Week 9 Reflection
This week we looked at gamifying learning using technology. We had a guest presenter from SD 71 talk to us about some ways to use technology to gamify learning. She talked quite a bit about Minecraft Education and some of the ways it can be used in the classroom. This was super interesting, I knew Minecraft could be used in the classroom but I was unaware of how much you could do with it. The most interesting thing was the ways that you can use Minecraft to teach Indigenous education. This presentation was super insightful and it was really cool to hear how the presenter has used technology to gamify learning. After the presentation we discussed more platforms that can be used in particular scratch. Growing up I did not like scratch so talking about it in class brought back all the memories of scratch. As a class we took some time to work on scratch which was very frustrating for me as I was experiencing the same struggles I did when I was a kid. I think that this was a common feeling towards scratch amongst many of my classmates. A benefit to using scratch is that many students are motivated by the computers so using scratch may be very exciting to some students as they get to use the computers. Scratch is best to be used with older students grades 4 and up as it can be hard to use and computers are also tricky for young kids to use. When talking to my mentor teacher for practicum and telling her that we have used scratch in our class she told us that for her grade 1/2 class they haven’t even started using computers as getting the log in and logging onto the computers for the first time will take up a chunk of time before the students even get to use the computers. It is important to keep the age of the students in mind when using scratch and using computers in general as using computers for kids is not as simple as it is for adults. Another thing to keep in mind is not all students have access to computers at home so if using computers for assignments in school it is crucial that the teacher gives enough time to the class to finish the assignment so there is no expectation of students having access to computers at home. Overall the presentation this week was super insightful and I learned new ways to gamify learning.