Minecraft in education?

My son LOVES playing Minecraft and now I have heard about a teacher in the US who uses Minecraft in the classroom, aptly named the Minecraft Teacher.  


@heyjudeonline retweeted the @edtechcrew who have just published a podcast on their website about Minecraft via an interview with the Minecraft Teacher, Joel Levin.


Interestingly, when I was at Sam's recent parent teacher interview, I suggested to Sam's geography teacher that if he taught mapping, direction and the other skills he was trying to teach, through Minecraft that Sam, and no doubt the other students, would be so engaged and would be able to apply these skills in the game itself.


Have a listen to the podcast, you don't have to listen very long to get some ideas from the Minecraft Teacher about how to incorporate this into your school computer lesson.



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Technology update with a twist

I am in the process of upgrading to a smartphone.  This is actually taking me way more time than I thought it would and eating up quite a bit of my download allowance.  An iPad is on my horizon as I can see so much potential in the classroom and if I want to be a teacher with today's generation of students then I need to be on top of all things techno and I see the iPad as my vehicle.  


However when it comes to phone choice I face a dilemma, I would love to just say iPhone 4 is for me and that is what I am going to buy.  But there is so much talk out there about problems with it that it made me look at the alternatives.  HTC Incredible S being one and Samsung Galaxy S II being the other.  Samsung I am afraid is out purely on battery life, so that leaves me with two.  My heart says just go with the iPhone and be done with it, my head says consider other options, do your research, read reviews etc etc.  Well I have done all that and it really comes down to Apple or not, you are either with them or against them.  So no decision!


I was also hoping to find out if one brand was more ethical in it's manufacture than another but my trusty Shop Ethical app does not yet include smartphones, or any phones for that matter.  Love it for lots of other products, but I digress...


So here I am stumped, feel free to offer your opinion, I may not listen but hey I just might! 

3things

While reading one of my favourite magazines Peppermint I came across a campaign run by Oxfam Australia called 3things. It is a wonderful initiative where people are asked the question What are 3things you can do to help change the world? The 3things can be very simple from riding bikes, taking public transport, eating organic, being nice, listening, recylcing - anything to make the world a better place.  Everyone is encouraged to add their 3things to the website.  You can also view other supporters pledges.  


I thought this would be a fantastic project for children to become involved in.  3things states that they are challenging the perception that young Australians are self involved and chained to their mobile devices not caring about the world at large.  I think if we use this initiative in classrooms we can start the ball rolling in the mind of our students and the future custodians of the globe.


Think HSIE, Science, English so many ways we could use this in a positive way in the classroom.


So check it out www.3things.org.au

Great minds...and the wonder of the web.

I am always amazed at how quickly one can navigate the worldwide web, I start reading a blog of a fellow crafter which leads me to a teacher blog which leads me to a twitter recommendation.  And from there I start following someone who points me to a new discovery, it is not a vicious circle but it is a circle that you can roll around over and over again finding new and wonderful things.


I am following the twitterer @TeachingIdeas and they like 'providing free ideas, resources, links and news to teachers around the world.' They tweeted today about an article at Teaching News. The article discusses the top five teaching discoveries of the week.  Interestingly I too have made a couple of these discoveries recently, both image related.  Dear Photograph and Pinterest.  Pinterest is a virtual pinboard and I have been using this for a variety of reasons for about a month now, one of the reasons is there are often great ideas for teacher resources pinned on the boards of other pinners.  

I discovered Dear Photograph only 2 days ago and it is such a wonderful idea, it is a blog of photos of photos taken in its original location showing changes over time and as Teaching News suggests it could easily be used in a classroom environment and as a series could be made into a digital story.

And how did I make this discovery? Twitter of course, but from a scrapbooker I follow.  This web truly is a wonderful place!

To blog on or not - is that really the question?

I have been watching many a vodcast of late and one that stood out to me was Gemma's . She asked the question whether her pre-service teacher colleagues would continue to blog now that it is not a requirement of our PE3 subject?


I think the answer must be yes!  I have found this to be such a great tool in not only reflecting on what I have learnt but also helping me fully understand the content. I am able to read others insights and in some cases change my opinion about certain subjects.


I have enjoyed reading other teachers blogs too, those already out there doing what we hope to do very soon. If we want to weave technology into our everyday classrooms then we must keep up with the latest and greatest.  We should read articles, blogs, follow links via twitter and search YouTube for related videos.  There is a wealth of knowledge out there being graciously shared by experts and we should take advantage of that.


So I, along with Gemma, intend on blogging my way to graduation and beyond.  I hope you will join me on the adventure!



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The total package!

Here is my first video blog, I hope you like it!

Final two days of practicum.

Due to my son being sick during prac I had to complete my last two days of prac this week. I was really hoping I could do something techno and fun with my class, but alas this was not going to happen.  As much as I liked my teacher and I believe her to be a good teacher, technology did not figure into her day, and not just the days I was there.  Unfortunately I did not get to Web 2.0 with my class, I barely got to IWB with them.  I know I have written about this before but after a semester of learning about how to incorporate technology into the classroom and making it meaningful I am disappointed that I could not put any of this new knowledge into practice. 


I can see how easy it would be for teachers to keep doing things the way they have always done them, but is that really an excuse?  My prac teacher said to me on the first day, don't do anything overly exciting as they are a noisy class and anything out of the ordinary just gets them over excited.  This flabbergasted me and made me wish for a teacher who said something more like, they are a noisy class but try whatever you like - you never know what they might respond to.  How great would that have been?

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ePortfolios or just Portfolios...

Helen Barrett's article Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios outlines the uses of eportfolios as a way of preserving, reflecting on and showcasing a learning journey.  Lydia, Janna and I used a PowerPoint presentation to enlighten our PE3 class to the benefits not only for us as teachers and our own journey but also as a replacement for the paper portfolios that many primary students bring home at the end of each school year.


The reflection of the journey should be the key feature of any portfolio and will enable us to get the most benefit from the process.


Being a new member of the Web 2.0 revolution PowerPoint does seem a little rudimentary now after all we have learnt this semester but sometimes you just have to get the information out there!

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Budd:e_ducation

My eyes were opened a whole lot wider in class this week.  Internet security is something that, I must admit, has not been that high on my priority list, I guess I have paid it lip service and that is it.  I mean I do have a virus scanner on my computer and I do block my children from getting onto any of 'those' sites but I haven't really educated myself or them about what it is ok to do online and what is NOT.


Budd:e is my new best friend, this site has been set up by the Australian Government as a part of their e-security initiative and in their blurb about it say that this internet based program is part of an education package.  This is where it gets important, yes show your students these sites but not before you explain why you are letting them play.  Use budd:e as part of an education program about the internet and how to be safe while using and enjoying it.  


I will be delving further into this site in the very near future, I did check it out briefly and I have already learnt a lot.



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