Brain Pop's movies. games and math

So this week we're taking on the M in the STEM subjects -> Math. There are many digitalized media out there that claim to teach you math and BrainPop is one of them.

I decided to watch a short animation about polygons. I was never a math person myself but I like those short clips that BrainPop makes, even if I think they are always a bit too fast. Slowing it down could be better for novice learners.

From the animation I went to the recommended game section, where games that something to do with polygons, have been pre-searched for me. There are 8 games that the website states have polygons in them and since there are no indications as to what they actually do (or for what age) I just clicked one of them.

As I didn't really understand the mission in this game and found no help section I decided to skip it. The only connection to polygons were that the robots were shaped like that.

I picked Pyramid Panic instead. And I did panic a little bit at first, seeing as I was eaten by some mummy creature after 20 seconds in the easiest level. But it's a trial and error while figuring out the rules. Thankfully I could just start again (because mummies apparently have a couple of lives) and look at the instructions.

I had to look at the rules several times before I got it, and then I had to look at them some more because geometrics are not really my thing.

The mummy is trying to get through the maze and uses geometric shapes of different size to get to the next safe place by building steps. The colored circles, drops etc. on the way represent points I can collect. The read line next to the mummy represents the red line in the geometric shape I have to select. To find that I have to look at the white lines that have the length on them. I also have to be aware of the way the red line is pointing when I make my selection because if it's aimed too high or too low I might end up bumping my head in the ceiling or in the volcano pit.

You're suppose to be able to fight off the evil mummy beast, but that was one of the many things I couldn't figure out.

When I went up a level (medium and hard) I immediately ran into problems because the math was just to hard for me to recall in 20 seconds.

There are a few things I noticed in this game. You can change the color of the line from red to blue. Wonder what the thinking is behind that. Also, I find it odd that they would pick a math game that had meters in it, instead of inches or feet seeing as BrainPop is mostly used in the United States.

Control of Pace - No
Reviews/Help - Yes and no (needed some scaffolding)
Ability to Backtrack - Yes
Levels of Difficulty - Yes (three)
Physical Interface - No
Speech Features - No
Childproof - Yes

Individual Use - Yes
Use with Pairs/Small Groups - Yes
Printer Use - No
Test/Recordkeeping/Game Save feature - No
Add-on Option-Can incorporate user content - No
Scaffolding - No

In relation to the polygons animation this game was not really related, except by the fact that it had some polygons in it. And it's understandable that it's hard to link that kind of informational video to a game.

Seeing as the games page is an aggregated project it's no wonder the games related to the topic are all so different. It would be a reasonable next step for BrainPop to issue some kind of style guide that all the games had to fulfill, e.g. in the terms of scaffolding and help.

Game review #2

Software Evaluation

Title:
 Toca Doctor Light (free)

Publisher:
 Toca Boca

Subject Area:
 Human anatomy and coordination skills.

Summary: The game is meant to teach young children about how the body works through different games/problems. This is the most popular game in the free section in the Appstore.

Ease of Use: This app is aimed for young children who are practicing their coordination skills. There are very few steps to get into the game itself and you’re usually just dragging and sliding things around on the screen. There are no instructions or guidance through out the game. There’s no way to fail and if you finish your four challenges you get four new ones.

Skill Set: This game is probably aimed at children between the ages of 3-6. That is a pretty big gap when it comes to coordination skills but it’s also meant to be used as a tool to start a conversation with children about what goes on in their bodies.

Program Design Features: Simple “yes or no” answers”

Control of Pace
- Yes, no timer

Reviews/Help
- No

Ability to Backtrack
- Yes/No - You can play a game again if you want to

Levels of Difficulty
- No, at least not in the free version

Physical Interface
- No

Speech Features
- No

Childproof (child reality ready) - Yes

Individual Use
- Yes

Use with Pairs/Small Groups
- Yes

Printer Use
- No

Test/Recordkeeping/Game Save feature – No

Add-on Option-Can incorporate user content - No

Scaffolding – No, not in the free version at least

Program Comments: The game is mostly supposed to strike up a conversation between parents and children about what goes on in their body. According to the parents information page it make combing the hair for lice is way more fun when the child can squash them on the screen at the same time. There are different problems (four at a time) that the child can choose from and it’s always associated with a body part. Some of the games are based on reality, like when you have to help by pulling splinters out of the character’s foot but there are obviously (hopefully) no cars in your bowels that have to make their way to end (like food).

I do think the game is a good educational game in the sense of striking up a conversation about different body functions but it’s not always scientifically accurate, like I stated before.

Problem Solving Skills:

-       Working backwards

-       Question posing

-       Procedural Thinking

-        Using Trial and Error

-       Communicating thought and learning-

-

Fun Factor: I’m sure it’s a fun game for the targeted audience but since there are no difficulty levels I’m sure they will grow tired of it soon because you can play it as often as you like. It’s easy programming and graphics aimed at children that are strengthening their motor skills so the movements felt a bit ‘strange’ for someone who has their full motor skills.

Supplementary Materials: I’m sure you could use it as a supplement to children’s books about the human body but you have to be aware of it not being completely correct.

Follow-up activities: I see this software mostly being used as a conversation starter; either while using it or after the games have been played.

Game of the week #1

Software Evaluation 

Title:
 World’s Worst Pet

Publisher: 
i-Ready

Subject Area:
 English vocabulary.

Summary: The app is a part of a larger, learning program series by the publisher. The learner practices the targeted vocabulary (difficulty levels connected to reading levels) through games where they e.g. put correct words into sentences and link synonyms or antonyms to the given words.

Ease of Use: I guess a child could play these games with minimal help but I do question it, seeing as some of the words are pretty hard and even if you get the definitions, they are pretty long as well (there is an audio button but that only gives you the word itself.).

There are instructions before each game and you can always get the directions again when you’re playing but you have to go through the whole tutorial before you can play again (it’s not long, but it was getting me a bit frustrated). If you need to have a word explained again, you can. There is an exit button, but it’s in the form of a ‘pause’ button so not easily understood.

The mission of each game is to stack or place a word on or next to another one. It sometimes seemed you had to be quite accurate in stacking, for the word not to bounce off, like it was incorrect.

Skill Set: For you to use this app you have to have a pretty good foundation in the English language. I’m not sure that my 14-year-old students back home would be able to work through this without help as second-language students. The levels are by readings levels, not grades, but I do find the words and sentences in the lower levels difficult and I have a hard time placing them with a grade. Maybe the vocabulary is explained better in the other learning programs that come with this application?

The teenagers in the intro also confuse me, as I would think this was aimed at younger kids than teens.

Program Design Features: Simple “yes or no” answers”

Control of Pace
- Yes

Reviews/Help
- Yes

Ability to Backtrack
- No

Levels of Difficulty
- Yes (not easily understandable for an outsider though)

Physical Interface
- ?

Speech Features
- Yes, if you mean audio

Childproof (child reality ready???) - ?

Individual Use
- Yes

Use with Pairs/Small Groups
- Yes

Printer Use
- No

Test/Recordkeeping/Game Save feature - Yes

Add-on Option-Can incorporate user content - No

Scaffolding – Yes

Program Comments: The objective of the software is to teach the ‘uncommon words’, that are though very important when it comes to reading comprehension, e.g. in social science, literature and biology. You choose between 20 games on your level and it doesn't matter in what order you play them. 

As mentioned before this application is a part of a bigger picture so it’s hard to say exactly if it reaches its goals. If it’s using the methods (see a very simplified version in the diagram below) that I believe it does, there should be a text that the student read/listen to, before starting to work with the given vocabulary. That way you're breaking down the text into sentences and words. After finishing three sets of games on your level you're given a ‘Written assignment’ where you're suppose to choose at least 4 words from the vocabulary you've been working on and put it into your text of the given topic. That way you're reconstructing your knowledge, using the words in the context you choose to write about.

There are a few things that distracted me with this game. I would have liked to be able to make the words and the sentence you were working with bigger on the screen. There was a lot of music, which I found too loud. You could turn it off during the games itself, but not in the intro (where it was almost so load you couldn’t hear the narrative)

Problem Solving Skills: This game incorporates:

• ·      Multiple solutions (where there are many words that can be the correct answer)
• ·      Identifying relationships (between words)
• ·      Record keeping (if there are new words, you can read definitions)
• ·      Using Trial and Error (you have a few tries if you get it wrong)
• ·      Stimulate imaginative thinking (the written assignment in the end of each set of games, but you can skip that)

Fun Factor: Here we come back to the audience and age group. I found the pet to be a little boring and the games were always the same ones, just with different backgrounds. If it’s for teenagers I see them getting bored as well but it might work better for younger kids (at least for a while). They could have made a better narrative and played with that a little bit in the games in stead of having the animal just escaping what ever situation it came across, without there being a reason why it was there in the first place. Part from the vocabulary getting more difficult the higher you reach, I couldn’t see the game changing at all in terms of the player having gone through multiple levels. They kind of take a Skill and Drill and put it into a nice, colorful package….but it’s still a skill and drill.

Supplementary Materials: Like stated before I would like to use a text with the vocabulary in it before using this application (and maybe that’s part of the big picture I’m not seeing).

Follow-up activities: With younger kids you could do a lot with the ‘pet’. They could make their own etc., write their own narrative about its adventures, and make up new words that this alien pet uses. There are a lot of activities you can do with this kind of vocabulary, away from the computer.

Week 1 - Assignment

I've never been a gamer and I even remember backing away from video games (that were thought to be recreational only) in my adult years, not wanting to get hooked on them. I still feel like that when it comes to mobile gaming - I have one 'game' on my iPhone, a quiz game that's made by an Icelandic company (only reason why it's there) and I've used it once. That feeling has only increased since being on the NYC subway system where everyone is so engrossed with their mobile games.

There are two video games that come to mind - Myst and Sims. Myst's narrative was way over my problem solving and language skills but it had this feel to it that made me want to come back. It helped that you could save your progress (which was new to me at the time) Seeing as you can now play it with the help from YouTube I wonder if I should return to the island. It forced you to remember items and things from other chapters of the game, I guess that was part of the learning.

I never actually enjoyed playing the Sims, just building characters and their houses especially (I even had a code to get more money so I could build everything I wanted). I'm guessing that task should have helped me with geometry but I don't think it did, at least that transfer of knowledge was never obvious to me.

Asking my brother, which is seven years older than I am, what he remembers from his gaming years he believed that the first person shooting games he played helped with his coordination as well as 'seeing the big picture'. Even if his eye was focused on a small part of the screen he was aware of other things happening.

On that note I thought this image from The Oatmeal was appropriate here.

Mini-Design 
The Moon modules at www.funderstanding.com are interactive games that are suppose to teach you about the physics in space. There are three demo's that you can try out; High Jump, Moon Phases and Survival Hike.

In High Jump you can't actually do anything to get over the bar, you're just suppose to push 'jump' and see if it works. The demo will then give you some info on the physics behind being able to get over it or not. It's a bit weird that he jumps off Venus, even if you pick another planet. The game could also be better if you were able to pick your angle (like in Angry birds) and then get an explanation why the planets gravity would affect Maurice in that way.

The Moon Phases doesn't actually show any phases, just the same picture of the moon going around the Earth. Even if the moon rotates (you have to pay attention to see that) the image doesn't change the way you would think in relation to e.g. full moon vs. quarter moon. If the Earth was spinning around the Sun at the same time it might make it better to understand how sunlight comes into play.

The Survival Hike demo didn't seem to work for me. I dragged items and clicked buttons but nothing happend. But my biggest problem with that game was that there was no info about where I was in space (the Moon?). Do I need oxygen? What about CO2 scrubbers (and what is that by the way)? There are basic information missing for this to be a good learning experience - is it thought as a part of a bigger instructional package where all the info is?

The Moon Phases was by far the most educational one, even with its faults.

Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal - Chapter 1
1. An interesting take on our (my) view on games and play. I specially liked the introduction about games and languages, how it is so integrated into society and our everyday lingo that games are bad. The only recent experience I could think of that might fall into the definition of 'fiero' is when I got my acceptance letter to NYU. I usually don't tell people my goals, especially not many months in advance, but this was one of those things where everyone around me was aware of what I was aiming for - so the thrill of actually achieving that was I guess a bit like being on drugs for a moment (not that I've tried that!).

2. Rubric? Will get back to that.

Digital Badges by John K. Waters (in The Journal, May 2013)
It will be very interesting to see how the different associations, schools, government run programs and others will come together when it comes to badges. According to the article, standards are being set (Mozilla Backpack) but does that work if it's not government criteria? Is everyone going to be in agreement with the Mozilla team? And if not, what will happen to the badges?