….there's always room for one more….
Brendan Jones I’m working on a local regional project called Cloud School. The idea is that we offer on-line courses for kids that may want extension help in some subjects (Maths and Chemistry) or a chance to some interest based learning (Visual Design and Games Design) that their school doesn’t offer. I’m delivering on the Games Design course. … Read more
There’s a lot of talk about the “maker movement” and “maker culture” at the present time. In a nutshell, it’s about using technology to learn as you create solutions to problems, or design blue sky projects. Think Arduino, Raspberry Pi, 3D printers, electronics and robotics. There doesn’t really seem to be a solid bridge between the maker … Read more
Today used Kahoot as a quiz to wrap up a First Aid unit I was running with Year 9 PASS (Physical Activity and Sport Studies). I’ve used Kahoot before with classes, but purely as a summative exercise at the end of something to test what they’ve learned, in a fun, gamey and engaging way. And it … Read more
I’ve been playing with Google Drive at my school for a while now. Part of my role is to support other staff with using Google in their classrooms. I got to thinking today – how could I visually represent the degree to which apps have have an impact in my classroom? I wanted to show … Read more
I was skimming through my Scoopit feed on Physical Education when I happened upon an article about Dodgeball. I didn’t Scoopit, but instead tweeted the link, but with an invitation for #pegeeks to comment. My first thought after reading the article was that banning a game outright seemed to be pretty harsh. I thought the article relied … Read more
My previous post about an idea for a games based approach to my teaching has sort of developed. Sort of, because I know what I want, but I’m not sure how to do it properly. I want it to be a mixture of game play and popular media references. And I want to make it work online … Read more
Christmas saw Santa bring me Far Cry 4. I hadn’t played much in the way of these sorts of games in the past, and I’d just invested in a new gaming PC so I was keen to see what it looked like. Far Cry 4 is an open world action-adventure first-person shooter video game – you … Read more
In the years that I’ve tried to lead doing new or interesting things at school the same lesson always comes back to me – you can’t just “build it and they will come”. What I mean is – you can’t just build a Moodle, or grant access to Google Apps, or start an Edmodo class, … Read more
creative commons licensed (BY) flickr photo by kevin dooley: http://flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/1856663523 I was reflecting the other day on why I hadn’t written a post for so long. Partly, I realised, because I haven’t had a lot of time to sit down and construct something. I also acknowledged something that had been a nagging thought in … Read more
I’m working on a Year 10 PASS theory unit on Improving Performance. One of the topics we cover is using skills and tactics as a way to improve individual and team performance. In planning the learning for this, I wanted to made the learning real and visible, not just theoretical and abstract. I came up … Read more