How to be more awesome

By Sam

Learning 2.0 is not a conference where teachers come to be taught by 'an expert', but rather where teachers, experts in their own right, gather to learn from one another.

Do you know how to search?

With more and more of the world's content online, it is critical that students understand how to effectively use web search to find quality sources appropriate to their task.

Google a day

Searching smarter

• +• -• Site• Reading levels• Search by colour

Challenge

• How many results when you search for ice cream?

Now add sandwich

Change that to +sandwich

What’s the difference?

Reading levels

VS

• http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html

Game Based Learning (GBL)

To progress in a game is to learn; when we are actively engaged with a game, our minds are experiencing the pleasure of grappling with (and coming to understand) a new system.

In The US,

• 190 million households use a next-generation video game console, spending a record $11.7 billion.

• Sixty-three percent of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives.

• 40% female, 60% male

What is Effective Game-based Learning, and Why Does it Work?

When education or training feels dull, we are not being engaged and motivated.

In other words, we’re not really learning. “Learning” doesn’t mean rote memorization—it

means acquiring the skills and thought processes needed to respond appropriately under pressure, in a variety of situations.

Some of the advantages of using games with learning purposes are:

• Learn from your mistakes in a safe and simulated environment.

• Learn other ways or more effective techniques to carry out something in particular.

• The context of a game is generally more engaging because at every stage there is a challenge to achieve that keeps the learner motivated.

Minecraft(Math, physics, geography, history, history, CS)

Lure of the Labyrinth

Lure of the Labyrinth is a digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters!

http://labyrinth.thinkport.org

Immune Attack(Biology)

You must navigate a nanobot through a 3D environment of blood vessels and connective tissue in an attempt to save an ailing patient by retraining her non-functional immune cells. Along the way, you will learn about the biological processes that enable macrophages and neutrophils – white blood cells – to detect and fight infections.

powerupthegame.org(physics)

PowerUp is a free, online, multiplayer game that allows students to experience the excitement and the diversity of modern engineering! Playing the game, students work together in teams to investigate the rich, 3D game environment and learn about the environmental disasters that threaten the game world and its inhabitants.

I wanna do that too!!!

• http://gamestarmechanic.com/• http://scratch.mit.edu/

• http://www.themosquitogame.org