NAGC 2011 TECH THAT

Brian  Housand  East  Carolina  University    Angela  Housand  University  of  North  Carolina  -­‐  Wilmington    Jennifer  Troester    O’Neil  Public  Schools    Jillian  Gates    Anchorage  School  District    P.  Susan  Jackson  The  Daimon  InsBtute  for  the  Highly  GiEed  

FOR  HANDOUTS  VISIT:  

hDp://bit.ly/techthat  

How do you use technology and how do you use technology with your students?

Digital Natives

(Internet World Stats, 2009)

(De Moor, 2008)

(Valcke, et al, 2008)

(NPR March 16, 2011)

Whiz Kids or

Risk Kids

Internet  Risks  

Content  Risks  

Contact  Risks  

Commercial  Risks  

Internet  Risks  

Content  Risks  

ProvocaBve  Content  

Wrong  InformaBon  

InformaBon  Overload  

Contact  Risks   Commercial  Risks  

Internet  Risks  

Content  Risks   Contact  Risks  

Online  Contact    

Cyber  Bullying  

Sexual  SolicitaBon  

Privacy  Risks  

Offline  Contact  

Commercial  Risks  

Quick  Web  Search  of  Known  Student  

Internet  Risks  

Content  Risks   Contact  Risks  

Online  Contact    

Cyber  Bullying  

Sexual  SolicitaBon  

Privacy  Risks  

Offline  Contact  

Commercial  Risks  

Internet  Risks  

Content  Risks  

Contact  Risks  

Commercial  Risks  

Commercial  ExploitaBon  

Personal  Data  CollecBon  

NegaBve  Consequences  of  Unsafe  Internet  Behavior  

•  Aggression  •  Fear  •  Symptoms  related  to  Psychological  Trauma  

•  NegaBve  Self-­‐Image  •  IdenBty  Confusion  

NegaBve  Consequences  of  Online  Sexual  SolicitaBon  

•  EmoBonally  Upset  •  Shame  •  Anxiety  •  Developed  Stress  Symptoms  

Boys’  Exposure  to  Sexually  Explicit  Content  May  Effect  Their  

•  PercepBon  of  the  role  of  sex  in  a  healthy  relaBonship  

•  View  of  females  as  sex  objects  •  AVtudes  about  Sex  •  Respect  for  females  

NegaBve  Consequences  of  Online  Harassment  or  Cyberbullying  

•  Felt  Threatened  •  Stress  •  Anxiety  •  Severe  Depression  •  Felt  Less  Safe  

Shout Out!

Give me a number between 1 and 10…

Parent Strategies!

"  Review the Search History""  Be Part of the Social Network""  Centralized Location for ALL

Technology""  Limit time or earn time on the Internet"

Parent Strategies!

"  Model the Behaviors you Expect to see""  Make Connections – Online & Offline""  The rules that apply to physical safety

apply to virtual safety"

The Parent Perspective!

InformaJon  Overload  

CogniBve  oversBmulaBon  that  interferes  with  our  ability  to  “think”              (Toffler,  1970,  p.  350)  

Anxiety May Result!

Why Can’t Johnny Search?

Barriers to Information Literacy

•  Do not realize Internet does not have all of the answers

•  Have not learned to judge quality

•  Too many choices and too much information

“Every man should have a

built-in automatic

crap detector operating

inside of him.”

NEW LITERACIES newliteracies.uconn.edu/

Teacher Strategy  Explicit Instruction for Search

 Use Correct Spelling  Use Root Words  Use Boolean Logic Operators

 AND  NOT  OR

http://www.google.com/educators

Teacher Strategy  What About Kid Friendly

Search Tools  TekMom’s Search Tools  Kids’ Search Tools

(rcls.org/ksearch)

Barriers to Personal Safety

•  Cyberbullying activities are devoid of emotional feedback component

•  Willing to disclose personal information

•  Willing to send personal pictures

•  Engage in f2f contact after initial online contact

¢  Bruner, 1996, suggested: “education typically disregards learners' perspectives on knowledge and their understanding of their capacity for learning”

¢  What are the ways we can provide environments and educational strategies that engage gifted kids in understanding and directing their own learning in contemporary classrooms wherein growth, enquiry, and personally relevant education are the focus?

MINECRAFT is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. You, the player, will be dropped in a randomly generated world made out of cubes . . .

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The game starts by placing the player on the surface of a huge procedurally generated game world. The player can walk across the terrain consisting of plains, mountains, caves, and various water bodies.

The game world is procedurally generated as the player explores it.

There are no spaceships, no lasers, no bullets, no armies, and no blood. In place of the fast-twitch

first-person-shooter games dominating

console and PC gaming is a construction oriented

world set in primitive times that has captured the imagination of about 10 million free users and

3 million paid users worldwide. ( . . . more

than $66M in revenue in less than two years.)

GAME BASED LEARNING AND NEXT GENERATION SOCIAL NETWORKING ¢  An approach to learning that is multi-

sensory, reflective and collaborative

¢  Allows learners a safe, creative environment with many options for interaction and creativity. 

¢  The simple structures (single blocks) means that it is relevant and meaningful because of what they can do, rather than some inherent element of the game.

Minecraft is a sandbox game: a virtual world that allows free-roaming with almost no artificial

barriers where you build and create.

MINECRAFT’S EDUCATIONAL USE

¢ Can be used as a direct tool to address curricular based teaching and learning and replace some of the teaching materials that are in use right now.

¢  It is easy to use

¢ How do we wake the teachers’ interest in games?

There is something incredibly compelling about this game.

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The game is focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world.

¢  Core gameplay revolves around construction.

¢  Game world made of cubical blocks arranged in a fixed grid pattern which represent different materials, such as dirt, stone, various ores, water, and tree trunks.

¢  Players move freely across the world, while objects and items can only be placed at fixed locations relative to the grid.

¢  Can gather these material "blocks" and place them elsewhere, thus potentially creating various constructions

BUILD BY ADDING BLOCKS

¢  Players destroy or harvest blocks and inventory.

¢  Placed down elsewhere to alter the environment or used in the game’s crafting system.

¢  Two modes:

¢ Survival mode:

¢ use the blocks to build shelter while ¢ monsters that at night.

¢ Players have to find the blocks they need on their own. Creative mode: removes all the enemies and grants players a supply of every type of block available to use.

�  multiple players, while survival

THE “CREEPER” CAN LEAD TO DESTRUCTION

Some materials require special equipment to be mined.

Stone: wooden pickaxe Gold: iron pickaxe Obsidian: diamond pickaxe. Create shovels and normal axes to mine sand, dirt and wood faster.

Mining no longer instant: hit the block a couple times, tools reduce the time.

ITEMS TO SELECT IN THE GAME (YOUR TOOLKIT / INVENTORY / STORAGE)

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¢  Method by which many blocks, tools, and other resources are made in Minecraft.

¢  Must move items from inventory into a crafting grid.

¢  Grid can be accessed in the player's inventory or on a Crafting Table.

¢  Must then arrange them into the pattern representing the item(s) they wish to create.

¢  As long as the proper pattern of resources is placed, it will not matter where within the grid the ingredients are placed.

¢  Crafting recipes can also be flipped horizontally from their depictions: for instance, you can make a bow with the strings on the right instead of the left.

Some blocks can not be found in nature but require crafting.

¢ Clay: split into clay balls, which when baked turn into bricks which can be combined to form brick wall blocks.

¢ Baking happens in a stone oven, needs a steady supply of coal: oven itself needs to be crafted at a workbench (needs to be constructed first).

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The pickaxe is created by placing two sticks down the middle of the 3×3 grid Visualize this as two small sticks being put together to form a long handle for the pickaxe. Three of the same resource (wooden planks, stone, iron, gold or diamond) are then placed across the top three boxes in the grid. Picture this as being the blade of the pickaxe that is attached to the top of the handle.

Randomly generated world structured such a fashion that more valuable resources are either rare or only spawn in deep caverns far below the ground. Aside from building blocks the game also offers more complex building.

The player can create railway systems and ride mine carts, row in a small boat, and build pressure plates, switches, doors and electrical circuits to power various contraptions.

MINECRAFT ENVIRON

¢  World is divided into biomes ranging from deserts to snowfields.

¢  The in-game time system follows a day and night cycle

¢  Throughout the course of the game the player encounters various non-human creatures, referred to as mobs.

¢  During the daytime, non-hostile animals spawn, which can be hunted for food and crafting materials.

¢  Hostile monsters, such as large spiders, skeletons, zombies and the dangerous exploding "creeper" will spawn in unlit areas, such as in caves or during the night.

KIDS RESEARCH BIOMES AND SHARE FILES TO FIND OPTIMAL ENVIRONS

MINECRAFT BIOMES GOOGLE MAP

BRIDGE TO THE OTHER SIDE

¢ when on multiplayer, they have to decide as a group what the settings will be or what they want to create or how they are going to play

¢  to make many of the structures they create, they have to calculate the layout and position of doors/windows/other items within the structure before they begin, will it physically fit in the space, have the right proportions, etc

¢  There is no manual so they have to find other resources to

figure out what they want to do and there are many ways to do that that involve research skills

¢  Students go on youtube, and other people's blogs, and then try the things out:

- this is how Daniel learned to set up his server

- also how he's learning to do the mods - he watches a bit, then tries, then when he's stuck he goes back and finds more info and tries again

- he is learning how to differentiate between those whose information is very useful and well-presented, and those who are either bogus or clueless

¢  Complex systems can be built using the in-game physics engine with the use of primitive electrical circuits and logic gates.

�  For example, a door can be opened or closed by pressing a connected button or stepping on a pressure plate.

�  Similarly, larger and more complex systems can be produced, such as a working arithmetic logic unit – as used in CPUs.

Boys: there are no rules. Parents : they have to design rules based on what they want to get out of the game, especially on multiserver

¢  Lucas (Mr. Fireworks) can build things, then arbitrarily smash and blow things up, then go back to building, then go exploring, and then blow things up again, then hang around and make a complex item using pistons and redstone (electricity).

¢  Also, they can reach a point where they choose to stop, or let it go, or settle down,  which is a priceless learning process.

¢  Daniel (Mr. Perfection) can get 3/4 of the way through an enormous construction, and realise that it won't work out the way he wants because all the windows will not be perfectly equidistant, and so destroy it and start again

Boys: There is no one to tell you to stop or settle down or just let it go

Parents: They can indulge themselves with no repercussions and recriminations

¢  Me: The game has a number of modes which require them to follow rules to achieve specific goals (aka other video games), but in general they can decide how they want to play (soon-to-be-released Adventure mode, Player vs Player, Creative with no Monsters, No Cheating (no using the Inventory Edit mod, etc).

¢  But more importantly, it is an Open Source architecture so anyone (including the kids) can create skins and modifications and join in the creative process so the game is always changing and personalised

Boys: We have control over how we play

They learn how to self-monitor; it invites deep engagement

¢  .

¢ Me: This gets them excited about what they could create, and they are motivated to try things they see in the videos,- also they are motivated to make some videos themselves, and so learn video editing, etc

Boys: There are cool videos out there

Learn new techonology skills: endless resources need to be vetted and utilized

BRIDGE TO THE OTHER SIDE

In order for a class of, for example, 25 to have full access to Minecraft (such as may be needed in order to demonstrate fully) it would cost $373.75. Perhaps you could negotiate with Mojang themselves to lower this cost. Much of the basics of Minecraft is available in Creative mode which completely free, but at least one or two full accounts would need to be set up for demonstration purposes alone. Order the game at: Minecraft.net

Minecraft is the inevitable progression from one-dimensional social networks like Facebook

to virtual world social networks. If the Mojang folks supported a more robust server architecture and possibly larger game maps, we could see worlds with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous players. I believe Minecraft fulfills the promise Second Life and IMVU have not; these players are not waking up and deciding to go into a virtual world. They are deciding to play and build in Minecraft and the world and social rules follow from that. Minecraft gives its players a reason to come together to interact, much like an outdoor BBQ brings us together to eat and socialize or a dance club brings us together to dance and socialize.

Minecraft also presents a number of challenges to traditional video gaming in general. every single block in the game is moveable and alterable, exept bedrock (the only truly indestructile block in the game), which prevents players from falling into the void (the space beneath every minecraft world) The entire game landscape can be redrawn by the players, one block at a time. This is enormously empowering to a child who lives within a strict set rules about what may and may not be touched in the real world. In Minecraft, you can touch everything. (The blocks do adhere to primitive logical rules like gravity and the effects of states of matter, so it is not a complete free for all.) In addition, the marvel of the game’s success cannot be understated. It has not even been formally released and it has 10M players? And it was developed by one person until early 2010, and then a tiny team (relative to big game development) who built and then leveraged a rabid community of their users, many of whom are technical enough to hack and improve the game in all sorts of unimaginable ways. So where can this all go? If the team at Mojang wanted to and thought this way, I think this game could be a platform for global social interactions and easily become the largest virtual world social network.

Working desk of 11 year old exceptionally gifted boy: built pyramid to scale, runs own server, using in school projects, architect of the social contract in which his Minecraft community operates. In school highly unmotivated.

The entire game landscape can be redrawn by the players, one block at a time. This is enormously empowering to a child who lives within a strict set rules about what may and may not be touched in the real world. In Minecraft, you can touch everything. (The blocks do adhere to primitive logical rules like gravity and the effects of states of matter, so it is not a complete free for all.)

NINE YEAR OLD EXCEPTIONALLY GIFTED BOY AT WORK BUILDING A MOD FOR MINECRAFT

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The entire game landscape can be redrawn by the players, one block at a time. This is enormously empowering to a child who lives within a strict set rules about what may and may not be touched in the real world

MINECRAFT’S EDUCATIONAL USE: SOME IDEAS ¢  Give students login information and have them all log into a school-hosted

multiplayer server (Yes, you can host your own private server).  Tell them they have arrived on a deserted(?) island (think Lost, maybe?).  They need to work together to build a society.  Who will gather resources?  Who will build?  Who will plan?  How will they feed themselves?  How will they defend themselves from the skeletons/creepers at night (though these villains could be turned off as a feature).  The key here is to have them plan and write all of this based on their in-world experiences.

¢  Have students journal daily life on their island as though they were a real person in a real place.  Imagine… “Day 1 – Not sure how I got here.  Haven’t seen another person.  All was fine until nightfall.  I began to hear a groaning sound in the forest and that’s when I saw the zombies.  Now I’m holed up in a cave hoping they go away.”

¢  Have students think of a real-world machine and attempt to recreate it in their Minecraft world.  People have even made basic computers out of Minecraft materials.  Yes, it can be that complex.  You can craft circuits with basic logic functions out a material called redstone.  Players have built working rail stations, musical instruments, and more.

¢  Of course the multiplayer potential for the game opens up lots of collaborative opportunity.  Imagine different classes working together to build something, different grade levels, or even students from schools in two different parts of the world!

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It is becoming clear to me that educators are climbing over the mountain of scepticism towards using games to learn and embracing it with open arms.

¢  it is

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building the logic separate from the theme, allowing users to specify their own style and context but keeping the challenges fun, educational and relevant.

Teacher Strategy  Utilize “Teacher Invitation”

 Blogs  Chat rooms  Messaging  Sharing files

Teacher Strategy  Internet Use Contract

 Mutual Teacher/Student Agreement with Signatures!

 Specific Expectations  Consequences

Teacher Strategy  Utilize Creative Productivity

 Provide a purpose for online activity

 Require product oriented outcomes

 Student choice

Teacher Strategy  Support Positive Interactions

 Value individuals  Honor and celebrate diversity  Open and honest communication  Demonstrate respect and

integrity

Teacher Strategy  The rules that apply to physical

safety apply to virtual safety  Don’t talk to people you do not

know  Bullying is unacceptable

 No Tolerance

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