Reflection #7 – Week 9

This week we learnt all about gamification of learning and computational thinking. At the beginning of class we were taught about the 4 pillars of computational thinking: decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm. Decomposition refers to breaking down complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts. Pattern recognition is as it implies, identifying similarities, trends, and regularities in data. Abstraction is the process of filtering out unnecessary information and focusing only on the important and relevant information. Algorithm refers to step-by-step instructions to solve problems. We then talked about the problem-solving process: formulate, analyze, model, execute, and evaluate.

We also had a guest speaker, Kara Dawson, join us to teach us about Minecraft Education. She started off by simply stating what Minecraft in the classroom has to offer. She explained that most Microsoft-based school districts already have Minecraft installed. It is a sandbox, allows students to explore, craft, and build community. Kara then moved on to describing the benefits associated with using Minecraft to help students learn. She described how it allows students to build creativity, strengthen problem-solving skills, and support collaboration. On top of this, Minecraft brings learning to life, encourages persistence, and it provides an engaging and familiar way to learn for students. On Minecraft Education, there are a variety of pre-built worlds in a library that teachers can use for their lessons in any subject. Each pack includes lesson plans, people (villagers) in the game that you can click on which will then tell you some information, there are also mini games, and ways for students to assess and keep track of their learning (camera, book-and-quil note taking). Kara also made sure to include the best ways to incorporate Minecraft into the classroom in order for it to run smoothly. She recommended that you start off by setting clear rules and guidelines when you first introduce the game, provide clear assignment criteria, as well as clear general computer use guidelines. She also suggested that you talk to students about the good that can come from Minecraft, what shouldn’t be done while playing Minecraft in class, and any consequences that might occur for students that don’t follow the rules.

After the presentation from Kara Dawson, we learned about and experimented with coding. It was recommended that when you are first introducing coding to students, you should do it technology-free. For example, get students to map a route around the classroom using cues. Once you are ready to move on to coding on technology, Lightbot and Scratch are good options. We didn’t explore Lightbot very much, but Scratch can be used without a log-in, it provides tutorials, prompts, and colour-coded task themes. You can also change the language that the sprites speak, and it allows students the creativity to do whatever they want and just experiment with coding.

Finally, we touched on gamification and were provided with some more game options that can be used in a classroom. Prodigy, Duolingo, and CS Unplugged were just a few of the examples provided.

Below I have attached the Scratch animation that I created in class.