Further Job Searches

I have spent some more time looking into different jobs in my area of interest (Teaching and STEM) Here are my findings. Again I have the colour key below for reference.

Green  representing skills I already have, Orange for skills that need improvement and Red for skills which I do not currently have.


Graduate Teaching Assistant - Intervention Work


Applicants will be outstanding classroom practitioners and strong communicators with the ability to effectively manage a very flexible timetable and to support and motivate students to achieve at the highest level.

Candidates are required to have:

•  A degree
•  Twelve months checkable work history with references
•  Have worked in a secondary school for a minimum of 3 months

All candidates will need to have the right to live and work within the United Kingdom and either a valid up-to-date DBS on the update service, or be willing to apply for one.

Games Development Lecturer

To be suitable you must meet the following criteria:

• Holding a full teaching certificate - Cert Ed, DTLLs or PGDE

• Have a relevant degree

• Recent experience in delivering Games design/Games development/Creative Media

• A DBS in place

Games Design Lecturer - Edenbrown Synergy 

You will be qualified to degree level in a Graphic based design qualification and preferably hold a teaching qualification. Somebody with an interest in the teaching profession would also be considered. 
You will preferably have experience of teaching Games Design BTEC Level 1 and 2 though must be proficient at using programming tools such as Game Maker and Gamesalad.
A current DBS is also required for this role though a DBS can be processed through Eden Brown should you not have one. 

References

Graduate Teaching Assistant - Intervention Work - Nottinghamshire . 2015.Graduate Teaching Assistant - Intervention Work - Nottinghamshire . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.connex-education.com/job/graduate-teaching-assistant-intervention-work-nottinghamshire-jobid-30078. [Accessed 27 October 2015].

Morgan Hunt - Job search results . 2015. Morgan Hunt - Job search results . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.morganhunt.com/jobs/games-development-lecturer-buckinghamshire-15400?utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Indeed. [Accessed 27 October 2015].

Games Design Lecturer | CV-Library | 203036154. 2015. Games Design Lecturer | CV-Library | 203036154. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cv-library.co.uk/job/203036154/Games-Design-Lecturer?s=100244&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Indeed. [Accessed 27 October 2015].

Looking Forward 25/10/2015

Over the last week I have been looking into various elements of gamification. There is a huge wealth of knowledge on the subject and it is becoming more and more prominent in every day life. In everything from social media to the work place, gamification is being used to entice, motivate and reward people in all walks of life.

I have been watching a series of videos from the Dreamforce 2013 conference on gamification. This series has shown me so far several different examples of gamification such as the Playstation4 advertising on interactive bus stops which sends a QR code to your phone when you are in proximity to the bus stop, then using the bus stops built in camera, the QR code is scanned and signs you in. This then lets you play mini games while you wait for the bus and all the time pushing Playstation4 on you. This could easily be transferred to learning by swapping out the information on the PS4 for the learning topic. This would get the player interested in that subject while completing other tasks. 

From the research and readings from the past few weeks, along with the discussions and feedback from my tutor I am looking at selecting a single element from the Upper KS2 curriculum in the area of science and gamifying it. Keeping this small slice of the curriculum will allow me to drill down deep into gamification and the ways in which this can best be used.

I also want to add some of the things I have been doing but have yet to gain enough from to warrant their own post. Firstly I have been leasing with Jon London and Karen Hansen from the Cambridge Science Centre. They have been talking to me about how they keep young individuals interested and motivated towards their set learning outcomes. Karen has also offered to meet with me to discus a framework she developed for planning out lessons called Narrative Mapping which she used to teach to other teachers. 

Next week I am leading a group of ten students round for our STEM October School. This includes aspects from many STEM subjects and for the most part, focuses on keeping learning fun and engaging for the students. I will be spending my time outside of leading, taking notes on the different ways the lessons are delivered and the way in which these different methods are reflected in the students responses. The week concludes with a day long session run by myself in which students will be creating and programming an object avoidance robot based on an Arduino Uni. I will attempt to gamify this session as much as possible using what I have learned and then post a "post-mortem" to this blog detailing the pros and cons of the session and include feedback from the students. 


References


 Dreamforce Video - YouTube. 2015. Dreamforce Video - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/dreamforce. [Accessed 25 October 2015].

Dreamforce 2013 Interactive Bus Stops - Location Based Marketing - YouTube. 2015. Dreamforce 2013 Interactive Bus Stops - Location Based Marketing - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TCw9IFC_YA. [Accessed 25 October 2015].

National curriculum - GOV.UK. 2015. National curriculum - GOV.UK. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum. [Accessed 25 October 2015].

My First Job Search

This week I have been looking into different jobs in my area of interest and from these searches I have turned up a couple of different positions and I have separated out the different requirements and listed them below. I have highlighted the requirements in the job listings for ease of reading.

Green  representing skills I already have, Orange for skills that need improvement and Red for skills which I do not currently have.

Cambridge Science Centre

Job Description: Exhibit Engineer

Come and Build Fun and Fascinating Science Exhibits (Cambridge) The Cambridge Science Centre is looking for a motivated and ingenious individual to work with our Exhibit Development Manager in the workshop and the Centre to prototype, design, construct and maintain exhibits.

The ideal candidate would also have experience with:

      ● machine tools 
      ● embedded programming
      ● electronics 
      ● welding 
      ● dealing with subcontractors
      ● face­ to ­face science communication 


KS2 Science Teacher

Job Description: Science Teacher

Class People are looking for KS2 teacher with an increasing demand for teachers on a day-to-day and short term basis The school is an Ofsted graded good school based in a strong community area. Children enjoy coming to school and there is a good level of behaviour as pupils go about their learning and are keen and enthusiastic in lessons. There is a strong sense of purpose through the school and children are happy and motivated. 

The essential qualities of the successful candidate are:

• Primary teacher who has gained QTS with a Science specialism
• Enthusiastic and passionate individual who is confident working in KS2
• Flexible and adaptable person who is looking to be a part of a strong team
• Up to date with current initiatives and strategies, including the National Curriculum
• Willingness to embrace the full culture of the school and to become an integral part of school life

Just Teachers

Job Description: Teaching Assistant

To be considered for the position you must:

• Hold a childcare based qualification – minimum NVQ 3

• Be able to provide at least 1 school based reference from the last 2 years.

• Have a professional and flexible attitude.

• Be able to work as a team as well as own initiative

• Be able to take responsibility for planning and assessing across the EYFS curriculum

From this preliminary job search I can see that all teaching jobs require qualifications that I will not attain through my current studies, however I can see a lot of transferable skills which I have acquired over the past few years such as team work and flexibility along with some more attainable criteria such as taking responsibility for planning the curriculum and learning embedded programming (in the instance of Cambridge Science Centre this falls mostly under Arduino compatible micro controllers which I am currently playing with as a hobby as well as teaching next week at the UCS STEM School) 

I will continue my job searches over the coming weeks and analysing them as I have done here. Through this I will be able to paint a clear picture of where I need to be to attain full time employment in my chosen sector,

References

Jobs – Cambridge Science Centre. 2015. Jobs – Cambridge Science Centre. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.cambridgesciencecentre.org/news/jobs/. [Accessed 22 October 2015].

KS2 Science Teacher job - Classpeople - Gloucester | Indeed.co.uk. 2015.KS2 Science Teacher job - Classpeople - Gloucester | Indeed.co.uk. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.indeed.co.uk/viewjob?jk=31b40642acc39679&q=Primary+Science+Teacher+ks2&tk=1a23gd6ku9m58c2q&from=web&advn=8297770179750067&sjdu=uPBE1tRsQoWS95deK63B2JjUXAySK2PSWky6tiK9O7UdEnMZsD-SdJB4JOKJ8L4O&pub=pub-indeed. [Accessed 22 October 2015].

Just Teachers :: Teaching Assistant - Cambridgeshire. 2015. Just Teachers :: Teaching Assistant - Cambridgeshire. [ONLINE] Available at:https://justteachers.co.uk/jobs/9138/teaching-assistant?utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed. [Accessed 22 October 2015].

My first texts.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been looking into many different texts in reference to the gamification of learning. After much searching I have come to my first two major texts. These texts are both written by Karl M Kapp and are called The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice and The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game Based Methods and Strategies for Training and Eduction. 

Karl Kapp is a professional in the field of learning with a focus on interactive learning, games and gamification. Instructional Technology Graduate Professor at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA. He states his passion is teaching how to create engaging, interactive and effective learning at the individual and organizational level. 

I have also been watching a series on lynda.com created by Karl on the gamification of learning. He has truly got me thinking about the direction I am going with my project and I am starting to formulate idea for my final project.


Karl M. Kapp, 2012. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. 1 Edition. Pfeiffer.

Karl M. Kapp, 2013. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice. 1 Edition. Pfeiffer.

 Karl Kapp. 2015. Karl Kapp. [ONLINE] Available at: http://karlkapp.com/. [Accessed 22 October 2015].

Analyses of 5 different edu-games

Today I looked into several different web based edu-games to see what I can find in regards to the styles of learning or teaching contained within them.

Firstly I looked into the Barclays Code Playground.

This game is geared to the younger generation ages 6+ but is also good for older students too. You are presented at the beginning with large colourful instructions and then plunged into the screen you can see above. You then click on any of the elements to bring up the objects code. The code is clearly separated via different colours and is all written with correct syntax to help you get familiar with the look and format. The elements you can modify are highlighted in boxes and the //comments explain their use. Players find the fun in this game by exploring all the different things you can do and all the different elements. The screen has lots happening at once and this helps hold attention. It relies heavily on the student curiosity to teach however this was shown in TV adverts as being played with someone guiding the player/student through the experience. This is a great way of keeping students engaged.


Secondly I looked at the Blood Typing Game.

This game is aimed at older individuals but can be enjoyed by younger players/students also. The game takes you step by step through the process of taking blood from a patient and then analysing it (in the simplest form) by dropping it into three solutions to ascertain the patients blood type. The actions up until this point are all pretty much standard and there is no lose condition. The blood samples can be looked at in more detail to get a better understanding of the topic however this step can by bypassed easily and sometime unintentionally. You are then asked to transfuse the patient with the correct blood (wrong blood will injure them where as the correct blood will heal them giving you instant feedback to your actions) In doing this it forces you to try different blood bags to which you would obviously go for and teaches you via trial and error (and some pattern recognition) which blood types are compatible. The only prior knowledge I had that helped was that O is a universal donor.

Next I looked at Pavlov's Dog.

This game does not teach you directly. There is no real intro other than the goal of making the dog salivate on command. Without prior knowledge of Pavilion's Dog then you are left confused by this game. I used a tester for this one as I know the process and they couldn't figure out what they were supposed to do. If you manage to reach the goal then you are presented with an information screen depicting the process you have just gone through. The game tries to use exploration and experimentation to convey its lesson however I feel this was unsuccessful due to its lac of direction to the player.

The Transistor Game was the next game I played.

This game is trying to teach players what household objects have transistors within them. It does this by delivering a large tutorial block of text telling you to remove any items from the conveyor belt that do not contain transistors with no indication as to which these might be. If you remove transistor containing items there is no feedback until the end where it says you shouldn't have removed them in the summery of your play through. If you leave a non transistor containing object on the belt it will be stopped in the window and an angry lady comes up with text scolding you for leaving it on the belt. This game is another example of trail and error however only half of the errors are picked up meaning that by the time the summery page is up the player wont remember removing them (and all of them not just one) and that's even if they read the summery page which I personally often don't. I also feel the scolding lady is a poor choice for feed back. Being politely told is a far better motivator than being told off for doing something wrong. I feel getting things wrong is all part of learning and players should not be made to feel defeated by doing so.

The final game I looked at was The Split Brain Experiment.

This game had a lengthy into that taught you by telling you things. For example it had a brain in a bowl and then Mr. Split Brain sniffed it and poked it, to which you are informed that the brain doesn't smell of much and is gooey. You then experiment by showing different sides of the brain slides on a projector. This shows you how experimentation is used to ascertain information, in this case it was which half of the brain is responsible for different functions. This actually is a key part of upper key stage 2 curriculum as the ability to distil results from is a statutory requirement in the subject of science. The game then takes the player to the project proposal screen with lots of waiting for replies which I think is to symbolise the amount of waiting that happens in the real world but in the game just breaks flow and becomes tedious. The actual proposal however has you selecting pre determined words to fill in sections describing your findings which reinforces the distillation of information and results required by the KS2 curriculum. This game focuses purely on experimentation and exploration to teach.

Of the 5 games I found several ways of learning and teaching among them. In the Barclays Code Playground players learn from the curiosity and exploration from the sandbox nature of the application. In The Blood Typing Game players learn by being lead through a process and then latter in the game through trail and error. The Split Brain Game and Pavlov's Dog Game both try to teach by having the player experiment, however The Split Brain Game seems to achieve this as it takes you on a path with predetermined experimentation points along with instant player feedback when doing so. All of these methods are valid and when gamifying the different learning outcomes I chose I will try and use each in a controlled way to see if any particular style of teaching/learning stands out above the rest.



References

Barclays Code Playground. 2015. Barclays Code Playground. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.barclays.co.uk/DigitalEagles/BarclaysCodePlayground/P1242686640999. [Accessed 17 October 2015].

The Blood Typing Game. 2015. The Blood Typing Game. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/bloodtypinggame/game/index.html. [Accessed 17 October 2015].

Pavlov's Dog. 2015. Pavlov's Dog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/pavlov/pavlov.html. [Accessed 17 October 2015].

The Transistor - Recycler. 2015. The Transistor - Recycler. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/physics/transistor/recycler/index.html. [Accessed 17 October 2015].

The Split Brain Experiments. 2015. The Split Brain Experiments. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/split-brain/splitbrainexp.html. [Accessed 17 October 2015].

National Curriculum and New Directions

I have been reading through The National Curriculum in England: Key stages 1 and 2 framework. I focused mostly on upper key stage 2 years 5 and 6. Due to the way the curriculum is now structured, the statuary learning outcomes for students are more along the lines of good working practice etc. Bellow is a section from the upper key stage 2 Science.

During years 5 and 6, pupils should be taught to use the following practical scientific methods, processes and skills through the teaching of the programme of study content:

• planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary
• taking measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings when appropriate
• recording data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter graphs, bar and line graphs
• using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests
• reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations
• identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments.

After negotiating with my tutor I propose taking individual existing learning outcomes such as the ones above and gamifying them. I will use different learning and teaching techniques with each outcome. They will be a mixture of digital and non digital mini games and exercises designed to motivate students. 

I am currently approaching several schools to help me play test each mini game so I can post mortem them and ascertain the best way to teach a gamified subject and maintain maximum motivation towards learning.

The National Curriculum in England: Key Stages 1 and 2 framework document (2013). London: Department for Education: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. 

Tangential Learning and the Educations Game Entertainment Game Rift

First of all I would like to say that this is only a short post on the subject of tangential learning which includes some reading I am undertaking along with some interesting videos on the subject. In actual fact the Extra Credits video was one of the reasons I took on this task for my final project.

So what is tangential learning? Well in short it is a form of learning we see something that peaks our interest (for example a reference in a game) and we then research it to find out more (see the point made about Sephiroth made in the Extra Credit video below). This is a great way of learning as it is completely self driven and will almost always be something that interests us. However the drawback is that there are virtually no ways to properly vet and monitor this process on an individual or group basis (seeing as some people might not be interested in that particular reference or may miss the reference all together.)
Some of the readings are addressing this problem for both tangential learning and other forms of learning that suffer in the same way. I will have a post up about them when I have reached their conclusion.

Another topic covered in these texts and videos is the divide between games for entertainment and educational games. I tend to agree that in most educational games the fun elements are forsaken for the educational ones. This can leave a bad taste in the mouths of anybody hoping to have fun learning by playing these educational games. "Video games have an extraordinary educational potential, but the main goal of a video game should not be changed to make a game education rather than being fun, because above all, games should be fun" (Portnow, 2008).

My current train of thought is to form my final product with 3 of the 4 keys 2 fun in mind (Lazzaro, 2015) and focus first and foremost on making an enjoyable player experience. Then I can inject the learning to make the experience educational while keeping it entertaining.

Please take a look at the following videos as they have great examples of tangential learning as well as some of the other topics covered in the post. The first is the original video created for EDGE and the second is the re-recorded version for Extra Credits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQrTHrwyxQ

References

Portnow, J. (2008) The Power of Tangential Learning. Available at: http://biblioteca.ucm.es/revcul/e-learning-innova/5/art387.pdf (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

Lazzaro, N. (2015) The 4 Keys 2 Fun. Available at: http://www.nicolelazzaro.com/the4-keys-to-fun/ (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

Daniel Floyd (2008) Video Games and Learning. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

Extra Credits (2012) Extra Credits - Tangential Learning - How Games Can Teach Us While We Play. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQrTHrwyxQ (Accessed: 9 October 2015).

The Gamification of Learning: The Road Ahead

Hello Everybody and welcome to my blog.

My name is Darren and I am a final year Computer Games Design degree student studying at University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich (UK). I would like to take this time in my first post to outline what aims, goals and ambitions I have for this, my final year project.

Firstly a little about me. Throughout the course of my life I have struggled greatly in academic settings. This has been due to my severe dyslexia and dyspraxia. Despite this I have managed to power through, attain decent grades and generally do quite well in education. I have thought long and hard about  the reasons for this, and where endurance, nature and nurture can all account for some of my success, I refuse to believe that it was these things alone that got me to where I am today.

After much thought and research I happened to find myself leading a group of young students on a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Summer School for a week. Watching the events and activities unfold throughout that week I realised something, this is what I always loved and this how I learned. It wasn't hours upon hours looking at text books and trying to work out my 7 times tables. It was playing games, making experiments and generally breaking things just to fix them again. This was only enhanced further from the passion I hold for games such as The Legend of Zelda which had me looking at tasks and puzzles and solving them with 'outside the box' thinking.

I learnt though play.

This got me thinking, what if I could take this further? Up until now the knowledge I gained in this manor was guided solely by my own passion and random exploration. What if I had been given direction? Could I have learnt as much or even more had I been given these fun and challenging exercises in a managed and methodical way?

By the conclusion of this project I hope to have at least gone part way to answering this question and in doing so, develop a proof of concept that a standardised curriculum can be delivered effectively and efficiently to children aged 7 - 11 (Key stage 2), who may find it more difficult than others to learn via conventional methods. The end product aim will be a digital game developed by myself that can be delivered to children undertaking KS2. The game should do the following:

• Teach one particular aspect of their curriculum.
• Be held to a standard equal to or higher than it would be in regular lesson format.
• Should all be done in a way so as the child does not realise they are being taught.

I also aim to accompany this with research and feedback taken from play testers to either confirm or reject the validity of the theory and product.

Over the next week I will gather my sources and create a solid plan with a full reading list to back up my research. I will be blogging my progress as I go and displaying my findings openly regardless of which path they lead me (both for and against). I also hope to enlist the aid of local schools and parents to better gauge the effectiveness and accuracy of my final product.

I really look forward to taking this journey and I hope you will follow along with me week by week as I explore how far the gamification of learning really can take us.