Quia games is a very interesting website. The variety of games can be very useful in the classroom. Although it can be something for the whole group, more than that, I can see potential for this website to be used with students below the VELS standards and extension students. I think these games would be fantastic when personalised for particular students. If in a class you only have 2 or 3 students in need of extra attention, it would not take long at all to prepare personalised games for them. These games could also function well as an engagement activity. The use of something like hangman on an interactive whiteboard would be great for students. Immersing students in technology everyday can only prepare them better for a future that will be dominated by information and communication technologies.
Having said this, as teachers, we need to be mindful of the method of immersion that we use. It is very simple to give students a research project and send them off to use websites as resources, and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this scenario students are just going to a website, and when teachers have their backs turned, copy and paste information into their presentation. This is a very low order of thinking (in fact I don't think it even registers in Bloom's Taxonomy.)
When integrating technology in the curriculum we should always questions ourselves: Am I challenging the students to use higher thinking orders? Often we get distracted by the flashiness of a program and forget the learning objectives of a lesson.
The danger of modern technology today is that students have all sorts of information just a click away. Whatever the students need to know, they can find it on the internet. (There are even instances where people download whole essays off of the internet.) Because of this ready access to information, thinking has lost its importance and value. Students don't need to analyse, synthesise, or evaluate information because surely someone has done it before and made it available on the internet. We are all guilty of this behaviour; rather than thinking we choose to search the internet. The funny thing is that people will search for hours on the internet to get to a conclusion that they had the potential to reach if they would have just stopped and thought about it.
To promote higher order thinking when using technologies there is a new approach called online learning communities. (You can learn a little more about it here.)
Basically students are a part of this online community where they are able to collaborate and communicate electronically. Supporters of this approach boast an 80%-90% knowledge retention. These online communities are basically taking classroom discussion into the 21st century. I personally feel that regular collaboration and communication is also effective, however, a healthy mix of the two would keep students motivated.
Design briefs also promote higher order thinking. Through group collaboration students are given an objective; they are then challenged to investigate and design; produce; and finally to evaluate and analyse.
The investigate and design phase of the design brief is for students to collaborate and brainstorm. They think of ideas (without touching any materials at this point.) Students are using comprehension and knowledge.
The second phase is produce. Students take their ideas from the former phase and make them tangible. This is using application.
The third phase is analyse and evaluate. Students need to think about what they did and what they could do better. If they did not reach their given objective, they will need to go back to the first phase. Although it seems like it may be time consuming, students will actually move through the phases quite quickly.
During this session we were asked to make a frog jump using glue, scissors, sticky tape and elastic band, and cardboard. It was more difficult than I thought. But it was a great process. We were thinking! It was great to see everyone's ideas.What is great about using design briefs is that there is one objective for everyone, but the results are very diverse. Students come up with different ideas. Going through the different phases of the design promotes good thinking skills and strategies.
Probably the most important thing to remember here is that it is the process not the product that is important. It is imperative to value ALL students' ideas.
This approach to design is very clever. It incorporates all levels of thinking.
All of de Bono's six thinking hats would also be used in this process of design. De Bono segregated thinking strategies into hats that students can take on and off to help them articulate the type of thinking they are using. (Click here for more information and lesson ideas.)
The white hat is unbiased. It collects the facts and information.
The red hat is feeling and emotion. Students can say what they feel and think without explaining why.
The black hat judges what the problems might be. Scepticism. Rationality.
The yellow hat thinks of positive outcomes and benefits.
The green hat creates and designs.
The blue hat oversees all other hats and tells us when we might need to wear one of the other hats: Metacognition.
If we were to apply this to the design brief approach; phase one would consist of white, red, and greens hats; phase two would consist of green hats; and phase three would consist of blue, yellow, and black hats.
I really like the design brief approach to learning. I believe it teaches a skill that is vital throughout our entire lives.
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