K-12

Gamification K-12

Apps for kids

Two resources of interest on apps for kids:
– this great article from MindShift: Apps That Rise to the Top: Tested and Approved By Teachers (this is a radio station in California that has an education K-12 blog)
– Also, see the Edululu website, from the great people at TFO, the French-language public broadcaster in Ontario, the most populous province of Canada.

Information literacy K-12

Digital natives and digital nots

A great video from PBS’s Idea Channel taking a more critical view at “digital natives” a meme coined by Mark Prensky during the turn of the century:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WVKBAqjHiE&w=560&h=315]

This being said, Prensky later coined the phrase “digital wisdom”

Here is the comment I left on the PBS Idea Channel’s page for this video:

Having been a librarian at Concordia University for over a decade, I have spent my entire career with what some would call “digital natives” but, and I must stress this, my office is often the scene of a young learner “coming out” quite emotionally about their lack of knowledge of digital technologies. I have taught research skills to over 10000 undergrads so far and I hope to reach a few orders of magnitude more. I have found a shift in how students approach researching – perhaps they are better at manipulating a mouse – but the underlying issue of ignorance of how information is created, spread and used is still a dire impediment to many. Thank you for highlighting how a catchy meme may ring false upon further consideration.

Gamification K-12

Game used in Lithuanian libraries

From the eIFL website (an association of libraries from developing countries, see this post about a game used in school libraries :

Utena A. and M. Miskiniai Public Library in Lithuania has received funding to expand their innovative Play to Study service, which includes an educational computer game for vulnerable children, to more than 50 schools in nine municipalities, reaching 7,000 children.

More on the project here.

Gamification K-12

Gamification in France – la “ludification”

The French blog OWNI proposes an interesting summary of the state of gamification in schools ( in French, bien sûr).

This post starts off with a mention of the report, submitted on April 3rd, by a member of parliament, Yvelines Jean-Michel Fourgous, called “Apprendre autrement à l’ère du numérique” – note that gamification in French is “ludification” – this kind of detail is important to this Montrealer 😉

This same MP (Jean-Michel Fourgous) penned a report 2 years ago entitled “Réussir l’école numérique” calling for an increase in computers in classrooms.

Also mentioned is the BBC game Angler, where a robot traverses a digital universe based on a player’s understanding of geometry, as well as the US-based schools Quest to Learn and finally the consultancy Ludoscience