Mining English: Student Journal Example (Verbatim)

July 9th

-----Minecraft World-----

We were in the small island.

Today, We were going to built our house in here.

Before we started, I had explored around the island to find a nice place for our house.

Finally, I found a really nice plain, it's next to a mountain, many animals live in there.

It would be an useful farm.

We suggested each ideas to design our house.

Finally, we decided as follows.

*The house is a two story house. The range of each floor is 16*16*8(actually, I don't remember each numbers clearly...).

*Use wooden planks to construct the standard of our house.

*Make a double door.

*Set windows on each walls.

*Place torches on each floor.

We started building our house.

I put wooden planks on the plain to make the floorboard.

It was hard work to correct stuffs.

Finally, We finished building the first floor.

Next week, We will built the second floor and fight monsters.

I'm looking forward to do it.

July 16th

We continued building our house.

We didn't have much time, so we had to do it as soon as possible.

click... click... click......

We had spend a lot of wooden planks quickly.

Finally, We had done it!

As I wrote, the range of our house is 16*16*(8+8). Our house looks like a big square.

However, it may save us from monster's attack.

Then, monsters had appeared.

Zombies... Skeletons... Creepers...

I know how to beat animals, but I didn't know how to kill monsters.

We swung swords to kill monsters.

Some players was died, and revived.

Suddenly a creeper exploded, Sadly our house was broken.

After we repaired our house, we explored the cave.

I paired with York to find the diamond.

Everyone were digging the cave.

We found a lot of golds, however we couldn't find a diamond...

It was a grateful challenge.

July 30th 

We were going to play HungerGame.

We learned what it is.

We made each idea, how to alive from HungerGame.

I choosed 3 stuffs to alive.

*Shovel

*Flask

*Lighter

I may use the shovel to dig and hide something, and fight and protect myself.

To fill water, I'll use the flask.

Lighter can burn foods and make me keep warm.

Unfortunately, we couldn't play HungerGame on Minecraft.

So we enjoyed Nether world.

We fought with pig zombies first.

Suddenly, Ghast appeared and attacked us, it caused us confuse!

I shot Ghast an allow, and Ghast died.

Nether is mysterious and horrible...

After we enjoyed Nether, we walled around the minecraft world...

We had enjoyed Minecraft a lot.

Extra

What is FPS?

What is virtual world?

What is Minecraft?

In Minecraft,

we can do any choice just we want,

we can choose our way by myself.

The WORLD has been created by amazing originality.

Dream inside the virtual world, This is what I see on the Minecraft world.

Video Game Lesson: Scribblenauts

I have been reading a lot of literature on educational games, and games in education recently (as they are not necessarily the same thing!). My particular interest in this subject is the reason why they often fail. One of the main reasons for the lack of engagement is that educational games are a culmination of disparate, often diametrically opposed elements. On one hand they are designed to teach a certain subject matter, but the way they go about it is through an unconnected game mechanic. In other words, the gaming context and the learning content do not match up. A good(?) example of this mismatch of game and learning subject can be seen in Financial Soccer, a promotional game by Visa to raise awareness of … Players engage in a football match controlling their team, but just as you are about to shoot… BAM! The game stops and there is a multiple choice question related to finance to answer before the game continues. This is what a lot of "education" games feel like: "OK, OK, that's enough fun, now you have to do some learning if you want to continue." I just downloaded an app on my iPhone to learn French which is essentially the same. A thin, sugar-sweet veneer of a game hiding a darker ulterior motive. Of course, the game doesn't mean to be malicious, but the fact that the game mechanics and learning contents do not match up, any student is going to figure out pretty quickly that we are trying to make them learn something they are probably not really interested in with something like: "You can't trick me with flashing lights and bonus points. This is just a rote memorization of math formulas exercise!"

The literature on this subject of mismatching game mechanics and learning goals talks about integration. The integration of game mechanics and learning goals. But not just that, it goes on to mention a concept known as intrinsic integration, essentially: The learning goal should be the main game mechanic. Quite a revelation for me just recently as I have been scratching my head something frantic thinking of reasons why my students are not speaking more English when playing Minecraft in my digital game based learning (DGBL) class. The reason is that English is not required for students to clear the levels that I have set up for them. This post is not about my Minecraft class though, so I will leave that for another time.

What I have been looking for recently are games that have the use of English as their main game mechanic. I didn't have to look far. The Nintendo DS (and now iOS) game Scribblenauts fits the description perfectly. Rather than having English tacked on as a supplement to game play, levels cannot be cleared without the use of English. The game concept is amazingly simple with clear goals to complete each level. However, how players achieve these goals is completely open to their interpretations and imagination. Take the first level of the iOS version (Scribblenauts Remix) as an example:

The goal is to cut down the tree in order to get the "starite" in the upper branches. 

Now, to cut down a tree, what do you use? A saw? A chainsaw? An axe? Or, what about a sword, or even more specific: a katana?! All of these options will work. But how do you get one of these items? Using the notepad in the top right corner of the screen, we can write a word and just like that, we have it! Once we have possession of the item, the goal of the task is easily achieved:

Open dictionary.

Maxwell with his chainsaw.

Maxwell with the starite.

Playing the game "as is" is a great tool for vocabulary review and even learning, but so much more can be done in a classroom setting.

A simple way I improved the learning potential for my communication class was to make students write down their solutions to levels and compare and contrast these solutions with other groups. In this way, the students are learning how to use the words in context, learn collocations, and expand their vocabulary and interlanguage by trying to out do the other groups with more and more outlandish and unique ways to clear each level.

Additionally, I had students write down any new words they either found in the game hints or from words that they used themselves and told them to write example sentences with them for their "class review" homework.

video game lesson: Dooors

A bit of a break from minecraft posts as I am working on improving the syllabus for that particular project. So this week I am writing about the use of a videogame to teach prepositions and instructional English.

This lesson was inspired by Graham Stanley and Kyle Mawer's book: Digital Play and uses an "escape the room" game called Dooors. A free app on the iPhone and iPod.

The game is comprised of 35 levels—or rooms—that must be ecaped from by doing cetain things to the phone, finding items etc. 

The lesson plan is as follows:

I separated the class into groups and gave them an iPod each to play the game on. They must play as a group and write their solution to each door before going to the next level. The exact rules which I gave the class are as follows:

1. Each time they clear a level, all group members MUST write the solution.
2. They MUST show me their solution. If I don't understand it, they have to rewrite it before going to the next level.
3. They have to update the whiteboard showing which level they are working on.

Additionally:

1. They can ask other groups for hints
2. They can ask me for hints (but only 3 times)

Once the rules had been established, I showed them how to clear the first 5 levels and gave them a worksheet to write their solutions on (Available here). The worksheet features the solution to the first five levels for reference as the same words crop up again and again as they go through the levels.

Encouraging cooperation and communication on a class level was fostered with the following insentives:

• If all groups managed to get to level 20, the whole class would recieve 20XP
• If all groups made it to level 25, the whole class would receive 40XP
• The first group to get to level 30 would receive 20XP.

The difficulty of the game and the cooperation nature of the class meant that no individual group got to level 30. However, the cooperation and cohesive nature of the class was one that I won't foget for a while. In one class, a few groups didn't quite make it to level 20, so I erased the rule from the board, changing it to level 15. This class cheered when they heard the news. 

All in all, a really fun lesson! If you have enough students with smart phones or access to a number of iPods like I did, give it a try!

Mining English Week 5

p110.mov Watch on Posterous

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Some pics from this weeks session.

The focus of this week's lesson was the use of prepositions. Something that comes very naturally and is essential in the Minecraft world. Before we got in game we went through prepositions one by one and then we practised building simple objects with Lego. This prepared students for using prepositions in the game.

I built a world for students to work in pairs where the activity required them to explain to their partner how to construct increasingly complex shapes out of various wool blocks. The final task had students working pairs to build a house together. Students paired up, logged in, and went to their relevant station.

Students were also told today about their test that they will be having at the end of the semester. The test will be comprised of two parts. The first part they will have to tell a native speaker how to build an object, and the second part of the test, the native speaker will tell them how to build an object. Students will be graded on how well they build each object, or in other words: how well they were able to communicate their ideas in English.

Mining English Week 4

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Just a few pics of my fourth 'Mining English' class.

Today students completed an information gap exercise which had them explaining to a partner how to craft certain objects (with reference to the Minecraft wiki of course).

All in all a good lesson.

This week's class reviews

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Turning the class into an RPG (Part 2)

So, the time has come. Last week our brave heroes set out to kit themselves out in the best gear, sharpened their axes, restrung their bows and filled their inventories with maester's potions and foods. Today is the day they put their strategies to the test as they face off against the other groups in a one on one battle to the death!

Well, maybe not that dramatic, but still, there was a lot of tensions in the class today as groups were paired up for their tabletop style RPG battle against other groups. Below describes how I went about teaching this lesson.

1. Show them the battle video

This serves two purposes, one is to refresh their memories of the battle system, the other is for them to mine it for vocabulary and phrases to use themselves when they do their own battles. Students are thus told to take notes as they watch the video and then compare their notes with their group members afterwards. Once they have done this, I had students come up to the whiteboard to write down anything that they heard as me and my colleague played. The board then acts as a cheat sheet for when students do their own battles, allowing them to refer to it when they can't think of what to say.

 

2. Write questions to ask your opponents

 

The rules of the battle state that once a character has been reduced to zero armor, they must answer a question. If the group answers the question correctly, they do not lose a life and can continue. However, if they answer a question incorrectly, they lose a life. Once a group has lost three lives, they have lost. At this point then, I had students think of questions to put to their opponents. I created 10 sample questions for each group to show what kind of questions were considered suitable and as a model. Below are a few of my sample questions.

Question 1

What is the capital of Scotland?

• London
• Edinburgh
• Florence
• Dublin

 

Question 2

What is the largest continent in the world?

• Asia
• North America
• Europe
• Africa

 

Question 3

What is the highest mountain on earth?

• Mt. Fuji
• Mt. McKinley
• Mt. Everest
• Mt. Ararat

 

Question 4

If a woman gives birth to triplets, how many babies does she have?

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

Students thought up similar question based on their major, the presentation they had given a few weeks before, and other general knowledge subjects such as capital cities and animals etc.

3. Battle Time!

Following this, the groups were paired up and put to battle. They were instructed that they were to speak to the other group in English only. If they spoke Japanese to their opponents, their turn was over. I did however allow some Japanese during within-group strategic speech. Below are some pictures of the battles.

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4. Improvements

One thing that could be improved with this activity is moving the question making activity out of the classroom time and getting students to do this for homework. The reason is that some groups didn't make a lot of questions and actually ran out of questions to ask their opponents. This led to them trying to make up questions on the spot which made the battle drag on and become uninteresting. 

So, for the final class which has not done this activity yet, I have told them that if they run out of questions during the battle stage, they will have to forfeit the game. This class has also been instructed to make five questions each (20~25 per group) at home before they come to class next week (the battle lesson for this class). I'm hoping this should keep the action high and as a result, games possibly finishing quicker. If this happens, I would like to run the battles in a tournament style where we can see which group is the strongest! Of course, they will be the strongest based on their character development, strategy and general knowledge! 

 

Turning the class into an RPG (Part 1)

I had to teach a shopping lesson this week, and, not having a great time with it was last year, I decided to make things a little bit more interesting. My idea was to play a kind of tabletop RPG with the students, where they would kit out a character with armour, weapons, food and potions and then pit them against each other the following week.

Discucssing the idea with my colleague, he seemed really interested too, so we started sketching out simple rules such as how much damage each weapon would do, how much defense each piece of item would give etc. After rehearsing it a few times ourselves, we finally came up with a system that seemed fair and would allow students to customise their characters so that groups wouldn't all buy exactly the same stuff.

1. Watch the presentation

Here is the presentation that I showed the students at the start of the "shopping class".

Rpg shopping lesson

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Not all of the rules are included on purpose: so that the students have to ask. Another point is that in the above presentation my colleague (and my) face appear. In the actual presentation, these are videos explaining how to use the different weapons.

Another thing which is not explained is: "How do we win?"

Well, once a characters armour has been reduced to 0, that group have to answer a question. If they get it correct, they don't lose a life, but if they get it wrong, they lose one of their three lives: ♡♥♥. This continues until they lose all three of their lives. As for the questions they have to answer... they will be decided by each group individually and should have something to do with their classes major.

2. Decide as a group which weapon you want to buy

After watching the presentation I handed out a "shop" worksheet to each group in the class and told them to keep their items a secret (so that students would have to ask what each shop is selling and how much items cost). I also handed each group their character worksheet that appears in the above presentation.

At this point, I was asked a number of questions. Some of the most common ones are:

1. Can I use a potion and attack in one go? (NO!)
2. Do I have to buy armour for all body parts? (YES!)
3. If I don't have an anti-freeze potion, what happens? (You have to roll a six on the dice to become unfrozen)

3. Do the shopping activity

Students complete the shopping activity which has been explained to them through the presentation.

4. Introduce your character

Groups take it in turn to introduce their characters name and the weapon (s)he will use. Nothing else. The rest is a secret for next weeks BATTLE activity. 

って言う事で、I'll be back soon with a review of the battle lesson.

Stay tuned!

Using Reddit in a university EFL classroom

Hello all!

This is basically a guide for my students, but let me give you a brief introduction to what it is I am teaching here.

What is reddit?

Some of you may be familiar with the website: www.reddit.com and the plethora of comics that appear in the f7u12 or classicrage subreddits...? Maybe not. A lot of these comics are completely inane and pointless, but there is of course the odd gem that makes me laugh. The r/classicrage comics usually strike a chord with me somewhere in my own experiences making me chuckle.

Here is one particularly relevant to students:

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to get my students to create their own comics and share them on reddit. I even created my own subreddit for students to present their work(s of art)!

The good thing about presenting student work on a subreddit is due to the way that reddit as a site works. Posts are voted up or down by users. If you like a post you "upvote" it, if you dislike a post you "downvote" it. With this mechanic in place, students can effectively vote on the comics they think are the best. They also have the ability to post comments, which gives them the opportunity to interact socially with each other in English outside of the classroom (that's the theory at least!)

So, on with the main part of this post: explaining how to register on reddit.

Registering with reddit

Picture 1

The first thing you need to do is press the "register" (登録) button.

Picture 2

Insert a username. Make it your student number. Also, make your password something that you will remember. If you need to, have your password the same as your username.

You don't need to put your mail address in, but if you forget your password, you won't be able to use this website again :(

Picture 3

Search for tduenglish.

Picture 4

Press on the tduenglish link (or press this).

Picture 5

Click the +frontpage button to register to the tduenglish news feed.

 

You are now registered to use reddit.

Picture 6

If you want to leave a comment (for the caption competition), press the comment (コメント) button and then put in your comment.

That's it!

If you have any problems, email me.

My next post will look at how to make rage comics as well as introducing some of the famous(?) characters.

Implementing Tasks and Projects in Japanese Primary Schools

Good morning! I have just uploaded some slides for a presentation that I gave this weekend at the JALT Ibaraki chpater meeting. It contains a culmination of all the work and research that I did when I worked at the primary school level and while creating the presentation it made me realise that I actually use a lot of the same principals at the university level. Anyway, this is quite a long one with bonus lesson plans for the space project at the end. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Implementing Tasks and Projects in Japanese Primary Schools

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The Multiplayer Classroom

Long time no post. (sorry)

I had a nice long summer but am back to work now. Over the summer I started following news on the current(?) hype fuelled 'gamification'.

As part of my reaserch on this phenomenon, I found an interesting book by Lee Sheldon who seemed to have applied RPG-like game mechanics to his classroom. I was intruiged and decided to see if I could do something similar in my own context.

What I have come up with so far is a new way to evaluate my students over the course of this semester based much more on autonomous learning and the amount of effort they put into each lesson. There is also a large focus on teamwork and working as a group. Although the majority of detail regarding this whole project resides in Evernote notes, I am slowly piecing it together online as a reference to my students, but also to any that may be interested.

Here is a link to the presentation I gave my students at the start of this semester.

And here is a link to the wikispaces page outlining the project in more detail (work in progress).