Bill Mackenty Technology strengthens, deepens and broadens our learning...games in education work! 2012-02-02T20:00:14Z Copyright (c) 2012, Bill ExpressionEngine tag:mackenty.org,2012:02:02 domain name problems tag:mackenty.org,2012:index.php/site/index/1.473 2012-02-02T19:58:13Z 2012-02-02T20:00:14Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org hey readers!

I’m in the midst of trying to resolve some domain name problems. Fortunately, I’ve been mirroring, so if mackenty.org goes down, poke around here: http://97.107.132.124/index.php

oh, and how do any Directors of Technology have time to blog?!?

]]> The Digital Citenzship Opportunity tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.472 2011-12-12T07:19:01Z 2011-12-12T07:32:02Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org Zen and the art of the internet when understanding "how to be" on the internet.

At my current school digital citizenship is not at the front of our ship right now; however, I do see evidence of digital citizenship infused into our curriculum in the form of "laptop drivers licenses", AUP's, (and RUP's), and we also have a very well defined cyberbullying protocol which is sadly used more than I'd like to. Our middle school employs a monitoring tool to support students to make good choices. We had our very first "red-card" situation this week in the MS, where two boys were playing games after being warned repeatedly. We have a pretty good system to support abuses, and we have an excellent system to communicate with parents (not just about digital citizenship, but everything else related to technology).

Perhaps the best opportunity we have to help our community understand digital citizenship is when there is a problem. We had a case last year where, literally, 2 days after a 3 week digital citizenship course some kids made a gossip-girl-style facebook group with extraordinary hurtful things on it. This after an intensive course! The real teaching and learning happened at that moment of opportunity, parents, students, and teachers were all hot about this issue, and that is when we saw real change and awareness in student thinking about digital citizenship. I've found the cyberbullying protocol to be especially effective in resolving specific issues. ]]> CEESA Minecrafting tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.471 2011-11-16T09:01:01Z 2011-11-16T09:09:03Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org The Central Eastern European School Association (CEESA) has created a Minecraft server that schools from across Central Europe are playing in. The server, located in Moscow, is available for students at any CEESA school. I ran my video-game club through our first trial of minecraft yesterday afternoon, and we had a neat time. This project has just started, but with many schools involved, it is enormously exciting. I am hopeful for a bright future. Here's our experiences, and some reflections about this experience and learning.

Initial expectation about the experience.

For many players in our video game club, there really is nothing better than killing your friend in the most imaginative way possible. In gamer terms, this is known as griefing. We reviewed a prezi made by a student in Moscow with the rules, which offered common-sense suggestions like not destroying each others buildings, killing other players, and generally being rude. The members of my video game club were shocked and let-down when they realized this wouldn't be part of their minecraft experience.

When they saw no zombies, spiders, and explody-thingies, they were again disappointed. There was an intelligent conversation about the "essence" of minecraft - what made it a game, what makes it fun, why people come back. There seemed to be a general consensus that with a common enemy (mobs) players would have a reason to visit the game more often. We are going to suggest adding in PvE (or perhaps, just a part of the world can be PvE).

But then, there is that whole "game" thing going on.

Despite their concerns, they were very quickly immersed in the world. We saw the center of the world and set off to build the Polish section of the world. We built a big Polish flag, and started building a platform. There is an idea to build a very big train system linking the different districts, and the center district. Last night, still learning about Minecraft, I started building The Wieliczka Salt Mines.

I was reminded again why I am drawn to games as a powerful tools for learning. The students excitement, motivation, and energy was palpable. They were pointing at the screen, shouting and yelling, impassioned. And then, they started building; trying to make the most beautiful buildings they could. There were complaints about student players being 'ops'. I promised them I would investigate (I think the server is set up for creative mode).

As my readers may know, I am an enthusiastic proponent of Dr. Richard Bartle's player types - which basically states people play games for different reasons (explorer, socializer, achiever, and griefer) there are other types, but you get the idea. I saw my student quickly adapt their playing styles to the confines of this world, and just love it.

Learnings and further steps

1. We have an opportunity to learn, discuss and reflect on online behavior, ethics, and community. This server offers a lens for us to participate in a virtual community - and learn much in the process. These kids don't know each other - there is very little glue to keep them together.

2. There is an amazing opportunity to build important cultural buildings and places here - why not a famous church in Croatia, the famous metro system in Moscow (or Red Square), old town in Kracow, beautiful sites in Helsinki, etc... Why not create a microcosm of Europe on a minecraft server? Here we see a place where students can virtually represent anything.

3. Teachers have an opportunity to learn how to teach and work with other schools in CEESA. Our athletics department might be able to give us some advice - how do you work with CEESA kids you don't really know? I would like to begin offering online / blended courses in Warsaw to other students throughout CEESA. This server is a great place for us to fall flat on our faces as we learn to virtually interact with each other.

For further steps, I suggest we:

1. Build a collaborative vision of our minecraft server - At some point, we need to be able to answer the "why are we doing this" question.

2. Institute a "uservoice" type service so the different schools can agree on what sorts of features they would want in the game (http://uservoice.com/feedback). Basically, uservoice allows users to vote on a feature request, and it is very easy to quickly see what your community thinks is important.

3. Maybe have a guiding question or idea in the moodle forum each week. We can then focus our efforts in the game towards answering this question or exploring this idea.

One last thought - games are educational in very different ways; please don't think "playing minecraft will make their math skills stronger". Take a quick peek here for some summaries and thoughts about games and learning I've written over the last 5 or 6 years.

Game on! ]]> In response to the classroom of the future… tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.470 2011-09-05T06:27:13Z 2011-09-05T06:33:14Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org In the Classroom of the Future, Stagnant Scores. It may help if you review the usual snarky and intelligent discussion about this here on slashdot.

The New York Times has published a story by Matt Richtel has written a piece which discusses technology-rich schools not fairing so well on standardized tests. I’m sure the article is factually correct; the impression I am left with is that any use of technology in a school is suspect. I would say the main point of this article is we are spending scads of money an educational technology, and we don’t know if it works.

Fair question, good article. I have several responses, in no particular order. FYI: I’m the director of technology at a major international school, and I’ve been in the educational technology world for more than 10 years.

1. If you teach with technology the same way you taught without it, you are missing the point. I’ve seen many teachers use an interactive whiteboard the exact same way as a normal whiteboard. What’s the point? Technology is a cognitive tool that enables collaboration, constructivist learning, and truly differentiated teaching and learning. But if we don’t change the way we teach to support those ends, we will not reach them.

2. There is something transformational happening in our world. I point to the Arab Spring, and the use of social networking as concrete evidence of this transformation. I also appeal to common sense; that a student can pick up a smartphone, and answer any question, any time, anywhere is simply astounding. Augmented reality again points to a future where we can know anything, anytime, anywhere. The real question (and one I'm not sure Mr. Richtel answered) is "what does the transformation of communication and ubiquitous knowledge mean for education?". I think he observed and wrote a plain truth; schools don't "get" tech. Especially in the context of standardized test scores, the kind of deep learning we know works doesn't happen. My bias in learning is deep knowledge is better than broad knowledge. I see students able to "hang" new experiences onto something they already know.

3. I'm currently teaching a SUNY Buffalo graduate course, ED603 Technology: Best Practice as a Catalyst for Learning. Just last Saturday, we culled through some research which essentially said "the efficacy of technology really depends how you use it". There are very clear studies which show that if you are lecturing in a room full of laptops, technology actually inhibits learning; mainly through distraction (and a zone of distraction which flows from behind the student). The big problem I see in ed tech is technology (as a noun) is simply thrown into a classroom without any real effort to realize the verbs - how will teaching and learning be better? What about professional development?

4. There is a difference between using technology to help students learn and using technology to help teachers teach. Ideally, both things are happening. If a teacher has an online component to their classroom (like a moodle course, or a class-blog, or a class website) that is great! They are communicating with parents, perhaps they are posting assignments, or even class notes. This is great, but how is it helping students learn? If a teacher changes the way they are using their online classroom (like peer editing module, or portfolio module, or wiki module) then we start seeing how technology is changing the way our students learn. We see the same thing with interactive whiteboards. If a teacher is simply substituting a whiteboard for an interactive whiteboard, then it doesn't make much sense to use an interactive board. However, a small change in behavior on the part of the teacher can have wonderful value-add. If a teacher starts save their notes electronically, and then post them online, we see accessibility and availability increase. If we see a teacher ask students to start creating lessons for their peers, then we really start to see this tool work. If a teacher incorporates videos, polls and other interactive elements in their teaching, then that interactive whiteboard starts to be more than just an expensive whiteboard. It is this question we must concern ourselves with; how is technology making learning better?

5. I believe, all things being equal, it is better to not use technology if you are not changing the way you teach, and students learn. If you plan on merely substituting teaching and learning with the same tool, you will realize some benefits, but not a "real learning awakening". This goes to the heart of success in educational technology, how is learning going to be different? This requires real visioning, training, support and most importantly, changing the way we imagine learning and teaching.

I'll enjoy the comments and conversation. ]]> How do you evaluate technology coaches? tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.469 2011-08-01T14:11:27Z 2011-08-01T14:14:28Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org
We have a special opportunity this year to create a formal evaluation for these folks. As technology director, I'll be formally co-evaluating the technology coaches with the building principals. These evaluations will be "official-in-the-personnel-file" evaluations. So what should be on them?

Some of them are pretty easy:

communication skills
organization and planning
contribution to the work environment

But what about the meat and potatoes? How do we point to a technology coach and say "yup, that is effective technology coaching". Do I look at teachers that have worked with the technology coach? Do I look at the students who are in the classes? Artifact research? I see many technology coaches using project-based integration. Maybe we should just look at projects and base evaluation on their projects - that seems a bit thin to me, though. The purpose of evaluating a technology coach is to evaluate if this person is improving student learning in our school through the effective use of technology.

I'm wondering:

Are the coaches available for teachers?
Are the presentation of training differentiated?
Are the coaches working to change building culture?
Do we see teachers using technology effectively and progressing with coaches?
Are coaches using differentiated instructions for their teachers?
Are coaches partnering?

Ultimately, I think the smart thing to do is let the coaches build their own evaluation instrument. Of course, we will include goal statements and all that other normal stuff, but I think they all know best.

What are your thoughts? What do you use to evaluate technology coaches? ]]> The 10 moms doctrine tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.468 2011-07-29T04:29:42Z 2011-07-29T04:58:44Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org
Our school has a one to one laptop program. The school owns the laptops and the students take the computers home with them. We use open dns for filtering. The students have admin access to their laptops (which is a topic for another blog post - I love it).

We got several (well-placed) criticisms last year which stated students were coming home with laptops, and parents had no way to control this device. I considered this complaint fair, because there really are a wide range of parental attitudes and beliefs to technology use. I tend to be fairly liberal and open about tech use, but many parents are not - they are conservative and very careful about technology use. Is it fair to send kids home with no way for parents to control their device? Of course we talk about social contracts, and talking with your child, and trust - but some parents have strong beliefs that a computer should be locked down (the 10 moms doctrine).

The obvious choice is to install filtering software and teach parents how to use it (or teach them to use open dns). It's an option. If parents want to activate filtering, we tell them how to do it. If they don't want to activate filtering, then they don't. We are clear that there is to be no filtering during school time, only at home (from 3:00pm to 7:00am). We also talk about parenting advice and tips and offer parents a venue to discuss technology issues and share solutions to problems with each other. We talk about the technical weakness of filtering, that filtering alone can't solve many problems, and that at the end of the day, there has to be some kind of involvement with parents and their child's technology.

tl;dr: people have different values, ed tech should do what they can to respect and support those values.



]]> More on learning HTML 5 tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.467 2011-07-27T06:19:44Z 2011-07-27T06:31:45Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org Dive into HTML 5 by Mark Pilgrim. Not sure which adjectives to use, so I'll just use the always-helpful-but-not-really-because-it-is-overused, "awesome".

Everything about this online book is great - I even (finally) got educated about unicode and character sets. His links for further reading are great. I've spent about 4 hours just reading and digesting - I'll certainly come back to this as I learn more and start implementing an HTML 5 site. ]]> Becoming familiar with HTML 5 tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.466 2011-07-24T08:03:57Z 2011-07-24T08:27:58Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org I find the w3 schools to be a good primer. I've never been much a javascript programmer, but it looks like that sexy canvas element uses it. I doubt I'll take the time to learn javascript, but it looks like I am going to need to sink my teeth into it.

I follow many people, including Rick Ellis, who said something like 'think of every website as an application'. I like this idea - the idea of static, "brochure-ware" is a dead end. Especially for schools, I believe the web is (and should be) a full suite of applications to serve the community. It seems like HTML 5 very much understands this idea.

I love the built in form authentication elements in HTML 5, the local storage, and the whole "the web is the application" idea. I hope major browsers don't screw up the implementation.

I'm sure I'll build a "test school" webpage with HTML 5 and my favorite CMS, Expression Engine to learn HTML 5.


]]> Fab-fi tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.465 2011-06-12T08:49:00Z 2011-06-12T09:04:01Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org How can we have internet when the government / corporate tries to shut it off One system, known as fab-fi, can be found here.

I'm putting this in my "mandatory for offline access folders". I would love to try to build this with some students. ]]> Quivering Communist Zombie Space Death - Part 2 tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.464 2011-06-06T08:07:16Z 2011-06-06T08:09:17Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org Part 1 here)

I have started this exercise late in the year, and haven’t had any luck grabbing students. Drat. I invited some teachers to participate, but they haven’t bitten. I intend to continue onward, building our text-based space game about quivering communist zombies.

A simple exercise, to create a reasonably accurate model of the solar system, yes? Let’s dig.

We start with the planets (trivial google search) and then move to modeling them in
hspace. We use the new universe wiki to help us. We use this fairly well referenced guide to get us started.

Creating the actual planets objects is pretty easy. In pennmush, logged in as a wizard (with hspace running, of course):

@create Earth
@create Mars
@create Venus
@create Sun

etc...

We then assign each object an attribute . 1 is an internal attribute for planets in our example, assume #4 is the object for earth, and #5 is the object for Mars

@space/addobject #4=1
@space/addobject #5=1

And then we need to define size, mass, name and location. And here, friends, is where things get interesting. Let’s look at the actual command syntax:

@space/setobject #5/NAME=Earth
@space/setobject #5/MASS= MASS HERE
@space/setobject #5/LOCATION=10000 10000 0

So, what is the mass of earth? Again, a google search reveals: 5.9742×1024 (it is referenced to NASA, and I checked the source, so it looks legit.

A first task is to convert scientific notation to standard number that hspace can understand. We know 5.9742×1024 equals 5,974,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 (which is freaking huge) So we simply plug this in.

@space/setobject #5/MASS= 5974200000000000000000000

We do the same thing for size. I know, MASS isn’t SIZE, but for the purposes of this game, this will work. According to the wiki, hspace uses size of an object for sensor reading (very weak sensors might not see pluto) and MASS for how much an object can “hold”. For planets, this is kind of irrelevant. But if you have a big ship that serves as an aircraft carrier, mass is important.

We are using cartesian coordinates to represent position. We’ve placed the center of the sun at 0,0,0. So where do we put earth?

We are not modeling orbits, but we are trying to be “about right” with distances. So we return to our resource page and look at how far earth is from the sun. We see the mean distance is 149,597,890 kilometers. so, if the sun is at 0,0,0, we can put the earth at 149597890,0,0 This puts the earth on a straight line from the sun - pretty far away! The syntax:

@space/setobject #5/LOCATION=149597890, 0, 0

We’ll need a pretty zippy ship to get around our solar system. I wonder how fast a ship would need to be in order to make it from Earth to Mars in a decent amount of time?
]]> Differentiated Distraction and blocking? tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.463 2011-06-03T09:24:47Z 2011-06-03T09:25:48Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org
“Well, Bill, you know the 500 pound elephant in the room is...”

I started praying his next words weren’t “..our horrible technology director...”

He continued, “is distraction.”

We started digging into this. There are some kids in his classes that are using technology in ways that make sense for him such as taking excellent notes and then sharing them online. However there are some kids in his class who are measurably suffering because they are distracted. Instead of notes, they are doing Other Stuff. Fill in the blank, playing games, on facebook, chatting, etc...

I hear from many teachers, parents, and even students that distraction is a major concern. I get it. I know divided attention (aka multitasking) hinders learning. I also know when technology is used effectively it really transforms teaching and learning.

As we were talking, I kept coming back to this idea that some kids were doing well with technology and some weren’t. I taught for 10 years, I moved kids around my classroom if they needed to be closer to the front. I made every effort to differentiate my instruction so different learning styles could access the content.

Why not do this with technology? If a student has a problem focusing, or is easily distracted, why not support that student by blocking all but the most important applications? If a student has special learning needs, we make accommodations. However in technology what I see is a “block everything or block nothing” approach.

I think of this an potentially important tool in the “how can we support students” toolbox.





Now for the obligatory explanation stuff:

1. I understand effective classroom management is intimately related to effective teaching.
2. I understand selectively blocking alone will not fix anything about distraction - but it will help.
3. I understand teaching and learning in a 1:1 classroom requires a different way of thinking about learning and teaching.
4. I understand kids can always become distracted. But I know there is something about technology that magnifies this.
5. I understand blocking will not keep a determined student to become distracted. If a kid wants to not pay attention in class, there is little we can do to stop them grin

Curious to hear your thoughts... ]]> Quivering Communist Zombie Space Death - Part 1 tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.462 2011-05-06T20:43:11Z 2011-05-06T20:58:12Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org
Quivering Communist Zombie Space Death (herein qczsd) is a game where players take on the role of humans desperately trying to save the earth from quivering communist zombies in space. The game is deeply educational, deeply funny, satirical, blatantly ribald, and of course most of all, fun. Basic mechanics are all textual! The player creates a persona (over-the-top stereotypical), get's a ship, and flys on different missions to take out the zombies. There is a leveling up mechanism, and "buy better crap for your ship dynamic". The zombies will be AI bots, and there will be all sorts of funny in-space dangers.

Here's the website: http://quiveringcommunistzombiespacedeath.com/index.html

I'll be blogging frequently about qczsd - talking about my journey of learning as I create this new game. Let's start, though, with the first task to make this game.

We are using trusty pennmush, which can be found by clicking here and hspace, which can be found by clicking here.

Let's start off with the first student assignment. Let's see where they go with this one:

We are going to work with an accurate model of our solar system. What does this mean? It means that we are going to try to accurately model the planets, their distance from one another, mass, and even their moons. We of course also need to know their location from each other. What we are NOT modeling is orbits and gravity (I'll write the "difference between fun and realistic" post later).

So, finding the names, mass, and distance of our solar-system planets is as easy as a simple google search. It might help to cross-reference them so we know the numbers are right. But we will eventually need to represent the location of the planets on a XYZ grid. Here's where it get's kind of interesting.

How do astronomers (you know, the dolts who didn't even see the communist zombies coming) measure and represent distance in space? What scale of measurement do they use? How do they represent mass? Let's start with a simple assumption (that might be wrong). Let's say the very center of the sun is 0,0,0. Where would the center of the sun's closest planet, Mercury, be? Students should answer these questions and have the answers in the comment of this blog post as soon as they can. ]]> 7 highly effective Facebook habits tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.461 2011-04-12T05:29:13Z 2011-04-12T05:46:15Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org a quick 7-point primer on the psychology of Facebook. If you are going to use this medium, you should at the least be aware of some interesting research.

]]> Technology Professional Development tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.460 2011-03-26T11:50:13Z 2011-03-26T11:54:14Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org
Because I want our teachers to effectively use technology to support student learning. I want our teachers to have skills, practice, and confidence in their use of technology in the classroom. I want our teachers to not only know how to use the actual tools, but to understand how technology can improve learning.

The best professional development I ever had was from a peer. I invited her into my classroom to watch my teaching, and 40 minutes later she had 4 pages of notes. It was a powerful experience. As I moved from a classroom teacher (grades 3 to 8 computer classes) to an instructional designer, I had great value from interactions with my peers.

These experiences have informed my thinking about professional development. I buy into the idea of personal learning communities, and learning from our peers. I think our school should create time for teachers to meet together to discuss "what works best". At the start of faculty meetings, one of our teachers spend 5 minutes describing a tech integration project they are working on.

So as a technology director, I am thinking about professional development and what is the best type of professional development for my staff. I believe that very specific professional development is better than general professional development. For example, I would prefer our 4th grade teachers to attend training specific to the task of technology teaching the 4th grade instead of a general non-specific training.

David Warlick is a guy I pay attention to. I don't quite agree with everything he says, but attending his session cultivating a personal learning network really helped to reinforce my thinking about good professional development. He spoke mostly about how hyperconnectedness makes learning easier (you cant help but learn when you are connected to people - I like that) - I add this to my list of "things that are actually different with technology". Teachers can connect and learn from a community of people in ways previously unimaginable. The Personal Learning Network isn't about people who are close to you geographically, but of a common mind (or common question).

The point? A personal learning network makes a lot of sense to me. Any time spent working on the facilitation of a personal learning network is time well spent. ]]> Presentation: games in education notes tag:mackenty.org,2011:index.php/site/index/1.459 2011-03-26T11:04:57Z 2011-03-26T11:09:58Z Bill bill@mackenty.org http://www.mackenty.org Here are the presentation notes from my talk about games in education. PDF here

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