Book Review: Video Games as a Medium for Learning, by Keith Devlin

I recently had the opportunity to read the book “Mathematics Education for a New Era: Video Games as a Medium for Learning” by Keith Devlin, and I have to say that it was an interesting read, and gave me pretty good perspective as to how video games could be used in a mathematics classroom.

First, it is important to point out that the author mentions that the games that currently exist for building math skills are simply skill builders, and not really what he would consider a game that can be used in an effective way in the classroom.

The author describes several principles that make for an ideal learning environment, of which the following were ones I felt were most useful. 

• That the learning environment be similar to a real world situation where people would use mathematics (the market, shops, etc).
• That the learning environment provides unlimited numbers of learners with the same environment.
• There should be uniform assessment means of assessing student performance.
• The environment should present the students with pre-planned learning experiences.
• The learning environment should provide for the student to explore and practice at their own pace.
• The learning environment should provide opportunity for immediate feedback.
• That there should be a ‘cost’ involved with getting something wrong, in order to motivate correction, but not make the student give up.
• The learning environment should provide an engaging experience.

These are principles that, for the most part, as teachers, we have been striving for in the classroom. In fact, the Growing Success document mentions how important the needs to self-assess, to work at an appropriate pace, and to receive feedback where necessary are. In our classrooms, we are constantly doing assessment for learning, having conversations, observing student work, providing students opportunities to assess, dialogue, and learn together.

These principles are extremely interesting to me – they are, generally, the exact same principles that make up every video game that I’ve ever played and enjoyed.

Consider an open world video game, if you will. The video game provides an immersive environment, where one can complete quests in whatever order, and at whatever speed, they would like. Most of these games provide intrinsic rewards from the beginning – we have the opportunity to ‘level up’ in some way. As well, in the video game experience, users get lots of opportunities to practice in context, which means that they are on task. Further, there is always a cost associated with playing a game – players will die, or fail their mission, or need to restart, but gamers continue to play, regardless.

Now, while no educational math games exist that meets this model, he suggests that the game environment must be “structured in such a way so that the players’ exploration moves them, overall, in the direction of learning that we, as educators, want to accomplish,” and he provides several ways for the games in question to meet these needs.

1) That the player should be able to learn by doing. The player should never be in a position where they should have to learn something prior to being able to play the game. A math game could be structured in a way so that the student can “master some key features of the interface… and use it to do things in the environment.”

2) That the game be self paced. At the beginning of most games, players are restricted in the areas in which they can reach. A beginner is ‘boxed in,’ in that they typically can’t access areas of the game that would be out of their realm, would be too difficult for them, and would discourage them. This feature is critical for mathematic learning. A slow or hesitant learner should be able to take as much time as necessary before moving on. If students are not prepared for that section of the game, something bad (a cost) happens. For example, they die within the game, but this forces them to re-evaluate and make sure they have the skills necessary to proceed in the game.

3) That there is opportunity to explore. The game should allow students to take time to explore and become familiar with new ideas and skills.

4) That the skills learned are put to immediate use. Skills learned should be “done in such a way that at that stage of the game the player can see the immediate need for that new information or skill”

5) That there are regular tests. Typically, in a video game, this comes in the form of a boss. You have to prove, within the game environment, that you have mastered skills and facts. The nice thing about these tests is that players are provided with lots of time to practice and prepare for the test. As well, since the ‘cost’ comes in the video game, failure is not public, and it is viewed as “I have not yet succeeded” rather than as a failure.

The author does mention that the tasks in the game need to be fairly real world, and provided a few situations where the math makes sense, contextually, within the game environment. He suggests the idea of obstacles (such as a locked door), where middle school mathematics could be incorporated into the idea of picking combination locks (probability, etc). There are often games in which puzzles like this exist, so it would just be a matter of making them a bit more complicated to develop mathematical thinking. Another example the author provides is the idea of an “investigation quest.” Typically, this is where a player needs to investigate an area, or search for an object, and typically happens in a stressful environment (i.e. complete this task before the monster comes back). In these instances, a player could be forced to use recall skills (times tables) under pressure. Finally, the author suggests treasure chests. In games, a player often encounters treasure chests, and the further in the game, the better the loot. He suggests that the chests “require the player to factor numbers to open them… and as they factor, they get better and better rewards.” Rather than having a teacher stand up and teach about prime factors, they have discovered the idea of factors in a real-world setting.

Often, in our classroom, we ask students to work collaboratively. Small group learning activities have become the norm. A multiplayer game would offer similar benefits. Students would be motivated by the loot that other students have earned from completing more difficult math problems; students could be encouraged to work in small groups to solve problems – providing for a deeper understanding; and students have opportunities to be ‘teachers’ for other players within the game.

While no games exist that fully meet the model above, I have had the opportunity to incorporate a video game into my classroom. The game designers of Portal 2 created several lesson plans and a Puzzle Maker that teachers could use to make their own lessons. My students had opportunities to learn about math in an interesting and engaging manner, and enjoyed the experience. Personally, I feel that it is just a matter of time before more game designers hop on the educational bandwagon, and students have experiences where they get an opportunity to play – without even realizing that learning about math is an added benefit.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my read, and I’m hopeful that the games Keith Devlin describes are on the near horizon. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my read, and I’m hopeful that the games Keith Devlin describes are on the near horizon. 

Top Ten Tools at Lockerby Composite School

I teach at a school, in Sudbury, Ontario, that was one of the first schools in Canada to pilot a laptop education program. More recently, the program has evolved into what is now called the STEP (Science & Technology Education Program). As such, we are often trying to look at new, different technologies and tools at our school. Below are ten tools/resources that are used in the various classrooms at Lockerby Composite School, along with a little description of the tool.

1) Sony Vegas: One of the focuses of our Grade 10 students is to work on video creation. Every student in the STEP program in grade 10 is required to create a video, of their choosing. Typically, our tech department teaches the skills necessary to create and edit video. Students are free to choose their own video editing software (iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc), however Sony Vegas is the software that they teach for video editing. The main reason that our teachers use Sony Vegas is because it is powerful, and yet fairly straightforward to use, and more importantly, it comes with a free two week trial. Here is an example of a student created award winning video on safety.

2) XpressLab:  Students in our French Immersion classes are required to do an oral exam at the end of the semester. Our FI teacher has decided to start using XpressLab for the exam. She feels that it is powerful software, because XpressLab provides students with interactive opportunities to practice reading, listening, writing, and speaking in different languages. Further, it is an effective tool because students are able to self-assess, which allows students to build their confidence in French.

3) Desmos: It is always difficult to find good, new tools to use in the mathematics classroom. However, in our math department, we have started using the program Desmos. Desmos provides a graphing calculator to students at no cost. This allows us to replace our TI-83 graphing calculators which are really starting to show their age. The nice thing about Desmos is that it is real time. Changes occur to a graph as data is changed. As well, work from Desmos can be shared on blogs or via bit.ly. In our classrooms, we have used Desmos to explore transformations of functions, to examine distance time graphs/linear regression, and even use their knowledge of functions to create a smiley face. Below is an example

4) iPevo Cameras:  Every department in our school has been provided with iPevo cameras, and I have started replacing our math department’s cameras with iPevo Ziggi cameras. We like using the Ziggi’s for several reasons: to display student work, to take up problems, to teach about concepts in a more visual way, to let students teach/demonstrate for the class, and to archive day to day images to keep a record of curriculum. As well, the new Ziggi cameras have microphone capabilities, which is nice because teachers looking to use a flipped classroom could record their lessons with audio for sharing with students.

5)3D Printers: Recently, we purchased a 3D printer for our school. Our science and tech departments have been working on various ways that the printer could be used in the school, One example that was used in our drafting classes was to create a model for a 3D printer that would print a screwdriver. Here is an example (not one created at our school). We are also planning to use the 3D printer in science classrooms (to create cross sections of various organs), in our design classes to make prototypes of designs, and in our foods classrooms to create design models and cookie cutter templates.

6) iPad Minis: While we are technically a ‘laptop education’ school, we are trying to become more of a bring-your-own-device school. As such, our principal purchased a class set of iPad 2’s as well as a class set of iPad minis for use in the classroom. Several of our teachers have taken advantage of the iPads. As an example, our music teacher has students compose songs using GarageBand, and uses MadPad so students can experience using soundboards. As well, several of our teachers have used various presentation tools, such as EduCreations and Knomia, to have students create videos explaining concepts. Here is an example of a review video I had one of my students create on EduCreations (note: they restart several times as it is not possible to edit on EduCreations as yet).

7) NVU/Kompozer: Similarly to our Grade 10 project, our Grade 9 focus is on website creation. We have students create a website about whatever they would like, but typically we have them display student work. Typically we teach using Kompozer. We use Kompozer because it is very used friendly, which is good for even our less technical teachers and students who want to create a website that has some visual appeal – without requiring them to have any coding skill.

8) Paint.Net: Another component of our tech education classes is working on image editing. The image editing software of choice for us is paint.net, as it is free and web based. Several different photo editing concepts are taught, including cropping, background, gradient, colour correction, and creating digital collages. Students in our civics classroom used paint.net to create political satire image edits.

9) VUE: Creating a concept map or flow chart is a skill that is often seen in our classrooms. Whether brainstorming ideas, or creating an essay outline, the software of choice at our school is Vue (Visual Understanding Environment). We like VUE because it is a flexible environment for presenting and sharing digital information. VUE is effective because not only is it useful for concept mapping, but a variety of files can be imported into the environment, including CSV and RSS files. Below is an example of a concept map that can be created with VUE of the different types of polygons.

10) GPS:  We purchased a few GPS units for use in our Geography classes a few weeks ago. We use them in a variety of ways – to collect and plot data about water quality of streams flowing into some of our lakes; to examine geological features in our community, to geocache, and even to play GPS golf. The students always find these enjoyable experiences, as some of these topics can be a bit dry to learn from a textbook. 

There are many other tools and resources that are used at my school, however I felt as though this was a good variety of examples of what happens in the STEP program.

Please feel free to share any examples that you might have that would be different!

Self Directed PD: An Overview

Far too often, teachers are subject to in-services and workshops where we examine an idea or a concept that may or may not be useful for our own personal practice. A teacher may end up learning about something redundant, which they have already been incorporating successfully into their classroom, or about something which is difficult to implement into their day to day practice. Unfortunately, while many of these sessions hold value, they are typically not the most effective way for teachers to engage in professional development. Instead, we as educators can benefit from the same self-directed learning environment that we are attempting to provide our students.

There are several benefits to self directed learning when engaging in professional development.

1) Everybody can choose something they interested in: Training sometimes fails to meet the specific needs of the teacher. Every teacher has a different challenge, need, or deficiency that they have identified a need to improve. Since we are able to focus on something where we feel deficient, teachers could feel more motivated to work harder on this area of development, as they see an ‘end goal’ for themselves.

2) Everybody has their own learning style and needs: Like our students, we as teachers have a mix of different learning styles. If we are trying to provide ourselves the optimal learning opportunity, then it makes sense that we are able to direct our learning to be focused around our own specific learning style. As an example, a direct learner would try to do something with the information they are provided, where a reflective learner would prefer to think things through and understand them before acting on the information. 

3) Everybody takes ownership over their professional development: When one has ownership over their own learning, rather than simply participating in a process of knowledge transfer, they typically work harder to generate their own learning experiences. This results in learning that will make an impact on the teacher as a learner, by allowing teachers to look at what makes sense for them pedagogically.

4) Everybody has their own entry point: As an example, I look at the Technology in the Classroom 1 AQ that I completed recently. While some teachers taking this course are very ‘green’ when incorporating technology into the classroom, I feel relatively comfortable with a good number of different programs and tools. For me, I was able to extend my knowledge, because instead of being forced to learn a specific type of software, I had the freedom to look at whatever tools were interesting to me. This allows the beginning learner to look at something relatively straight forward with a slow learning curve, while the advanced learner can hop into the deep end and figure things out on their own. Personally, this holds a lot of merit, as it allows for an authentic learning experience, rather than a regurgitation of previously learned material.

Clearly, the option to self direct learning has a litany of benefits, and, when given the opportunity, I believe that teachers will take more from self-directed opportunities than from workshops and required sessions.

21st Century Tools Powerpoint

The Uses of Video Conferencing

I feel that video conferencing can be useful, both among colleagues and in the classroom with students.

For teachers:

1) Allows for better productivity: Video conferencing allows for everyone to meet at the same time without having to travel (for example, to a PD opportunity). By minimizing travel time, more time is left over for productive activities that would not have been possible had travel been necessary.

2) Better interschool/interboard communication: Groups of teachers from around the city/board/province/country etc. can work as a team to share more ideas with one another. More ideas = better teaching opportunities.

For students:

1) Distance education is facilitated: Students are able to access lectures, study materials, and even talk one on one with instructors. This can be extremely useful for ILC and eLearning type courses, as instant feedback and information can be provided.

2) Sharing Information is easy: Most video conferencing software can be used to provide real time, relevant information, but also as a method of file sharing.

3) The classroom can be geographically limitless: Students can interact with other students, teacher, researches, professors, and locations all from the comfort of their computers. Gone are expensive field trips, as video conferences can learn at the click of a button.

4) Active participation is encouraged: In order to gain the most from a video conference, students need to do a certain amount of pre-learning. This will enable them to be better researchers, communicators, and thinkers. In all, they will become better interactors.

By minimizing the amount of time required to access resources, content, and people, video conferencing can be a benefit to the classroom – providing more time to actual use the resources, which is something where many teachers often find themselves lacking.

Presentation Tools in the Classroom: Part Deux

A variety of different presentations tools are becoming reasonably prevalent in the classroom. I see very few teachers using Powerpoint as their only tool, relying on several other types of software as well.

Naturally, presentation tools have their advantages and disadvantages when used as a teaching tool, both from a teaching perspective and from a student perspective.

Advantages:

From the teacher's perspective...

1) Presentations are easier to follow. If students are provided with a printout of slides, they can spend more time listening and less time writing - only writing key points or anecdotal information that they can reflect on later.

2) Increased student involvement and interaction. Since presentations often display a large amount of multimedia, including text, video, audio, and photos, it allows teachers to share the most recent information in a way that is more appealing to students.

3) Shared workload. Teachers can work together to create presentations, or use presentations that have already been created.This can allow students to be exposed to more than one point of view. Sometimes, a different voice or lens is all it takes to bridge the gap between not understanding and understanding. 

From the student's perspective...

1) Helps a variety of learners. Many of the tools make it relatively easy to record audio. This can help students who are auditory learners. As well, the incorporation of other media (video, photos, etc.) can help the visual learner, as they can see exemplars and worked examples that can help them through particularly difficult concepts.

2) Typically web based. This can be useful both when students are creating presentations, but also viewing them. When creating, presentations can now be cross-platform, which allows students to access their presentation from a variety of sources, including at school, at home, and potentially on their tablets/phones. When viewing, teachers can share lessons using a file-sharing system or website, which makes content available for students when they are away from class.

3) It can be purposeful for oral presentations. Students find, reflect, and interpret information, and use presentation tools to create something new. This allows for an opportunity for meaningful collaboration, as the finished product can be shared with others (social media, or in the classroom)

4) Teachers can share the workload of creating presentations, or use presentations that are already available. Teachers can share lessons and presentations simply using a file-sharing system or flash drive. Teachers can share the workload of creating presentations. Furthermore, a student seeing more than one teacher's presentations is exposed to more than one point of view.

Disadvantages:

From the teacher's perspective:


1) Neglect of interaction. If the teacher has not spent enough time learning the material in the presentation, they will spend more time looking at their presentation than they do engaging with the students. This can turn what was meant to be interative into more of a lecture.

2) High speed. If too much information is being conveyed, it can be difficult for students to keep up. Teachers will need to ensure they leave time for students to reflect, and time to gauge student understanding.

3) Not useful in many situations. When a subject is complex, it is difficult to summarize using 'bullet' points. Sometimes this is not enough to support their idea or demonstrate the complexity of what it is they are trying to convey.

From the student's perspective:

1) Clutter: A presentation that uses too many animations or visuals distracts the audience from the information that is being conveyed.

2) Focus on the medium: Sometimes, students spend too much time focusing on making it look 'cool'. They need to realize that presentations tools are just that - tools, and need to realize that the presentation, and not the visual, is what is the most important part of the task.

While there are certainly disadvantages, I think that many of them can be avoided with proper consideration when a teacher is presenting, and properly informing students of the purpose of presentations for when they are using presentation tools. If this is done, then presentation tools are an effective, engaging, visual, and often times fun way of presenting information.

Presentation Tools in the Classroom

Recently, I took a look at a few of the slightly less popular presentations tools out there. I wanted to gauge what was available to look at what separated them from the common (Google Powerpoint, Powerpoint, OpenOffice) presentation tools that are available. Here are the ones that I found most intriguing. Empressr –

1. Empressr is a free web based slide show presentation program, similar to Powerpoint. It is simple to use, although I did find it more limited than other presentation tools that are out there (no templates or themes). The upside is that it is extremely easy to embed video and audio, which is something I found a bit more difficult in Powerpoint (I had to change video properties to embed my Youtube video in my blended learning letter, in fact). As well, the app has an ability to be shared across multiple social media sites, which can be useful if students are being asked to share their presentations.

2. PowToon - PowToon is an online tool that lets the user create an animated story for presentations. Rather than being limited to bullet points and animations, students can make flash style movies and presentations. I liked PowToon because it was easy to use (I think it would easy to use even for younger students), but it provides a certain visual factor that other presentation software doesn’t. There are several styles that PowToon offers – marker style, label style, picto style, and even animated styles, which I think were all pretty neat! I could definitely see younger students enjoying this software, as it is visual, and allows them to create presentations that are just more fun in general, but can also result in an end product that looks professional. As well, the PowToon software is free, so long as you are willing to allow for a PowToon watermark in the corner of your presentation.

             

3. Present.Me - Present.Me is a for pay website that allows the user to add a narrative to their presentations. It allows users to upload slides from any other presentation software (Prezi, Powerpoint, Google Presentation, etc.) to their website and then add a video and audio narrative to their slideshows. I found it useful because it allows your audience to see both you and your content at the same time. I tried a free trial, and I liked it, because I feel like sometimes when people are using powerpoint, they read from their slides rather than presenting, and I think that present.me allows people to actually present instead, which adds a bit of engagement to the mix. I also liked that you were not limited to doing one take of your narrative – if you mess up, you can trim off your mistake and start from where you left off. I liked this in comparison to a whiteboard software like Educreations, which I have previously reviewed, that would require you to get it right in one full take. The downside, obviously, is that present.me can be expensive, however if you had one account for your department or school, it could certainly be useful. As well, this would alleviate the difficulties around presenting for students with anxiety issues - they could record themselves presenting, instead, and this would still meet the expectation of having to present.

4. Knovio - Knovio is a similar tool to Present.Me, except that is it completely free. It also allows users to turn their Powerpoint slideshows into video presentations, assuming the user has access to a webcam. I tried using Knovio for a classroom activity where I was not able to be in class, and I thought that it was effective. The quality of the presentation was not fantastic, and had a habit of blurring a little bit if you don’t sit super still, or you move too much during a lesson, but otherwise it is very user friendly, allowing for you to make corrections in a similar fashion to Present.Me. The biggest downside to Knovio is that unlike Present.Me, it only accepts Powerpoint files.

        

I liked all of these tools for one specific reason – they are web based. Students and teachers alike can access their presentations from any computer that has internet connectivity. I find this useful, as you will not be tethered to one device, which I find extremely limiting in this day and age.