Category Archives: Mathematics

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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Apr 23 2012

Online Teaching and Learning: From Independent Study to Immersive Collaboration

educators attend a conference presentation in an immersive environment, via avatar representations.

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I come across an article several times a week that describes a K-12 district or a state’s efforts for offering the opportunity  for students to “learn online”.  Higher education has been involved with online/distance learning for a longer period of … Continue reading →

Apr 8 2012

WoW in Education: A MOOC Adventure

My Orc character dances with fellow EDU orcs at the end of the evening on Day 1 of my WOW experience. Always good to have friends, in any world.

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The VWBPE MOOC took me into WoW last week.  It was a bit of a learning curve, but  my Virtual World (SL, RG, Opensim) experience did give me some frame of reference, particularly with basic movement and communication skills.   … Continue reading →

May 5 2011

Geography Standards via Terraforming and Virtual Mapping

Forming continents, islands, mountains, valleys and rivers works with mashed potatoes, beach sand, mud in the back yard and pixels in the virtual world.  Terraforming physical landform characteristics including  mountains, valleys, rivers, oceans, lakes and beaches is as easy as a click with a mouse on the correct tool and then sliding or moving the mouse in a circular motion to raise, lower, flatten, roughen and smooth the land.

The terraforming tool options are basic and easy to understand

The size of the area as well as the strength of the tool is adjusted as desired.  A little practice in an empty “sandbox” is typically enough to get the “feel” for pressure and size attributes.  Adding Flora and fauna to the newly formed topography is an opportunity to learn about climate, elevations and ecosystems.

A map view of a sim on Reaction Grid

Geography standards include various elements of map reading.   Reading the maps in a virtual world and being able to zoom in provides not only the opportunity for recognizing the use of a legend, direction, location and distance, but also the ability to see  influences of hydrology and physical characteristics of a place.

Sep 12 2010

Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge

An open challenge to create the most innovative and interactive solutions in virtual environments.

http://www.fvwc.army.mil/

  • $25,000 in prizes
  • Focus on AI
  • Open to everyone
  • Submission due date Dec 6 2010
Aug 24 2010

Spatial Training in a Virtual World May Improve STEM Skills

Studies over the past 50 years indicate a significant, positive correlation between spatial thinking and STEM disciplines.  Project Talent is one of those studies to support spatial training among our students.  Findings indicate that thinking with images plays a central role in scientific creativity and communication.

Determining a path on Core1 in Reaction Grid

Participating in a virtual world incorporates spatial thinking on a variety of levels.  As consumers, participants in a virtual world deal with location, shapes,  object’s relationship to each other and verbal descriptions such as near, far, next to, on, and under.  In order to traverse the digital terrain they need to be able to move and to communicate spatial concepts.

On a more complex level participants may rearrange furniture, complete puzzles, move objects, and use maps, all contributing to spatial thinking.

Using a map to locate an event on Second Life

In a virtual world workshop

As producers in the virtual environment, participants build and script.  Building requires assembly, measurment, visualizing 3D models and reproducing them or creating new ones.  Producers can build real or imagined structures, vehicles, objects and clothing.

Virtual worlds could, used effectively, provide formal and informal learning models for STEM learning environments.  With the recent announcement of Race To The Top Winners, significant funding is allocated towards the STEM disciplines school districts may have an opportunity to expand and research this promising environment.

'Building' a block
Aug 3 2010

Teaching Math in The Virtual World

Mathematics may be one of the most obvious ways to use a virtual world for teaching and learning, particularly when students are in the building capacity.  Students can practice applying   mathematical concepts, while being creative and having fun.  Geometry comes alive as an avatar creates and moves 3D shapes around to construct a real or imagined structure, graphical representations are concrete rather than theoretical.

A geodesic structure in SL

A bridge in Reaction Grid

The tools in the virtual world are simple enough that even elementary school children can use them.   Learning to use these tools may even provide some preliminary knowledge and skills for future use of  more complex engineering CAD tools. Once the students create the shapes (which takes seconds) the 3D polygons can be moved about, enlarged or reduced in size, stacked, linked, rotated, twisted, tapered, even suspended in the air at the click of a mouse.  Students can adjust shapes and angles to fit ‘building blocks’ more precisely, they have the use of coordinates and measuring tools to support their building and learning.  The most important part is the process, not the final product, though the final product may contribute to discussion regarding the feasibility of the structures in real  life.  The process of building and solving the problems of fitting virtual shapes together to construct a planned structure is what makes students think and apply the mathematical concepts.

'Building' a block

Adjusting dimensions of the cube.

Rotating the adjusted cube.

Here an avatar creates a cube and then transforms it to a thinner taller rectangular shape, then rotates it to get it in the correct position.

The syllabus of an educational technology class at Boise State is an example of prospective teachers being provided an opportunity to learn  the skills necessary to use this medium for future instruction in K-12 classrooms.  There are multiple examples of K-12 teachers providing ‘building’ opportunities on the SL Teen Grid and on Reaction Grid  to their students. As these students apply mathematical concepts and address required standards they also practice some 21st Century skills such as innovation, collaboration and problem solving.


Jul 19 2010

NASA STEM Challenge for Grades 9-12 InWorld

A competition from NASA provides a challenge for High school students, in 2 phases. In phase 1 students have an opportunity to work cooperatively, in teams of three-to-five students, as engineers and scientists to solve real-world problems related to the James Webb Space Telescope. Final solutions from this first phase of the challenge are due on Dec. 15, 2010.

Teams who complete Phase 1 are then paired with participating college engineering students for Phase 2, the InWorld phase of the challenge. Each InWorld team will refine designs and create 3-D models of the Webb telescope.

For more information about the challenge, visit http://www.nasarealworldinworld.org/.