Games and Gamification

Since the beginning of time, games have brought people together. In a world filled with these, coloured boxes, that zone us and our kids out to the world around us, I think, games are so important. They have a magic about them that takes technology and makes it a shared experience. 

Game designers are far better at engaging our kids than us teachers, we can't deny that. So it is time we took some hints from these engagement experts. 

A tip we can take from game designers is flow theory. When gamers enter a state of flow they lose track of time, and they keep playing for longer and longer. The game is not too challenging and not too easy (sounds a lot like Vygotsky's ZPD, in my opinion). 

Something that I'd love to try out, is gamifying a language experience (not technology based), using game mechanics. 

The technology based, game design tools I'd like to give a go is Game Froot, as it is created right here is Aotearoa. 

As we rethink the learning experiences we design for our kids we have to be aware of...

 'CHOCOLATE COVERED BROCCOLI', 

looks like a game, sounds like a game but when the kids start playing they realise its just math practice. 

And just for the pure joy of playing a game, to bring us and our kids together... Google 

Cat On Yer Head... a game for crowds!

Design Thinking with year 6/7!

We designed towers that would become a tourist attraction for an allocentric or psychocentric tourist. We explored a mixture of S.T.E.M. and design thinking.  The S.T.E.M concept linked into the class's geometry learning, by looking at the strength of different shapes (e.g. Is a triangle stronger than a rectangle?) and how we could use this knowledge to make our designs better!

My biggest hesitation to include elements of S.T.E.M into design thinking was that the creative side of design thinking would be lost. Including the S.T.E.M element using a flipped learning approach worked a treat as the kids went and watched the video to prepare themselves for the tower building experience. Sparking in them ideas like the use of triangles to make their towers strong while they were ideating.

Ideating on a large paper worked a treat. Some real collaboration started to happen, more than just "working together". Everyone in the groups ideas became important and needed to be listened to and included. Miss L's group all contributed ideas and then took the best bits from each design to create their final ideation. 

Here the ideations from each member of the team and below the final ideation which incorporates the ideas of the whole group. 

And the prototype, created with newspaper and sellotape. 

Miss L, used Google Draw to create a technical drawing of their teams latest design. It is simply stunning! 

Miss L writes, 

"I made my tower for an allocentric tourist. An allocentric tourist is someone who likes insane activities like bungee jumping, extreme roller coasters and other insane life or death activities. To show my empathy for an allocentric tourist I made a 35 feet tower with a bungee jump, a slide going down the top of the tower, a swing hanging from the side of the tower and last but not least a ladder starting from the bottom of the tower to the top."

Her use of this digital tool sparked an idea of where to take design thinking next.... I'm thinking Game Froot or Tynkercad, with the year 7/8's next week! 

Design Thinking with Year 4/5!

As we only had an hour, I decided to focus on teaching the stages empathising and ideating. We designed for a friend. The kids could pick from a selection of different "friends" who wanted things like "something to sit on", "something that moves", "something that is soft" and so on. 

At the empathising stage, Master T, made the link between empathy and design thinking by sharing with the class... 

"Empathy is thinking about what someone else wants!"

At the ideating stage, I was impressed with how Master R, caught on to the idea of changing one thing about a previous idea to make it better. He began with a simple idea, and kept making changes to make it better and better and better! 

As we ran out of time...here are the crew that spent their lunchtime bringing their ideas to life by prototyping using Lego! They have requested more lunchtime making and creating sessions... Master S even suggested making things out of old boxes and cardboard from home. Sounds like a Makerspace to me! 

I am always intrigued by the way "making" creates language in abundance. As the kids created with Lego we chatted (back and forth, back and forth) about topics ranging from how the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Moon orbits the Earth all the way to how an escalator works.

The next step in my design thinking journey is to explore the way S.T.E.M learning tasks (like building the highest tower, bridges, egg drops, hover crafts, scribble bots to name a few) could be tackled in the classroom with a design thinking structure. 

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Let's see how S.T.E.M and design thinking go in year 5/6 tomorrow. I think we shall focus our learning around towers of the world, to tie in with their classroom inquiry topic, tourism! 

Design Thinking with year 5/6!

Between getting ready for and celebrating Matariki plus a few additions from another class to add an already buzzing classroom we tackled a design thinking challenge linked into the class inquiry topic, Tourism! The challenge was to design a tourist attraction for an allocentric (risk taking and adventurous) or psychocentric (thoughtful and peaceful) tourist.

Next time I am going to introduce the ideating stage by sharing with the kids different strategies to come up with new ideas. As across all the classrooms this is the part the kids have found most challenging. 

For the reflecting stage, a hack I've discovered this week is getting the kids to write their "script" on post-it notes to make filming their digital learning objects a breeze - one take and they were done! 

Master P, J, S and S designed for an allocentric tourist. They picked up on the ideation process and loved they idea of mixing together two old ideas to make a new idea. 

They designed a tourist attraction where "risk taking" people who like to do graffiti can come and spray paint the wall without fear of getting caught by the police. They learnt lots about working together and communicating with each other about what needed to be achieved to get the job done!

Masters H, D, B and C designed for an allocentric tourist. They struggled at first to come up with a new ideas but quickly worked out they could make something that was "impossible" which pushed them to take bigger risks and be more creative! 

They designed a teleportation machine that would transport their tourist to any place in the universe instantly. 

I will leave you with a question which was shouted very loudly at me from across the room my Master J,  

"MRS KIRBY ARE WE ALLOWED TO USE OUR IMAGINATION?".... 

.... yes, always! 

Design Thinking with year 7/8!

Our year 7/8 class used design thinking alongside their inquiry topic for the term, tourism. The kids had been learning about different types of tourists with their classroom teacher. So we used design thinking to design tourist attractions for either allocentric or psychocentric tourists.  

We used Lego and a box of "junk" for prototyping.

The challenge I came across was how much the kids struggled to ideate (it was so hard as the teacher to let them struggle and not jump in and give them some ideas). They are possibly just not used to ideating, or expressing their ideas by sketching. 

At the reflecting stage of the design thinking process the kids made short (one take) videos to share with others their designs. The kids had to write a script and practising saying it before they were allowed to film. I was surprised how they really struggled to communicate their ideas.

Here is an example for one of the videos the kids made to share their design thinking prototype. It is definitely not perfect but a good first go, I think! 

Here are few of the most innovate designs. First up is a hot air balloon ride designed for a psychocentric tourist. What a innovate way to use a balloon! 

Miss S, designed a baggage trolley system for her adventurous allocentric tourist. She commented on how she liked learning by making things. She spent  a long time making her ideas better and better and BETTER! 

There is lots of room for improvement. BUT loving this design thinking journey! 

Agile and Servant Leadership

A servant leader, someone who serves first, leads second. Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organisations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world.

Agility is a leaders ability to adapt to changes. Agile leadership is the art of being flexible to changing condition. It means being responsive to chase and willing to learn and adapt to new ways, leading to effectively survive in the world.

I first wondered, how can this really be considered a "modern" idea when it is really an idea as old as time its self. 

The first examples of servant leaders that I thought of were the classics, Jesus, Ghandi, Mother Teresa - there are many who were served first and lead second! 

To bring agile and servant leadership into the classroom, what would it look like?

In this week's session we played Boris Glogers, Ball Point Game. It required agile team (self organising) and works on the SRCUM principal of sprints. Here are the rules, they are very simple but must be followed. Is an awesome game to keep in mind, especially for relieving as it would work an any levels and really makes kids (and adults) think and communicate.

Agile and Lean Education

Lean was originally an approach the car manufacturing company, Toyota, and has since been adopted by software developers and now education. A lean approach aims to reduce the waste, up skill workers, improve the quality and provide more variety.

BUT how do these idea apply to education? As educators we are not growing something tangible, learning is an abstract process. Why would a book about a supply chain be useful?

The Agile Manifesto for Teaching and Learning

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Meaningful learning over measurement of learning

Stakeholder collaboration over constant negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Here are two of the Lean and Agile Education approaches we looked at in this week's session that stuck with me. I am going to use SCRUM and a KANBAN board to manage the change initiative, design thinking. 

SCRUM is an Agile process. It values the team over individual effort. SCRUM works in a lifecycle of checks, called sprints and at the end the aim is to produce something useful (could be learning). The SCRUM MASTER is a servant leader, recording the teams discussions and reporting back in a one minute stand up meeting at the end of each sprint.

KANBAN breaks tasks down into small steps, is simple and efficient. At the beginning the kids needs to write simple user stores (ties in with the empathy stage of design thinking) and a success criteria (how will they know when their task has been achieved). The user stories usually breaks down an epic story into much smaller steps, short and doable in a short set of time. It is represented visually by a board (digital or paper). It is best kept simple, using headings like, to do, can do and done. There is a limit to how many tasks can be in each column. In order for a card to be moved into the "done" column the team has to agree (against the success criteria) that it is done. Enables pull and flow as kids can choose what they work on when.

TRELLO is an online KANBAN board. 

Design Thinking: Attempt #1 with year 2/3

We empathised with a stakeholder, a imaginary friend, to create something that fitted what they had asked for.  The kids picked a stakeholder out of a hat, the stakeholder card read something like, something to ride on, something alive or something soft. I gave each child three post-it-notes to sketch their ideas on - I was surprised how challenging they found it NOT to write and come up with WILD ideas. The stakeholder cards worked really well as it gave the kids one thing to focus on when they are ideating. Using play dough as the tool for prototyping our idea worked well as the kids were able to make and remake their designs easily and the kids found it engaging. What I was most excited about was how much talking and questioning was happening between the kids and myself, and between the kids themselves! Language in abundance!!!

Next time, I'd like to work more on the ideating stage, getting the kids to think of WILD ideas, ideas that they haven't seen before. Kids tended to stick to recreating something they had seen before - which I think is an ok place to start. I will need to ask more questions and model how to ideate! To free myself up, I will need to have all the resources out on the tables for the kids so they can easily access them when they are ready. 

A makeshift design thinking space for Master N, he created something alive, a scary monster pet for his stakeholder. He made his design better and better by remaking it many times! 

A crocodile car made by Miss K, she was able to talk about herself as a designer and talked about her friend, and what they had asked for. She made her design many times, making her idea better with every attempt. 

Miss R and Miss I, decided their ideas should be combined to make a extra large marshmallow pillow for their stakeholder, who wanted something soft. 

Miss K and Miss A, sharing ideas and asking each questions about their prototypes. Miss A, designed an ice-cream truck, as her stakeholder wanted something to ride in. 

Master K, C and A, decided to collaborate, by making something to ride in for their stakeholder. It was interesting to see C take on the leadership role and delegate up the tasks between his followers. Each person was given a very specific part of the bus to make. 

Design Thinking: My Change Initiative

For the last little while I have been gathering ideas from others so that I can begin Glen Innes School's design thinking journey. This week I will be giving design thinking a go in our junior school. Here is what we will be doing this week! We will be creating something new for a friend using the design thinking process. 

My goal is that our learners continue to ask questions to make their designs better, and better, and BETTER! 

I found this digital learning object on a class blog of a school in America. 

I am inspired by the way this student has displayed such empathy for someone else in what she has wanted to achieve as a design thinker. 

I look forward sharing at the end of the week what I have learnt, so far, about teaching kids to be design thinkers!