Game Maker

Game maker is an innovation that creates games. Game Maker is intended to allow users to develop their own games (including characters - or sprites, backgrounds, walls, music and objects).


It is intricate and somewhat complicated to create the games as there are a number of ways to achieve the same result, which means that it is very confusing to learn. However, once you have the hang on if it you are able to work your own way through it and develop some fantastic games. Innovations such as this one can allow for students to develop their problem solving skills, metacognition and higher thinking cognitive skills, which can be beneficial within the classroom.

You can play games created by other people using the same program through the yoyo games forum however you do not receive the information behind the game you are only able to play the game online.

There is support available in the form of forums, emails, blogs and tutorials, however there are not a tutorial available that covers all aspects of Game Maker 0.7.
Game Maker 0.8 is being released soon.

Personally, I dont believe that this would be very beneficial in classrooms (particularly for younger students) as it is very time consuming to learn and it is difficult to incorporate into other learning areas. Whilst I can see that there are some benefits in programs like this, I feel that there are more time conservative ways to cover the same benefits.

Glogster

Glogger is an innovation that allows students to create online interactive posters. Known as 'Glogs' students are able to embed videos, images and music as well as use the available backgrounds, speech bubbles, images and animations.
Glogger.edu allows teachers to create student accounts for each individual student and to then monitor these accounts, including any messages that come in or are sent between students.

These student accounts are set to private so that people outside of the classroom (or school) are unable to contact the students. Through having an edu account teachers are able to minimise students exposure to any unsuitable topics.

There are a number of benefits to this innovation, including the fact that there is no software to be installed, glogs can be adapted to suit a variety of learning areas. Glogs can also be embedded into facebook, myspace, hotmail and a number of other websites which can allow for projects to be collaborated and kept together, or for glogs to be a part of an assignment rather than a whole assignment.

The minus's associated with glogster include the possibility that students will become carried away with the creativity aspect of creating the poster and forget to focus on the actual content - however this could be solved through the teacher encouraging students to plan before they begin to create their glog. Another negative aspect is there is a high possibility that this will not appeal to all students, however it is up to the teacher to assess this risk and to incorporate the innovation accordingly.

This innovation could easily be incorporated into a classroom, whether it be as part of an assignment, a whole assignment or an option in an assignment this innovation can be modified to suit a variety of classroom situations, year levels or subject matters. As it is likely to not appeal to all students, it could be beneficial to have this innovation as a presentation option or as an option within an assignment. Glogs are also environmentall friendly, and easily edited and managed which allows for them to be student directed.

Glogs can be embedded either by posting a link to their glog in their wiki, facebook page, myspace page, blog etc, like this http://s006.teacherlorraine.edu.glogster.com/Christmas-glog/
or it can be embedded as an image as shown above.


This is definately a safe, worthwhile innovation to incorporate into a classroom that is easily adaptable to suit a wide variety of classrooms, students, and subject areas that i will definately incorporate into my class.

Twitter

Twitter is a website that allows for short messages and status updates. It is intended to allow people to stay in contact and updated on the smaller day to day activities of their friends, family and collegues. Twitter allows for people to communicate in 'real time' and know what the people they know are doing at that very moment. They can then comment and communicate with others, which can be helpful for a number of reasons.

Within a classroom, Twitter could be used to assist with classroom discussion regarding various issues, assignments or topics. For example, if this was set up within a classroom, students could access their page from home and communicate with people within their class, this could help with assignments, homework or anything else related within the class.

It could also be used to provide another method of communication between teachers, students and parents. This school http://twitter.com/leamore_primary is an example of a school that is using the Twitter website to assist with student, parent and teacher communication.

There are a number of limitations with Twitter however, this includes the limitation on words allowed per post, it can be difficult to follow or add friends to your twitter page. Twitter can also be distracting and encourage off task behaviours. Much of the information that comes up with the search engine provided on twitter requires students to be critical consumers as the information that comes up is often misleading or false.

However using Twitter in a classroom can also be engaging for students as they feel as though they are using relevant technology that can be both fun and engaginig due to being able to communicate with other students.

Whilst teachers are able to monitor the students by 'protecting' their tweets (activiating privacy settings) the protection available is limited which requires teacher to have a high level of trust in their students, and may also result in parents being reluctant to allow their children to use this innovation.

Overall, I think that whilst this application could be used within the classroom, the need for critical consumerism on behalf of the students, as well as the risks with privacy mean that this is a risky innovation to incorporate, and one which I would only incorporate as a means of communication between parents and students.

Scratch

Scratch is an innovation that allows students to create games and animations. This program allows students to program they're own games and animations. This can then be incorporated into classrooms to assist students with learning a variety of subjects.

This is a simple Scratch Animation that I created:




There are a number of pro's and con's regarding this innovation.
The pro's include it being relevant to a large majority of students interests, this application is fun and will engage students. Animations can be done by students or prepared by teachers.
The con's regarding this innovation include that it is time consuming, the help available is limited to certain areas of the program which could result in lessons being to long to be realistically implemented within a classroom. As well as this, students who are not regularly using computers or who are not interested in using computers or technology such as this may find this too difficult or not become engaged. This could result in students not benefiting from the lesson.

In my opinion, Scratch is best used in a classroom when games or animations are pre prepared by the teacher and implemented as an aid or resource within a lesson. Scratch games and animations can be used on a SMARTboard which would again engage students and assist in making the application usable for the whole class.

Bit Strips Comics

Bit Strips is an innovation that allows for users to develop a comic (in a variety of styles i.e. new yorker, gag strip, story strip etc.) creating their own characters and incorporating their own storylines.

I think that within a classroom this could be extremely useful as a tool in the classroom for teaching a number of subjects including English and Health. There is an additional site called "BitStrips for Schools" which allows teachers to easily control and monitor what students are able to do and access within the bitstrips website. Using this site students can create and develop their own comic strip which is both fun and engaging for them. It is an interactive activity where students are able to participate and become engaged with their learning.

During the presentation on Bit Strips, I created my own comic strip, you are able to share your comic strip by automatically embedding it into facebook, myspace, digg etc. or you can post it into a blog, presenting it in one of two ways:




or



This application is easy to use and will allow for students to be easily engaged within a lesson. I think that I will frequently use this application within my classroom, but as a whole class, and as a pre-prepared aid for lessons.

Wiki's

A wiki is an online space where people are able to share information with others. They allow for others to contribute to them, however this may be monitored by the creater of the wiki page. Wiki pages can be used in a variety of situations, including within classrooms. Wiki's allow for pages to be added to the original wiki, as well as for other images, links and documents etc. to be embedded within the document. For example, inspiration brainstorms, you tube videos, bitstrips comics etc.

Using within classrooms:
Wiki pages can be incorporated into classrooms in a number of ways, they can be used as blogs, web quests, journals, information pages etc.
They allow for the students to either develop the page themselves as a research assignment, or they can follow and use the wiki page as a guide through lessons.

I think that I will be using wiki pages within my classroom both as a guide to students learning (e.g. webquests) and as a base for students to record and contribute information.

First Blog Post

This is the first post that I have made for my technology class.

We have so far discussed blogs and the benefits that they can have within a classroom.

Here are some of the main aspects of blogs: