Minecraft as a model for gamification in teacher training
By Vance Stevens
Khalifa Bin Zayed Air College, Al Ain UAE
Higher Colleges of Technlogy / CERT
Presented at XVIIth CALL Research Conference
Tarragona, Spain, July 6, 2015
In this presentation, you'll connect play with learning, explore the instructional side of video games, get 11 tips for integrating video games into your classroom, and explore a few examples of games you can use in the classroom.
The Video Learning and Teaching Revolution 30 minRita Zeinstejer
See how to create, edit, save and share your videos and screencasts, where to find educationally based material, how to record and sync video and images, narrate and add voice and written notes to existing material. And some detailed instructions and precious tips on how to make your own videos with free webtools.
How to use the LearningTimes Bb Collaborate Webheads Virtual OfficeVance Stevens
This slide show explains how colleagues associated with Webheads in Action, Learning2gether, TESOL CALL-IS, and Electronic Village Online can use the LearningTimes Bb Collaborate Webheads Virtual Office
Coding & Games with Kids: Hopscotch, Scratch & Minecraft (Dec 2013)Wesley Fryer
These are presentation slides for Dr. Wesley Fryer's webinar on December 14, 2013, for Classroom 2.0 Live. The session description is: As this week wraps up the "Hour of Code," 4th and 5th grade STEM teacher Wesley Fryer will discuss the use of the Hopscotch app for iPads, Scratch software, and Minecraft to help students learn the basics of coding as well as problem-solving and computational thinking skills.
Connect to the webinar and learn more about Classroom 2.0 Live on:
http://live.classroom20.com/
In this presentation, you'll connect play with learning, explore the instructional side of video games, get 11 tips for integrating video games into your classroom, and explore a few examples of games you can use in the classroom.
The Video Learning and Teaching Revolution 30 minRita Zeinstejer
See how to create, edit, save and share your videos and screencasts, where to find educationally based material, how to record and sync video and images, narrate and add voice and written notes to existing material. And some detailed instructions and precious tips on how to make your own videos with free webtools.
How to use the LearningTimes Bb Collaborate Webheads Virtual OfficeVance Stevens
This slide show explains how colleagues associated with Webheads in Action, Learning2gether, TESOL CALL-IS, and Electronic Village Online can use the LearningTimes Bb Collaborate Webheads Virtual Office
Coding & Games with Kids: Hopscotch, Scratch & Minecraft (Dec 2013)Wesley Fryer
These are presentation slides for Dr. Wesley Fryer's webinar on December 14, 2013, for Classroom 2.0 Live. The session description is: As this week wraps up the "Hour of Code," 4th and 5th grade STEM teacher Wesley Fryer will discuss the use of the Hopscotch app for iPads, Scratch software, and Minecraft to help students learn the basics of coding as well as problem-solving and computational thinking skills.
Connect to the webinar and learn more about Classroom 2.0 Live on:
http://live.classroom20.com/
Learning2gether meets Moodle MOOC 7, EVO, and gamification in TPDVance Stevens
Vance Stevens has been presenting lately on gamification in teacher professional development in the context of EVO Minecraft MOOC. Today's talk expands the context to the 16th iteration of Electronic Village Online, currently in preparation, and its varying approaches to TPD. EVOMC16 takes an approach which appeals to its moderators, which is to learn about gamification through experiential play. Vance will talk about how this works in EVO Minecraft MOOC, and how anyone is welcome to join us in January, 2016.
Connecting your classroom to other classrooms in the world need not be overwhelming. Learn the seven steps to successfully, safely connect your classroom in meaningful ways that will enhance your curriculum and excite your students.
NOTE: This presentation includes many photos I purchased from istock photo and thus, download and redistribution is not allowed. You can run it from here, however, full screen on your computer!
Engaging with technology for learning: The surprises the challenges and next ...Sue Beckingham
Keynote presentation for Kingston University Festival of Learning
The swift pivot to online learning has without doubt been challenging for a multitude of reasons. My keynote will consider
- when looking back what my approaches were in relation to the use of technology to enhance learning;
- more recently my reflections on using technology for learning and teaching online,
- and then looking forward how we need to re-plan to use technology for engaging multimodal co-learning.
Desafíos y oportunidades en la educación (a distancia): Tecnologías, innovaci...Antonio Vantaggiato
Opening keynote, Primer Congreso de Educación a Distancia e Internacionalización (CEDI). Universidad de Puerto Rico en Aguadilla.
30 nov 2018, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Tesol 2015 featured presentation on Crossing Networks, Building Connections t...Vance Stevens
This presentation is from the TESOL Conference in Toronto, March 28, 2015, entitled Crossing networks, building connections: Inspiring always-on learners and teachers. The presentation covers 15++ years experience with learners and colleagues in virtual spaces practicing engagement in online and blended contexts. It examines the burgeoning of connectivist learning opportunities from pioneer days to the proliferation of those available today, and explores ways in which learning online reshapes our notions of engaging with students.
2005
TAFE NSW International Center for Teaching and Learning
ICVET The Learning Powerhouse Whats happening in the engine room - Presenter
Teacher empowerment through technology
With technology there is no finishing line; there is constant change and possibility, there is no set way to use it for teaching and learning, technology is but a tool. It can seem over-whelming. What can a teacher do to stay afloat? Ask the Network...
Learning2gether with EVO Minecraft MOOC and Gamification of Teacher Professio...Vance Stevens
This presentation is about a correspondence between two EVO (Electronic Village Online) sessions: 1) the EVO Minecraft MOOC (EVOMC16) and 2) Techno-CLIL (content and language integrated) approach to language development. There is much evidence that Minecraft can enhance language development; for example, the cases discussed in in an article by co-moderators of the EVOMC16 session (Smolčec & Smolčec, 2014). This presentation will suggest to educators interested in adopting the CLIL approach how they might consider Minecraft as a representation of content, and see how language development might derive from interaction in a gamified environment based on that content.
Abundance in teacher professional development: More than meets the eyeVance Stevens
Learning2gether episode 340 presented Sun Aug 7 noon UTC Vance Stevens at MMVC16 - Moodle Moot Virtual Conference
This Learning2gether Episode #340 is one of many online PD opportunities that are taking place literally as we speak, and if this is a representative moment, this extrapolates to an abundance of PD opportunities online at any given moment. Abundance implies e.g. free, easily accessible, available as per user interest in the manner of a berry bush. But institutional PD is often approached from a mindset of scarcity, meaning it is time-bound, tied to brick and mortar, and often driven top-down. This presentation will help viewers visualize the abundance in a way that this perspective can be shared with whomever is driving your PD through a scarcity paradigm.
Gamifying Teacher Professional Development through Minecraft MOOC at TESOL Ar...Vance Stevens
This is a recent update on the evolution of the community of practice that has developed after two years of EVO Minecraft MOOC. This documents to some extent how a community has truly formed and is gearing up for EVOMC17.
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Learning2gether meets Moodle MOOC 7, EVO, and gamification in TPDVance Stevens
Vance Stevens has been presenting lately on gamification in teacher professional development in the context of EVO Minecraft MOOC. Today's talk expands the context to the 16th iteration of Electronic Village Online, currently in preparation, and its varying approaches to TPD. EVOMC16 takes an approach which appeals to its moderators, which is to learn about gamification through experiential play. Vance will talk about how this works in EVO Minecraft MOOC, and how anyone is welcome to join us in January, 2016.
Connecting your classroom to other classrooms in the world need not be overwhelming. Learn the seven steps to successfully, safely connect your classroom in meaningful ways that will enhance your curriculum and excite your students.
NOTE: This presentation includes many photos I purchased from istock photo and thus, download and redistribution is not allowed. You can run it from here, however, full screen on your computer!
Engaging with technology for learning: The surprises the challenges and next ...Sue Beckingham
Keynote presentation for Kingston University Festival of Learning
The swift pivot to online learning has without doubt been challenging for a multitude of reasons. My keynote will consider
- when looking back what my approaches were in relation to the use of technology to enhance learning;
- more recently my reflections on using technology for learning and teaching online,
- and then looking forward how we need to re-plan to use technology for engaging multimodal co-learning.
Desafíos y oportunidades en la educación (a distancia): Tecnologías, innovaci...Antonio Vantaggiato
Opening keynote, Primer Congreso de Educación a Distancia e Internacionalización (CEDI). Universidad de Puerto Rico en Aguadilla.
30 nov 2018, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Tesol 2015 featured presentation on Crossing Networks, Building Connections t...Vance Stevens
This presentation is from the TESOL Conference in Toronto, March 28, 2015, entitled Crossing networks, building connections: Inspiring always-on learners and teachers. The presentation covers 15++ years experience with learners and colleagues in virtual spaces practicing engagement in online and blended contexts. It examines the burgeoning of connectivist learning opportunities from pioneer days to the proliferation of those available today, and explores ways in which learning online reshapes our notions of engaging with students.
2005
TAFE NSW International Center for Teaching and Learning
ICVET The Learning Powerhouse Whats happening in the engine room - Presenter
Teacher empowerment through technology
With technology there is no finishing line; there is constant change and possibility, there is no set way to use it for teaching and learning, technology is but a tool. It can seem over-whelming. What can a teacher do to stay afloat? Ask the Network...
Learning2gether with EVO Minecraft MOOC and Gamification of Teacher Professio...Vance Stevens
This presentation is about a correspondence between two EVO (Electronic Village Online) sessions: 1) the EVO Minecraft MOOC (EVOMC16) and 2) Techno-CLIL (content and language integrated) approach to language development. There is much evidence that Minecraft can enhance language development; for example, the cases discussed in in an article by co-moderators of the EVOMC16 session (Smolčec & Smolčec, 2014). This presentation will suggest to educators interested in adopting the CLIL approach how they might consider Minecraft as a representation of content, and see how language development might derive from interaction in a gamified environment based on that content.
Similar to Minecraft as a model for gamification in teacher training (20)
Abundance in teacher professional development: More than meets the eyeVance Stevens
Learning2gether episode 340 presented Sun Aug 7 noon UTC Vance Stevens at MMVC16 - Moodle Moot Virtual Conference
This Learning2gether Episode #340 is one of many online PD opportunities that are taking place literally as we speak, and if this is a representative moment, this extrapolates to an abundance of PD opportunities online at any given moment. Abundance implies e.g. free, easily accessible, available as per user interest in the manner of a berry bush. But institutional PD is often approached from a mindset of scarcity, meaning it is time-bound, tied to brick and mortar, and often driven top-down. This presentation will help viewers visualize the abundance in a way that this perspective can be shared with whomever is driving your PD through a scarcity paradigm.
Gamifying Teacher Professional Development through Minecraft MOOC at TESOL Ar...Vance Stevens
This is a recent update on the evolution of the community of practice that has developed after two years of EVO Minecraft MOOC. This documents to some extent how a community has truly formed and is gearing up for EVOMC17.
Connecting Learning2gether with events like the Fall Blog FestivalVance Stevens
These slides discuss how Learning2gether, http://learning2gether.net/about
- Builds on decades-long experience with learners and colleagues in virtual spaces
- Helps coalesce a plethora of connectivist learning opportunities
- Reshapes our notions of engaging with students by modeling success in online and blended contexts
- Encourages all educators who enjoy connecting with peers to contribute their voices
- Works, and how you can contribute and participate
MMVC2015 - Teaching writing using voice tools on mobile devices and iPadsVance Stevens
This presentation updates earlier ones on how to use the voice affordances of iPads and other mobile devices to make writing as well as teaching writing and giving feedback increasingly easier and more effective when students are using such devices.than when voice tools are not appropriately enlisted. The presenter learns more every day about how to use these tools in teaching, and here he conveys what he has learned in hopes it will help other teachers of writing whose students are challenged when trying to write effectively on mobile devices.
Thursday March 26 from 15:00-16:30 EST, Nery Alvarado, Daniela Coelho, Ellen Dougherty and Vance Stevens held a workshop on "iPad-agogy: a Bloomin’ Better Way to Teach" Links for my part of this presentation can be found in this slide presentation and might be updated here http://tinyurl.com/vance2015writing - while our wiki provides the information, applications, lesson plans, project-based learning exemplars, and web links covered in the workshop: http://tesol2015ipadogogyabloominbetterwaytoteach.pbworks.com/
The event was listed in the CALL-IS Electronic Village program: http://call-is.org/ev/schedule.php
Learning2gether at the Spring Blog Festival 2015 - Blogging and Logging Conve...Vance Stevens
Learning2gether is an initiative of Vance Stevens evolving from synchronous meetings with Webheads in Action taking place weekly since 1998 and more directly from three WiAOC (WiA Online Convergences) in 2005, 2007, and 2009. L2g started in 2010 and has hosted conversations most weeks since, usually on Sundays (but for this occasion, on a Saturday). L2g encourages all educators who enjoy connecting with peers to volunteer to contribute their voices to perpetuating weekly conversations at our L2g venues. This presentation explains how L2g works and how you can contribute and participate.
Developing online listening exercises for natural EnglishVance Stevens
In our context, we can render the unclear audio to text by listening to it, parsing it mentally, saying it back into the SR engine, and then creating text manipulation exercises from it that force students to attend to certain details in the text / speech. We have created Hot Potatoes exercises where the audio is embedded in the exercise and the students can play the audio, complete the exercise, and get a score. This explains how and why we do it.
Making listening exercises with Hot Potatoes, BbLearn and GradebookVance Stevens
Making trackable listening exercises with Hot Potatoes, BbLearn and Gradebook
This KBZAC PD session was trialed Nov 26, 2014. It demonstrates how to use Dictanote to make quick transcripts of ATC broadcasts, embed the mp3 into a Hot Potatoes quiz, port it to Blackboard and integrate it with the Gradebook.
(it is planned to update these slides as more is learned about how to actually make this work - perhaps viewers could leave suggestions or comments in the discussion space here)
Vance Stevens live-streams workshop on Hangout on Air at GloCALL AhmedabadVance Stevens
The following information on the workshop is here: http://glocall.org/course/view.php?id=81&topic=0#section-8
Connecting Live Online with our Personal Learning Networks
by Vance Stevens
This 2-hour workshop will introduce the concept and importance of Personal Learning Networks and suggest ways that educators can engage in almost unlimited opportunities for professional development online. One such possibility is participation in weekly Learning2gether events (L2g) coordinated by the presenter. This workshop introduces two tools used frequently in L2g and shows participants how they can use them in their professional development. The first of these is Blackboard Collaborate (available on grant to L2g participants) and the second is Google+ Hangouts. The workshop will walk participants through the process of setting up and conducting events using each tool. Topics include using social media to advertise your events, how to moderate sessions using each tool, and how to archive them. Participants will learn how to stream Hangouts so that they can be attended by many more than the ten allowed in the Hangout itself at any one time.
Flipping the flip: Organizing students around a wiki and training colleagues ...Vance Stevens
This session demonstrates a wiki developed for my classes over time that colleagues in my teaching context started collaborating with, and how I created a wiki to help my colleagues create their own, in such a way that it modeled how learning can be facilitiated through a wiki, at http://kbzpd.pbworks.com
Vance Stevens reports to RSCON5 Online from the Antwerp CALL 2014 conference ...Vance Stevens
On July 7-9 2014 Vance Stevens attended a conference entitled ANTWERP CALL 2014: Research Challenges in CALL. This presentation conveys impressions of the conference and encapsulate the dominant threads and research agendas to emerge, primarily through the conference Twitter stream, which serves as a model for delegate reflection on conferences
Feb 11 2014 MultiMOOC and ICT4ELT EVO sessions joint event - Once a Webhead a...Vance Stevens
Becoming a Webhead is not offered as an EVO session for the first time in ten years, but its moderators have created an alternative EVO session to follow on the collaborative spirit of BaW - ICT4ELT at http://ict4elt2014.pbworks.com. Now that BaW is no longer being offered, its moderators think it important to introduce ICT4ELT participants to the Webheads <http: />, so they have invited Vance Stevens to join them in a live session in Week 5. This would be also an opportunity for ICT4ELT to get to know Learning2gether, at which, says Jose Antonio Da Silva, "there is always someone presenting something very interesting every weekend."
Chaos in learning: Engaging learners in resolving chaos through networkingVance Stevens
MultiMOOC is about chaos in learning and how to engage learners in resolving that chaos through networking with one another. This presentation introduces a connectivist take on chaos in learning, with its suggestion that sense-making can be enhanced through a network of learners. Taking the Cynefin distinction of simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic problems, MOOCs seem directed at the latter two. We look at some examples of how learning occurs in MOOCs and wind up with some implications for the future.
From teacher networked learning to transformation in your classroomVance Stevens
The Reform Symposium Conference is but one of a myriad of events taking place almost constantly now where teachers have opportunities for meeting in online spaces and sharing information and expertise with one another. The MOOC concept, whether xMOOC or cMOOC, provides steady often overlapping opportunities for deeper, more prolonged engagement not only with niche topics, but more importantly with others interested in those niches. Google Hangouts on Air now make it possible for anyone to simulcast an event, and many do, extending invitations to colleagues in a mushroom field of communities. It seems there is something of this nature going on every minute, and social media is working virally to spread the word among educators.
Stepping back to a wider perspective on this phenomenon, what is going on every minute is networked, connectivist learning. Open education, driven by learners connecting with other learners, is taking place around the clock, around the globe, in countless free spaces, bound only by the amount of time participants can make to engage and absorb the knowledge inherent in their networks. The possibilities this unleashes are only starting to be realized by the brick and mortar establishment. Not that we should quit our daytime jobs any time soon, but we should certainly rethink them.
This presentation will draw on present circumstances to inform how we might rethink our role as educators, or perhaps more importantly, encourage others to follow our example. The presenter has been involved in coordinating two virtual communities that have been interacting and learning from one another daily for the past decade. This presentation will show through representative examples how participants in these networks acquire the tools for re-thinking how they engage their students. Networked learning is ineffable in that it must be experienced to be understood, and those without that experience have difficulty grasping a full range of its affordances. As the behavior of participants in online networked learning changes, so their teaching styles change, and the better they are able to model for their students characteristics of what they find most effectively leads to their learning what they want to know in an increasingly interconnected world.
Learning2gether classroots weekly online professional developmentVance Stevens
This slide show is updated from 2013, on
Learning2gether classroots weekly online professional development -
This session was one of several held this week at Al Ain Men's College (AAMC) as part of an in-house professional development week in April 2013. It was updated on Aug 25, 2013 for the annual MoodleMoot Virtual Conference MMVC13
Description of event:
Learning2gether is a wiki which, since September 2010, has served to organize teachers in meeting online at regular times weekly to conduct free “class-roots” professional development seminars and discuss topics of mutual interest to teachers of ESOL in particular and educators in general. Presenters and participants range from expert to those merely interested in the topics. Participants come from all over the world, but from its inception there has been an effort to involve teaching practitioners in Arab countries through coordination with the TESOL Arabia TAEDTECH-SIG. Sessions are recorded, and a growing archive of recorded resources is accumulating at the associated podcast site. This session will introduce teachers to the endeavor and invite them to become involved.
Training Teachers in Web2.0 Tools for Teaching and Learning EFLVance Stevens
Abstract (100 words): Data gathered on courses to exploit the individual laptop environment for students in the UAE navy college showed high satisfaction with this approach. Training for teachers in the tools and rationale used was organized in a blended environment with 20 steps to be completed emulating the way classes had been conducted at the navy college. As they completed each step, trainees tracked their progress in a shared GoogleDoc while a wiki gave links to what the teachers accomplished as they tackled their 20 tasks. The presentation concludes with teacher reaction to the blended environment used for their training.
Summary:
The author designed courses to exploit the individual laptop environment for students in the UAE navy college using Web 2.0 tools such as GoogleDocs, Prezi, Blogger, SurveyMonkey, and Jing. When data gathered from students found high satisfaction with this approach, the presenter was transferred to the aviation college to train teachers there in the tools and rationale used with the navy cadets.
Training was organized in a blended environment with a blog portal outlining 20 steps emulating the way classes had been conducted at the navy college, where students were set tasks in the class wiki portal, shown in class how to master the language and software needed, and then guided in completing the tasks and projects.
As they completed each step, teachers tracked their progress in an online spreadsheet, and wrote the URLs of online artifacts created in a shared GoogleDocs spreadsheet. Tabs in the blog pointed the trainees to a model wiki portal providing links to student artifacts online. Similarly in the sidebar of the training wiki there emerged links to what the teachers accomplished as they tackled their 20 tasks. This paper concludes with how the teachers responded to the blended environment used for their training.
Draft write-up:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VZkB_MQltwzGFyv7KSM5lloxqZ7uFc69NaX71ci_p0o/edit?usp=sharing
How MOOC learning reaches students through TPDVance Stevens
This presentation describes a course in teacher professional development that has been evolving gradually into a MOOC model. MOOCs enable participants to articulate and explore individual learning strategies. This differentiates master learners from those they are employed to teach. When learners must adapt to jobs that haven’t been invented yet, teachers must help learners become master learners; otherwise their ‘training’ only applies to known jobs.
Learning2gether to develop Personal Learning Networks to model collaborative ...Vance Stevens
Learning2Gether is an informal, loosely knit professional group serving since 2010 as a venue for teachers to meet weekly online and model for one another collaborative community-building techniques for teacher professional development which participants can in turn apply to constructivist and connectivist learning activities with students. This workshop will introduce the concept and some of the free Web 2.0 tools involved, including survey results and blog post data suggesting high levels of student enthusiasm for Web 2.0 tools such as Prezi, Jing, Blogger, Google Docs, Slideshare.net, and SurveyMonkey. The problem of course is for teachers to become comfortable enough with such tools to use them effectively with students, and this where Learning2gether with peers helps teachers model for one another how Web 2.0 tools contribute to the learning of all concerned. This workshop will show participants how L2G functions as a wiki, and walk them through the movement’s call for participation and its recorded archives. The presenter will attempt to connect participants live with other teachers in the L2G PLN through one or more of our free synchronous presentation tools (e.g. Google+ Hangout). Participants will be encouraged to join future L2G activities or perhaps start such groups of their own.
Engaging students eltai 19july2012 stevensVance Stevens
Vance Stevens presents and discusses a course on presentation skills which he designed. Working with EFL college students who each have laptop computers, he engaged them in communicative and constructivist task-based activities in working with Web 2.0 software tools he introduced to the students: Prezi, Jing, Blogger, and SurveyMonkey. This talk presents results of a poll of the students on their attitudes toward using Prezi in place of PowerPoint, and presents evidence from their blogs and from their choice of SurveyMonkey as a tool for creating their own questionnaires, of their enthusiasm for learning and using these tools for academic communications.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
How to Split Bills in the Odoo 17 POS ModuleCeline George
Bills have a main role in point of sale procedure. It will help to track sales, handling payments and giving receipts to customers. Bill splitting also has an important role in POS. For example, If some friends come together for dinner and if they want to divide the bill then it is possible by POS bill splitting. This slide will show how to split bills in odoo 17 POS.
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Minecraft as a model for gamification in teacher training
1. Minecraft as a model
for gamification
in teacher training
Vance Stevens
Khalifa Bin Zayed Air College, Al Ain UAE
Higher Colleges of Technlogy / CERT
Presented at XVIIth CALL Research Conference
Tarragona, Spain, July 6, 2015
2. All my slides are
open and online
No need to take notes, simply visit
http://slideshare.net/vances
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
3. What is this about?
This presentation presents a model for gamification of
teacher professional development. As such it …
Roots the model in the work of proponents of
connectivism
Places it as the latest in a series of connectivist projects
moderated and facilitated by the author
Shows why Minecraft is an appropriate vehicle for
understanding gamification in teacher professional
development; hence how to extend the concept to
teaching
Explains how the project was conceived and
implemented
Presents some quantitative and qualitative data
Previews how the project will be continued in 2016
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
4. Connectivism
Cormier, D. (2008). Rhizomatic education: Community as curriculum.
Innovate, 4(5). Reprinted with permission of the publisher and retrieved
from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-education-
community-as-curriculum/
Downes, S. (2012). Connectivism and connective knowledge: Essays
on meaning and learning networks. Stephen's Web: My eBook.
Retrieved from http://www.downes.ca/files/Connective_Knowledge-
19May2012.pdf
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.
Elearningspace. Retrieved from
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Stevens, V. (2014). Connectivist Learning: Reaching Students through
Teacher Professional Development. in Son, J.-B. (Ed.). Computer-
assisted language learning: Learners, teachers and tools. APACALL
Book Series Volume 3. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars
Publishing. pp. 150-172. Late draft available here
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
5. iPadagogy workshop at ISTE
Connectivism at work
First part of workshop
shared in Google+
Hangout on Air
http://learning2gether.net/
2015/06/30/learning2geth
er-about-ipadagogy-live-
from-iste-philadelphia/
Mary Kay Polly presented
on her using of Minecraft
with middle school as part
of this workshop.
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
6. Mary Kay Polly - Minecraft
Mary Kay Polly - students justified use of Minecraft in their class by
spelling out curriculum goals
having them explain how their use of Minecraft met those goals.
Corroborates claim that
it’s not whether it’s in
the curriculum; rather
the curriculum is in it.
http://iste2015ipadagogyabloominbetterwaytoteach.pbworks.com/w/page/92494272/
Game-based%20Learning%20and%20Minecraft%20-%20Mary%20Kay%20Polly
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
8. Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015Openness
1998 – Created and taught
Writing for Webheads
2002 – Facilitated EVO
session Webheads in Action
2003 to present –
Coordinator with Electronic
village Online
2004 to 2010 – Moderated
Multiliteracies and
MultiMOOC EVO sessions
2005, 2007, 2009 - WiAOC:
free, online, no funding
required ‘convergences’
Ongoing efforts
2010 – Started
Learning2gether
http://learning2gether.net/
2015 – Started EVO
Minecraft MOOC
Currently, Webheads in
Action, Learning2gether,
Minecraft MOOC,and EVO
involvement going strong!
Networks have long been critical to my personal learning, and they are critical
to others I interact with. Open endeavors which I have facilitated include
9. Modeling for Students
The problem is
who will guide teachers and trainees in this kind of learning?
Guides must be themselves experienced in connecting through
networks in uncontrolled and exposed spaces.
Fortunately our professional lives are tending in this direction
Websites
Webinars
Tools and apps
Concepts such as MOOCs
Spaces like Second Life
Yet another model might be Minecraft
How do you find a community?
How do you acquire experience?
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
10. The Minecraft Flip
We focused on Minecraft as a way of
Gamifying the language learning experience
Students taking charge of their learning
Students teaching teachers about what they are interested in
Improving learning enjoyment
Bolstering student self-esteem
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
http://www.tesl-
ej.org/wordpress/issues/vol
ume18/ej70/ej70int/
http://learning2gether.net/2014/06/29/hangout-with-filip-and-marijana-
smolcec-on-the-eu-llp-comenius-project-and-learning-through-minecraft/
11. Finding communities in MC
The challenge for adults interested in Minecraft
is finding a community that can help you
Most communities for Minecraft are school children
Teachers exclude people who might be predators
One solution
Start your own community
Invite educators to learn the game by being in the game
Don’t let lack of expertise deter you
Experts will emerge
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
12. EVO Minecraft MOOC
If we are going to gamify our classrooms, don’t we have to experience
that by gamifying our own professional development?
I proposed to moderate an EVO session to allow teachers to learn the
game as they would expect students to do
I created
A proposal
A syllabus
A Google+ Community
Pictured: Selfie of
Vance Stevens
and Jeff Kuhn at
TESOL 2015 Toronto
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
13. Engaging a community
We attracted others
teaching / learning
languages with MC
Two co-authors of an
article jointly written
with Filip and
Marijana Smolčec
Two whom we cited
in the article: David
Dodgson and Jeff
Kuhn
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
Jeff set us up a
Minecraft server!
Filip could have done
this otherwise
14. Gamification and Badges
Elements of gamification
Our syllabus –
pitched at teachers who would
Gravitate to a learning experience
where we would define our own outcomes
which could not be guaranteed in advance
We applied the Cormier notion of
Community as Curriculum
The collective would steer the syllabus,
as in games
We promised badges for accomplishing
specified goals
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
15. Community as Curriculum
Dave Cormier argues
that his university
students
Will be expected to
interact with peers in
open spaces; e.g.
blogs
conferences
webinars where they
Must expose
themselves to scrutiny
and challenge by
large interconnected
networks,
Should therefore
experience working
openly while they are
students.
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/06/03/rhizomatic-education-community-as-curriculum/
16. Syllabus Logistics
In our online syllabus
We put some materials
online
Linked to Mojang and
YouTube videos
Gave out the IP address
of our server
Encouraged tagging and
aggravated at Tagboard
We used scheduling
software to arrange
meetings in Minecraft
Used Skype to talk each
other through our learning
in the game space
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
17. Gamification of Learning
We proved the concept by creating a gamified learning
environment where we learned about the game by being in the
game
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
18. Jeff was Batman
Jeff, whose character is Batman, created a huge Batman
statue and set up a castle for us to explore
He created train sets for us to play on. One rendition
encircled the castle.
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
19. Teachers as makers
in Creative Mode
In creative mode
unlimited inventories
unlimited time
(non threatening -
no sudden death )
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
20. Kelly shared how
her kids taught her
about Minecraft
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
21. Educators interact socially
When professionals meet in any space for the purpose of PD
we learn from one another
Online maximizes the number of spaces we have for meeting in
Minecraft and Skype
Second Life
Webinars
Hangouts on Air
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
22. Teachers learn from kids
Filip (age 11) built a McDonald’s
Carlos from Spain (age 12) created a tower with an elevator
Ian (teenager) built us a hotel shell
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
23. Filip’s rabbits
Filip populated our spaces with herds of rabbits
He showed us how to make bows and arrows and shoot
them for food
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
Image from inside
Jeff’s castle
24. Horsing around
We rode horses
We played with lighting
We coped with rabbits
and zombies and spiders
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
26. Survival Mode
Then it all turned sinister
Jeff and Filip set the server on survival mode
Now a challenge to avoid the spiders and
zombies at night
The greatest lesson - the power of
collaboration
Jeff had created some shelters with doors
with signs outside inviting us in for the night.
These were in mountainsides, so at night we
could dig our mines and look for resources
like iron for our pickaxes.
In the daytime we would go outside and
chop trees so we could make crafting tables
and on those, other tools and weapons for
getting food from the animals with whom we
shared our world.
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
Image credit: Caleb Roenigk, https://www.flickr.com/photos/crdot/6303551977
27. End Game Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
28. Statistics
Quantitative
61 participants expressed
interest
Estimated about 20 visited
server or passed through out
spaces in some form or other
10 took active step of creating
entries in Google form
6 earned badges
Qualitative
Many joined us for various
aspects of the course, did not
persist, but contributed
significantly
E.g. one teen from UAE, built a
hotel structure
which I lightened up with lamps
zombies would gather there at
night (but they are not dangerous
in creative mode).
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
30. Next time around
We have already formed a team for the next round of EVO
sessions Jan-Feb 2016. Now that we know the concept works,
we’d like to set some more data points and see if we can
quantify or qualify how it works and why.
This is Tamas Lorincz
who will join our
moderating team
next year
Vance took the picture
at TESOL Arabia 2015
In Dubai
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
31. Additional References
Smolčec, M., Smolčec, F. and Stevens, V. (2014). Using Minecraft
for Learning English. TESL-EJ, 18(2),1-15. Retrieved from
http://www.tesl-ej.org/pdf/ej70/int.pdf.
Kuhn, J. (2015). Meaningful Play – Making Professional
Development Fun. TESL-EJ, 15(4),1-8. Retrieved from http://tesl-
ej.org/pdf/ej72/int.pdf.
This project was presented as part of a panel discussion at
TESOL 2015 Toronto http://tinyurl.com/vance2015pd
Vance Stevens CALL Research
Conference Tarragona 2015
The session was recorded and archived here
http://learning2gether.net/2015/07/06/learning2gether-
with-vance-stevens-about-minecraft-as-a-model-for-
gamification-in-teacher-professional-development/