Category: Weekly Reflections

Final Post #8

Prodigy Game

What is Prodigy?

It is an educational platform that uses game-based learning to teach subjects such as English and Math. “The game is designed for 1st through 8th graders to play during the school day and at home. In this online role-playing game, children create customized wizard characters to earn stars and prizes for winning math “battles,” finding treasure, and completing a variety of non-math challenges throughout the game. Children can also shop with Prodigy currency, practice dance moves, chat with other players, and rescue cute pets”(Fairplay).

Benefits of Prodigy for Teachers

Prodigy’s gamified elements, including avatars, rewards, and challenges, help keep students engaged. This helps a lot for Math, as it can be seen by students as a less exciting and challenging subject

Prodigy uses adaptive learning technology to tailor lessons to each student’s skill level

Teachers can track individual student performance from the game

Prodigy is user-friendly, making it easy for both teachers and students

Benefits to gamifying Math

Gamification of Math can make it less intimidating for students by making it fun

Students can get instant feedback

Helps reinforce foundational math skills by being able to practice in a game format

Points, badges, and other rewards such as opening new areas, within the game create a sense of accomplishment and gives students the want to continue practicing

Every student can go at their own pace

Negatives or pitfalls of Prodigy

As in any game, students can focus on the rewards instead of focusing on the understanding of math

“Most of a child’s attention is drawn not to math but to their character’s customization. In time considered independent learning, kids are buying and earning new  accessories for their wizard and performing dance moves completely unrelated to the game’s plot. Children spend the most time in Lamplight Town, an outdoor mall. There, children can spin wheels to get more stuff and there are shops constantly available throughout the game—a known real-world sales tactic”. (Fairplay)

“The main drawback is that the math has nothing to do with the setting: They’re textbook math problems that interrupt the adventure at regular intervals. And the repetition of the game mechanic — wizard battles monster with spells — might get tedious for some kids”. (CommonSense)

Not all students enjoy games for educational learning

The story line is about Wizards, that families might not approve of

“When schools assign Prodigy, they create two tiers of students: those whose families can afford to buy a membership, and those whose families can’t. Prodigy’s model is the equivalent of giving wealthy kids in a classroom a shiny new textbook with a surprise toy inside, while kids from low-income families get an old, beaten-up edition. And as kids play, they can tell who are the haves and have-nots”. (Fairplay)

“In terms of settings, some teachers will want to remove the calculator from the student toolset, so having that option would be helpful”. (CommonSense)

Math through Prodigy can increase motivation, practice opportunities, and engagement. However, it’s important to weigh the potential downsides, such as focusing on rewards, paid membership, built in calculator, math not matching with the environment, and technology dependencies for students. Overall, I might use Prodigy as a fun tool for math, but not as a learning tool.

There are other apps I would use before this one, including Reading Eggs, Mathletics, Khan Academy, Splash Learn, IXL Math, and Math Seeds.

Post #6

“Take Me Outside Day” is an initiative in Canada, aimed at encouraging students and their families to spend time outdoors. This year it is on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. It promotes outdoor education and activities, emphasizing the importance of nature in children’s learning and well-being. Many schools participate by organizing outdoor lessons, hikes, or nature-related projects, fostering a connection with the environment. Our Technology class did our In-situ at Elizabeth Lake, with students from Gordon Terrace. We got to spend time outdoors for both physical and mental health, as well as learning.

Integrating outdoor experiences into education can enrich learning which can contribute to a holistic development for students. Connecting with the outside around us, can support our understanding of the world. Being in nature helps students develop an appreciation for the environment. Nature has been shown to reduce stress and improve mood. If you do not agree, try getting outside and just sitting in a quiet place, and connect with your surroundings. It will lower your heart rate, help you to take deep breaths, and focus. Outdoor activities can encourage teamwork and communication among students and teachers.

Going outdoors and learning about nature and the connection we have to the land, is what I want for my future classroom. I can connect these with many subjects in the curriculum. Outdoor settings can inspire creativity and curiosity in many different school subjects, such as in science, a place to create English writing prompts, and inspirations for Art.

The outdoors is deeply significant for Indigenous Peoples, connecting on cultural, spiritual, and practical dimensions. It is tied to their identity and heritage, with landscapes, plants, and animals holding sacred meaning. The outdoors in nature, play an important role in Indigenous worldviews and ways of life.

Post #5

This week, I used Canva to create a graphic for my website. There were many designs to choose from. I decided to create my own, as I am trying to learn more about technology through this course. It’s drag-and-drop design made it accessible for all skill levels, including me! I looked through the options that Canva offers students.

A Student can create:

Documents Whiteboards Presentations Social Media projects Videos Print projects Websites

Using graphic design tools like Canva in the classroom can enhance learning and creativity. Students can create their own brand! They can create infographics to summarize research or presentations. This helps them synthesize information visually. My daughter did this for a Cultural Identity Project. It is a great way to collect all the information into one area. Posters are a way to foster creativity and effective communication skills through a visual representation of what information needs to be expressed. Students can create storyboards or digital stories using Canva, combining text and visuals to narrate their ideas, such as the story we saw at our AI Workshop. Students can use Canva in several different ways.

Canva offers a vast library of free images, icons, and illustrations< This helps students enhance their designs without needing to source materials externally, which I found helpful. While Canva offers a free version, its premium features are reasonably priced too.

Integrating graphic creation, such as the one I used this week, Canva, into my classroom not only boosts creativity but also equips students with essential skills in design, being able to collaborate on a subject, and a way for effective communication of their project.

This is a great addition to any classroom used by students and teachers!

In-Situ this week, was a great experience. Being in a K-3 school, was very exciting. Going into the Grade 3 classroom, engaging with the students to make a stop motion short film was a fun, creative process.

A stop motion film, also known as a stop frame animation. Is a technique used in film making, where items are moved in very small increments. Each movement is taken by a photograph, and then streamed together at the end, as a film. It is very time consuming, but can be very enjoyable and creative. We used the app Zingo Studio.

Using the Gibb’s Reflective Learning Cycle

Description

We brainstormed ideas, using a sheet to plan out the story, and then began filming. Then after filming, we edited and added sounds and music, which was a collaboration with the students. After it was completed, the teacher uploaded and we each got to experience each other’s storytelling through our films.

Feelings

My feelings were excitement and joy.

Evaluation

The students had some great ideas and it was fun to incorporate them into the film. Seeing them excited and wanting to engage, was joy for me. Having each student involved was important. After evaluating the class, I really enjoyed how the students worked together. Most already knew some parts of how to create a stop motion short film. I wish there had of been more time to plan before jumping into creating.

Analyzing

I realized hands-on worked well with the grade 3 students.

Conclusion

I would have a longer time, or different class, to start the planning process, and work on the handout sheet beforehand, but I felt it was a very successful class and many laughs were shared! Using the Gibbs’ Reflective Learning Cycle helped break down my thoughts on the class.

Students had fun creative ways to involve each other and their pets. Our Stop Motion Film was something I might not always remember, but I will remember working with the students, and seeing their excitement when they watched the final product.

My group made a stop motion animation film today about a family of penguins. We worked together on the story and added music to make it come alive. It was a creative project that was enjoyable and made us laugh. We worked together from picking out the characters, to creating a story, to editing the final cut. It may have been short, but it brought the audience into the film for those 8 seconds. There was emotion that could be felt by the main little penguin character, and the music that shared his feelings, at the end of the film.

Stop Motion animation was something I was unfamiliar using. Watching a video on how they used Stop Motion animation for The Nightmare before Christmas and Gumby was intriguing. Stop motion can be used in many different subjects in a classroom. English, Science, Indigenous, and many others. Students can create a scene from a novel in Language Arts, or a life cycle. Working together with other classmates, builds connection and communication skills. Using an app like Zing Studio to make short films, is a fun, interactive way to learn and understand material on a deeper level.

Using technology is a challenge for me. I learned how to download our Stop Motion film from Snapchat, to my computer, then upload it to my YouTube page, that I created. It was a process, but I am proud that I figured it out. I am constantly learning new strategies and tools to use and grow.