“The Hadeda Ibis is a heavy bodied brown bird with iridescent pink shoulder patches and a long de-curved bill.”

It makes a “delightful” noise when calling. This is to be the name of a application in development. It will allow a teacher to type in a list of spelling words through a web browser. The use is NOT limited to spelling but a myriad of possibilities immediately present themselves. Second language lexicon, sign language the periodic table…. basically anything that is a list that you need to drill. An interactive function would enable this application to be more engaging to students, in a way personalizing content. Something that at the moment is taking place with students spending hours paging though magazines and cutting relevant pictures. It would be so much more meaningful it students could take examples out of their everyday life. Watch this space for updates on the development…

We are in tweaking the interface after very valuable input from members of the development team. I think that we are now nearing to what the initial idea was. I have been thinking of a few enhancements to work in on the version 2. I suppose one can now say we are on on version 1.3 and at risk of patting ourselves on the back… I LIKE.
The notable changes are that we have incorporated more of an hierarchy and have taken away the initial “mobile phone” entrance point, a hints and help has been incorporated and a preview is now a feature. The naming of sections have changed from ” Presentation” to “Workbook” and from “slide” to “page” as it was felt this is more representative of the function.

For version 1 I would still like to tweak (add) multiple instances on the phone. For example that you are able to load ” group1_Periodic table” and “group2_Periodic table” on the same phone. We are already adding a “IMPORT/EXPORT” function which will allow users to import instances of workbooks to use. We have submitted to do a workshop at the INNOVATE conference and the theme is going to be ” An African Safari” We are still working on a “Result Presentation” for lack of a better word now… to display feedback from users.

For version 2 I would like to add video capabilities, photo feedback and voice feedback. I think that the component approach we now have will go along way to accommodate this. I would like to see a collaborative version as well where you can create two separate workbooks simultaneously. Currently this has to be done asynchronous but is already possible.

I was speaking to a Sport coordinator today and we will be trying IGLOO out as a attendance register as soon as there packaged version available. This is a very exiting turn of events because I must be honest that was the VERY last application that I thought about. I hope in time to come that users will still be able to use it in other unpredictable ways!

The Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum Awards were held in Sandton Johannesburg yesterday. The winners were Sarietjie Musgrave, of Eunice High, in the Free State; Thamsanqa Makhathini, from Mpophomeni High School, in KwaZulu-Natal; Jacqueline Batchelor, of Cornwall Hill College, in Gauteng; and Peter de Lisle, of Hilton College, in KwaZulu-Natal. They walked away with prizes and roundtrip tickets to compete against more than 100 teachers in the worldwide finals in November.

Trudi van Wyk, national director of curriculum innovation at the Department of Education was the keynote speaker. She commented that “It’s always inspiring to see the levels of home-grown innovation that our educators can create,”

It was obvious when discussing the entries that ICT’s are able to make significant contributions to education and the way in which teaching and learning takes place. These were a few showcase examples of the potential of technology to engage learners. I was very encouraged to hear a common theme amongst all who spoke. Firstly that the teachers need to be recognized for their contributions and secondly the commitment of so many major role players to integrate ICT’s into the educational lives of all the learners in South Africa.

What would be more suitable than incorporating Mobile Phones in this endeavor. Research has shown that most learners have access to these potentially powerful devices and need minimal training!

Yesterday the second Games and Learning Indaba took place at the University of Johannesburg. In total there were 33 people who attended. Amongst the attendees were representatives from Meraka Institute,various universities, and a number of teachers.

Steve Vosloo from the Shuttleworth Foundation blogs on these events and if you are interested have a read. I will not rehash everything but would like to quote him …” point that everyone seemed to agree upon was that gaming, as an element of an increasingly digitally mediated world, is forcing educators to rethink how they teach and how learners learn at a very fundamental level, in a way that talks to youth today”

Professor Alan Amory, a dynamic and seasoned academic presented and I agree with Steve that the following quote sums up one of his fundamental beliefs about games and learning:

I don’t think you learn from technology, you learn with technology. When you are designing a learning activity, that is the object of the exercise. The tools, e.g. games, that you use to mediate that learning can be very complex or very simple. That’s a very different way to think about games. It’s not the thing – the game – that is important, it’s what you do with the thing that counts.

All games are socially constructed and have ideologies embedded in them, e.g. those of the game designers and developers. That is why there are games that promote gender bias. That doesn’t matter as long as the game is used as a tool to explore the topic of gender. It is essential to deconstruct these socially constructed artifacts. The process of deconstruction, where the game is used as the discussion starter about violence, gender bias, male dominance, etc. is where the real learning with games occurs.

Personally I believe that there is not only education through games but also education in existing, be it commercial games.

Here are links and summaries taken from the websites to some of the Games that were mentioned:
MathsterMind: Nautical Numerals

“Adding a dash of Master Mind-style play mechanics to a solid substrate of maths learning, MathsterMind is a casual puzzler for your phone.

Embodying the concept of Guerilla Learning, Mathstermind is about having fun and just happening to get better at maths while earning achievements and unlocking new gameplay modes.”

Cartesian Chaos:
“Cartesian Chaos is an action packed monster electrocution game which teaches players the fundamentals of graph mathematics. Cartesian Chaos makes learning about the cartesian plane enjoyable, so it’s great for teaching students, but is also a good mental workout for anyone wanting to keep their mind sharp.”

OpenSpell:
“OpenSpell is a wacky, educational game that targets spelling skills, especially designed for kids in developing regions. It has been released free of charge in all 11 official South African languages. It is easy to use and easy to edit, so teachers can modify this game to suit their classroom, curriculum, and dialect.” Developed through the CSIR’s Human Language Technologies unit.

I want to commend Steve on his initiative and really hope that this initial momentum can be sustained. We certainly will be involved and supporting this endeavor! There is a Google group that has formed and you can get involved through them.