Nocking the Arrow

Educators are looking for ways to increase motivation and engagement in learners. Gamification, and game-based learning, are increasingly popular discussion topics in educational circles. Research suggests gaming significantly contributes to engagement, focus, and self-determined learning. Anyone who has played Minecraft , Clash of Clans , or Angry Birds understands the intrinsic power of overcoming obstacles. leveling up, and achieving success as a result of improved skills. Recent posts have shouted the virtues of gamification and game-based learning interchangeably, but aren't these concepts vastly different? While both gamification and game-based learning (GBL) can contribute to motivation, focus, and engagement in learners, these concepts when applied to classroom situations, are not the same thing. Which practice makes a bigger impact on learning? When it comes to gaming in the classroom, who wins? Gamification Gamification adds a layer of gaming elements to clas...

"Play is the highest form of research."  - Albert Einstein “Play is the work of the child.”  – Maria Montessori In our recently remodeled school media center, we have a space dedicated to active engagement in fun learning activities. Part maker space, part literacy lounge, board games are being incorporated to promote a culture of joyful learning. Whether it's a game of Rummy , Yahtzee , or Scrabble , family game night serves as a communication elixir and solidifies our domestic climate of togetherness. Shouldn't similar opportunities for interaction, challenge, and fun exist somewhere in our schools? Broken families, cultural fragmentation, and poverty are impacting opportunities for children to play. As we unpacked and tagged our new media center games, I was more disappointed than shocked by the number of students who had never played Monopoly , Boggle , or Sorry . One skeptical teacher commented, "Oh great, now we're letting students pl...

In my educational world teaching and coaching involve the same processes. The people that impacted my own learning most significantly were coaches. Could it be that great coaches were ahead of their time with respects to instructional best practices? Let's take a look at ten coaching practices that thankfully have found their way into the classroom. http://www.coachwooden.com/files/PyramidThinkingSuccess.jpg Standards-based Grading - coaches aren't concerned with arbitrary measures of success such as letter grades. Great coaches identify a requisite set of skills that are necessary for advancement and success. Promotion and achievement are based upon clearly identified levels of skill mastery.  Authentic assessment - coaches are looking for their athletes to demonstrate their skill mastery under game-like situations. The best coaches incorporate game simulations and competitive, game-like drills into their practices. Winning coaches will use the contests as assess...

"What's better..?" Planning institute day activities can be time consuming and challenging. As late as earlier in the week, we were saying, " This could really fall flat on it's face. " " People are gonna look at us like we're nuts! " " We could get fired. " In the end, the four of us decided that presenting a plan to gamify our professional development in an entertaining way was worth the risk of failure and embarrassment. As my PLN members often remind me, learning can get messy, and messy is to be expected, especially when attempting something new or "innovative". In December, our small team of school leaders, more aptly, my partners in crime, were tasked with "ramping up" our professional development in support of our 1:1 iPad program. We reviewed the objectives of the 1:1 PD program ( iPad Proficiencies, Classroom Management, Digitizing Content, and Building an LMS Foundation ), and then we started brain...

Happy New Year everyone! It has been a terrific year of personal and professional learning. I appreciate those of you who make " Nocking The Arrow " part of our learning agenda. This blog has evolved into my digital learning portfolio. I have learned that sharing my learning transparently deepens my thought, widens my perspective, enhances connectedness, and provides an archive of my observations and experiences. Here are the three most popular posts from this past year on " Nocking The Arrow " How Can Teachers Make Their Learning More Visible? - This post is my plea for educators to become more transparent with their personal and professional learning. Transparently sharing learning has benefits the educator, his or her colleagues, his or her students, and other learners in general. Digital Badges For Teacher Professional Development - Digital badges can be used to acknowledge and distribute professional learning. Badges visibly identify achievements,...

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -   Alvin Toffler Bruce Dixon , from Modern Learners , says, " ... no matter who you are, this time, right now, is a truly awesome time to be a learner.   "  While I agree with Bruce, his observation makes me wonder, "if this is such an awesome time to be a learner, why aren't we seeing numerous, wide-spread examples of awesome learning in schools?" Where is learning happening most readily and effectively? What does it mean to be educated? How and when are modern learners becoming educated? The key to advancing our education, and creating innovative, relevant schools may rely on our willingness and ability to unlearn. How do we unlearn? In his recent post, " The Urgency to Unlearn ",  Will Richardson  acknowledges, " educators have learned through personal experience what constitu...

The spark for this topic came from an institute day conversation with a group of my high school teacher colleagues.  I needed a "real-world" example to support my presentation on "Connected Learning".  I also wanted to weave in the concepts of "student inquiry", "problem-based learning", and "passion-based learning".   No small task for a fifty minute professional development session. My analogous story begins in the north woods of Minnesota about 45 years ago.  This is where my mother and my grandfather taught me how to fish for sunfish and bluegill from our dock on Lake Maud. Even though I was only three or four years old, I quickly learned to set up my own fishing pole, bait my own hooks, cast the line, and safely remove the fish.  My brother and I would spend our summer afternoons catching and releasing hundreds of pan fish - we would also keep and clean a few dozen for grandma's famous Friday night fish fries.  That was t...

No one can logically argue that current and future education won't be based largely on our ability to leverage social networks for learning. There is plenty of rhetoric describing the emergence of web 3.0, but how many educators are practicing what they readily admit is the foundation of making our students "future-ready"?  I applaud Cale Birk for suggesting talk can be cheap, and it's time to feature action. In his post, " #EDUDO - The New Hashtag ", Cale asks educators to transparently share artifacts of learning using the Twitter hashtag, #EDUDO . Several years ago, my sons became interested in downhill skiing. It had been some time since I had been on the powdery slopes, but skiing presented an opportunity for the three of us to actively learn and grow our skill together. I wanted to be able to articulate and demonstrate safe and effective skiing to my sons. In order to do this, I did some online research, talked to experts at the pro shops,...