think that the time taken to set up a self-grading test would be well worth the outcomes.  Online quizzes have a lot of different features that show which questions students got wrong which can give the teacher immediate feedback in what they need to teach differently.  I also like how self-grading quizzes can give immediate feedback to the student.  This way, I could design a test where a student needs to get a 100% to pass it, but the student would receive immediate feedback about which questions they got wrong.  This way, the student could go look up the answers in the book, proving they've at least looked at the material, and then take the test again.

Online quizzes are great ways to teach young adults and have numerous benefits.  It would be a little bit more difficult for me, however, to use online self-grading tests in my classroom because I intend on teaching in elementary schools.  However, if I can get all of the students a device on which to take a quiz, I think it would be a fun way to switch up how students take tests. As teachers, we need to pander to students love of technology and desire for variety in instruction.  Using online quizzes are a great way to benefit the student in this way.