Monday-Gamification and DGBL
My mum called before the class started asking what I was going to learn. “Learning through games”, I replied. “Oh! Gamification is it?” Whatttt??? I could not believe she knew what it was. It turned out to be a big thing in human resources (her job) BECAUSE apparently young people these days have trouble focusing at work (lol) so they have to figure out fun ways to train up new staff members.
Anyway, we started off playing a game called Bemuse and it’s similar to a rhythm game my high school friends were OBSESSED WITH. There was an interactive version at an arcade near our school which I think kids would be interested in. It’d be cool if we could bring that into the classroom one day.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY6sEIGePXw
Rebecca came in and shared her research on the concept and how it would benefit teaching and learning. She mentioned that turning a learning task into a game would increase the engagemnt of kids. This will be a cool topic to explore and a personal challenge since video games were FORBIDDEN in my house haha
Wednesday–The Maker Movement
We talked to Phil Nanlohy who runs a Makerspace at a school and he’s set up a workshop there to teach kids how to create things as part of the STEM programme.
The primary school I went to in Hong Kong (back in 2007ish) had this after-school programme for “gifted students” and our task was to design a windmill (JUST LIKE THE EXAMPLE PHIL GAVE). It was just a government subsidised Catholic school and my friend and I did so much research to create the best one. I bought a motor at a motor car shop, figured out how a closed circuit worked and installed it in a cookie box. It turned out to be the coolest thing ever!!Oh wait we somehow got a fan and a windmill mixed up haha… Sometimes kids just have to teach themselves and learn from experience. Hands-on projects like Makerspace is exactly what I’ve been looking for, as a student and pre-service teacher.
An awesome class overall!
Kidz! Music! 