CEP 820: Developer Notebook 6

DN ENTRY 6

Course Link:

http://www.myhaikuclass.com/colingally/g5pyp/

Developer Notebook Link: 
http://is.gd/cep820DN

Reflection on developing an online course

I had a hard time substantiating the need for this online lesson for our Primary Years Programme unit of work. Did the students need this extra avenue of work? Had they got enough on their plate with the day to day classroom activities and investigation?
I felt that this online lesson area could act like a guide and a framework for our grade 5 students as they went through the weeks leading up to the mandatory exhibition. It challenged me to come up with an area where, keeping with the schedule of the unit, students could utilize the advantages of online learning alongside their normal everyday learning in their classrooms. The concept of blended learning is not something that we are akin to in our school so initiating something like this is something new, something exciting, and something that could pave the way for future styles of teaching and learning in our school.

The fundamental issues in planning the online lesson were trying to keep in line with the learning throughout the weeks going on in the classroom. I think in doing this working closely with the classroom teachers eventually teaching them how to construct the online lessons is the best method of planning. Blended learning if done correctly can be a very worthwhile experience but the structure online needs to co-relate to the timeline of events in the classroom. Perhaps a timeline type structure like I went for is not the best layout in an ideal blended learning experience? As it was my first foray into this type of blended instruction I would need to get feedback and opinion from both students and teachers to see what other type of format would work best. On the surface, a weekly format looks defined and well organized and works well for students of that age but perhaps simplify each week into more bite size chunks or activities that follow on directly from classroom activities. However, this might be hard to follow when just the online lesson is viewed by people other than teachers and students!

Engaging web 2.0 tools are essential but always need to be in context. It helps if the students have learned these tools already prior to this so they need not waste time learning how to use the tool. If students have not experienced the tool before it’s important they have resources to learn. The fundamental characteristics of Web 2.0 tools enable the students to engage in discussion, feedback, conversations, and collaboration. These tools go hand in hand with online learning and differentiating this type of learning from traditional classroom pedagogy.

There are a number of platforms to base your online learning lesson on and to be honest it really doesn’t matter which one you chose. It’s what goes in to it that matters.

CEP 800 6.4 Lesson Reflection

Lesson Overview

Students were to work in groups to create a community within the game Minecraft. Students would plan out what systems are essential in a functioning community and then work together within Minecraft to create that community. It was planned that this lesson would take around 160-200 minutes but most groups were complete within 120-160 minutes of lesson time.

Lesson Implementation

This lesson was with a grade 3 class of 18 students. Our first 40 minute block was technically in the classroom where the groups got together to work out which systems are vital in a community and how that would look in a rough drawing of a community. We told them that we would use Minecraft to make the community they are planning and we had more discussions about what a community could look like. It could be a number of different things and not just a town or a city. Each group member was given a task of building a certain part within the community. When we moved into the computer lab we had just a 10 minute introduction to Minecraft as at least one student in each group had played it before. Then the students were given their username and password and got on with their tasks at hand. After the first lesson most groups had got a good amount of work done and had the majority of their communities built.

From top: Roads, Dock, Church, and Tram system

After the third lesson every group were finished their community. Our teachers could access these communities from school and from home. Students presented their worlds at assembly and some even made little videos about their community that had built http://youtu.be/_2yTtRmoPc8

Teachers assessed the students using the rubric in the initial lesson plan.

Reflections based on Question Sets 1 and 2

Students learned the fundamental systems that are required for a functioning community to exist. Using Minecraft they learned how to formulate their knowledge into actions and could create a tangible community within the game. A lot of students had prior knowledge of Minecraft and their knowledge of systems came from 4 weeks of classroom work on the topic.

I don’t think there were any problems with using Minecraft in this lesson; I think it transformed an activity that had existed last year in the unit into a more tangible, engaging activity. This was only attainable through using Minecraft.

This lesson was based on a social constructivist approach as students worked together to create something and worked together and motivated each other. The activity really reached across learner styles, as the game is in its essence very engaging with visuals and sound and a lack of in-depth text to read. Higher achieving learners could be as elaborate as they wished while SEN students could set smaller goals to create within the game.
Teachers need to know how to play the game Minecraft and try to foster an appreciation of it. If you don’t like it then the passion for using it will not be there. Learners need not have a lot of experience as Minecraft is so intuitive to new users and the controls are quickly picked up.

As mentioned previously, we used the rubric in our lesson plan to assess the students. Each student had specific jobs to do within their community and this was documented within their groups.

Technology obviously played a vital role in this lesson due to Minecraft being a video game. I think there are only advantages to the technology in this activity and is why I’m so excited about using Minecraft in other grades. Minecraft makes the students’ learning and planning come to life in a way previously unimaginable.
I had very high expectations of students in this lesson and I wasn’t let down. The enthusiasm for gaming is very high and Minecraft is very popular (more amongst boys than girls) with our students. During the lesson, questions were quite basic and more at the start of the lesson; how do I fly? Can I destroy this part quickly? Mostly the questions were “Do you like this?!”

I have no doubt that students achieved more and learned more by creating their community out in a 3D environment. By having to build the systems they had to learn or research how specific systems were built and applying that while creating their systems.

CEP 800 Module 4

CEP 800 interview with student

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