EDTC 6432 Level 2: Connect with Expert

For my interview I spoke with a teacher who is also the technology representative for my school, Jen. Jen is the Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography, Psychology and U.S. History teacher. She is a master at utilizing the iPads that the district has for each student with fidelity and enthusiasm. In her instruction she uses aspects of gameful instruction into her curricula. Jen mainly uses gameful learning into her AP Human Geography class since the 9^th graders need a way to stay engaged in a college level course and not feel overwhelmed.

 For her gameful learning the lessons are contained in Canvas in specific units. For example she made a unit on the population displacement and migration due to environmental circumstances. For the main example it was based on Hurricane Irma that devastated Florida. She made the unit based on previous historical instances. In her first lesson she had students research different events that she made and gave them three options on how to present the information: an iMovie video, PowerPoint, or a paper report. With those options it branched off at the student’s own pace that expanded upon the event they picked. Within the topic there were games that were simulations based on the topics they chose.. Some of them did come from the Advocates for Human Rights webpage, which helped the students see what it would be like as a refugee. Afterwards they discuss in the discussion section of Canvas about what they discovered with their simulation. In the end, Jen had all the lessons joined back to the same simulation using Google Maps and Hurricane Irma. She made it into a game with the students picking certain areas and how they could help the devastated areas with the people given the information they learned. They made it into a competition with students presenting on what the government could do. Then she had them take a test that was based upon the topic that was from the AP test.

From Jen’s experience she wanted to make the lessons open, fun, and insightful. She did find some issues. The entire unit was designed around the idea of students being able to self-regulate. Many of the students have never taken an AP or any type of honors class. A few of the students waited till the last minute to do the lessons so they were overwhelmed by what they had to do in such a short amount of time. Thus they received lower scores on the assignments tied to the gaming lessons and did poorly on the practice AP exam that was at the end. Jen recommends that this type of teaching would be better for older students who have had experiences in self-regulation. The simulations were good to expand the student’s knowledge about human migration. It did become a problem finding games that could be used on the iPad since many used Adobe Flashplayer. She did find a way around it with different apps with the Puffin app. Another issue was the students did always charge their iPads before walking into class. This was a problem since they did a lot of work in them in class. She bought power strips, placed them in front of some desks and had students work from those designated spots while their iPads charged. Overall she found the gameful learning unit on human migration due to environmental causes to be a good start toward engaging the 9^th grade students in their first AP class. 
What I gained from this was that if I use gameful lesson planning then it has to be interesting to the students and if I teach younger students I will have to help them learn self-regulation. One area I know I could do this is with the option of using Minecraft to help with teaching volume and surface area of figures. An idea I have on the option is for teaching the concepts, then create a scenario for students to apply their knowledge and work at their own pace. With simply instructions the students could utilize the Minecraft app for iPads and design what I am asking them to do then, make a fun competition with the students on who can make the most complicated and visually pleasing structure given the parameters. This is just a thought and I will have to refine it more to be more of a gameful learning unit.