The new school year is here and with it a new take on our gaming
club. We are about to jump back in, after taking a year off, with our
World of Warcraft extra curricular club, which will run throughout
most of the school year.
Some things have changed
however. This year the work won't revolve exclusively around a novel.
That doesn't mean books won't be involved. It just means that we will
open the club up a bit more to a greater range of language based
activities.
Students who decide to participate in the
club will have a chance not only to play World of Warcraft, but to
engage in several other online gaming experiences including Minecraft.
The lessons will involve game play time and a range of language based
activities. Students will share their work and reflections on our ABC WoW Blog.
It should be an exciting year full of online gaming and language learning at the ABC. We look forward to sharing more with you as the school year progresses.
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Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gaming. Show all posts
Monday, 26 August 2013
Thursday, 11 April 2013
Minecraft Project Update-Fortresses and Castles
Where We Are
Our 7th grade students have been moving full speed ahead on their Minecraft projects. These projects involve teams of students, designing a fortress and castle, based on what they learned about such structures in 6th grade. They are using Minecraft to create the structures on the school server. We are one week away from testing them out in survival mode. Students are rushing to get supplies stocked up, ensure that their structures are well fortified, and are busy contriving and building traps for potential invaders. Needless to say there is a lot of strategic thinking going on!
What We Use We opted for Minecraft Edu which was a smart move as it allows the teacher control of a lot of what goes on in-world. Among the various options available are the abilities to freeze students, teleport them back and forth, mute their chat, bring them all in to the teacher, toggle between creative and survival mode and revoke student building as well as student creative mode. I am able to do all of this as well as work with them on our map.
Challenges
We came up against two major challenges when beginning this project. The first involved constant server crashes which occurred when the whole class was logged in. We solved that by initially partnering the students up and then bumping up the memory on the computer that hosts the server. This was a great solution and we have not crashed since!
The second challenge had to do with demonstrating respect for others. With over 100 students playing on one map, on the school server, it can tricky to monitor the goings on. For that reason Student building privileges are limited to class time and after school for one hour. That way i am able to pop in and visit while I monitor behaviour and chat.
Respect for other people's work is vital in an online project, just as it is in real life. Griefing and "trolling", are not unheard of and some kids do partake in it when playing on different servers. I spoke with the students about this upon commencing the project and come back to it in each lesson. Unfortunately, there have been a few cases of griefing and trolling during the project. You can imagine my surprise when I logged in yesterday only to find out that my own structure had also been greifed at one point!
I have to admit that it was a bit disconcerting at first, but these incidents ended up providing the basis for teachable moments. The whole project is about learning to work together online. The issue having hit home provided us with the fodder for a relevant discussion about griefing and trolling .
I have to say that the kids should be commended. They are are amazingly flexible and despite the setbacks many have experienced, they remain very positive and even come in to work after school. They are quick to fix any damage that occurs and and then they move on. Let's face it, many of them, especially the team leaders are experienced gamers and have dealt with these problems before. It is great to see how positive they are about it all.
Our team leaders are doing a fantastic job of running the builds. They organise their teams, direct construction, teach others how to create more advanced constructions, all while working on their own building jobs, designing defence contraptions and meeting with the teacher to discuss the progress and the parameters for testing day.
I was able to capture some video footage in-world, while a few classes worked on their structures. Please have look at the video to see what they have done.
Our 7th grade students have been moving full speed ahead on their Minecraft projects. These projects involve teams of students, designing a fortress and castle, based on what they learned about such structures in 6th grade. They are using Minecraft to create the structures on the school server. We are one week away from testing them out in survival mode. Students are rushing to get supplies stocked up, ensure that their structures are well fortified, and are busy contriving and building traps for potential invaders. Needless to say there is a lot of strategic thinking going on!
What We Use We opted for Minecraft Edu which was a smart move as it allows the teacher control of a lot of what goes on in-world. Among the various options available are the abilities to freeze students, teleport them back and forth, mute their chat, bring them all in to the teacher, toggle between creative and survival mode and revoke student building as well as student creative mode. I am able to do all of this as well as work with them on our map.
Challenges
We came up against two major challenges when beginning this project. The first involved constant server crashes which occurred when the whole class was logged in. We solved that by initially partnering the students up and then bumping up the memory on the computer that hosts the server. This was a great solution and we have not crashed since!
The second challenge had to do with demonstrating respect for others. With over 100 students playing on one map, on the school server, it can tricky to monitor the goings on. For that reason Student building privileges are limited to class time and after school for one hour. That way i am able to pop in and visit while I monitor behaviour and chat.
Respect for other people's work is vital in an online project, just as it is in real life. Griefing and "trolling", are not unheard of and some kids do partake in it when playing on different servers. I spoke with the students about this upon commencing the project and come back to it in each lesson. Unfortunately, there have been a few cases of griefing and trolling during the project. You can imagine my surprise when I logged in yesterday only to find out that my own structure had also been greifed at one point!
I have to admit that it was a bit disconcerting at first, but these incidents ended up providing the basis for teachable moments. The whole project is about learning to work together online. The issue having hit home provided us with the fodder for a relevant discussion about griefing and trolling .
I have to say that the kids should be commended. They are are amazingly flexible and despite the setbacks many have experienced, they remain very positive and even come in to work after school. They are quick to fix any damage that occurs and and then they move on. Let's face it, many of them, especially the team leaders are experienced gamers and have dealt with these problems before. It is great to see how positive they are about it all.
Our team leaders are doing a fantastic job of running the builds. They organise their teams, direct construction, teach others how to create more advanced constructions, all while working on their own building jobs, designing defence contraptions and meeting with the teacher to discuss the progress and the parameters for testing day.
I was able to capture some video footage in-world, while a few classes worked on their structures. Please have look at the video to see what they have done.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
The Positive Effects of Gaming
This evening as I was wandering through posts on Google+, I came across this post by the Frugal Dad.
Now much of this is not news. Many of us have been hearing for years that gamer's brains are getter at certain tasks and that their are physical differences between brains on games and those not. Most of us are also very aware of the educational benefits of gaming, but didn't you know that video games were being used for pain management in hospitals? Did you know that after 21 hours of play a week, the benefits are outweighed by negative impact. I didn't, not until today, so I thought I would share.
The following Info graphic is worth looking at, so do scroll down.
Source: Frugal Dad
Now much of this is not news. Many of us have been hearing for years that gamer's brains are getter at certain tasks and that their are physical differences between brains on games and those not. Most of us are also very aware of the educational benefits of gaming, but didn't you know that video games were being used for pain management in hospitals? Did you know that after 21 hours of play a week, the benefits are outweighed by negative impact. I didn't, not until today, so I thought I would share.
The following Info graphic is worth looking at, so do scroll down.
Source: Frugal Dad
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Learning Through Games
This is a great TED Talk on how powerful the the learning is that takes place in when playing MMPOG.
Our World of Warcraft students are a great example of this. The learning that has taken place in-game, since January is exponential. This doesn't even take into account the additional learning they have engaged in through the novel study element of the club.
Games aren't bad and yes books are still good!
Our World of Warcraft students are a great example of this. The learning that has taken place in-game, since January is exponential. This doesn't even take into account the additional learning they have engaged in through the novel study element of the club.
Games aren't bad and yes books are still good!
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