Category Archives: ESE

May 28 2012

Machinima as a Teaching and Learning Tool

Teachers are generally a creative and resourceful bunch, and though we do make use of commercially produced materials, we often customize them for our students.   Unusual, humorous, poignant and the relevant materials (pictures, artifacts, movies, stories) help us to introduce a topic, define processes and content, and trigger creative thought.  Machinima is a tool/process that teachers can use for each of these, and it is inexpensive and relatively easy.

Machinima is a way of making animated movies with nothing more than a computer and screen capture software and “filmed” either in a virtual world or Video Game. The “movie” can be used “as is” without any editing or embellished with sound, music, special effects, text, and editing.

Considering the components of a typical lesson/unit plan, either teaching a process or introducing new content, machinima could be incorporated to bring interest, help explain, and just get attention in a way that today’s students are used to.

  • Lesson/Unit Introduction:  A short clip  introducing a topic in any subject area is possible with a machinima.  Virtual worlds allow for scenes and actions that would be impossible to recreate in the physical world.  As you look over your lesson plans the introductions used to introduce concepts on history, science, math, and literature will trigger ideas of making a machinima to make that  introduction more interesting, relevant and memorable.  Using a video game to make that introduction is certain to catch student attention, you can open a free introductory account in most games  to use for machinima and virtual world registrations are free to join.
  • Lesson Objectives:  When you give students objectives for a lesson or unit it is typically in words, written and spoken.  How about having an avatar tie the objectives as they go through some motions or appear in a setting to bring attention to the highlights?  Perhaps supplying the objectives in an animated fashion will support students in successful learning.
  • Lesson/Unit Materials:  As your machinima library grows, movies will be included in lesson/unit materials and can be shared with colleagues.
  • Unit Procedures:  Teaching requires the use of multiple procedures to ensure learning,  those that involve student interaction and collaboration have proven effective.  Student created machinima is a potentially effective addition to the more traditional activities that you currently use.
  • Unit Assessment:  Student created machinma is a form of authentic assessment, evaluated with the use of a rubric provided to students at the start of the unit.
  • Remediation & Enrichment :  Machinima works for  both enrichment and remediation as students can work in groups and develop machinma ensuring objectives, keeping in mind that grouping students to ensure success is important.
  • Differentiating Instruction:  Developing any project in a group requires use of various skills and knowledge.  All students can contribute to a machinima as there is a variety of skills and levels involved.

As you wind down the school year and the think about how to do it better next year, consider incorporating machinima into your teaching repertoire.  You may want to register for the free Machinma course beginning on June 4 at the P2PU.org site.

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Mar 6 2011

Teaching Strategies for Using Voice and Text in the Virtual World

The Internet is a text-rich environment, smart phone technology and social networking facilitate the use of text,  in a virtual world instruction can be provided in either text or voice mode and each has pros and cons.  Shambles Guru provides a useful video describing the setup of voice in Second Life using Viewer 2.

Text allows you to think about what you are communicating, seeing the written word allows for some processing and editing prior to clicking the send button.  Text can also be saved and referred to at a later time, always beneficial.  Text is the preferred method to communicate when language translation is required and the appropriate communication with hearing impaired students. The downside of text is that it is difficult to simultaneously demonstrate while communicating in text.  Another potential drawback is “text speak” and typos.  Though typically understood there is potential for misunderstanding and it develops a habit of ignoring typos and using abbreviations.  A class participant must be able to read and follow instructions in text.  This has potential for problems depending on the audience and individual capabilities.  Responding to individual questions in IM texting can be confusing (not seeing the message, having too many message boxes open, blocking view of the screen due to message boxes).

Voice allows an instructor to deliver a message the way that an instructor delivers in a real life classroom setting, a clarification is immediate and intonation is clear.  The lack of visual cues requires an instructor to use other methods to engage students and to ensure the message was delivered.  Ideally the students are also using voice so that 2-way communication can take place.  This requires an etiquette system of watching the screen for who is speaking, listening to the spoken text and speaking at a specific pause, so as not to interrupt the speaker.  It requires that the communicators listen more carefully than they may do in a real life classroom.   The teacher must also be watchful of students as they are performing particular tasks in the virtual setting.  The teacher needs to continuously move the camera around and watch students to ensure that students are performing tasks as directed, providing appropriate verbal direction as needed.

The ideal strategy is to use both text and voice.  This addresses various learning styles and takes advantage of the pros of each method, minimizing the cons.  This can be done is several ways.  The instructor can:

  • provide  notecards with vital information, in text, to supplement the spoken instruction.
  • type main ideas as he/she speaks.
  • have an assistant or student type the text as he/she speaks.
  • take advantage of the back channel in local chat to address questions

Teachers should practice the strategies in order to become comfortable and adept at using them, ultimately selecting which is most appropriate.