Davis,+Schluep,+Weaver_purposegames.com_+Ward_Web+2.0

Welcome to Purposegames.com Technology Presentation! = Meet your presenters.... = Aimee Davis || My name is Aimee Davis and I am excited to be completing the last semester of my Master's Degree in Instructional Technology. I teach first grade in the Riverside Local School District and everyday is an adventure! When I have time between "schools" I enjoy traveling, jogging, golfing, grilling out, and really any activity that can be completed outdoors. || Kelly Weaver || Hello! My name is Kelly Weaver. I am almost finished completing my Master's Degree in Instructional Technology from the University of Akron. I currently am in my eighth year of teaching at Parma Senior High School as a high school mathematics teacher. Outside of teaching and earning my degree I love to golf, bike, hang with family and friends, and cheer on any Ohio sports team playing! || Beau Schluep || I'm a history teacher turned tech student. The first eight years of my career I taught history and geography across grades seven through twelve. Now, I've decided to improve my tech skills and create more opportunity by pursuing an Instructional Technology Master's at the University of Akron. After I've earned my degree I plan to obtain a position as a school or districts technology coach. While not teaching and learning, I spend time with my daughter and stay active. ||
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= An Overview =

Purposegames.com is a unique website offering educational games. Teachers and students can play existing educational games, or create their own. This site offers two different formats of games; question and answer, and identifying or naming parts relating to vocabulary from a wide range of concepts. The site records student times and accuracy for each game played, and these scores can be easily tracked by the teacher. Additionally, teachers can create groups and set up tournaments between students. This allows for students and teachers to have fun competitions against themselves or others.

= The presentation =

The Overview: By Aimee
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Implementation: By Kelly
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Creating Resources: By Beau
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*Please note that we did merge these videos together using iMovie; however, the file size was then too large to upload to this wiki or youtube. We apologize for the inconvenience.

= Articles =

The articles included in this section of the presentation provide evidence for implementing games as a learning resource in the classroom.

http://nation.time.com/2013/11/06/making-the-next-generation-of-educational-video-games/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131106122025.htm

http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf

http://www.fas.org/gamesummit/Resources/Summit%20on%20Educational%20Games.pdf

http://digital.hechingerreport.org/content/using-video-games-to-enhance-teaching-and-learning_258/

http://hechingered.org/content/education-nation-why-educators-arent-sold-on-video-games_5622/

@http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-08-20/news/8902260941_1_munchers-computer-educational-games

@http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2007-01-02/features/0612290352_1_educational-games-game-sales-video-games

[|__http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no2/pollanen.htm__]

@http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/keyword/educational-games

= Content Uses = From watching the presentation, you have learned that a variety of academic concepts can be reinforced through the implementation purposegames.com. Really, games for all subject areas can be created; however, the site excels with science and social studies content. Science and Social Studies often require students to memorize and label, and the tools provided by purposegames.com are particularly strong in this area. The following NETS Standards are exercised through the use of this site.

NETS for Teachers (NETS-T)

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
 * Purposegames.com allows teachers to design, adapt, and develop relevant digital learning experiences customized for diverse abilities.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning
 * Teachers implementing purposegames.com in their classroom will demonstrate fluency in technology systems and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools.

NETS for Students (NETS-S)

1. Creativity and Innovation
 * Students who excel academically can create games to showcase their knowledge and enhance technology skills.

2. Communication and Collaboration
 * Students have the opportunity to hone digital communication and collaboration skills through participating in the discussion boards and forums.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts
 * Younger students are able to develop basic digital navigation skills (keyboarding, mousing, scrolling, opening and closing windows) through practicing academic skills on purposegames.com.

(International Society for Technology in Education, 2013)

= Pedagogical Considerations and TPCK = Pedagogy can be simply defined as what you know, as a professional, to be true about teaching and learning. As you know, technology minded educators such as graduate students at the University of Akron need to not only focus on our pedagogy, but strive to integrate our pedagogy with content knowledge and technology to create the most effective environment for student learning. When using purposegames.com in your classroom, it would be important to consider the appropriateness of the site in correlation with the content you are covering and teaching methods (pedagogy) you know to be beneficial for your students. To understand these three things separately is the beginning step. To truly embody the TPCK philosophy, you must not only understand these words separately. they must intertwine during a lesson (AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology, 2008).

Purposegames.com provides many subject areas the opportunity for proper implementation of the TPCK model. One such subject is social studies. In social studies, it is important to not just memorize, but also understand and be able to discuss a region of study’s history, culture, language, economy, and government. Many of the causes of these characteristics of a region are the result of physical geography. Therefore, learning the physical geography of a region is a great place to start, before moving into higher-level topics. However, learning a region’s physical geography can be boring, or seem unimportant to a student. That is why making a game out of the memorization of a region’s physical geography is very effective. Purposegames.com has provided my classroom with a medium in which students can quickly learn the physical characteristics of a region while having fun.

One example of how this was effective comes from a World History class I taught at Hanahan High School in South Carolina. I hadn't previously used the site formally in class, but some students were familiar with how it worked and had some practice. We were preparing to study World War II and the students needed a better understanding of the physical characteristics of Europe that influence the war. However, the age-old problem of insufficient time was an issue. So, I called on purposegames.com to help me out. I asked the students to examine physical map of Europe in their textbook. I provided a list of physical features that they needed to be able to locate. I challenged the class to memorize as much of a list of important physical features as they could in three minutes. Then, I demonstrated the [|Europe Physical Map Quiz] on the smart board and challenged the class to beat my time, knowing that I’d have at least a few students attempt to beat the teacher at his own game. The whole class had fun watching several of their classmates try to beat my score and time. They thought they were just watching a competition, but they were also learning the geography of Europe. Then, after watching how long it took their fellow classmates to complete the map quiz, I told the students to write down a goal for their own time. I assigned my students to meet their goal, or beat and reset a new goal. Since I only had two computers in the class and I knew that not all students had computers at home, I gave the students three nights to meet their goal. In addition, I suggested students challenge a classmate and have fun competing for the best time. I offered my classroom’s computers for after or before school use, and I offered to write a pass to come to my class during lunch to practice. I don’t remember the exact numbers, nor do I have them available, but I remember being very happy with the results. Nearly every student met their goal and many had fun competing against their friends. = = This is just one example of the TPCK model’s effective implementation in a social studies classroom. With limited time to ensure mastery of the foundational knowledge of World War II’s European campaign, technology was implemented with great success. = =

= Professional Growth and Leadership =

The following is an email correspondence Beau had with purposegames.com in regard to their advertisements and the site structure's usability. To Whom it May Concern: I am a teacher with nine years experience and an Instructional Technology graduate student. For several years I have enjoyed using your site for my own pleasure and learning, as well as for my students. However, there are some aspects of the site that are limiting its positive learning influence in more classrooms and with more students. In one of my current grad courses, Integrating & Implementing Technology, my group decided to use your site as an example of how technology can be implemented in the classroom. My partners' school have your site blocked. We hypothesize that one reason the site is blocked is because of some of the adds that are on the site. The site is also probably listed as a game site, which might be unavoidable. However, many teachers won't be able to use this site because of the ads, even after they have the district unblock it. I strongly believe that the site would receive a great deal more traffic if the types of advertisements were monitored more closely for school-age appropriateness. I have been lucky to be able to successfully use this great resource, however, navigation around the site is sometimes complicated. I ask you to review the site structure to determine if alterations can be made to create a more user friendly site. If this is an option, I'd be happy to share more details of my experiences working with your site.

Thank you, Beau Schluep

Purposegames responded within 24 hours: Dear Mr. Schluep,

We're very grateful for your mail. We're also very happy that you are able to use the site in your class. That's the very idea behind the site.

As for the ads, it's unfortunately necessary for us to use ads in order to afford to have the site going. Where it comes to the quality of the ads, we agree that it is sometimes not the best. We do however strive to keep it clean from less than respectable ads as we are using Google's ad services for our site. But even that doesn't help sometimes. But rest assured, we do block every ad we find questionable as soon as we come across it. Should you see ads that you find questionable we implore you write to us and tell us the company name of that ad and we'll remove it instantly.

There is of course the possibility of going for a subscription model instead of using ads. However, we doubt the site's followers would appreciate that.

Your final query about the structure of the site; yes, we agree. We are currently re-shaping it for what we believe will be for the better, both from an ease of navigation view and also making it easier to find interesting games to learn from.

That said, we sincerely hope you and the other schools in your district will be able to use PurposeGames.com. You should all know that we're ever so grateful for your support and we understand fully the frustration that can come from the points that you are addressing in your e-mail to us.

If you have any further comments or questions, don't hesitate to contact us again.

Best regards, The PurposeGames Team

Beau's response to PurposeGames: PurposeGames Team,

Your prompt and thorough response demonstrates your commitment to excellence and integrity.

I will let you know when/if I see any inappropriate ads. Now that I know how it works (Google's ad service) it makes more sense how that can happen. And, you are correct, I prefer ads over subscribing.

As far as the site structure is concerned, I have noticed improvements in just the last year. Is that just me getting more comfortable with the site, or have you been working on it?

Below is a screencast that is one-third of a presentation about your site and how it can be used in an educational setting. This is my portion. We will be sharing our completed presentation with the entire class of grad students, most of whom are teachers. The idea is to teach them how to integrate this technology into education and inspire them to use it. Enjoy. http://screencast-o- matic.com/watch/c2VZbdniRk  This pdf chronicles our correspondence while developing our group's Technology Integration and Implementation presentation and wiki.

= URL =

www.purposegames.com

= References =

AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology. (2008).Handbook of technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpck) for educators. New York, NY: Routledge.

International Society for Technology in Education. (2013).Nets for coaches. United States of America: