Game Maker

Game Maker allows people to create games without having to use complicated computer codes. With just a drag and drop command it is user friendly! It comes with a set of standard action libraries, which covers things such as movement, basic drawing and simple control structures. It can be useful in the classroom to assist students development of creative skills as well as technology and enterprise skills.

Even though Game Maker is designed to be simple and user friendly, I still found it difficult to create a game. However, I cannot speak for the majority of the people. If I was to use this program in the classroom I would definately need some assistance to become confident in teaching it to my students. Perhaps, the Game Maker Tutorial 8.0 that is being released soon will aid myself and other people in gaining a deeper understanding of this program!

Edmodo

Ed- What? .... Edmodo! What is that? Well.............

Edmodo is free micro-blogging programme created especially for students and teachers to privately communicate with each other. It is a place where teachers and students are able to share notes, files, links, news and other school related things. For teachers, they are able to notify students of events, news and assignments that due soon.

Would I use Edmodo in the classroom?

YES! It is an excellent idea for communicating ideas between students and teachers. It support every learning area and the tools available are specifically designed for use within the classroom. Some of these useful tools are putting up grades privately for students to view, being able to create your own categories for different learning areas, notification of updates and being able to upload a variety of different things. As for security, it is a private platform and a security pin code is needed to gain access to discussion rooms! No need to worry about people from other places of the world intruding! Last but not least, teachers can easily monitor students and comments can be deleted with just a click!

A blog about Glog... ster

Glogster is a interactive program designed to be used for educators in the classroom. It can be defined into the following catergories:

• A web platform - Allowing users to upload images, videos, audio clips and most importantly, create online and interactive posters


• Networking - Allowing users to create, publish and share work with other people


• A safe, secure platform where it can eb easily monitored by teachers


• A tool which enables students to use their T&E skills to enhance their learning

I would definately use Glogster in the classroom so that students can create online posters as a way to jot their ideas down. I think it's great because it functions as an mindmap but also incorporates technology and enterprise into it. Therefore, students can add much more meaningful things to their posters such as video, audio and links. It definately makes brainstorming a lot more fun and engaging. The best thing is that it is free to download and the security mechanisms ensure that teachers can easily monitor students learning which is predominately the most important thing for myself.

Scratch - feeling a bit itchy?

Scratch is a program which allows users to create their own interactive stories, games, music and animations and share with other people around the world. Basically it is a visual programming system where consumers can connect a series of commands (such as sound, movement, script and variables) together, similar to a puzzle.

OK! To be honest I do not have much to say about the Scratch program. For myself, it was extremely tedious and frustrating! I did not understand how to use this application and I'm sure the girls presenting on this topic spent A LOT of time just trying to understand how Scratch operates! I highly commend their efforts on creating their short animation as it was tremendously difficult for me to even understand the various tools such as choosing the angle and degree of which the character moves.

Ultimately, there are many factors which support my decision to NOT use this program in the classroom. For instance, it is time consuming and can be difficult for students to successfully use within the limit time frames. Even if the teacher is proficient in understanding and using this application, I believe it would be exceptionally complex for student to comprehend instruction and independently use Scratch.

Twitter

Today, Twitter-Dee and myself presented on the topic Twitter. Basically it is a free, social-networking application which allows user to send short 140 character 'tweets' or messages. It is essentially a micro-blogging system where users can update their statuses mainly through either computer or most commonly their mobile phones. It gives users the opporunity to follow other people who they may be interested in. The good thing about this program is that users can connect with different people around the world and more specifically they can follow their idols or various celebrities.

There are many tools in Twitter that make it easy to follow such as clicking on a person name to directly reply to their comment. For example; If I was to reply to John Smith, it would appear as "@ John Smith" followed by my reply. Other various tools include the # key which acts as a quick search engine of all the tweets which contain that specific word or topic. In addition, there are many programs which support the use of Twitter and may make the experience more easy to use and more enjoyable.

We have acknowledge the following as limitations of using Twitter in the classroom:
- Too distracting: It is difficult for the teacher to moderate students' activities
- Does not take into consideration students with diverse abilities: Students may already find it hard to concentrate and with this fast paced application they may be left out
- Multitasking increases stress – affects other learning areas
- Reduces ‘on task’ behaviours: Students are more likely to be distracted and engage in other acitivities
- Can go against classroom expectations – courtesy etc.
- Difficult to monitor/regulate: Teacher is not able to delete or modify students' comments without gaining access of all students accounts and individually going through them
- Time consuming for the teacher
- Difficult to get started

However, we do support the idea of using Twitter as a means of communication via Teacher/School and parents. It allows busy parents to be updated with the events that occur within their students school and classroom. There are a few schools already that use Twitter as a communication school and it seems to be working well for them! The parents and students are able to be reminded of things such as excursions, tests or any other important news!

JING!

JING is a program which allows users to make screen shots and to record short 5 minute videos. It also brings users to a program similar to the Paint application where we can edit our images. Some of the tools include: highlighting certain parts, using arrows, creating text boxes and changing colours. JING gives the option of saving the video/image onto your computer or it can generate a URL link that can be used onto various programs such as your blog. There is also the option to pay for JINGPRO which is an advanced program with even more tools to use!

JING can be used in the classroom for teachers to edit students' work OR you may choose to allow students' to mark each others work (Peer assessment). Another great thing about JING is that because it is already on your computer, it can be easily sent off to people via email.

JING!

There are a few limitations of JING though.....
It can be a bit difficult to figure out - for instance, I've tried to upload my video several times but there seems to be an constant error occuring!
Also, the sound quality is not quite up to scratch with other programs. Can you think of any other limitations which may prevent you from using JING in the classroom???????

Bitstrips! Making comics online....

Bitstrips is an online program that allows user to create comics! I really enjoyed using this program because besides the fact that it is fun and easy to use which makes it user-friendly! It has plenty of options such as creating your own characters or if you can opt to use the existing characters that are available! The user can choose the number of scenes for the comic from 2-4 slides approximately. Most importantly, they offer assistance to the users in the form of a wikipage! They provide step by step instruction for those who may not be as comfortable with technology! I think that support from applications is very important as it shows the people how much they care! I definately think it is something I would use in the classroom as children these days are increasingly technological however the security settings on Bitstrips may be of concern.