Chris Woodside's Page

Hello.

I just read an article in the MACUL Journal by a woman who said she read our discussion thread from last year about merging game theory and education. She then said that it gave her an idea to try it in her classroom and claimed to come up with our ideas all on her own including using increasingly difficult levels, avatar boards, multiple choices for end assignments, and periodic assessments.

I was a little shocked and highly annoyed. So, I wrote to the editor of the magazine.

But it also made me go back and read the discussion strand and it made me wonder if you implemented your game and how it went with a big bunch of general ed kids.

So, if you are still checking your classroom 2.0 site, I'd be curious to know how things went for you.

Hello,
I joined classroom 2.0 2 minutes ago and already bookmarked your page for my favorites! Thanks!

Hey, I just responded to you at your discussion, but I wanted to add that I looked at your Choose Your Own Adventure list. I liked the caveat about it not really fitting math because, of course, I'm a math teacher, but it's a great list and I think it would fit. Thanks for offering it up.

I also wanted to tell you about two changes I'm thinking of making to MathLand next year. I'm thinking that kids will need to pass a quiz to pass a level because I'm still having problems with retention and mastery between levels. I'm also thinking of making every other level, or maybe one level per unit, a "product" level where they have to explain, demonstrate, present their understanding through some kind of Web 2.0 technology like voicethread, animoto, animations, glogster, or whatever. Ultimately, they'd keep them at a classroom blog or website, and it would be really nice for them to also keep them somewhere for their own digital portfolio.

Again, because my students are emotionally impaired, there are discretion issues as well as confidentiality issues around letting them run free in a social setting or publicly sharing things that are attached to their special ed status.

MathLand continues to be a work in progress.

Hi Chris, Your interest in gaming sounds like it could be a great hit with students. I attended the Learn2.008 conference at Shanghai and listened to both David Warlick and Ewan McIntosh on using gaming in education.