Technology Trends – Game-Based Learning

After reading the NMC Horizon Report, I was very intrigued by the thought of game-based learning.  Some of my colleagues went to the Model Schools Conference in Florida this summer, where they brought back a lot of information supporting the idea of game-based learning.   I chose the article under the “For Further Reading” section titled, “Supporting Teachers in the Process of Adoption of Game Based Learning Pedagogy.”  The article discussed how to bring in game-based learning into a school with support.  I also went to the BrainPOP website and researched their game-based learning tool known as GameUp.

I chose to write a proposal for our school.  This proposal is about incorporating GameUp into our classrooms.  I have to honest, I have never written a proposal before, so this is my first attempt at one.  I believe it gives the basics, but know that it could use a lot more information to support the proposal.

Here is the link to the proposal.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12c0HRe9ojefAX2X9SkhSHVxAX1fifHKs4zy5Ck31YqM/edit?usp=sharing

Annotated Bibliography – Flipped Classroom

For my annotated bibliography, I chose to research the flipped classroom approach.  I chose this because my partner teacher and I are currently in the process of trying a version of this approach with our students.  Since we cannot assign our students the videos to watch from home (as not all students have computer access), we have half of our students watching the video first while we meet with the other half, and then we switch.  It has been an interesting journey and have had to make many changes, but it is something that we feel will help to reach ALL learners.

I was able to learn so much from the articles I read.  Since I am implementing an aspect of the flipped classroom approach, I was able to relate to many of the results the authors were finding in their case studies.  Reading the examples also gave me hope and reassured me that this approach we are trying can be successful.

It has been many years since I have intentionally used APA citing techniques, so these past couple of weeks have been a great refresher.  I do however wish that Google Scholar was around when I was in high school and college.  It is such a great research tool that really allows the researcher to be selective with what they are reading and including in his or her research.

Below is the link to my annotated bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ECG8WwY7Cg_NwdEdoY26S-N31sLGSKEMUyfYaYJPfM/edit?usp=sharing