Rethinking Learning for the 21st Century
Written by mikefarley
This week I’ll be presenting at the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO) annual conference in Toronto. I’m a Geo teacher but I’ll be doing a session on using video games to teach about energy management and climate change. As I was preparing it really hit me how probably none of this would have happened … Continue reading “How Cohort 21 Continues to Inspire Me”
Written by mikefarley
Link to Action Plan Presentation: http://prezi.com/nbz7a200-o4f/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share Action Plan in 140 Characters: @Cohort21 ActionPlan: I worked w Hist teachers @ UTS to develop & test student activities for history-related computer games (see http://www.changegamer.ca/history.html) Key Takeaways: 1. There are some fantastic games out there that can be used to teach History (and Science, and English, and Visual Art, … Continue reading “Reflecting on My Action Plan…”
Written by mikefarley
At the end of March, four Gr.7 UTS History classes play-tested the serious games “Death in Sakkara” and “Flight to Freedom”. Simultaneously they also completed corresponding student activities that I had created for each game. I had a chance to sit in on the classes to see how things went, and History teachers Zach Fanni … Continue reading “Play-testing at UTS: (meaningful) Fun and (serious) Games”
Written by mikefarley
I just finished the first draft of the student activity for another History game we will try out with the Gr.7s at UTS. The game is called ‘Flight to Freedom’, and is part of the popular ‘Mission US‘ series (geared toward 10-12 year-olds). Here is a brief description of the game from the Mission US … Continue reading “An exploration of the ‘Flight to Freedom’ game and teacher guide”
Written by mikefarley
I just finished the first draft of the student activity for the History game ‘Death in Sakkara – An Egyptian Adventure’ (BBC). If you have an hour to spare and want to try a game that takes you on a wild and mysterious ride to Egypt in the 1920s, you might want to give it a … Continue reading “Feel like travelling to Egypt for an hour?”
Written by mikefarley
In my previous post I had outlined 6 main steps for my Action Plan. It has been a little slow getting things going, but I’m now happy to have completed steps 1 and 2. First off, after our last F2F, I spoke with two of our History teachers to pitch to them the idea of … Continue reading “And the winners are…”
Written by mikefarley
What are the next steps? Suggest History games to Zach (UTS history teacher) and give him time to explore them Meet with Zach to look at good fits between history games and history curriculum (e.g. grade? course? unit?) and decide on 1 (or 2-3?) games to focus on Create game-related activities for games (within SAMR … Continue reading “‘Games in History’ Action Plan – What’s Next?”
Written by mikefarley
My Cohort 21 action plan is to work with one or two of the History teachers at my school to design student activities to be used with some history-related computer games (e.g. Mission-U.S. series, Death in Sakkara, and High Tea). There are a few main benefits to taking on this plan: A number of the … Continue reading “Back to the Future – Introducing Video Games to the History Curriculum at UTS”
Written by mikefarley
(note: this post originally appeared on the BrainPOP Educators website) For the past ten years I have been using ‘social change’ computer games in my Grades 7-12 Geography classes to explore themes such as natural disasters, energy management, urban planning, environmental issues, economics, peace and conflict, and civic action. The excitement and depth of learning … Continue reading “Changegamer Strives to be a Gamechanger”