Community Engagement

Games and Learning – Sarah Wells

Hi Sarah,

I like your closing statement, and I tend to agree with games being an integral part of learning. Gee (2012) invokes us to consider system thinking and situated meaning. What is the situated meaning of an animal play wrestling or fighting with their siblings? I believe it is a way of preparing them for survival; is that to understand pain, limits and fine-tune those hunting skills? The internal instinct is to ‘catch their prey’ with their sibling being the first one to ‘catch’. It is very entertaining to watch the kitten stalk a fluffy pom-pom too. Kids also want to wrestle and tumble, and take risks so they can build their gross and fine motor skills and learn their limits.

So what is it that we are trying to achieve in the classroom with digital games? We hear the talk about the skills for the 21st century. I wonder whether everyone attaches the ‘play’ aspect of learning to every educational approach because it makes sense in column a, so it must make sense here too. I recall that ‘process drama’ for the creative arts was also a great opportunity for students to display a critical understanding of tasks relative to real life events, again through play exploration and spontaneity. (Martello, 2001; Deans, Brown and Young, 2007 and Young, 2011).

I guess with anything, can you answer your question, do games squash creativity or can the two coexist equally? Why do we need digital games to do it, when kids naturally also just want to rumble and tumble; why do we quash that behaviour in the playground?

Aidan

Deans, J., Brown, R. & Young, S. (2007). The possum story: Reflections of an early childhood drama teacher. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 32 (4), 1-6

Gee, P. J. (2005). Good video games and good learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Summer 2005, 85(2), 33-37.

Martello, J. (2001) Drama: Ways into critical litereacy in the Early Childhood Years. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 24, No. 3, Oct 2001: 195-207

Young, S. (2011). A very dangerous story. Drama Queensland, 34 (1), 18-20

Augmented Reality in Education – Randa Osman

Hi Randa,

I very briefly observed other students using this app and only had a very quick glimpse of what it involved. What differentiation opportunities could Osmo encourage? Does it help prompt students to solve the problems? Or do they just have to match a 2D shape to what’s on the screen?
When considering that computational thinking could help students align their problem-solving and lateral thinking skills do you think this app could be useful?

Aidan

Virtual Reality in the Classroom – Sophie Maxwell

Hi Sophie,

Virtual Reality (VR) is a topic to me that generates a lot of uncertainty. I am leaning towards disliking it as a digital resource. I can see the intrigue of developing virtual reality as exploring creative exploration and allowing students to practice social skills in an electronic environment.
I like your point you raised from Lau and Lee (2015), “why should this be more beneficial than a real-world situation”? Thought for me is; how is this type of technology (VR) going to impact on students perceptions of reality? We are in a society that is more connected but is more lonely. The article that I can relate my concerns to is hyperlinked below. Their point is that society’s “growing reliance on social technology rather than face to face interaction is thought to be making us feel more isolated” and “relationships are more superficial and less rewarding”. Whilst it is not a peer-reviewed journal, the risks of loneliness are identified in this newspaper article and could instigate some questions to pursue.

In saying that, I did find an article that identified that Minecraft was commonly voted as the students top choice, which is a VR game. This article highlighted that ‘discovery’ is the most important aspect of a digital game. I can see how a game like Minecraft encourages students to explore and discover a world that would not be easily accessible, or obtainable in reality. Like exploring the depths of the ocean or the dark side of the moon. I can also see how it could help students that aren’t naturally proficient with social tasks, to practice this in a game, but I am conscious of the fact that it does require immersing the student and withdraws the student from unique and realistic social opportunities. I have seen a student get bored with a VR game and start killing everything in sight. In a VR experience, it removes the notion of empathy, which students no longer have to feel pain or emotions. Empathy is just one aspect that is important with developing social competence and by removing it from an experience it could desensitise students. I can’t say don’t use VR, but I am cautious of it’s deeper or long term impacts.

Aidan

Newspaper Article:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-loneliness-epidemic-more-connected-than-ever-but-feeling-more-alone-10143206.html

Peer-reviewed Journal:
Beavis, C., Muspratt, S., & Thompson, R. (2015). “Computer Games Can Get Your Brain Working”: Student Experience and Perceptions of Digital Games in the Classroom. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(1), 21-42.)

Lets Talk Robotics – Sarah Wells

Hi Sarah,

I have also seen and helped use robotics in the classroom. The school I worked at last year had students competing at RoboCup where they’ve built their own robots and then had to navigate an unknown course whilst performing particular actions. The course isn’t provided until the day to avoid having the students pre-programming their robots.

What I noticed is that it was a very good activity for students to collaboratively problem solve. The students were able to choose their own partners for Robocup, and it was interesting to critique different students techniques of problem-solving. Here’s a couple of my experiences:
1. You often hear the comment “the stupid robot won’t do this”. I found it was particularly interesting when you can calm students down by reminding them that the robot doesn’t have a mind of its own and that they have programmed it to perform this action. Go back and work out the steps you’ve programmed.
2. In preparation/training for RoboCup, one group of students got into the habit of deleting their work when discovering their program didn’t work. They would write out their code, test it and then delete the entire coding to try again. This was great to use as an opportunity to discourage these students from utilising a more time-consuming solution and to focus on being efficient to find the error. These students found one error in their program of 15 instructions… They realised how much easier it was to edit 1 move instead of reprogramming it all over again. The students also related this advice to other aspects of their learning.

I also consider your question; in terms of creativity are students still being constrained by the limited programming of these robotic toys? Well, yes, when you look at it in the constraints of programming to perform fixed tasks, yes, but it will depend on your definition of creativity. I like that you reviewed my post as you will recall a definition of creativity that I have found and prefer. Robotics does meet this definition:
“Creativity is a combinatorial force: it’s our ability to tap into our ‘inner’ pool of resources – knowledge, insight, information, inspiration and all the fragments populating our minds – that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world and to combine them in extraordinary new ways.” — Maria Popova.

Aidan