Using Video Games in Education

Videogames have great positive potential in addition to their entertaintment value and there has been considerable success when games are designed to address a specific problem or to teach a certain skill.

The Educational Benefits of Videogames:

1- A common example of the educational value videa games offer is core English skills. Multiplayer, cooperative games can help students learn English as a second language through context, play and social interactions. 

Examples of video games to improve and learn English: For begginners: Influent, Professor Garfield: Reading Ring

For intermediate: 21 Days, Fable

For advanced: FluentU, Fallout 3, Tropico 4

2- It improves concentration and focus. For example, Minecraft has proven an incredible outlet for people with authism, or people with ADHD. This game helps nurture creativity and provides a strucutured, calming environment for neurotypical and neurotypical people. 

3- It is productive. The New York Institute of Play has used video games principles to teach and guide kids in a multitude of disciplines. Turns out breaking tasks down into quests and rewarding successes-just like games-is a good idea.

4- It teaches how to learn from failure. By encouraging students to view failure as a chance to learn, rather than a sign of something lacking with the student, they succeed. Education should be as effective as possible at teaching, guiding, and nurturing young people and video games provide great chances to educate. 

5- It revolutionizes learning. In order to push education, we need to teach people in ways they can learn and learning through play is an amazing way to get kids invested in knowledge, their future, and scholastic topics. 

6- It improves confidence. It gives us the chops to succeed and the confidence to keep succeeding. 

7- It can be used as research and measurement tool.

8- It attracts participation by individuals across many demographic boundaries such as age, gender and ethnicitiy.

9- It can assist children in setting goals, ensuring goal rehearsaş, providing feedback, reinforcement and maintaining records of behavioral change.

10- It can be used when examining inndividual characteristics such as self-esteem, self-concept, goal-setting and individual differences. 

11- It is fun and stimulating.

12- It can provide elements of interactivity that may stimulate learning.

13- It allows participant to experience novelty, curiosiity and challenge. 

14- It may help in the development of IT skills. 

15- It can act as simulations. These allow participant to engage in extraordinary activities.

16- Videogame play can facilitate discussing and sharing, following directions, giving directions and answering questions.

Educational Video Games: 

Scribblenauts

Civilization

Magic School Bus

Endless Ocean

LeapFrog Leapster

Professor Layton Series

Dora the Explorer

Big Brain Academy

LittleBigPlanet

Reader Rabbit

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY MINECRAFT, YOU CAN CLICK THE LINK

⇊

https://www.instructables.com/id/Perfect-Way-to-Start-Minecraft-Quick-Start-GUIDE/

credits: 

a) https://blog.gamersensei.com/article/gaming-and-education/

b) https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/family-tech/tech-for-kids/10-educational-video-games-your-kids-will-love10.htm

c) https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-video-game/

d) https://sheu.org.uk/sheux/EH/eh203mg.pdf

My Certificate for "The Psychology of Criminal Justice"

I have completed my course on edX, but since I have to pay 99$ to get a certificate, I can only post my screenshot here. 

If I talk about my course, The Psychology of Criminal Justice, it was very good. 

I have already had an interest in this topic- criminal profiling- so it was very interesting and entertaining as well as educational for me. 

The instructors are very intellectual and they know what they are talking about. 

From the begining of the course, we have seen a crime that is commited, to the end of the course, while getting information we tried to solve the case.

I really liked the idea of being the criminal profiler here. 

Also, at the end of each section, there is a forum where we can discuss what we think- who is the offender and why?- .

I really recommend this course who has an interest in this specific field.

You won't be disappointed at all!

Here are the images that prove my completion of the course:

Sutori

Sutori, previously known as HSTRY, is a collaborative presentation tool for the classroom for all age groups and content areas. It provides the ideal canvas for assignments and lesson plans. 

Sutori is easy to learn with an intuitive user interface and straightforward functionality. Privacy is not a concern on Sutor, their revenue comes from subscriptions, not ads, and thus all the information is kept private and nor shared with any third party. Overall Sutori is an accessible site which support most screen readers, but contains some user interface elements that screen readers struggle to read.

How to Use Sutori?

1. Go to the Sutori website: https://www.sutori.com/

2. Click the "Sign Up" button.

3. Once you logged in, it will take your dashboard. To create a store click on "Create Story".

4. Choose if you want to create an empty story or strat from a template.

5. Type the title for your story.

6. Hover the mouse underneath the title to add new elements such as text, video or image.

7. Once you choose an element, fill out the element with the appropriate information. 

8. Click away from the element to save the edit and move onto adding more elements.

9. Once your Sutori is done, click on share to share it with peers or the instructor.

credit: https://blogs.umass.edu/onlinetools/learner-centered-tools/sutori/

MY STORY 

⬋                        ⬊

https://www.sutori.com/story/dover-beach-poem-analysis--qV8zXns5ApDrfFwcSYuanRPe

Thinglink

What is Thinglink?
Thinglink is a product identification tool that makes it easy to add clickable tags to any image on the web and share the tagged images on social networks. Any publisher or brand ca distribute tagged images to bloggers and other publishers and still receive traffic back to the original image source.

Who is Thinglink built for?
Any publisher of digital images can use Thinglink to make the objects in their images clickable and drive traffic to their desired destinations.

Why should I tag my images?
To drive traffic. Pictures invites clicks.

What kind of images should I tag?
Your images can contain anything: fashion, sports, interiors, news, a map. Products are most commonly tagged but Thinglink is being used by publichers tagging garden plants.

Can I add tags that link everywhere?
Your tags can lead anywhere: link to an online retailer you have an affiliate partnership with, or an article containing more information.

What kind of images are taggable?
The tags work on any standard image. If your browser can show it, it can be tagged.

How does the tagging tool work?
Simply copy yppur image url from your website and paste it on the Thinglink tag editor to add tags. When finished, copy the embed code Thinglink provide in the editor and paste it to the html of your website. It's like embedding a YouTube video. Your image file remins untouched.

Ways to Use It for Teaching and Learning:
1- Use Thinglink as a multimedia curriculum launcher
2- Use Thinglink to introduce a tecchnology tool
3- Use Thinglink for professional development
4- Use Thinglink to publish student work
5- Use Thinglink to create interactive student reports

To find out more about Thinglink, you can visit this site ⇒ https://www.gettingsmart.com/2012/08/5-ways-use-thinglink-teaching-learning/

MY INTERACTIVE PICTURE

⇘ ⇙

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1182288513387724803

Mindmeister : Online Mind-Mapping

Mindmeister is an online mind mapping application that allows its users to visualize, share and present their thoughts via the cloud. 

Mindmeister provides a way to visualize information in mind maps utilizing user modeling, while also providing tools to facilitate real-time collaboration, coordinate task management and create presentations. By using cloud storage, Mindmeister users can share updates in mind maps in real-time with other users across in-browser and mobile apps.

Mind maps can be shared both privately with an unlimited numbers of users or publicly. Mindmeister is based on a freemimum model, with a basic account available free of charge, providing limited functionality. 

For use in the educational sector, 3 different functional levels are available. The aim of Mindmeister is to enable iindividuals to collaborate on a mind map, where everyone can share ideas, comments, and plans, as well as vote on ideas in real time. Mindeister allows users to share and edit mind maps, leave comments and feedback, attach files, images, videos, and link to external, as well as internal sources, via embedded URLs.

Mind maps can be shared with collegues inernally or externally via an email invitation to collaborate, or via hyperlink. Mind maps can also be turned into interactive presentations.

CHECK OUT MY MIND MAP 

https://www.mindmeister.com/1258512827?t=7TKhLRcIPR

NEARPOD

Nearpod is a student engagement platform that can be used to amazing effect in the classroom. The concept is simple. A teacher can create presentations that can contain Quiz's, Polls, Videos, Images, Drawing-Boards, Web Content and so on. They can also access over 7K K-12 standards-aligned lessons. The children can access a teacher's presentation through a code. The teacher can move the class through the presentation and let theö interact with the media as they go. They can also opt for student-paced, where the student controls the flow of the lesson.

The app is "web-based" and is accessible on a log in basis. This means that you can access your Nearpod account through any device that conects to the internet. The nice thing about this is that you can run and, ore importantly, create your presentations on a computer. In this case, the iPad is just the tool is that is enabled you to connect with your students.

How It Works:
You can create interactive lessons in minutes: Save prep time by easily importing existing lessons (pdfs, jpegs, ppts) and adding interactive features such as Virtual Field Trips, 3D Objects, Quizzes, Polls, Open Ended Questions and more.
You can easily download and customize ready-to-run lessons: Choose from thousands of free or paid lessons from expret educators and our educational partners. Customize any lesson to fit your students' needs.
You can launch lessons instantly and recieve comprehensible student assessments: You can synchronize and control lessons across all student devices. Teachers share a live session, students enter a code, and the lesson is synced to all devices.
You can evaluate student responses live or with post-session reports: View student answers individually or as a class and generate post-session reports with one click.
You can give every student a voice: Nearpod creates an inclusive and şmmersive learning experience by allowing students to actively participate in every lesson.
You can allow students to take ownership of their learning: Increase students' access to information, ideas, and interactions with Nearpod. Support and enhance their sense-making, which is central to the process of taking ownership of knowledge.


Ten Ways of Utilizing Nearpod
1- Simple presentation delivery
2- Personalized provision
3- Distributing resources
4- Live and formative assessment
5- Ongoing assessment
6- Self assessment
7- Modeling
8- Open-ended tasks
9- Setting homework
10- Sharing and using pre-made resources

MY NEARPOD ACTIVITY 

https://share.nearpod.com/9up6xF8BfW

PIXTON: Click-n-Drag Comics

Pixton introduces the world to click-n-drag comics, a revolutionary new patented technology that gives anyone the power to create amazing comics on the web.

From fully posable characters to dynamic panels, props, and speexh bubbles, every aspect of a comic can be controlled in an intuitive click-n-drag motion.

Safety Mechanisms at Pixton.com
-Language Filter: Flagged words are automatically turned into grawlixes like #$@! in all comics, comments, and messages.
-Report Button: Anyone can report conduct that does not abide by Pixton's rules, by clicking the button on any comic or profile page.
-Audience Rating: Authors can choose the intended audience of a comic: All Ages, 13+, or 19+.

This tool is very easy to use and does not require any artistic skills to work on it. You can introduce it to your students and let them create their own comics and share them with each other.
Besides the free individual accounts, Pixton offers a service designed specifically for schools called Pixton for Schools which is not free. This service enables teachers to create private rooms for their students in which they can collcaboratively create and share their comics.

Some Features of Pixton
-It is free for individual accounts.
-It lets users create their own comics.
-It lets you give text and speech bubbles to characters.
-It lets you edit the shape and position of each comic panel.
-It offers unlimited range of expressions.
-It lets you upload your own photos and personalize them the way you want.
-It provides presets, templates, and shapes.
(credit: https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/01/pixton-great-cartoon-and-comic-strip.html)

MY COMIC 

https://Pixton.com/tr/:p5khmtc1