开发自己的21世纪教育技术的步骤是什么?

经过迈克尔·李,《沙漠风中的英语艺术老师》

在过去的几个月中,包括我在内的许多教育工作者一直在争先恐后地满足“ 21世纪教室”或“富含技术的教室”的需求。

作为一个领域,我们发现我们的年轻人正在适应一个技术先进的社会,随着他们的发展,我们的教育体系从一小时就很大程度上落后了。As a solution, our principals and administrators have decided that we have a goal to reach, but ultimately, we’re the leaders of our classrooms, and we’re the ones who have to figure out how to turn our classrooms into technology-enriched environments, or move over for someone else who can.

但是,这个最后通ate并不是我们应该担心作为教育者的事情。相反,我们有一个机会已经有很多年了:有机会以一种可以帮助我们实现目标并实现学生的方式来真正定制和建造我们的教室。

我们是否总是能够自定义我们的教室?

当然,我们总是有机会通过自己的课程计划,游戏,大纲和教学风格建造教室,但是这个机会超越了。由于缺乏抛光的教育工具来满足我们的技术需求,我们现在有机会满足孩子的特定需求,并为他们的下一个学术挑战做好准备:共同核心国家标准。使这次如此令人兴奋的原因不是过渡的恐怖或担心的焦虑。事实是我们有很多需求,但是对我们可以去的地方没有限制 - 几乎从字面上看,无处可去,而是上升。

当我正在进行课程时,这个概念使我显而易见数字素养at Arizona State University (ASU). Our job was simple, discover how digital learning has become its own form of literacy, and figure out how we can make this literacy readily understandable to our students when, often times, we don’t completely understand it ourselves. In a spectrum of possibilities, I found myself dizzy from the available choices I had when deciding on a project.

由于我是十几岁的时候是一个相当敬业的游戏玩家,所以我决定坚持游戏和教育,然后我挑选了一本书,名为“什么视频游戏必须教给我们有关学习和扫盲的知识”,詹姆斯·保罗·吉(James Paul Gee)ASU。As I read through this text, and immersed myself within popular video game titles in an attempt to understand their digital literacies, I discovered something quite useful – I was having fun learning a subject that I wasn’t very good at, and it was all through the use of gaming.

I found, through the use of video games and gaming, that education was indeed made more entertaining through the use of technology, and if I could somehow figure out how to do the same for my students, I could reach the goal that had been set for me by my administrators.

结果,我一直在研究一个我在网上称呼花园的项目,这是一种创建自己的视频游戏的尝试,可以帮助教授写作的基础知识。在线花园以传统的大型多人在线角色扮演游戏为模型(MMORPG - 诸如《魔兽世界》,《公会战争世界》,《最终幻想》 - 我们的孩子在空闲时间里玩得开心的游戏,但也有一个教育元素我可以自定义。简而言之,我正在制作一款对我的学生娱乐的游戏,但是教育程度足以(有足够的有针对性的指导),以便对我的学生的教育产生巨大影响。

对于那里的许多教育工作者来说,这听起来可能是不可能的,他们觉得自己在理解技术的斗争(以及如何在课堂上使用它),但我会亲眼告诉您不是。尽管他们的抛光教育资源太少了,无法在我们的课堂上成功使用,但我们拥有大量的工具,可以帮助我们创建教育技术,使我们能够针对自己教室中存在的特定缺陷。在下面查看,以解释我为创建自己的技术来帮助我的孩子所做的工作!

步骤#1:找出您的孩子需要什么!

开发您可以在课堂上成功使用的技术的第一步是决定要学生建造的特定集中注意力领域。无论它是什么 - 这可能是语法,拼写,加法,乘法,解码甚至艺术历史 - 您都需要决定要在软件中强调的特定技能。大多数教育软件公司的问题在于,他们专注于各种技能,而不是对所需技能有更深入的了解,这将在共同的核心州标准(其重点是深度而不是深度而不是广度 - 来了。这并不是说您不能专注于1600年代的英国历史所涉及的所有技能,但我会反对建立一些有助于教授写作和乘法的东西 - 它会使孩子们太瘦。

我在亚利桑那州Casa Grande Union高中区的Desert Wind High School教21世纪英语,正如您从标题中想象的那样,我的工作的一部分是创造一个技术丰富的环境适用于我们技术依赖社会的大学或职业。就我而言,第一阶的业务是发现我的学生正在经历的特定陷阱,并弄清楚我将如何解决这个问题。在我的学校中,如果我想影响学生的成功,写作是一个重要的兴趣点。结果,我决定要专注于在课堂上实施写作软件,以建立基本的写作技巧。在强调Read180之前,我已经教过一门课程,所以他们必须有一个类似的程序,对吗?

不完全是。

尽管我花了几个小时冲浪互联网并通过电子邮件向软件开发公司发送了电子邮件,但我发现很少有解决方案能够提供足够的抛光,以提供严格或特殊性的教学水平以满足我的需求。虽然那里肯定有一些出色的计划,但我将如何出售我的政府(或至少那些为购买的资金)来支付数千美元购买平庸软件的想法?事实是,我不会实现这一目标,而这一发现的挫败感使我意识到学生写作需求并没有全部。如果我想要要交付所需的东西,我将不得不自己做。

步骤#2:选择数字扫盲途径

Once you’ve gotten an idea of what your students need (with a certain degree of specificity as to what skills you would like to focus on in your classroom), you must now decide what avenue of technology you would like to pursue. The best piece of advice I can give here is to choose something you enjoy. The idea with this project isn’t to kill yourself over trying to build a classroom to help your kids – chances are, that won’t do any good, and it will just be a source of frustration for both you and your kids. Again, as with choosing a number of skills, I warn against going overboard on the number of technologies you choose in this step. While you want to develop something that is interesting and engaging for your kids, having too many elements of technology in your work can have the opposite effect, making your project confusing or too difficult to get kids on-board with your idea. I would suggest choosing something that you find fun, as well. After all, if it’s not fun for you, how can you expect it to be fun for your kids?

For me, I chose gaming because it was something I was already interested in. I knew I had enjoyed video games when I was a kid, and after talking with a number of students and seeing how influential gaming was in their lives, I knew gaming would be an easy way to connect with students. If gaming is something you like, great! However, if you have more fun with SmartBoard apps, Nook programs, or interactive websites, I would highly suggest choosing something like that. The more interested you are in the technology, the better product you’re going to build.

步骤#3:查看类似于您的当前技术

Go out and take a look at current technology that is similar to yours. You want to try out some of the available technology to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. When I was researching current technology for my own project, I found three common problems: 1. The software wasn’t engaging – it was very dry and plain, 2. It wasn’t a finished product, and it had many glitches and problems, and 3. Despite being quite expensive, the software didn’t do what I needed it to do. It felt like my class was the only class on the planet with problems in basic writing skills!

通过尝试可用的软件,我能够对什么对我有用,什么绝对没有。我发现我想制作的是一项非常特殊的技术,它帮助我完善了自己的想法。最后,我决定我想要一些可以在真实背景下写作的东西,但也允许孩子们能够根据自己的学习速度来表现或放慢脚步。

学习视频游戏

Step #4: Come up with a unique perspective on the technology you want to build

您已经发现了学生的需求;您选择了数字扫盲;您已经发现了哪些有效和可用技术中无效的方法;这是真正的乐趣开始的地方!现在是时候扭转开发自己的技术了。在这里,您可以决定如何为学生提供新颖而令人兴奋的东西。采用您在类似产品中发现的积极零件,并尝试扩大它们;取负零件,试图将它们切出;并进行自己的创新并将其纳入模型。这可能以旧的智能板应用的新视角形式出现,这可能是一种在角落上介绍一本书的新方法,甚至像我一样,是一种使用传统游戏元素的新方法。

在我的游戏《在线花园》中,我从大多数在线角色扮演游戏中都有“手工制作”职业,并将其变成一种教授写作技巧的方式 - 当然,存在一些重大差异。在传统的MMORPG中,玩家选择了制作课程,使他们可以建造自己的盔甲,武器或药水,这些物品可以用自己的角色使用,也可以以高价出售。在游戏中,玩家与计算机控制的角色进行互动,这些字符为他们提供了供应,提示和材料,以帮助他们构建产品。

In The Garden Online, players choose a class similar to a crafting class (we’re calling them professional jobs), and they are then assigned a computer-controlled character that will guide them through basic writing skills – focusing on structures, patterns, and outlines. As the characters gain experience points for following their mentor’s advice, they gain levels and are thus exposed to more complicated and complex writing skills as they progress.

我通过播放几种传统的MMORPG来提出这种新观点,并意识到可以以更具教育意义的方式使用手工艺课程。在目前的状态下,许多球员都没有参加这些课程,但是我很快意识到手工艺课具有更大的潜力。通过对此进行独特的看法,我能够开发一种教学方式,使我的学生在课堂上也可以学习。

步骤#5:决定如何为项目提供资金。

到目前为止,最困难的一步是弄清楚您将如何为自己的想法提供资金,这部分需要时间。You first need to decide how much you’re able (or willing) to do yourself, and how much you’re going to need to hire outside help to develop other parts of your project – depending on how large of a project you’re taking on. If you’re making an app for a SmartBoard, but you don’t know anything about programming, don’t worry! There are plenty of forums out there full of people willing to do work for hire – and it’s usually less expensive than you might think.

At this point, figure out exactly what you can do on your own, and what work you’ll need to hire someone else to do. Check out online to see how much the going rate for that kind of work is, and develop a full list of costs for developing your technology.

有几个网站致力于帮助独立开发人员获得设计其产品所需的资金。我的选择是Kickstarter.com,考虑到此类网站可获得的好处,相对容易。我开始制定一个预算,使我能够聘请程序员并获得我的项目的基本设计。自从我开发了一个教育视频游戏以来,我必须决定要制作哪种游戏,然后研究了帮助我做到这一点的程序。我决定制定一个名为Eclipse Origins的程序,该程序可以帮助人们创建自己的MMORPG,甚至还提供一个非常活跃的社区论坛。

一旦我决定了引擎(这是帮助我设计游戏的程序 - Eclipse Origins),我考虑了为游戏,音乐,网站开发艺术品所需的所有软件Eclipse论坛的帮助)即使是程序员的价格。我添加了Skype论坛上的一些成员,并直接与程序员谈了完成工作需要多少。我要做的就是告诉他们我想要什么,他们告诉我是否可以完成工作。

一旦您制定了概述所有需要资金的方面的预算,那么您就必须选择要采取哪种路线才能获得资金。以下是我考虑的一些选择:

Kickstarter.com - 一个致力于通过其成员的捐款来帮助个人实现资金目标的网站。许多专业产品在这里开始了,所以这是我的最爱之一。但是,Kickstarter的负面方面之一是,您必须提高整个资金目标(或更多)才能获得任何捐款。如果您没有达到目标,那么到目前为止的所有捐款都不会收到。不过,从积极的一面来看,Kickstarter作为收费的一部分的收入减少了。

Indiegogo.com - 一个网站也致力于帮助独立产品设计师实现创建产品的目标。Indiegogo和Kickstarter之间的区别在于,在Indiegogo,您可以保留任何筹集的资金 - 他们只保留更大的总收入百分比。例如,如果您不符合自己的目标,那么Indiegogo将保留您收入的9%,如果您确实达到了目标,则只能保持4%。无论哪种方式,您都可以通过Indiegogo保持收入。

Grant Funding – In my opinion, this is one of the more difficult and less fun ways to achieve your goals. I’m not very fond of being bound by a lot of rules, so writing grants wasn’t the method I chose (but there is certainly a lot of funding to be received). One positive aspect about grant writing is that there are many opportunities out there that don’t require creation of a video, website, or advertising among the members of the respective communities. The negative part, however, is that this form isn’t as much fun. You don’t have the opportunity to build as many relationships, find as many people interested in your ideas, nor the fun of talking about your idea with potential donators. While I didn’t choose this route, it certainly has positive aspects for those of you interested in grant writing.

步骤#6:将您的项目推广给任何可能有兴趣的人和所有人

最后,一旦您为您试图开发的东西奠定了坚实的基础,就该开始公开您的想法了。Start small with social media sites until you get a good idea for how you want to present your project, and once you’re comfortable, contact larger avenues of marketing, such as the local and online news sites, forums, chat rooms, and companies (if you know of some that might be interested in backing your idea). Don’t be afraid to spend a few dollars advertising your project on Google, Facebook, or other sites you prefer. I spent less than a hundred dollars and managed to reach over 50,000 people.

我开始开发一个官方网页,致力于向所有人通报我的项目,但是官方页面与访问者几乎没有互动。然后,我将Facebook用作我的主要广告形式,并开发了一个页面,该页面是官方网站的一个非常基本的版本。虽然官方页面致力于告知我的追随者,但我使用Facebook作为与对我项目感兴趣的任何人进行互动和沟通的方式。我发布了简短的博客条目,介绍了如何设计游戏,回答了我的追随者的问题,甚至发布了与我的论坛的链接。

Facebook页面允许我为听众提供简短而简单的更新,但我还可以给他们链接以找到更多信息。从本质上讲,我的社交媒体网站(和Google广告)为我提供了一种与成千上万的人建立联系的方法,并为他们提供了我网站的扩展,而无需将它们暴露于可以通过官方网站访问的大量信息中。

结论

A shift in our expectations for education is just around the corner, and instead of fearing the changes that are on their way, now is the time to customize our classrooms as we see fit. There are thousands of tools out there to make our own technology that can meet the specific needs of our specific students, and we don’t need the help of any cure-all educational software. Now is our chance to change education to what we want it to be: a fun and exciting journey that becomes part of our students’ lives because they are interested in what we have to offer!

在过去的六个月中,我一直在为我的课堂开发教育软件,而且我从未有过很多乐趣或为成为一名老师而感到自豪。我已经能够将自己的才能充分利用,并为课堂创建一个教育的MMORPG - 我的孩子们迫不及待想尝试一下!如果您想查看我的一些工作,请随时访问上面的任何一个站点。作为老师,我们有机会再次使我们的工作变得有趣,而且我们不能让这滑过手指。