What emerges from under the bed

Games and what emerges from the games are not the same thing. This seems an essential message in teacher education getting excited at the idea of game based learning. However its not as simple as deciding on a game to play as it requires making sense of how games work, specifically in balancing mastery and [...]

TweetFighter3 – How to flash blind teachers

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Dean Groom @ large A three part Easter bonanza post about how Twitter makes people flash-blind because no one speaks the same language, why Twitter might be useful for literary analysis and TweetFighter3 – another FREE game I’ve invented following on from Shelly’s awesome [...]

The Downtime Learner theory

I’ve followed Steve Wheeler’s recent commentary on Twitter and personal learning networks and thought I’d extend on the discussion, as I see these things a little differently. Have blog, will theorise. One of my pet theories is that digital learning for in-service teachers is best served on the run, in short bursts anywhere you can [...]

TweetFighter 2 – A better way to demo Twitter at conferences

The #tweetshout has become a familiar sight at conferences and workshops. Typically “#hashtag – tell these people why you use Twitter” type activity. This is transmission – and kind of dull. It doesn’t really demonstrate much more than you and push button radio. It has some novelty factor, but almost immediately people don’t see themselves [...]

3 key reasons Twitter is essential for teachers

Does using Twitter make teachers smarter? Surely they would not use it so avidly if it made them stupid. I believe it does make them smart, firstly, because it creates smart-sets of passionate people volunteering to join extended networks with socially understood values. Second, its smarter to be in a set – as many eyes [...]

What do you see in games?

What do teachers see in massive multiplayer games, that they are not finding in other technologies? I’ve been around a while and shown a lot of teachers plenty of technology for learning. In the last year I find that where many were highly skeptical of things such as blogs and wikis, I don’t get the [...]

How to teach with Minecraft in an hour

Somewhere around midnight yesterday, I updated and revisted Minecraft after reading about the latest updates. I’ve been there before, and to be honest, didn’t put enough time into it. Let me explain why Minecraft is a breakthough moment in gaming. Firstly it’s really simple, block based, lego-like and very 8 bit nostalgia. Secondly, it’s not [...]

The keyboard and mouse is dead

Okay, there a moments where you just fall off your chair and say – that is going to change everything. The keyboard and mouse just died. This technology, along with things that many teachers are never even knew happened – like QR codes – is a great example of just how irrelevant so much of [...]