Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Keenan's Week One: Web Resources Review

 Web Resources Review

 by Keenan Kibrick

It is a pleasure to be a new contributor to the technology and learning blog.  My name is Keenan Kibrick and I am one of the new Instructional Technologists on the team.  I wanted to begin by posting a series of links to interesting articles towards improving classroom education.  Each one is easy and quick to read, but offers a lot of good advice to help improve the classroom.  I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I did.

10 ways to teach for the google generation

Why I opened it:  I always want to know more about the next generation of students so I can help improve education delivery to a group of students that grew up with different values and beliefs in education then I have.
Why I read it:  Once I started reading the tips I couldn’t stop thinking about them.  Having students grapple with big questions without answers was an amazing idea, and from there they went into all the ways online education tools can be used in the classroom.  I would love to see these ideas used in more classes.  The rest follow suit as great ideas that could easily be implemented in a classroom.  It’s a quick read with great ideas that could revolutionize classrooms.
It’s perfect for:  Faculty who want to try new education strategies, faculty who are struggling to relate to students, and faculty who want to design innovative curriculum

Gamification Roadmap infographic

Why I opened it:  Gamification is a passion of mine and when I read of the idea of a roadmap I wanted to see one person’s opinion of proper gamification.
Why I read it:  Once I opened the link realized my first opinion was wrong in a very good way.  This isn’t a roadmap of a specific type of way to look at gamification, it’s a roadmap to designing gamification anyway you want.  It’s not made for education, and has a little bit of a business edge, but the concept can easily be applied to the classroom.  It goes over all aspects of gamification from the type of people that are gamers, to the types of different ways to gamify an area.  It is very good, and if a step doesn’t apply to you, just keep reading more and you’ll get great gamification ideas.
It’s perfect for:  Faculty who already know only the basics of gamification, Faculty who want to design gamified classes, Faculty who want an illustrated guide to a subject.

Extra Credits: Fail Faster

Why I opened it:  Extra Credits is one of the best video series there is, and has many inspirational ideas for design and gamification.  My favorite is even an episode on the Gamification an education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuDLw1zIc94.  When they made one on the concept of failing faster (a concept I believe deeply) I had to watch it.
Why I watched it:  This was everything I imagined.  It quickly discusses the importance of failure in creating and generating improvement.  It’s a great video to make you think about the importance of trying and failing and how through failure we grow and improve.  They do it in a quick funny way I appreciate.  They did a great job and they really made a good explanation of the importance of failing early a lot so you don’t fail when it counts.
It’s perfect for:  Faculty who want to become more comfortable with the concept of failure, faculty who want to take a risk and improve their class in a radical way, faculty who want to learn the importance of trial and error in the class