Tuesday, 27 July 2010
subject option choice .8a
carried out changes to the database and index page due to the changes of levels instead of years. Some stuff to still do surronding information that will be displayed to the students. Preloading of some students subjects needs to occur, this is the new6 field in the students table.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
mlearning
I went to a conference on Wednesday about mlearning, this was through the university of waikato.
One of the sessions I went to has still got me thinking.
Ahh, the slide that almost got me in some serious trouble, the first brown line in this slide talks about a digital curriculum.
One of the sessions I went to has still got me thinking.
these were some of the questions that were posed to us in groups. some of these I would love to use with teachers in some ICTPD later in this term.
Monday, 28 June 2010
scratch resources
I am about to embark on something different,
1) Programming concepts and skills supported in scratch(pdf) (doc)
What problem solving, project design skills, fundamental ideas about computers and programming, and specific programming concepts does Scratch support (and for the latter does not support)? This is an excellent summary, highly recommended, you need to download for the examples (code snippets) provided too, which are really good. Also notethis discussion thread on the Scratch forum about this document, especially the comments by kevin karplus and responses by natalie, the document author, to his suggestions
Scratch supports these Specific Programming Concepts:
sequence, iteration (looping), conditional statements, variables, threads (parallel execution), synchronisation, real-time interaction, boolean logic, random numbers, event handling, user interface design
Scratch does not currently support data structures (arrays, etc.), procedures and functions, recursion, inheritance, defining classes of objects, exception handling, parameter passing and return values, text input, file input/output
2) Scratch Programming Projects
Ten excellent projects described in just the right amount of detail, with requirements and extras:
Introductory tutorial, clearly explained with screenshots
4) Comparison of different languages (thread in Scratch forum)
This comment by pkimelma presents a well thought out sequence for teaching Scratch using a games theme.
Other comments in this thread compare Scratch with Phrogram (which has 3D graphics), Alice, Starlogo and others.
5) Kevin and Abe Karplus Scratch page looks to have a nice collection of scratch exemplars
resources of ideas for development by students
1) Use the Letter shapes to write your first name on the page. Then introduce some special effects such as making the letters wobble and change their appearance.
2) Point, click and move
Make an object both point and glide towards the mouse position when you click on the stage
Hint: Motion > point towards
Hint: Sensing > mouse down?
3) Make Dan or Anjuli or Cassy or ballerina dance to a beat, using all of their dance shapes. Include a suitable background that changes colours as the lights flash.
4a) Make two animals have a forwards and backwards conversation
Hint: Use broadcast, (ask for help if you don’t know how broadcast works)
4b) Make it an interesting conversation with each animal speaking at least 3 times and making gestures too
5) Make a sprite gradually grow in size and then shrink
6) Make 2 different balls move around on the stage
a) the first ball moves in straight lines but bounces randomly whenever it hits the edge
b) the second moves randomly, gliding from one position to a new random position continually
7a) One sprite chases another sprite around the stage. The first sprite moves in straight line but bounces off the edge randomly. The chasing sprite chases the first sprite but is moving slower.
b) Extension – if the chasing sprite catches the other sprite then it says something sensible and makes a suitable sound
8a) Play all the different drum sounds automatically
Hint: create a variable for the drum number
b) Extension – keep recycling through all the drum sounds automatically
9a) Count down on a timer. A rocket takes off when you reach zero
Hint: Use the number icons in the letters folder
9b) Your rocket has pulsating exhaust and disappears at the top of the screen
10) Add, multiply or subtract two variable numbers
Hint: Just to do addition only you will need 4 variables: firstNum, secondNum, answer (computer calculated) and myAnswer (human calculated)
11) Variable coloured squares
a) Write a script that can draw a square of any size
Hint: Make a variable for the side length
b) Use the variable square script to draw a series of square with variable sides, with a single click
c) Now add variable pen colour and pen shade to the variable square script and use it to draw a variety of different coloured squares, with a single click
12) Draw lines of random thickness in random directions with random colours. The pen must be lifted up and moved for each new line.
Hint: pen group contains set pen color, set pen size, pen up, pen down
Hint: colours range across the spectrum (ROY G BIV) starting with red = 0. There are about 190 colours in total and you need to display them all!
13A) Make a race
a) choose two suitable sprites, they must have at least 2 costumes to simulate motion
b) the sprites move at random speeds, you can’t predict the winner
c) make a finish line, using a new sprite is best
d) suitable background music
e) when the winner crosses the finish line it announces that it won
f) reset scripts to start again
13B) Extension: Make it a multi-lap race, the number of laps can vary
g) make a variable to set and count the laps (use this on just one of the sprites otherwise you will be counting the laps twice)
h) use “x position” with an if tile rather than “if on edge bounce” to manage the turning and lap increase value
i) hide the finish line so that it only appears for the final lap
14A) Play the scales on a piano
a) Check out the sound > play note tile
b) Teacher has supplies a graphic of a keyboard. Import it to your scratch project.
c) Program the computer keyboard so that it plays a series of notes on the piano keyboard
d) As the notes are played alter the keyboard graphic to make it appear they are being pressed and they revert back to blank when the key is released
e) Add some suitable background graphics
14B) Extension
f) As the notes are played a sprite dances to the tune created by the notes, ie. each note triggers a particular movement
g) The names of the notes are spoken by a new sprite as they are played
h) Find a way to play ALL the notes on the keyboard
for more ideas http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/search/label/scratch
1) Programming concepts and skills supported in scratch(pdf) (doc)
What problem solving, project design skills, fundamental ideas about computers and programming, and specific programming concepts does Scratch support (and for the latter does not support)? This is an excellent summary, highly recommended, you need to download for the examples (code snippets) provided too, which are really good. Also notethis discussion thread on the Scratch forum about this document, especially the comments by kevin karplus and responses by natalie, the document author, to his suggestions
Scratch supports these Specific Programming Concepts:
sequence, iteration (looping), conditional statements, variables, threads (parallel execution), synchronisation, real-time interaction, boolean logic, random numbers, event handling, user interface design
Scratch does not currently support data structures (arrays, etc.), procedures and functions, recursion, inheritance, defining classes of objects, exception handling, parameter passing and return values, text input, file input/output
2) Scratch Programming Projects
Ten excellent projects described in just the right amount of detail, with requirements and extras:
- "Chasing/Eating" (Pac Man Type Game)
- Red Light/Green Light
- Pong
- Target Game
- Communication Project
- Animation of a short story
- Virtual Musical Instrument
- Virtual Board Game
- Basic Space Target Game
- Shape Drawing Robot (Polygon Robot)
Introductory tutorial, clearly explained with screenshots
4) Comparison of different languages (thread in Scratch forum)
This comment by pkimelma presents a well thought out sequence for teaching Scratch using a games theme.
Other comments in this thread compare Scratch with Phrogram (which has 3D graphics), Alice, Starlogo and others.
5) Kevin and Abe Karplus Scratch page looks to have a nice collection of scratch exemplars
resources of ideas for development by students
1) Use the Letter shapes to write your first name on the page. Then introduce some special effects such as making the letters wobble and change their appearance.
2) Point, click and move
Make an object both point and glide towards the mouse position when you click on the stage
Hint: Motion > point towards
Hint: Sensing > mouse down?
3) Make Dan or Anjuli or Cassy or ballerina dance to a beat, using all of their dance shapes. Include a suitable background that changes colours as the lights flash.
4a) Make two animals have a forwards and backwards conversation
Hint: Use broadcast, (ask for help if you don’t know how broadcast works)
4b) Make it an interesting conversation with each animal speaking at least 3 times and making gestures too
5) Make a sprite gradually grow in size and then shrink
6) Make 2 different balls move around on the stage
a) the first ball moves in straight lines but bounces randomly whenever it hits the edge
b) the second moves randomly, gliding from one position to a new random position continually
7a) One sprite chases another sprite around the stage. The first sprite moves in straight line but bounces off the edge randomly. The chasing sprite chases the first sprite but is moving slower.
b) Extension – if the chasing sprite catches the other sprite then it says something sensible and makes a suitable sound
8a) Play all the different drum sounds automatically
Hint: create a variable for the drum number
b) Extension – keep recycling through all the drum sounds automatically
9a) Count down on a timer. A rocket takes off when you reach zero
Hint: Use the number icons in the letters folder
9b) Your rocket has pulsating exhaust and disappears at the top of the screen
10) Add, multiply or subtract two variable numbers
Hint: Just to do addition only you will need 4 variables: firstNum, secondNum, answer (computer calculated) and myAnswer (human calculated)
11) Variable coloured squares
a) Write a script that can draw a square of any size
Hint: Make a variable for the side length
b) Use the variable square script to draw a series of square with variable sides, with a single click
c) Now add variable pen colour and pen shade to the variable square script and use it to draw a variety of different coloured squares, with a single click
12) Draw lines of random thickness in random directions with random colours. The pen must be lifted up and moved for each new line.
Hint: pen group contains set pen color, set pen size, pen up, pen down
Hint: colours range across the spectrum (ROY G BIV) starting with red = 0. There are about 190 colours in total and you need to display them all!
13A) Make a race
a) choose two suitable sprites, they must have at least 2 costumes to simulate motion
b) the sprites move at random speeds, you can’t predict the winner
c) make a finish line, using a new sprite is best
d) suitable background music
e) when the winner crosses the finish line it announces that it won
f) reset scripts to start again
13B) Extension: Make it a multi-lap race, the number of laps can vary
g) make a variable to set and count the laps (use this on just one of the sprites otherwise you will be counting the laps twice)
h) use “x position” with an if tile rather than “if on edge bounce” to manage the turning and lap increase value
i) hide the finish line so that it only appears for the final lap
14A) Play the scales on a piano
a) Check out the sound > play note tile
b) Teacher has supplies a graphic of a keyboard. Import it to your scratch project.
c) Program the computer keyboard so that it plays a series of notes on the piano keyboard
d) As the notes are played alter the keyboard graphic to make it appear they are being pressed and they revert back to blank when the key is released
e) Add some suitable background graphics
14B) Extension
f) As the notes are played a sprite dances to the tune created by the notes, ie. each note triggers a particular movement
g) The names of the notes are spoken by a new sprite as they are played
h) Find a way to play ALL the notes on the keyboard
for more ideas http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/search/label/scratch
Monday, 14 June 2010
Where am I at
1 reports
2 Application development
3 Course design
4 future
1. reports are now coming to a close, yes those dreaded things that teachers spend a whole lot of time to complete, for students to read in less than 10 seconds, and then the wonderment if they get home for parents to read and see. that's if they get to see the reports. These have bee a struggle for me this year as the changes with the Students Management System and they way school does reports have hit. I was not at school last year around this time, and I will tell you something, it is a shock for them to come up, get proofread, make changes to the ones that are needed, and deal with those staff that start getting angry at you for making there jobs harder because you kept him/her within the comment, ok that one was not me.
2. Application Development
Changes to the option choice selection need to be made by Thursday night, with a new layout and design this year we need to make the changes, though one slight problem... I got given the change document last Friday. I have yet to get my head around the changes and still have not been told what to do with the new subjects, as well as who needs access to it. I will get a large amount of work done tomorrow on it, when I get myself around excel and create the 10-15 course for each departmentt that they can put in. though i now see one giant problem just typing this in, I have year level subjects and school wants to change it to level subjects, maybe I need to create a form that staff can put the information into in google apps that I can then take and put into my system, I don't think that this is gonna work too good right now.
3. course design
oh man are there some changes coming or what, with the introduction of digital technology in the technology curriculum, means that we are having to redo some of our courses. the biggest change will be to the year 11 course, or at our school the Level 1 course. We are looking at three sections of the new standards, Digital Information, Digital media, and Programming and computer science. Though I have no idea what language or media we are going to use yet. but we have also been asked to look at the progression of courses for the future as well.
We have some time coming up in which we can talk about this as a department and make the changes that are needed to support the New Zealand Curriculum 2007.
4 future
can't say anything yet, still in the process of writing.
Ok, Ok, I got runners up in a award for innovative programme, now one of the things that this is about is a course that looks at environmental issues at the school, we have a stream down the back, students are to design an application to record the data that they collect down at the stream, Now I have not had time to get this implemented yet, though term 3 and 4 will look just about right, and it can carry out next year as well. It is a case of getting the students on task and developing there creative thing at the moment.
The book and moodle course that I am using for the programming course and working well, though they slower students are starting to slacken off and the motivated students are getting crazier in there programming, and the exercises are getting harder. I have an issue around some of the students not doing as much as they could do, because I cannot move them, if I move them it affects the year 13 cprogramming class as well due to I am using virtual hard drives to do teh work.
I would love to play around with some more software, especially when it comes to flow charts. I want to get Visual Studio Learning Pack 2.0 as I can see some applications within it useful.
I really want to play with
Visual Programming Flow Chart is a supplementary teaching tool designed to help students understand program control flow. It generates flow charts for functions and saves them in the JPG picture format. This tool is easily activated from the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) by simply right-clicking on a function name and choosing “Generate flow chart…” from the context menu. The resulting flowchart can be customized by changing its colors and other effects. This visual tool provides an intuitive way to explore source code, to examine its control flow, and to identify logic errors.
2 Application development
3 Course design
4 future
1. reports are now coming to a close, yes those dreaded things that teachers spend a whole lot of time to complete, for students to read in less than 10 seconds, and then the wonderment if they get home for parents to read and see. that's if they get to see the reports. These have bee a struggle for me this year as the changes with the Students Management System and they way school does reports have hit. I was not at school last year around this time, and I will tell you something, it is a shock for them to come up, get proofread, make changes to the ones that are needed, and deal with those staff that start getting angry at you for making there jobs harder because you kept him/her within the comment, ok that one was not me.
2. Application Development
Changes to the option choice selection need to be made by Thursday night, with a new layout and design this year we need to make the changes, though one slight problem... I got given the change document last Friday. I have yet to get my head around the changes and still have not been told what to do with the new subjects, as well as who needs access to it. I will get a large amount of work done tomorrow on it, when I get myself around excel and create the 10-15 course for each departmentt that they can put in. though i now see one giant problem just typing this in, I have year level subjects and school wants to change it to level subjects, maybe I need to create a form that staff can put the information into in google apps that I can then take and put into my system, I don't think that this is gonna work too good right now.
3. course design
oh man are there some changes coming or what, with the introduction of digital technology in the technology curriculum, means that we are having to redo some of our courses. the biggest change will be to the year 11 course, or at our school the Level 1 course. We are looking at three sections of the new standards, Digital Information, Digital media, and Programming and computer science. Though I have no idea what language or media we are going to use yet. but we have also been asked to look at the progression of courses for the future as well.
We have some time coming up in which we can talk about this as a department and make the changes that are needed to support the New Zealand Curriculum 2007.
4 future
can't say anything yet, still in the process of writing.
Ok, Ok, I got runners up in a award for innovative programme, now one of the things that this is about is a course that looks at environmental issues at the school, we have a stream down the back, students are to design an application to record the data that they collect down at the stream, Now I have not had time to get this implemented yet, though term 3 and 4 will look just about right, and it can carry out next year as well. It is a case of getting the students on task and developing there creative thing at the moment.
The book and moodle course that I am using for the programming course and working well, though they slower students are starting to slacken off and the motivated students are getting crazier in there programming, and the exercises are getting harder. I have an issue around some of the students not doing as much as they could do, because I cannot move them, if I move them it affects the year 13 cprogramming class as well due to I am using virtual hard drives to do teh work.
I would love to play around with some more software, especially when it comes to flow charts. I want to get Visual Studio Learning Pack 2.0 as I can see some applications within it useful.
I really want to play with
Visual Programming Flow Chart is a supplementary teaching tool designed to help students understand program control flow. It generates flow charts for functions and saves them in the JPG picture format. This tool is easily activated from the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) by simply right-clicking on a function name and choosing “Generate flow chart…” from the context menu. The resulting flowchart can be customized by changing its colors and other effects. This visual tool provides an intuitive way to explore source code, to examine its control flow, and to identify logic errors.
Monday, 10 May 2010
untitled
I have been working on a moodle course for the year 12 programming class. It has been couple of years in development, but finally this year I developed a 148 page book full of homework, assessment tasks, interface guidelines, and incorporated some english work.
It has been developed in the school LMS as part of the trail, however it has not been smooth sailing. The issues around the setup and development has lead me to question why I am using such a resource.
The department has there own moodle server running as part of our system, the reason why we did this was that we could not wait for the LMS provider to allow us access, so we installed it and have been using it ever since.
It requires the odd update and installation of users, but we have this down to an art now. However the school one is managed through an interoperability websync, which is causing issues. I am starting to question why we even have this as it just is not working to its best. We always seem to be bug finding and finding configuration issues.
I am getting to the point where I am going to leave the schools LMS.
The latest is surrounding professional development. I sat in a PD session where people where showing off what the system could do, and heard more about what it could not do. And I was thinking the entire time, but it can do this, it can do that. It is the person running it within the school that keeps saying no it can't. They do not even know what it can do.
I would like to take all my work off it and move it to the other installation, but I think I need to carry on doing what I am doing, running the course through the current installation, but I will be backing it up and doing a restore on the department installation.
It has been developed in the school LMS as part of the trail, however it has not been smooth sailing. The issues around the setup and development has lead me to question why I am using such a resource.
The department has there own moodle server running as part of our system, the reason why we did this was that we could not wait for the LMS provider to allow us access, so we installed it and have been using it ever since.
It requires the odd update and installation of users, but we have this down to an art now. However the school one is managed through an interoperability websync, which is causing issues. I am starting to question why we even have this as it just is not working to its best. We always seem to be bug finding and finding configuration issues.
I am getting to the point where I am going to leave the schools LMS.
The latest is surrounding professional development. I sat in a PD session where people where showing off what the system could do, and heard more about what it could not do. And I was thinking the entire time, but it can do this, it can do that. It is the person running it within the school that keeps saying no it can't. They do not even know what it can do.
I would like to take all my work off it and move it to the other installation, but I think I need to carry on doing what I am doing, running the course through the current installation, but I will be backing it up and doing a restore on the department installation.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Saturday, 20 March 2010
busy times
We have just completed one of the largest exercises at school, e-asTTle testing.
This involves testing all year 9 and 10 students in their reading and numeracy skills. The reading test was done on paper, and required the students to sit a 50 minute test, and then for the multichoice results to be entered into the e-asTTle program. Whereas the Maths department did a purely online test which required access to computer rooms, and the students to login and sit the test. I think I outlined the issues surrounding the online test in a previous post last year.
We never seem to be able to get a successful import from out student management system into e-asTTle. A number of issues surrounding NSI numbers caused this testing to be delayed a week due to an update in our student management system and ENROl sis not want to talk to each other properly, also information that the previous schools put into ENROl was not accurate enough. We have a number of students that seem to change names when they enter secondary school. So all these changes had to be entered.
e-asTTle have an issue surrounding NSI Numbers and ENROl as well. For every 100 students imported, it pops up and error, which normally requires you to remove the students NSI number from the e-asTTle csv file and upload it. Though you cannot export a student from the SMS without a NSI number. Catch 22 situation.
Once we had a successful import it was all on,
Issues surrounding the next set are school related,
Failure of communication from deans on changes to Year 10 classes, all the login papers had been printed and supplied to teachers, this also meant that a number of students in the english tests could not be found by the data entry people which required the test to be reassigned to students and marked by me.
Also meant that some year 10 maths teachers did not have the login codes for students, which meant issues for IT support to be in the room at the start of all tests.
Year 10 Maths test had a written answer question, which required it to be marked before the scores were released to teachers. Marked over 660 questions, which if you take too long or press the wrong key, you have to redo again.
Getting access to computer rooms, we selected two rooms to carry out the test, but already some of these had been booked already so early in the term, which does place some stress on planning and development of lessons.
Technical Issues surrounding internet access, this was resolved after the first day due to the virtualisation project over the holidays.
Assembly for all female students in year 10, which impacted on the test, meant there had to be a catch up later one.
Catch ups, organsied catch ups, but some teachers failed to read emails, or not understand to just send the student, they did not need the login sheet, as we have all the details available to us.
More understanding by the teachers why this is so important,
Training for teachers on how to set there own test and run it.
This involves testing all year 9 and 10 students in their reading and numeracy skills. The reading test was done on paper, and required the students to sit a 50 minute test, and then for the multichoice results to be entered into the e-asTTle program. Whereas the Maths department did a purely online test which required access to computer rooms, and the students to login and sit the test. I think I outlined the issues surrounding the online test in a previous post last year.
We never seem to be able to get a successful import from out student management system into e-asTTle. A number of issues surrounding NSI numbers caused this testing to be delayed a week due to an update in our student management system and ENROl sis not want to talk to each other properly, also information that the previous schools put into ENROl was not accurate enough. We have a number of students that seem to change names when they enter secondary school. So all these changes had to be entered.
e-asTTle have an issue surrounding NSI Numbers and ENROl as well. For every 100 students imported, it pops up and error, which normally requires you to remove the students NSI number from the e-asTTle csv file and upload it. Though you cannot export a student from the SMS without a NSI number. Catch 22 situation.
Once we had a successful import it was all on,
Issues surrounding the next set are school related,
Failure of communication from deans on changes to Year 10 classes, all the login papers had been printed and supplied to teachers, this also meant that a number of students in the english tests could not be found by the data entry people which required the test to be reassigned to students and marked by me.
Also meant that some year 10 maths teachers did not have the login codes for students, which meant issues for IT support to be in the room at the start of all tests.
Year 10 Maths test had a written answer question, which required it to be marked before the scores were released to teachers. Marked over 660 questions, which if you take too long or press the wrong key, you have to redo again.
Getting access to computer rooms, we selected two rooms to carry out the test, but already some of these had been booked already so early in the term, which does place some stress on planning and development of lessons.
Technical Issues surrounding internet access, this was resolved after the first day due to the virtualisation project over the holidays.
Assembly for all female students in year 10, which impacted on the test, meant there had to be a catch up later one.
Catch ups, organsied catch ups, but some teachers failed to read emails, or not understand to just send the student, they did not need the login sheet, as we have all the details available to us.
More understanding by the teachers why this is so important,
Training for teachers on how to set there own test and run it.
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Catch up
It has been a while since I have last posted,
I have been busy getting the schools google apps domain up and running this year, with the changeover of student logins to an new schema, though I can see this needing to be changed again next year with possible changes throughout the sector.
The other stuff we have been working on is getting moodle in schools up and going, www.moodleinschools.org.nz this has been a great benefit to the department as this is where we can see things moving to in the future. We already have other departments wanting to jump onto our server to make use of the various features.
myportfolio.school.nz is a new one that we are trying out with the art department as a way to keep an electronic prortfolio. We signed up yesterday and already have the students in and starting to put work up. It has been a bit of a mission to get the usernames and passwords up, as our temporary passwords for students did not meet there criteria.
e-asTTle has also been a thorn in my side this year, with the requirement of NSI numbers to be included, and not having all this going straight away with our SMS and ENROL is has caused it to be put back a couple of weeks. Maths department are doing it online with multichoice questions, though I had to mark 500 students maths papers this morning due to there was a written question still left in the test. English are doing there reading test on paper and getting outside people to enter the results in e-asTTle. It was due to a professional development meeting yesterday morning that we realised that these haven't been entered yet, as they want to present the results next week.
Other things have been going on as well, but that is another post...
I have been busy getting the schools google apps domain up and running this year, with the changeover of student logins to an new schema, though I can see this needing to be changed again next year with possible changes throughout the sector.
The other stuff we have been working on is getting moodle in schools up and going, www.moodleinschools.org.nz this has been a great benefit to the department as this is where we can see things moving to in the future. We already have other departments wanting to jump onto our server to make use of the various features.
myportfolio.school.nz is a new one that we are trying out with the art department as a way to keep an electronic prortfolio. We signed up yesterday and already have the students in and starting to put work up. It has been a bit of a mission to get the usernames and passwords up, as our temporary passwords for students did not meet there criteria.
e-asTTle has also been a thorn in my side this year, with the requirement of NSI numbers to be included, and not having all this going straight away with our SMS and ENROL is has caused it to be put back a couple of weeks. Maths department are doing it online with multichoice questions, though I had to mark 500 students maths papers this morning due to there was a written question still left in the test. English are doing there reading test on paper and getting outside people to enter the results in e-asTTle. It was due to a professional development meeting yesterday morning that we realised that these haven't been entered yet, as they want to present the results next week.
Other things have been going on as well, but that is another post...
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Software design project
I don't know if I have posted this before,
The Task: Scavenger Hunt
Mobile phones with inbuilt global positioning systems (GPS) are becoming more and more widespread. This means that you can use services like Google Maps on your mobile phone to see exactly where you are. It also makes it possible to play scavenger hunt games with your mobile phone. Imagine you could have a game on your mobile phone that gives you quests and clues depending on your position in the real world, and guides you through the scavenger hunt. Imagine that you could create such games yourself with your mobile phone, and send them to your friends.
Your task is to make a proposal how a program for a mobile phone should look like that allows the users to create scavenger hunt games. The user should be able to specify a sequence of quests. Each quest should have a GPS position and a question that the players have to answer. During the game, when a player enters the correct answer, then the position for the next quest is revealed.
In your answer you should:
- explain the different functions you think this system should have;
- describe the user interface elements of the program that allows you to use these functions;
- give arguments for your design.
I would like to do this with my year 12 students as a test during the year.
Monday, 28 December 2009
The Buzz Contest
The buzz contest is not your playstation game, it is a contest in which you have to think about numbers,
This is what I am considering as a competition or test for my year 12 programing class
For the purposes of this, I will be using only Buzz, Wizz and Pop
So far, the game as described is too easy. To complicate matters, some numbers are designated as special. When it is a student’s turn to call out a number and that number is special, the student should not say the number, but should instead say some combination of codewords relating to the number. The codewords and their meanings are:
BANG: The number contains a 5 (in its base-10 representation) or is divisible by 5.
BUZZ: The number contains a 7 (in its base-10 representation) or is divisible by 7.
CRASH: The number is prime.
FIBBI: The number is a Fibonacci number. The Fibonacci numbers are constructed as follows:
F1 = 1, F2 = 1 and Fn+2 = Fn+1 + Fn. . So F3 = 2 , F4 = 3, F5 = 5, etc.
Thus, the first 6 Fibonacci numbers are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.
POP: The number is the product of two distinct primes.
SQUAWK: The number is the sum of two squares. For example, 9=32 + 02, and 5 = 22 + 12
WHIZZ: The number is square-free (is not divisible by a perfect square other than 1).
ZIP: The number is a perfect k th power with k greater than or equal to 2.
These codewords are not all in force at the beginning, but are introduced or removed gradually at the will of the moderator and in any order. For example, suppose Michael, Deena, Christa, Heath and Amy are still in the game. The codewords Fibbi, Bang, Pop and Zip are in force, and it is Deena’s turn on number 29. The sequence would sound something like this…..
Deena: 29
Please note that a lot of students are likely to fall in the 40’s and 50’s as it is very easy to lose track of what number we’re on. The proctor will not advise the students. It is the responsibility of each student to keep track for themselves even as others are eliminated.
The discussion at this link should help you determine which, if any, of the code words apply to a particular number.
This is what I am considering as a competition or test for my year 12 programing class
For the purposes of this, I will be using only Buzz, Wizz and Pop
The Buzz Contest is the mathematical equivalent of a spelling bee. Its 1992 revival at Texas A&M University marked the 10th anniversary of the last time Texas high school students had played the game at the 1982 Lamar Mathematics Day competition. Since then, this contest has been a popular feature of the Texas A&M University Math Tournament.
The general structure of the game is as follows: The students line up and count off. The first student calls N, where N is an integer between 1 and 20, which is randomly determined, the second student calls N+1, and so on. If a student gets his or her number wrong, he or she is eliminated and the next student in line must say the number the previous student should have said. All of this is done very quickly; a student may be eliminated for "delay of game".
So far, the game as described is too easy. To complicate matters, some numbers are designated as special. When it is a student’s turn to call out a number and that number is special, the student should not say the number, but should instead say some combination of codewords relating to the number. The codewords and their meanings are:
BANG: The number contains a 5 (in its base-10 representation) or is divisible by 5.
BUZZ: The number contains a 7 (in its base-10 representation) or is divisible by 7.
CRASH: The number is prime.
FIBBI: The number is a Fibonacci number. The Fibonacci numbers are constructed as follows:
F1 = 1, F2 = 1 and Fn+2 = Fn+1 + Fn. . So F3 = 2 , F4 = 3, F5 = 5, etc.
Thus, the first 6 Fibonacci numbers are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.
POP: The number is the product of two distinct primes.
SQUAWK: The number is the sum of two squares. For example, 9=32 + 02, and 5 = 22 + 12
WHIZZ: The number is square-free (is not divisible by a perfect square other than 1).
ZIP: The number is a perfect k th power with k greater than or equal to 2.
These codewords are not all in force at the beginning, but are introduced or removed gradually at the will of the moderator and in any order. For example, suppose Michael, Deena, Christa, Heath and Amy are still in the game. The codewords Fibbi, Bang, Pop and Zip are in force, and it is Deena’s turn on number 29. The sequence would sound something like this…..
Deena: 29
Christa: Bang
Heath: 31
Amy: 32 (This is wrong; Amy is eliminated.)
Michael: Zip
Deena: Pop
Christa: Pop, Fibbi
Heath: Bang (This is wrong; Heath is eliminated.)
Amy: Bang Pop (The next number is 36.)
Please note that a lot of students are likely to fall in the 40’s and 50’s as it is very easy to lose track of what number we’re on. The proctor will not advise the students. It is the responsibility of each student to keep track for themselves even as others are eliminated.
The discussion at this link should help you determine which, if any, of the code words apply to a particular number.
Saturday, 26 December 2009
Holiday Reading
From a csta post http://blog.acm.org/archives/csta/2009/12/holiday_reading.html
Ah, the holiday break. Time to relax, catch up on sleep, and perhaps read a book or two. If you are looking for some interesting reading related to CS education, here are three books that I read over the summer and really enjoyed:
Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing, by Jane Margolis, Rachel Estrella, Joanna Goode (CSTA Board Member), Jennifer Jellison Holme, and Kimberly Nao. MIT Press, 2008.
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown & Co., 2008.
Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion, by Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis. Addison-Wesley, 2008.
As a CS teacher, if you haven't read Stuck in the Shallow End yet, you really should. It gives a detailed analysis of factors that have led to our shortage of CS students, especially among women and minorities, and describes the project currently underway in L.A. to try and address these factors. All of Malcolm Gladwell's books are interesting and fun to read. This one looks at characteristics that lead to success (and so complements Margolis' book very nicely). Blown to Bits is a great description of the technological changes going on in society and how they impact our lives. Lots of fascinating facts and anecdotes you can impress your students with ;-).
I have read stuck in the shallow end, I brought the book off amazon, however this time I want to read blown to bits, the dollar at the moment is not good, so I have looked at books.google.com for a copy and found one. Blown to bits-books.google.com
Ah, the holiday break. Time to relax, catch up on sleep, and perhaps read a book or two. If you are looking for some interesting reading related to CS education, here are three books that I read over the summer and really enjoyed:
Stuck in the Shallow End: Education, Race, and Computing, by Jane Margolis, Rachel Estrella, Joanna Goode (CSTA Board Member), Jennifer Jellison Holme, and Kimberly Nao. MIT Press, 2008.
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown & Co., 2008.
Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion, by Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis. Addison-Wesley, 2008.
As a CS teacher, if you haven't read Stuck in the Shallow End yet, you really should. It gives a detailed analysis of factors that have led to our shortage of CS students, especially among women and minorities, and describes the project currently underway in L.A. to try and address these factors. All of Malcolm Gladwell's books are interesting and fun to read. This one looks at characteristics that lead to success (and so complements Margolis' book very nicely). Blown to Bits is a great description of the technological changes going on in society and how they impact our lives. Lots of fascinating facts and anecdotes you can impress your students with ;-).
I have read stuck in the shallow end, I brought the book off amazon, however this time I want to read blown to bits, the dollar at the moment is not good, so I have looked at books.google.com for a copy and found one. Blown to bits-books.google.com
Monday, 21 December 2009
2010 course
since I am not teaching year 13 programming next year, I have brought some of the course forward to year 12.
I am planning on using the csta curriculum, or parts of it to help teach my students.
I am planning on starting with the problem solving part of the course first. This is due to the fact that I want to scare some of the students with what could be involved in the course, as with any course with computers students think that they will just be on the internet playing games. This is false.
The first problem is how to break a 200g cadbury chocolate bar into 12 equal pieces, using he least breaks possible, this is sounding like it is going to be a christmas problem that I will use my family to solve.
I also have to remember that there are two other things that have to be done during this time, 1 is the wai care visit, and second is the design of the screen of a software development project for the university of auckland. These are starting to sound like friday challenges. A new challenge every friday to spice the course up?
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
Small Basic
I have been looking at a number of blogs surrounding programing and they have been talking about a development called small basic, a simple easy to use programming language, which would be great for a year 11 course.
Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/0/6/90616372-C4BF-4628-BC82-BD709635220D/Introducing%20Small%20Basic.pdf
A great blog to look at different things dealing with small basic http://blogs.msdn.com/smallbasic/
Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.
Microsoft Small Basic pdf getting started
A great blog to look at different things dealing with small basic http://blogs.msdn.com/smallbasic/
also http://blogs.msdn.com/paulcornell/archive/tags/Small+Basic/default.aspx who seems to be posting a new method a day at the moment.
Small basic http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx
Small basic http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx
Sunday, 13 December 2009
the national walking trail
While working on design the year 13 web design course, I planned to do some work with the old walkways New Zealand project that there was in the 1980's. There is information on this in the previous blog posts around april/may/june I think.
There is a national walking trail currently being created in New Zealand at the moment, http://www.teararoa.org.nz/ The Long Pathway.
This will be give me some guidance on how I would like the project to end up. Also I have to remember there is some designs in one of my visual diaries about this idea and design.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Google supporting computer science week
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/celebrating-computer-science-education.html
Love this section
Integrating computing curriculum across K-12 core subjects
A group of Google engineers and K-12 "teaching fellows" is working on building and testing models of curriculum to encourage innovation. These curriculum models revolve around "computational thinking", a problem-solving technique that draws on the thinking and analysis skills that computer scientists use everyday. Our goal is to integrate computational thinking across subject areas in K-12 by connecting these skills, which are already a part of core curriculum, more explicitly to computer science. We're also taking this a step further by integrating simple programming concepts in appropriate areas of core K-12 curriculum, such as algebra. Our hope is that by making computer science more visible and showing its connection to every subject area, students will experience the full power and utility of technology in areas of interest to them. Integrating CS into other subjects will also have the key added benefit of leveling the playing field, so that many more students will have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of computing.
Love this section
Integrating computing curriculum across K-12 core subjects
A group of Google engineers and K-12 "teaching fellows" is working on building and testing models of curriculum to encourage innovation. These curriculum models revolve around "computational thinking", a problem-solving technique that draws on the thinking and analysis skills that computer scientists use everyday. Our goal is to integrate computational thinking across subject areas in K-12 by connecting these skills, which are already a part of core curriculum, more explicitly to computer science. We're also taking this a step further by integrating simple programming concepts in appropriate areas of core K-12 curriculum, such as algebra. Our hope is that by making computer science more visible and showing its connection to every subject area, students will experience the full power and utility of technology in areas of interest to them. Integrating CS into other subjects will also have the key added benefit of leveling the playing field, so that many more students will have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of computing.
Personal Teaching Statement
I have been looking for a while at personal teaching statement, and today I found one that is me...
It is called Avoid Passion to Porridge
I have always been impressed by those experiences teachers, educational leaders, school administrators and heads of department who nurture and encourage those teachers who enter with a passion for teaching and ensure that the flame of passion never dies. The same holds true for those teachers who ensure that their students maintain a love for learning. Conversely, I am highly unimpressed by people who use a relentless cynicism to affect some teachers so that their passion turns to a 'porridge-type' performance. Unfortunately we also find that many students have become cynical about learning and have lost that early quality learning and have lost that early quality of curiosity which characterises young children. I am impressed with schools where leaders and teachers are all pushing the same message of personal excellence, persistence and the benefits of a good education. Leadership is exactly that - it is letting everyone know that what we are doing is our schools is important.
If all teachers were to treat their classroom as if it were their own business, say a corner shop, then passion for what they are doing would be the least that their clients expect. We can no longer expect students to be docile Pavlovian learners. They expect to be impressed and motivated by teachers who believe absolutely in their business of education!
It is called Avoid Passion to Porridge
I have always been impressed by those experiences teachers, educational leaders, school administrators and heads of department who nurture and encourage those teachers who enter with a passion for teaching and ensure that the flame of passion never dies. The same holds true for those teachers who ensure that their students maintain a love for learning. Conversely, I am highly unimpressed by people who use a relentless cynicism to affect some teachers so that their passion turns to a 'porridge-type' performance. Unfortunately we also find that many students have become cynical about learning and have lost that early quality learning and have lost that early quality of curiosity which characterises young children. I am impressed with schools where leaders and teachers are all pushing the same message of personal excellence, persistence and the benefits of a good education. Leadership is exactly that - it is letting everyone know that what we are doing is our schools is important.
If all teachers were to treat their classroom as if it were their own business, say a corner shop, then passion for what they are doing would be the least that their clients expect. We can no longer expect students to be docile Pavlovian learners. They expect to be impressed and motivated by teachers who believe absolutely in their business of education!
Monday, 7 December 2009
Three days to go
ahh, three days to go. It seems like this has gone so fast and I have multiple things to do. Will look at posting an image of my post it notes on here tomorrow. But why has it seemed to go so fast, we have had the last three weeks without senios, but I think this is due to the project that we have been working on, all of this takes time. Time that is running out fast, been at a learning management system all today looking at what is coming out in 2010. The biggest fear is the yui file uploaded by yahoo. This means drag and drop uploading. I have a meeting next week in Wellington along more ict developments in schools in new Zealand.
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Software Education project
I have been following a blog since last year, the same time as the iphone were announced for new zealand, and a massive truck protest interrupted a conference that i was at down auckland.
Computing for sustainability, I have been thinking around a project for students to create a game around this subject. It will mean that the students will have to do research on the subject. It is just in the planning design in my mind at the moment.
Through gamemaker, we could the students to create a game that would see the enemy cutting down trees, and you have to plant more trees than they cut down.
Through this I am also looking at our class taking on some responsibility within the school in doing a management project of the school stream. This would be a Visual basic development where students enter the results of the different variables down there. They then would be able to see a change over time. This will mean that the projects that we are working on will fit within a vision of the new curriculum. Especially page 36 of it, which is stated in a sidebar of my blog here. I am looking at sustainability as a classroom focus next year. This could also fit in with the end of year project based learning topic that I am slowing developing...
This was going to be a project that i was going to develop with my year 13 students, but since I am not taking that course next year, I thought i would have a go with my year 12. Considering the stakeholders that are available for this (school science dept, waicare, primary schools)... It is better than the simple educational resource program I have been getting them to create for the past couple of years.
A question for me, is do I bring this same type of sustainability into the year 13 computer applications class as well. Or is that going to be overkill.
Last week of school
Ahh, what a year, the last week of school is now upon me, and I think this year it has snuck up from behind. I have been putting so much into the project that I have completely lost track of time.
I have a meeting on Monday with knowledgeNET, this will be an interesting one, with the SMS <-> LMS operability, as well as the moodle integration into this as well.
I also have to get moodle in schools going on our domain server, this will replace the current moodle installation that I put up this year. It will also mean a way of creating resources for the KN version of moodle as well.
I have schemes for my courses to write for next year, this is or particular interest as I will be teaching a course that I haven't done since 2002, when I first started at the school.
One of the biggest changes will be what type of course will be created for year 13 next year. I have plans for the year 13 web design class,which will involve some serious programming and design to get going.
e-asTTle is still an ongoing concern, I have emailed them requesting some information on what is coming on the next version, though they have not released any information on when it is coming out, or how it will impact on its current resources. Rumours are that there will be changes to the customised testing, when a more comprehensive test will be used.
How am I going to bring the changes that have been designed for the new intranet site, this has been designed in wordpress, yet our school intranet server does not run this currently.
Having some time to think
I thought I had better do another write up, with some extra information for me,
Time it has taken
21st November - Auckland Domain, to go through and find various cache places and puzzles.
22nd November - North Head - too look at locations for waypoint. Also cache making, various shop located to make cache boxes.
25th November - Auckland City to go through various locations for use for 3rd day.
28th November - Auckland Domain, to revise some locations as well as find some more caches and puzzles.
30 November - Drive around suburb to find locations for street orienteering.
1st December - Street orienteering, gps learning. Auckland Domain, to drop off caches boxes and check coordinates.
2nd December - Auckland Domain, Puzzles and Geocaching activities.
3rd December - Race around North Head, and CBD.
4th December - Auckland Domain, to pick up caches, lost Holey tree.
5th December - Auckland Domain, to take some photos to include in the Project poster. Create project poster to send to sponsors, as well as use at school.
Probably did not have enough time on the first day to do what is needed for the GPS.
Too many puzzles on second day, these sheets probably needed randomised to make sure that students did not go to the first cache site all at the same time. Holey Tree was probably a bit had it by the time the last group went, no cache items left.
Third day, the race, needed to get the GPS coordinates in Victoria Park correct to fix this in the future, though I don't know how much of the tunnel project will affect this park next year.
Total cost of the project? This needs to be worked out.
Can we handle more than 32 students, not really.
Geocaching the modern version of a scavenger hunt where we use billion dollar satellite technology to find platic containers (or other caches). It is a fast growing sport/hobby with potential for application in the realm of education. As students search for caches they apply many 21st century skills. The integration of this unique technology adds a "Wow" factor that increases student engagement and motivation.
Benefits to Students
• Understanding of spatial relationships
• Increased student engagement
• Application of geography
• 21st Century Skills (Career-oriented)
• Future technology
• Different learning styles
One of the other things I have to consider when doing all of this is,
Schools should explore not only how ICT can supplement traditional ways of teaching but also how it can open up new and different ways of learning"
-The NZ Curriculum (p36)
Friday, 4 December 2009
final eval
2. What went well in your project?
No one got lost, the students and teachers had a good time and learnt a lot about locations in our own suburb, Auckland Domain, and how to get from one place to another in the Auckland CBD and north head. The students managed to get on really well and worked hard to complete the challenges that were posed to them.
I got to do something I enjoyed.
One of the interesting things was the responses to the text about what was positive.
I likes the 2nd day when we used the GPS thingie. It was way better than the third day.
Coming first on the first day. Im happy that our group did not cheat and did not use other groups to win. We played fairly and we gave it our best! I had heaps of fun! But not when I saw the possem. Lol. I am disappointing that we did not come first =’(.. But oh well.
Hi Sir, I particularly like when we went on the ferry to Devonport. It was fun.
We won man, we won, we came 1st overall
I fully enjoyed the whole event! The clues, the running around the awesome teamwork! I loved the ferry to Devonport! Mint Az, asking people random stuff! But the best part would have been knowing that our team worked hard and didn’t give up and held each other strong. Ooh and the great workout! Hehe. Thanks Sir.
Getting leaded to another area – train tracks! And winning today
It Raining!
Coming first on the first day and the second day.
Everything!
Nothing!
For the future in the distance and the good that we can do. It just so happened that this was one of their final clues at Albert Park.
3. What improvements would you make to your project next time?
The street orienteering had issues on the first day, I managed to make a couple of the clues too cryptic and hard for the students to get the answer. Travel times on the train, I think I need to leave around 9:00 next time, not 9:25.
Bookings on the, not leave it to late again, having one person at school dealing with transport, rather than every group organising there own, especially with the train, many people getting confused when other groups where travelling.
Possibly less puzzles and more caches in the domain exercise, the students enjoyed finding these and texting the puzzle back in them.
Possibly another question at North head next time, as it seemed to be a race up and back to the ferry. Though thinking about it, it was good for them to have that demand put on them at the start.
Don’t rely on GPS software – I used easyGPS and google earth to come up with a puzzle for use at Victoria Park for them to use coordinates to write SKYCITY using their GPS units, this failed because the GPS was not able to go up to the numbers that were shown on the computer.
To collect the caches on the day, due to timing and other issues, tiredness and setting up the next day we were unable to go and collect the geocaches on Wednesday night, instead there were picked up on Friday morning. Losing one of the caches, though it has been interesting getting texts from the public texting the codes in from one of the caches “regeneration” in the domain. I think I received about 6 texts from people that had found this one.
4. What evidence of the students displaying the key competencies in your project did you see over the 3 days?
Where do I start with this one?
Thinking - students had to make sense of the maps, gps coordinates, and puzzles that lead them to various clues, caches and other various tasks. They had to use previous knowledge to solve the final clue on thursday, which was to get the railway stations that we stopped at the previous day in order from location to newmarket south. Some managed this within 30 seconds, others took 15 minutes.
Using Language, symbols and text - this is what the three days was about, there were puzzles, decrypts to solve a puzzle on where caches were, they also had to solve technological puzzles and questions through map reading, gps waypoints and marking where they were.
Managing Self - Self motivation to complete the puzzles and caches were a key factor in this project. The students had a can-do attitude which was evident when we got off the ferry and they had to make their way to victoria park market. The teachers did this in 25 minutes the previous week, the students did it in 10 minutes. The students also had to manage what credit they had on their phone, the SIM cards were provided by 2 degrees and they had loaded money on them for us. It was great to see then respecting this. As for the ferry, they knew when the times were and when they had to be back, all of them arrived within the hour of getting to north head and back before the ferry left.
Relating to others - one of the amazing things throughout this was that the students looked after each other, and the teachers. The negotiated what puzzles and caches they had to go to, what was the best for them. Looking at the north head, they looked at their team members and went, we will go to the top, answer the question and come back down, you rest a while so we can run back to the ferry.
Participating and Contributing - A common purpose soon became evident in this project, to beat the other teams, but there was also something else that came about, it was the concern for the other teams, if a team didn't turn up on time, the others became concerned for them and their safety. Especially when it came to the person following one team, which they rang for help, through it ended up being a possum in a tree.
The GPS units and the software I used to program the coordinates in did not match up for the Victoria Park exercise which means we had to come up with another puzzle for the students to do, it also meant the students were able to come together, talk about what they had done so far, and talk about strategy, which two teams came together to create one. I will have to think about this factor next year about teams getting together for next year.
5. What thoughts do you have about the duration/ timing in the year/ planning time and process?
Planning time, possibly not enough, though most of the planning had to take place near the time the event is run as things are ever changing in the locations that we went to. If it was to be run at another time of year there would not be some of the puzzles in place, I.e count the number of mice in the smith and caughey shop window. This only happens around xmas.
The domain caches need to be setup the night before, though I had been out to the domain the previous three weekends for planning.
Duration, three days was enough, the students probably could have not coped with another full on day of activity.
Timing of the year, it was evident when we jumped on the train and ferry in town, other schools had the same idea as us, though most of them seemed to be primary schools running around. I have to be wary of this next year if using the tunnels as there was a primary school in the tunnels as well.
6. What support would you like to see provided when we do this again in 2010?
Support, I have managed to over spend, by quite a bit, as when we were originally asked what costs would be and ideas, all I thought was transport, but getting the GPS devices, we were originally going to hire these, but the place did not have enough in stock, and they were the wrong type of units, more of one sitting on the dash board of your car. Then getting the items for the caches, not thinking about water or some food for the students. It kind of got out of hand. Though 2degrees did step up and help with providing 36 SIM cards with $8 loaded on each, and Veolia did help out with providing us with a discount on the train travel on day two, which helped fund the teachers travel. I don't want it to go over $20, but looking at all the costs involved; it would have cost the students $75 dollars each. I think I would like a little bit of funding help to be able to run this again, as I see costs as a big issue when doing Education Outside the Classroom
7. Overall organization - what would you like to see changed/improved/done differently?
Better timelines, I know I was lucky to be running the online selection, but the timelines for things seemed to be constantly changing, instead of one person to go to, I had two people, and things not being communicated between the two. Sometimes I felt like the piggy in the middle. I would like to see a cut off when a selection gets too big. One of the things that scared me was when 175 students signed up and around 150 of them turned up outside the Block for the first meeting. I never thought that there would be this much interest.
8. Any new ideas for projects?
Not yet, I think I am getting over this one at the moment. I have had this in my head for a while, and when I was at ulearn09, the ICT conference, I was chatting with an exhibitor about the GPS devices and the workshop that they were running on geocaching. I think I need some time to think about it.
I am a person who wants to do something different each year, I don’t think I can do the same thing, year after year. It is like my teaching. Never the same stuff. Technology changes all the time, and so do I.
No one got lost, the students and teachers had a good time and learnt a lot about locations in our own suburb, Auckland Domain, and how to get from one place to another in the Auckland CBD and north head. The students managed to get on really well and worked hard to complete the challenges that were posed to them.
I got to do something I enjoyed.
One of the interesting things was the responses to the text about what was positive.
I likes the 2nd day when we used the GPS thingie. It was way better than the third day.
Coming first on the first day. Im happy that our group did not cheat and did not use other groups to win. We played fairly and we gave it our best! I had heaps of fun! But not when I saw the possem. Lol. I am disappointing that we did not come first =’(.. But oh well.
Hi Sir, I particularly like when we went on the ferry to Devonport. It was fun.
We won man, we won, we came 1st overall
I fully enjoyed the whole event! The clues, the running around the awesome teamwork! I loved the ferry to Devonport! Mint Az, asking people random stuff! But the best part would have been knowing that our team worked hard and didn’t give up and held each other strong. Ooh and the great workout! Hehe. Thanks Sir.
Getting leaded to another area – train tracks! And winning today
It Raining!
Coming first on the first day and the second day.
Everything!
Nothing!
For the future in the distance and the good that we can do. It just so happened that this was one of their final clues at Albert Park.
3. What improvements would you make to your project next time?
The street orienteering had issues on the first day, I managed to make a couple of the clues too cryptic and hard for the students to get the answer. Travel times on the train, I think I need to leave around 9:00 next time, not 9:25.
Bookings on the, not leave it to late again, having one person at school dealing with transport, rather than every group organising there own, especially with the train, many people getting confused when other groups where travelling.
Possibly less puzzles and more caches in the domain exercise, the students enjoyed finding these and texting the puzzle back in them.
Possibly another question at North head next time, as it seemed to be a race up and back to the ferry. Though thinking about it, it was good for them to have that demand put on them at the start.
Don’t rely on GPS software – I used easyGPS and google earth to come up with a puzzle for use at Victoria Park for them to use coordinates to write SKYCITY using their GPS units, this failed because the GPS was not able to go up to the numbers that were shown on the computer.
To collect the caches on the day, due to timing and other issues, tiredness and setting up the next day we were unable to go and collect the geocaches on Wednesday night, instead there were picked up on Friday morning. Losing one of the caches, though it has been interesting getting texts from the public texting the codes in from one of the caches “regeneration” in the domain. I think I received about 6 texts from people that had found this one.
4. What evidence of the students displaying the key competencies in your project did you see over the 3 days?
Where do I start with this one?
Thinking - students had to make sense of the maps, gps coordinates, and puzzles that lead them to various clues, caches and other various tasks. They had to use previous knowledge to solve the final clue on thursday, which was to get the railway stations that we stopped at the previous day in order from location to newmarket south. Some managed this within 30 seconds, others took 15 minutes.
Using Language, symbols and text - this is what the three days was about, there were puzzles, decrypts to solve a puzzle on where caches were, they also had to solve technological puzzles and questions through map reading, gps waypoints and marking where they were.
Managing Self - Self motivation to complete the puzzles and caches were a key factor in this project. The students had a can-do attitude which was evident when we got off the ferry and they had to make their way to victoria park market. The teachers did this in 25 minutes the previous week, the students did it in 10 minutes. The students also had to manage what credit they had on their phone, the SIM cards were provided by 2 degrees and they had loaded money on them for us. It was great to see then respecting this. As for the ferry, they knew when the times were and when they had to be back, all of them arrived within the hour of getting to north head and back before the ferry left.
Relating to others - one of the amazing things throughout this was that the students looked after each other, and the teachers. The negotiated what puzzles and caches they had to go to, what was the best for them. Looking at the north head, they looked at their team members and went, we will go to the top, answer the question and come back down, you rest a while so we can run back to the ferry.
Participating and Contributing - A common purpose soon became evident in this project, to beat the other teams, but there was also something else that came about, it was the concern for the other teams, if a team didn't turn up on time, the others became concerned for them and their safety. Especially when it came to the person following one team, which they rang for help, through it ended up being a possum in a tree.
The GPS units and the software I used to program the coordinates in did not match up for the Victoria Park exercise which means we had to come up with another puzzle for the students to do, it also meant the students were able to come together, talk about what they had done so far, and talk about strategy, which two teams came together to create one. I will have to think about this factor next year about teams getting together for next year.
5. What thoughts do you have about the duration/ timing in the year/ planning time and process?
Planning time, possibly not enough, though most of the planning had to take place near the time the event is run as things are ever changing in the locations that we went to. If it was to be run at another time of year there would not be some of the puzzles in place, I.e count the number of mice in the smith and caughey shop window. This only happens around xmas.
The domain caches need to be setup the night before, though I had been out to the domain the previous three weekends for planning.
Duration, three days was enough, the students probably could have not coped with another full on day of activity.
Timing of the year, it was evident when we jumped on the train and ferry in town, other schools had the same idea as us, though most of them seemed to be primary schools running around. I have to be wary of this next year if using the tunnels as there was a primary school in the tunnels as well.
6. What support would you like to see provided when we do this again in 2010?
Support, I have managed to over spend, by quite a bit, as when we were originally asked what costs would be and ideas, all I thought was transport, but getting the GPS devices, we were originally going to hire these, but the place did not have enough in stock, and they were the wrong type of units, more of one sitting on the dash board of your car. Then getting the items for the caches, not thinking about water or some food for the students. It kind of got out of hand. Though 2degrees did step up and help with providing 36 SIM cards with $8 loaded on each, and Veolia did help out with providing us with a discount on the train travel on day two, which helped fund the teachers travel. I don't want it to go over $20, but looking at all the costs involved; it would have cost the students $75 dollars each. I think I would like a little bit of funding help to be able to run this again, as I see costs as a big issue when doing Education Outside the Classroom
7. Overall organization - what would you like to see changed/improved/done differently?
Better timelines, I know I was lucky to be running the online selection, but the timelines for things seemed to be constantly changing, instead of one person to go to, I had two people, and things not being communicated between the two. Sometimes I felt like the piggy in the middle. I would like to see a cut off when a selection gets too big. One of the things that scared me was when 175 students signed up and around 150 of them turned up outside the Block for the first meeting. I never thought that there would be this much interest.
8. Any new ideas for projects?
Not yet, I think I am getting over this one at the moment. I have had this in my head for a while, and when I was at ulearn09, the ICT conference, I was chatting with an exhibitor about the GPS devices and the workshop that they were running on geocaching. I think I need some time to think about it.
I am a person who wants to do something different each year, I don’t think I can do the same thing, year after year. It is like my teaching. Never the same stuff. Technology changes all the time, and so do I.
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