Skip to main content

Home/ Issues and Trends/ Group items tagged motivation

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Dave Brahn

A science classroom that' s more than a game - 1 views

  • appropriate use of technology in the learning environment can serve to motivate some students, significant problems surrounding student motivation and engagem ent remain.
  • As a result of the gamification, 17% of students com pleted some extension material and two students com pleted significant amounts of extra work to achieve the highest level possible in the gam e.
  • For example, ‘badges' are an intrinsic component of our classrooms. Teachers award points for completing assignments; over the course of the semester these points add up and get converted into ‘badges' (commonly referred to as grades);
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • By awarding these points, educators are extrinsically motivating students to perform whether they like it or not. In fact, students can be observed ‘gaming the system’ regularly to increase their points scored with questions such as: "Is this going to be on the test?”
  • our education system is already a game, to a degree, then why not try to amplify the motivational aspects of the game by increasing the amount of gamified elements? As the gaming industry and the gamification of other aspects of life (shopping reward cards, personal fitness badges, etc.) continues to grow, perhaps educators will need to gamify their instruction to engage and motivate the next generation of students.
  • Do you think that the ‘gamified’ way we have learnt science this year with the videos, interactive electronic book and stars is a better way to learn than more traditional classes that have more lectures? Yes No Number of student responses 14 3
  • 82%, of students responded that they preferred the gamified classroom to a more traditional classroom.
  • Despife the attempt to motivate with the stars, some students still struggled to be motivated (Student G). Student H struggled to come to terms with the teacher being less prominent out the front of the classroom and directing the passage of learning. They valued the lecture-based component of learning.
  • y engaging students with a fun and authentic experience that challenges the participant to take control and explore their understandings, while providing meaningful feedback to aid the learning process in a social and collaborative way, we have seen students more excited and motivated to learn.
  •  
    Case study concerning the gamification of a science class
Amanda Eller

TWO WRITING TEACHERS | A meeting place for a world of reflective writers. - 2 views

  •  
    A meeting place for a world of reflective writers. This blog is outstanding! I have been trying to come up with new ways to become a better writing teacher. These writing teachers provide free resources for a writing binder they created with their students, and I plan to implement this into my own class!
  •  
    Since I am a TESOL major, I am very interested in motivation for writing and ways to make writing fun! I definitely think I would use this in the future for advanced students for ESL. It would help me think of new prompts, new ways to make writing fun, and motivation for students. The website is definitely for teacher use because it is a resource for lesson plans and activities. I said it before, there will always be blogs and websites that give resources and ideas like this. But there are a lot of bad blogs and websites and this one definitely has a lot of good ideas!
  •  
    Great blog, I like how they have it organized and the amount of resources you can find on this blog. This blog had many great ideas for teachers to use while teaching students writing. This is a resource that would be helpful for teachers.
Kim McCoy-Parker

QR Code Periodic Table with Symbols | Flickr - Photo Sharing! - 0 views

  •  
    QR Code Periodic Table linking each symbol with a video file. Very cool videos are well done.
  •  
    What an awesome way to introduce or re-ignite excitement about the periodic table! I can certainly see students using this in the classroom. Also, how motivating to be able to use their cellphone or tablet!!
ryanandcala

Dangerously Irrelevant | @mcleod - 1 views

  • Chin up and be fierce
  •  
    Scott McLeod blog discussing technology, leadership and the future of schools. He is also a very passionate speaker who I was lucky enough to get to hear speak at ISLI on Oct 5, 2013
  •  
    Scott Mcleod has a way of making educators think about their craft!
  •  
    Kim, I browsed through this blog a little bit to check out some of the posts and they seem awesome! I believe this blog can be an amazing resource for educators and I could use it efficiently in my future classroom for ideas, motivation, and support. I believe this resource is mostly for teachers as it is a blog about the future of our schools with mainly content focused for teachers. I have posted a similar blog, Wesley A. Fryer's, on our class diigo page, you might want to check it out! Thank you for this resource!
Katie Upah

Twitter in the English Classroom - 0 views

  • high school students use Twitter to respond, in character, to issues and events in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. Students tweeted in real-time while reading the play as a class. They needed to consider tone, language and personality of their assigned character in order to respond appropriately.
  • Their results demonstrated that students had significant motivation to participate creatively in communicating their learning processes.
  •  
    This article discusses a research study performed on high school students in which they utilized Twitter to respond to characters, issues, and events while reading a play as a class.
Kim McCoy-Parker

7 Excellent Tools to Publish Students Work ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning - 2 views

  •  
    Web 2.0 publishing tools to use with students in the classroom.
  •  
    Kim, I loved this resource and believe I could effectively use it in my future classroom once I gained a though understanding of the various programs. I like these ideas because they are collaborative tools and I believe it will be rewarding for students when they are able to share and publish their finished work. These tools can motivate my students and will be a strong push for them to achieve more and work harder! This resource is designed for teacher but will benefit teacher and students once they are put in place in a classroom. Thank you for these awesome ideas!
  •  
    I real like this website,
Megan Kannenberg

iPads in the Elementary Music Classroom - Teacher Tools - Music & Technology -MusTech.N... - 0 views

  • Class Dojo: When I had a class that came to music after recess, lunch, and PE, I needed something motivating to help them focus. Class Dojo did just that. I set it up at http://www.classdojo.com and then accessed it through the free app to continuously give individual points for good listening. Price: Free
  • Photon EDU: If you like to use musictechteacher.com, quavermusic.com, and/or incredibox.com-all flash-based websites-then it is a challenge to use them on them on the iPads because iPads do not play flash-based websites. With a click of the lightning bolt button, Photon EDU makes flash-based websites work on the iPads. Price: $4.99
  •  
    A resource for apps that are appropriate for the elementary music classroom. I particularly like the idea of PhotonEDU that allows flash sites to run on ipads.
Anne Pudenz

Web 2.0 Teaching Tools - 7 views

  •  
    This website a list of Web 2.0 tools you can use with your students when you want them to be collaborating, communicating, creating, critical thinking, and processing information. Many of the tools come with tutorials and explanations of how teachers have incorporated the tool into their classrooms.
  • ...5 more comments...
  •  
    This is quite the resource for teachers. It addressed many areas and included additional links to various tools. I plan to dig a little deeper into this one. I may not be able to use the actual resource as I am limited by my organizations IT rules, but perhaps I can utilize the resources I have in similar ways.
  •  
    I enjoyed the many resources this website had to offer. This tool would be great for teachers looking for new web 2.o tools. I have attended online conferences and taken classes that have addressed other great tools as well. I this this tool could help me prepare for a class because it provides many resources.
  •  
    I like this resource because of the tools listed. This tool would be helpful for teachers looking to expand their toolbox of online tools. Can't wait to try some.
  •  
    You found a great web resource for Web 2.0. The reason I particularly like this site is because the writer concisely links these skills to future utilization in adult life. The idea of purpose gives the user a sense of motivation to engage this resource. My favorite resources are the official Google apps blogs for Work and Education.
  •  
    I like this resource because of the tools listed and how they are grouped. I think it would be very helpful for teachers searching for new tools to use in their classrooms as well as helping them figure out how to align them with the common core standards.
  •  
    Wow, love the extensive lists and all of the ideas they have here. It helps to keep them all together on this site so I can remember where to look when I want to variety of ideas for something. Whenever I feel like I want to change up a lesson or add something "spicier" to it, I often turn to something-tech related, so now I can turn here. Thanks! I think this could be helpful for any teachers looking to add a little spice to their lessons. I always "pin" stuff like that, too, to keep all of my ideas collected together.
  •  
    I love the part of this article that encourages educators to think of a lesson that needs some life and then to look at web 2.0 tools! Also there is a link that brings you to effective communication tools for web 2.0 that I found helpful. Definitely a great teacher tool so that they have a place to go to for ideas for sprucing up a lesson. Teachers are really starting to come around to ideas like this, and I see more integration in lessons everyday. Definitely check out the twitter handle!
Zoey Salisbury

Innovation Starts in the Classroom | Digital Promise - 0 views

  • Encouraging teachers to incorporate technology into the classroom has motivated and empowered them to seek it out.
  • Administrators now view their role as giving guidance on how to manage technological infrastructure, providing professional development, conducting internal research, and scaling teacher practices that make an impact for students.
  • “How to change classrooms has to come from teachers,”
  •  
    Technology Classrooms are developed by the teachers
Nicole Heinrichs

Inquiry-Based Learning: Developing Student-Driven Questions | Edutopia - 3 views

  • uses student inquiries, questions, interests, and curiosities to drive learning.
  • starts with questions.
  • Inquiry-based learning is more concerned with the process of learning
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Empowering students doesn't mean we're doing less planning,"
  • teachers must be willing to be flexible.
  •  
    This article talks about how develop good inquiries through good questioning and organization. I would use this article to remind me of good questioning for students.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    Nicole I really enjoyed watching the video on inquiry based learning. I liked the principals quote that "inquiry based learning is really just a fancy phrase for curiousity." I also liked the young man's quote about "inquiry based learning actually makes you think." Memorization is not allowing kids to explore or think for themselves. The teachers did a nice job of explaining how the students curiousity can help guide what they are learning, while still getting the common core standards mastered. I agree that the concept of inquiry based learning can be used effectively in the classroom. I think that it can be used effectively in my library because we provide resources to help students answer questions they wants to know about. I think that inquiry based learning is something both students and teachers can benifit from. Teachers will find it much easier to teacher if their students are engaged. Allowing students to choose what they are learning about will allow them to be more engaged. While I do not know of anything else that is similar to inquiry based learning, I think that it can be very helpful for students at all levels and I believe more teachers should take advantage of it.
  •  
    Nicole, I really enjoyed watching this video as well. When I first started watching the video, there was an opening sentence that just drew my attention right away into the video. The teacher said, "I realized how much more they learn, then when I see that they take action and their applying the skills they learn in here, I feel like I have done my job as a teacher." When I start to begin my teacher's journey, I hope to feel that overwhelming joy of teaching my students, not just viable information, but also how it can be applied to the real world settings. I also was excited to hear that all the coordinator said that group based learning is all about curiosity. Which I believe is what we as future or current teachers try to accomplish everyday that we are in the classroom. I agree that the resource can be used efficiently in my own future classroom because I hope to one day teach my students how they want to be taught material, as well as how to share that material with others around them. I believe that the resource is a use for both teachers and students. The reason why is because teachers can learn from their students developing ways, as well as how the student can teach their teacher how they can best develop and comprehend the material. I am currently not aware of any other similar resources that could be considered at this time, but I am confident that as our class continues on, there will be more resources.
  •  
    "Inquiry is a fancy term for curiosity". I could not agree more. This is such a motivational video to help us as educators encourage our students to dive further in exploring ideas. Curiosity leads to the ability to create strong, driving questions. I look forward to allowing my students to take charge of their learning by encouraging them to bring up real life questions that will allow them to dive into their inquiry and research. As teachers, we must learn to take a step back and allow the students to facilitate their own learning with strong question asking!
melissao_uni

15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher | Edutopia - 0 views

  •  
    I thought this was an excellent article. It is important that educators and parents understand our students and their characteristics. In order to best meet their educational needs, you need to understand their traits and motives.
trina79

Social Media for Middle Level Classrooms - 1 views

  • Thus, many teachers are integrating technology with instruction especially since young adolescents are frequent computer users and find technology very engaging
  • teachers and students feel strongly that technology is an essential learning component because it assists with engagement, makes education relevant to students' lives, and serves as an inspiring force (p. 31).
  • "Additionally, learning experiences are greatly enhanced when all students have the technology to access rich content, communicate with others, write for authentic audiences, and collaborate with other learners next door or across the globe"
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Integration of social media has the engagement factor teachers and students seek while enabling students to gain a variety of academic and social skills
  • Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) identify seven types of social media: collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia) blogs and microblogs (e.g., Twitter, Kidblog.org) social news networking sites (e.g., Digg and Leakernet) content communities (e.g., YouTube and DailyMotion) social networking sites (e.g., Facebook) virtual game-worlds (e.g., Minecraft, World of Warcraft) virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life)
  • ncreased student engagement and learning and citizenship education are benefits related to social media use in school.
  • For example, middle grades students can discover how technology-assisted writing can foster innovation, global communication and participation, and creative problem solving with a broader communit
  • Further, Ramsay purports that technology-assisted writing can nurture student creativity, communication, and problem solving skills while developing digital citizens.
  • Additionally, social media helps facilitate differentiation by allowing the needs of creative learners to be met through a cooperative learning environment. Students are better able to balance their individualism with the need for contact with others, allowing new ideas to flourish
  • Social media can help adolescents develop and strengthen collaboration skills as they share knowledge, learn with and from others, and are active in the learning process
  • Therefore, inclusion of social media in education activities is necessary to help increase equity among students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds by increasing access to information and information technology (Darling-Hammond, Zielezinski, & Goldman, 2014; Grinager, 2006).
  • Darling-Hammond et al. (2014) recommend the following practices to promote optimal learning opportunities for all students: (a) technology access policies should aim for 1:1 computer access and ensure that speedy internet connections are available, (b) policies and practices should favor technology that promotes high levels of interactivity and engagement and that allows for varying learning choices and opportunities, (c) instructional opportunities should enable students to use technology to create content as well as learn material, and (d) learning environments that provide significant and varied levels of teacher support and opportunities for interactions among students as companions to technology use
  • The first issue many educators currently face is equitable access for students and teachers. Further, uncertainty exists on the type and frequency of professional development for middle level educators that addresses ethical and appropriate use of social networking. Additionally, educators must learn how best to help students navigate safely and monitor students in a virtual environment. Lastly, educators must recognize the possibility for distractions and overstimulation that is often linked to certain types of social media and networking activities (Chen & Bryer, 2012).
  • Educators and policymakers need to provide the appropriate technology funding and related professional development so students and teachers have the equipment, knowledge, and skills necessary for taking full advantage of what technology can offer.
  • It is imperative for educators to have professional development opportunities that enable them to learn developmentally appropriate best practices for preparing students
  • AMLE (NMSA, 2010) believes that middle schools must provide adult advocates to middle school students to guide academic and personal development in an inviting, safe, inclusive, and supportive school environment
  • Students need to learn how to make great choices about what they share and what are appropriate actions with others, and always review and manage their online reputations in light of others' ability to contribute to that reputation either positively or negatively with a few clicks of the mouse
  • Edutopia.com, a website published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation and highly regarded by the educational community, provides thoughtful resources on creating social media guidelines for schools.
  • In tandem, teachers must continue to address the issue of plagiarism including how to determine if sources are credible and having clear and consistent plagiarism policies regularly disseminated to students and parents.
  • Research suggests that discussions and collaborations are the most common social media classroom strategies (Chen & Bryer, 2012). Frye, Trathen, and Koppenhaver (2010) proclaim that blogs offer students the ability to publish work and comment on others' writing, which increases motivation.
  • Research shows that social media can increase student learning and engage students who otherwise may be disinterested in the classroom
  • Social media afford[s] the opportunity for all children with online access to contribute to the world in meaningful ways, do real work for real audiences for real purposes, find great teachers and collaborators from around the world, and become great teachers in their own right. (
  •  
    The information in this article supports one of the things that my school tech integrationist is trying to get teachers to do with social media. He is asking teachers to do Penpal Schools, which will connect students with other students from around the world. I am going to be having my class do Penpal schools. I also want to try out having my students blog about books we are reading in 7th grade language arts after reading about the benefits of blogging in this article.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    How is your school liking PenPals Schools? I started using it in my classroom but found it to be too time consuming and the questions were a bit overwhelming in the project that we chose. My students were also not getting responses in the way that I expected them to. A lot of them were just getting a lot of "hi" from their Pen pals instead of anything useful.
  •  
    Very cool! I really wish I had students at an older age level. Though I can do something like this for 2nd graders it is more difficult with their reading and writing skill levels. Still a pretty cool tool to use for students and teachers alike. Thank you for sharing!
  •  
    Social Media is important. When I was in middle school and high school we didn't learn about social media or how to be safe on the internet. It was more of a foot note than a subject in class that we learned about. Blogging was foreign to me until now. I feel like I have missed a lot because of this.
Dave Brahn

Climbing Up the Leaderboard: An Empirical Study of Applying Gamification Techniques to ... - 7 views

  •  
    This is one of the resources I am using to write my final paper. It discusses how Gamification can help student engagement and motivation.
  • ...2 more comments...
  •  
    Gamification of a classroom requires dedication. These kind of studies just blow my mind. Great resource to learn a bit more about gamification and student engagement.
  •  
    I think that I can definitely use this resource in my classroom once I feel more confident at gamification because leaderboards is something that I struggle with. I don't want students to feel down about where they are at but I also want students to feel proud of their accomplishments. It is so interesting to me that a student will work so hard to complete a level or to be on the top when they are so frustrated. They are truly persevering through the difficulties.
  •  
    Thanks for sharing Dave. I never seem to get tired of reading about gamification. It's so interesting. I definitely think that this can be used as a resource for teachers.
  •  
    Gamification is very unique inside of a classroom now that I have a better idea on what it is. I feel that it fits perfectly inside of a classroom because it gives the room a whole new look. It can be beneficial for both teacher and student because the teacher can use the game to help get the students attention and help better their learning. Then the students can use it to help with their learning and become more engaged to what they are being taught and having it be put into a fun way of learning.
1 - 15 of 15
Showing 20 items per page