Category Archives: M.E.T Program Boise State University

Subject related assignments and findings from my Masters of Educational Technology degree at Boise State University.

by - 0 comments

PLC or PLN… is there a difference?

Overflowing dam

Does your twitter feed make you feel like this?

Calm waters

Or like this..

A learning community is a group of people who are brought together to share and generate knowledge in a mutually supportive and reciprocal manner (Misanchuk et al, 1997)

So how is a Professional Learning Community (PLC) different from a Professional Learning Network (PLN)?

This is the question that popped in to my head after this week’s Edtech521 lesson and various online activities.  I’m a MASSIVE fan of PLNs and I realised that a PLC is almost the same thing with perhaps with a little more “forced” or “required” interaction from its users because it is more than like not a self organising system.

As Sugata Mitra says

“Education is a self organising system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon.”

https://ted.com/talks/view/id/949

And herein lies the difference, in my opinion, a PLN is a self organising system.  A network of like-minded individuals who are connected and organised through various networked systems, like Twitter and LinkedIn, that provide constant learning.  Learning is certainly the emergent phenomenon I have been getting ever since joining “groups” within LinkedIn and following thought-leaders and experts in the field of Education and Edtech on Twitter.

Initially it is an overwhelming experience, your inbox is bombarded with discussion posts from LinkedIn and the Twitter feed just gushes by like the overflow from a dam. However pretty quickly you realise that you don’t need to keep up, you live in a digital world, it’s not going away. It will still be there, those posts will still be there… and suddenly it dawns on you, these connections are not going away, they are your new peers, colleagues, mentors, experts and possibly even future friends.  Once you make that realisation then you start to share and give back to the network / community and so it goes…

by - 1 Comment

Are you disturbed by what games can do to your kids?

After watching this TED Talk by David Perry, “Are games better than life?” I have developed an idea about the path we are on as a society, especially in relation to the next generation of gamers.  But the question is, does it have to be this way?

Wow what a thought and opinion provoking piece indeed.  I found the student’s video to be quite disturbing at times and even a bit long or OTT (over the top!).  But it does point to a common theme or narrative with gaming. That is that before we as individuals can realise the benefits gaming “could” have for our society we have to go through quite a dark period of losing sleep, health, focus on our relationships and almost reach breaking point before … bam! we realise that games are not better than life, life is all there is and it is the best reality. Perhaps we need a “virtual reality” to help us appreciate our current reality but do we really have to take our close family and friends to the brink… before we ourselves realise it.

“…play enough video games and eventually you will believe you can…. kill a man. I know I can.”

Is this really what we want our kids learning?

This is the dark area of games that “gamers” rarely want to discuss. It is far too often glossed over with… “but look at the possible positive benefits here and there, look what it could do..” .  But I feel the reality is far from these potential positives and much closer to the statement above from the student in the video.

I have an older brother with down syndrome and several years ago he did something quite disturbing which was directly related to a game.  He received The Matrix game one birthday and not long after Mum called to tell me he’d put a huge hole in their bathroom wall.  He had been trying to “walk” up the wall, like you can in the game. WTF? Most of us would probably laugh at that and say, yeah but he’s disabled, no “normal” person would try to do that. Really?… Really? I think David Perry’s video says it all.
The average Joe who plays video games, if he plays enough or if game makers keep trying to make people “believe” they can do anything, will eventually believe it can….

“… kill a man. I know I can.”

My brother is okay and the wall was patched. It took quite a bit of explaining about the realities of the game vs real life but I think it has sunk in.  He’s an Xbox fan from way back and has been playing James Bond and other first person shooters for a while.  Thankfully we’re in Australia and don’t have America’s gun laws… or it might be a very different and tragic story.

by - 0 comments

Can games SAVE our world?… crazy, but could she be right?

Jane McGonical from the Institute for the Future has one seriously impressive vision and that is that Gamers can take the skills they learn through millions of hours of gaming and apply them to the real world to creatively solve societies problems.  Wow… can we? Could it be possible?

I discovered this video via Worp’s Blog, after he commented on my previous post.  You’ve gotta love random connections like that which just allow your brain to go WOW! (Oh and WoW gamers please excuse the pun).

Now before you click on the video below, please make sure you can watch it until the end. When I first started watching it I thought she was a little loopy, and at one point completely insane.  But remember when we thought the world was flat? And explorers would spend their lives sailing the oceans looking for what was out there, discovering new species, new lands, new medicines and bringing them home to learn, share and grow from that knowledge.  (Yes there were terrible side affects too like the spread of disease etc and destruction of ancient civilisations as well, but let’s just focus on the positives right now).

So are gamers our new world explorers? Are they devoting their lives to learning the skills required to help our species evolve and develop the collective consciousness to solve society’s ills?  Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Here are links to two of the games she mentions for the real world, I’m off to play them now.
World without Oil and Evoke.

by - 1 Comment

Rewards are the real key behind the future gamification of learning

Having just watched Tom Chatfield explain the 7 ways that games reward the brain I am amazed at the Mathematics behind it all. It’s just so obvious and I should have twigged, even my wife who works for an online shopping company is always raving about how much “data” they have. Absolutely everything and anything can be measured, I mean it’s really all just about zeros and ones.

So why didn’t Education think of it sooner?

Instead of us all, yes we’re all guilty at some point, saying “I wish those kids would stop playing video games and go outside and run around”, we should have been observing their behaviour and asking the question – why are those games so engaging?
As Tom Chatfield explains, by studying the behaviour of gamers we can learn something about learning. So what is there to learn?

Well as a part the closed beta test for 3D GameLab I’m gaining valuable feedback on how to design quests for gaming.  It just so happens that this afternoon I was discussing my quest group with a fellow gamer (secretly a teacher!) who had been testing my quests. What he told me just made so much sense, here are some of the tips + a few others in reference to what Chatfield said:

  1. Start with easy quests, keep it linear, nothing too long, nothing too hard, simple, achievable targets (like find a pie in a box, or some number between 5-20).
  2. Keep these easy quests coming and give good solid rewards that motivate them to continue (like the 25% chance of finding a pie – give them a special reward after every 4 quests).
  3. Slowly begin increasing the difficulty and time required, just enough so that they will put the effort in because it is worth it and they are already invested in achieving a milestone. (Perhaps it’s a rank or a bonus prize).
  4. Then have some easier quests again (like the 75% chance of finding a pie).  So they make it too their goal motivated to keep going.
  5. Design collaborative quests such that they cannot complete them unless they work with others (the key factor!).

Now put these factors together and add elements like a progress bar and an incredible teacher who knows how to use game-based learning in a blended learning environment and I think we’ll see improved engagement and outcomes.  It’s what I plan to do, and something like 3D GameLab looks like one of the first tools that could help me do it.

by - 0 comments

3D GameLab Learnings

In this post and several that will follow I’ll be documenting my involvement and learnings from the closed beta test of 3D GameLab.

So what is 3D GameLab? Check out this video for a quick preview.


It’s Day 3 – Australian time which means some of my other global teaching peers have only been at it for only 48 hours, and some of them would definitely have been going full-on for those 48hrs.

I’m intrigued, I’m amazed, I’m excited, I’m overwhelmed.

Game-based learning or Quest-based learning is truly a fascinating methodology.  There is so much potential and freedom in the design of micro-quests for simple instructional tasks and macro-quests for more complex teachings.

However you don’t ever really get a sense of the big picture, how much do I need to know, is there an end? What is the end? Chris Haskell one of the brilliant minds behind the system along with Dr. Lisa Dawley from the Edtech Department at Boise State University refers to an XP (Exeperience points) winning condition of 2000 or similar.  I guess that is just more power to the game right? You as the teacher / creator / designer / educator get to decide what it is for your class. No more grades, just standards that you know your students need to meet and XP.

You can reward them along the way virtually with badges and achievements and if you’re a true blended instructor you’ll link those virtual rewards with something in the real world as well. Think about it? Instead of doing 20 questions, have students achieve 200XP and they can get a 5 minute early mark or play another game.

… but I wonder, will they just keep playing 3D GameLab to try and get more XP so they can “beat” their best friend in the game.  That might just be the power of 3D GameLab.  Only time will tell.

by - 0 comments

Tech Use Plan Presentation

Here is a presentation designed for those educational organisations looking to develop a Technology Use Plan (TUP) or Strategy for using ICT (Information Communication Technology). Please feel free to use and share as long as you give credit to moi. =)

Unfortunately WordPress has an issue with embedding Google Docs presentations so you’ll have to use a boring URL. Also if you want to get all the detail click on the actions drop down menu and select view speakers notes and you’ll see what I would present alongside the slides themselves.
Tech Use Plan presentation by Doug Vass

(Actual path in case you were interested).
https://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dg52zqkj_0cmjnt2dw

Please comment and share, as I mention in the presentation, feedback is essential!
Thanks, Doug