Think Twice Thursday #8 - Video Games in Education

At a recent session at the KySTE conference I attended the presenter was discussing the impact on Video Games in education.  It was an interesting conversation.  I received quite a few good links for games in education that I wanted to share with you in the hopes that you might be able to use in your classroom.  There are different aspects of Games.  There is game creation, and then there is game playing.  Our students are playing video games more than they are watching TV.  They are playing games on their Phones quite a bit as well.  As teachers we should harness this interest that the students have.

Game Creation:
YoYo Games - Most of you might know it as GameMaker.  Most schools have it blocked, so it would have to be something completed at home.
Scratch - This is the program created by M.I.T.  Most have seen this.  Best advice is to take a previously created game to learn the code and then make the game do what you want.  There are plenty of tutorials for you to watch as well.
Alice - From Carnegie Mellon.  This was the pioneer and has a different software for middle and high school students.  Really interesting stuff.

Game Playing
Making-History - Great for Social Studies Teachers.  Another option for learning history, different from any other way you have tried in the past.
ClearLab Project - Still in the works, but these will be games for science teachers, especially physics.  As a science teacher, this will definitely be worth following to check on the progress.  Seems promising.
ARIS Games - Now this seems interesting.  You can download the software with your phone and link to the students' phones.  They could be able to do a scavenger hunt using their phones.  Mobile Media Learning.  Would make for a great opening house activity to learn the school.
3 Wish - No directions, so it requires students to figure out the game.  Causes Higher Order Thinking.  More for Elementary and Middle Schools
Activities for Kids - Kids.com - More for Elementary, but worth seeing how you can implement it for your students and how parents can use it at home.
American Dynasties - A way to learn about an era in American History.
JASON Science - Great games about Earth, a Roller Coaster Creation, Weather, and Mini Labs.  Seems fun!
Hot Shot Business - From Disney - Creating a Business - A more extensive version of the Lemonade Stand Game.

So here are some educational game sites for all grade levels.  We got to create lessons and activities that our students want to do.  Even girls are playing video games, so don't think of this as just a boys type of activity.  So Think Twice about implementing games as part of your education.  If you use or end up using any of these with your students, please share your experiences.

Wiki Wednesday #8 - Ten Big Questions For Education

I know it is Thursday, but it has been a busy week.  Better late than never.  At a recent session at Educon 2.2 there was a discussion about "The Ten Big Questions" about education.  From the session at the conference a Wiki was created to address those "Ten Big Questions For Education."  Here is a place for you to answer questions about education and offer your opinion.  If I was not so busy, I probably would have answered some, but I figured sharing with you all would make up for it.


There are some deadlines to the Wiki.  YOU HAVE 5 DAYS TO ANSWER QUESTIONS!!!!  After that, editing, revisions, and finalizing will take place.  You can get more information by looking at the Front Page of the Wiki.  Each question has been provided its own page which helps for organizing information.  These questions are very viable questions for educators to answer.  You can also follow a hashtag for Twitter #10fored to see what other people are saying.  I would provide a list of the questions, but by not, I am enticing you to visit the wiki to see what those questions are and help provide your opinion.  There have been others to visit the wiki who have volunteered to help moderate the pages.  Show your support for their volunteering by visiting and offering your opinion.  


There are many aspects of American History where change started because of a Grassroots movement.  Part of me believes that education is on the verge of being one of those movements because of the lack of involvement of teachers in decisions being made for OUR students.  So it takes us to help move the process forward.  Answering the questions on the wiki would be a great start.

Twitter Tuesday #9 - To Follow or Not to Follow...That is the Question.

In a recent article in the Louisville, KY Newspaper, The Courier-Journal, they reported on the increasing use of Social Networking in schools around the city.  There were a couple of things that caught me eye in the article.  First, 2nd graders were using Twitter to Tweet about what was going on in their classroom...utterly amazing.  Makes me wonder what my 3 year old will be doing in 4 years (considering he already uses my iPhone better than me).

Second was the number of school districts blocking access to Facebook, while allowing access to Twitter.  It shows me that school districts across that state see the value of Twitter as an educational tool, but are still completely terrified about Facebook, which is understandable considering the negative media attention Facebook has been getting in the media.  I have a wiki that is still a work in progress for gathering positive uses of Facebook in Education.  I am a firm believer that if you can't get parents to come to you, you got to go where they are, and parents are on Facebook...more parents than you will see at Parent Teacher Conferences.

Third, and the main point of this post, was that I discovered that the Kentucky Education Commissioner is on Twitter.  I proceeded to Tweet that he had a Twitter Account (which I think needs to be linked from the Department of Education website so people can find him on Twitter).  I did not have a chance to check his profile.  Nancy Blair did, and she tweeted up an interesting point.  Was the Commissioner of Education in Kentucky really buying into the idea of Twitter??

Communcation on Twitter can go both ways.  Mr. Holliday, the Commissioner, was only following 10 people, while being followed by over 375.  He has over 250 Tweets, so his account is still young, and it is a great starting point.  The point Mrs. Blair was trying to make was that communication in his position should and needs to goes both ways.  In order to get the most out of Twitter Mr. Holliday should be following more people, especially educators, classrooms, and schools within his own state that are using Twitter.  In order to see the value of Twitter in a position such as his, it would be beneficial for him to be able to see what educators around Kentucky are Tweeting about.

I am all for him sharing what he is experiencing as Education Commissioner.  It helps me keep up to date with what is going on at the state level in regards to edcuation in Kentucky.  At the same time I would hope that he would want to hear about what is going on in "his" schools that he might not always hear about in the newspapers, on the news. or in meetings.  Schools around Kentucky are doing great things, and not just the schools in the big cities.  Many are using Twitter to share these things.

I really did not think anything of the fact that he was only following 10 people.  I am glad that Nancy Blair brought it to my attention.  So, the question then becomes, should Kentucky's Education Commissioner, or for that matter, any state Education leader, be EXPECTED to follow?  Or for a person in his position is it more about being followed than following others? 

So many teachers talk about not feeling like they are heard by politicians and educational leaders when it comes to issues in education.  By following educators on Twitter, would this solve, or help to solve, the problem of communication?  Would more educators join Twitter knowing that they would get a better chance to be heard by politicians and educational leaders in their state?

What are your thoughts?  Would appreciate opinions, thoughts, and ideas.

Must See Monday #9 - Web 2.0 Websites

YourFonts is a way to upload and create a font from your own handwriting.  What a neat way to create a digital signature (just remember to have a different one for checks and credit cards though).  It would make for a great addition to your email account or just to have fun with students showing your handwriting on the computer.  My students hated my chicken scratch handwriting anyway, so I wrote in all capitals.  Be interesting to type out a paper in Your Font though.  All you do is print the template, write, scan, and then upload.  I guess this does give Scanner's a new purpose...might have to brush the dust off of mine.

Fotobabble is a site that allows you to upload photos and then voice over the photo.  It would be a great way to bring a historical figure to life for a student project.  You could also upload a location and create "Where in the World Am I" game with your students.  You could do the same thing with people.  Tell facts and give students the opportunity to guess who they are.  The software is also available on the iPhone.  Another neat way to use this site is to add it to Wallwisher.  I found a great blog post describing how to do this.

Footnote is your home for primary documents.  More or less this is a great site for Social Studies teachers.  It has a lot of primary documents that students normally are looking for to help with projects.  We are always preaching to our students to use primary documents, and now there is a home for them to find an abundant resource of the.  I want to thank Free Technology for Teachers for providing this useful site.  I have already shared it with social studies teachers in my building.  It allows you to search by era.  There are over 63 million historical documents online.  Very valuable.

Twitter Tweecap - Another Edition

Before I begin, I want to start out by congratulating my Louisville Cardinals basketball team for proudly closing out Freedom Hall with a big win over Syracuse on Saturday.  It was a perfect birthday present to witness a moment of history in college basketball.  Now on to the Tweets from the past week.

1.) The past week saw massive hysteria when Wordle was shut down for a while this past Sunday.  Word spread throughout the Twitterverse and my PLN.  Here is a blog post detailing the value of PLN's and their ability to work wonders for the Internet as well as education.  Or this Blog Post

2.) SAT, ACT, GRE, and Vocabulary Flashcards and Videos. VocabAhead

3.) Helpful Blog Post about Tips for New Integrators.  I realized how many of those I had done upon starting my new job as well.

4.) From Vanessa Cassie - Blog Post with a video for those of us that are new to SMART Notebook.

5.) From Free Technology for Teachers - A website, PostLearn, for searching jobs in education as well as posting some of your own.  There is a fee, but still worth searching for jobs in your area.

6.) From the Nerdy Teacher and his Blog, a great set of Prezi presentations about The Great Gatsby.  Something all English teachers are teaching.

7.) Article - Twitter Encourages Networking Among Educators. A great look at #edchat.  And How Twitter in the Classroom is Boosting Student Engagement.

8.) Web 2.0-21st Century Education Tools - a Great Wiki...look for more on it on Wednesday, if I have time while at KySTE.

9.) Streamlining Teaching with Google Apps - My school does not really use Google Apps, but everything I hear is good.  Helpful resource for learning how to use Google Apps in Education.

10.) Interesting Wiki - 10 Big Questions For Education - Share your thoughts and views.  Looks like another great Wiki Wednesday Post in the works!

11.) 100 Alternatives to Book Reports.

12.) A Great Letter To Obama on Education - Maybe as educators we should write a blog post with a Letter to the President.

13.) From NPR - Teachers Feel Ignored in Education Debate - Really?  Geez, has this ever NOT been the case?

14.) Make a Virtual Snowflake - Kind of neat!

15.) From Angela Maiers - 21st Century Teachers Video.

16.) Footnote - A home of Primary Documents - Great Resource for History.

17.) Members of Education who are on Twitter.

18.) Popular Science - Browse all the Archive

19.) Another Wiki - NewToolsWorkshop - Great Resource sharing new tools for education.  Open page is a Glog.

20.) Stickr - Make sticky notes on the web.