Category: EdTech Posts

I’ve always enjoyed playing games. As I said in my Minecraft post, I was an avid Minecrafter back in the day. A few other games I’ve enjoyed playing are Stardew Valley, Civilization VI, and Cities Skylines. And of course, I used to spend many hours trying to convince my mom why an extra hour of the latest Mario or Pokemon game was actually really beneficial for my brains development. I can’t say I ever really convinced her, but using video games as an educational tool has always been something that I’ve been interested in.

I want to keep these posts mostly short and sweet, so I’m going to explore one game that I think has some educational value, rather than trying to create a comprehensive list.

This game, called Kerbal Space Program, has a lot of educational potential in my opinion. In this game, players create rockets to fly wherever they want, for any purpose they want. The interesting part of the game is that it realistically follows aerodynamic and orbital physics. There are a TON of intricacies in this game, and far more than I could explain in a single blog post. In order to get a better understanding of how the game actually works, please check out this really interesting video below of a Mars Rover engineer building a Mars Rover in the game.

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I’ve never been a big podcast guy. I like reading and I like listening to music, and so you would think it would have been a natural progression for me at some point. I think that in some ways, I feel like I’ve missed getting on the podcast train, and it can be a little awkward hearing people discuss their favorite podcasts when I have nothing to offer. However, a presentation from some classmates helped me start to catch up. Through class input and discussion, my eyes were really opened up to the huge potential for this form of media. For personal use, I think scientific podcasts sound really interesting – one that peaked my interest was hidden brain. I’ve also been a huge fantasy nerd my entire life, so the idea of a Dungeons and Dragons podcast is also super intriguing. Again, I don’t have a huge breadth of knowledge in this area, but I believe Critical Role is the most popular.

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In EdTech, I was reintroduced to the term “unconference.” An unconference is essentially a user-generated conference. Participants are able to choose and potentially lead whatever topic they are interested in. A big part of unconferences are the idea that participants can choose to learn about what they really are interested in. I had heard of it before, but I had never been able to experience it first hand. Luckily for me, our instructor ran us through a mini unconference that I think was really useful for not only learning about unconferences, but also learning about the actual topic I chose to learn about.

Below, I’ve attached a video showing an overview of an unconference that happened here in Victoria in 2015.

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Just wanted to share this cool trick that our instructor Michael showed us the other day. I’ve made many a PowerPoint presentation in my time at UVic, but I never knew about this! I think the easiest way for me to explain it is just to show it. Take a look at the video below, which I recorded with OBS, an open source screen capture software (read more about it here).

I’ll admit it. I was hugely into Minecraft for a good chunk of my life. I still remember the excitement being a 12-year old and playing it for the very first time. To be honest, I felt a lot of the same excitement when I heard that we would be exploring the educational qualities of Minecraft in our EdTech class. We had a Middle School Teacher and students come visit our class to discuss how they used Minecraft to learn in their classroom. If you’re new to Minecraft EDU or Minecraft in general, feel free to click this link or check out the video below in order to get some background information.

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Recently, I was able to visit the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) with on a field trip with my EdTech class. PSII is a secondary school located in the downtown area of Victoria. It offers its students a unique method of inquiry-based learning. Students at PSII do not attend any regular classes, and are said to navigate through the curriculum solely by the completion of large, in-depth inquiry projects. Teachers at the school are there to help guide students along their inquiries. Please feel free to read up on their website to learn more about the specifics of the school. Also, check out this TED talk by Jeff Hopkins, the founder and principal of PSII.

I have to admit, I have been very skeptical of the inquiry-based learning model that seems to be held in such high regard by some educators, but my time at PSII helped me overcome some of my misconceptions and apprehension.

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The other day in EdTech, we played around screen capture and voice recording. These days, I think most students are familiar with the idea of screen-capture videos. From my own time in first year calculus and physics, I can say that I spent many nights watching Khan Academy videos in order to better understand tricky concepts. So, I wanted to see if I’d be able to make something similar!

Note:  This video isn’t meant to truly explain any concepts, it’s just me playing around. Also, the bottom got a bit cut off.

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In my EdTech class the other day, we were asked to watch a documentary called “Most Likely to Succeed”. It tells the story of students and teachers attending High Tech High, an alternative school in which students explore curriculum through “project-based learning” rather than the traditional format of lectures, homework, and tests. Before continuing, I would encourage you to watch the film if possible, or at least watch the trailer to obtain some additional context.

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