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| Spherox Game Introduction |
Bandura’s self-efficacy theory in 1997, highlights the learners’
capacity to perform specific behavior. It is in this belief that I feel I am
capable of choosing an educational game based on my pre-disposed criteria. My
way of evaluating a game is that there should be a rubric first that can capture what a perfect game should be to
satisfy the needs of the learner in the classroom (see game rubric). What really happened in
class was that, we chose our game first before making a rubric to evaluate it.
It could have had saved us a lot of time if we were able to formulate a rubric
first before choosing a game. Our group had a hard time prioritizing a game
because we thought, the game we individually picked fits perfectly with our
respective content area. As we shortlisted the best games that would capture
all our content areas in a group, we ended up choosing Spherox- a game for Science, Math, and English learners.
I was thinking of the top educational games I saw in the Internet (see video
below) but I failed to present this in the group. When it was announced in
class that we need not like a game to create a rubric, this made me feel better
because one of the members of our group does not teach any of these content
areas.
Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5s8cgd87O0
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| Spherox Navigation Tools |
I was excited in finalizing the rubric because we do
not need to create a new one but build on the examples of other students and
game developers. When we were about to finalize the criteria for our game
rubric, I feel that there is a need for us to merge some closely related
subcategories to make our rubric concise but accurate. Furthermore, there were
some descriptions in rating the game that needs to be re-evaluated based on how
we described the scores (3, 2, and 1) in the subcategories. It was hard to make
a decision on deleting and merging subcategories in google spreadsheet because
I was not sure if my group members would agree to the change. I know that there
is a provision for chatting with other members of the group while editing the
document, but to find a common time to sit down together and make that decision
after class hours given a short time to work on the revisions, proved to be
challenging. The use of other media such as calling, video chatting, and
messaging can also be time-consuming and stressful in the last few hours of
revision before the deadline. Technology indeed made communication exchange
easier but there are circumstances when face-to-face interaction is irreplaceable.
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| Emaze Presentation Introduction Slide |
The game I personally chose to share in my group was
Sperox- the educational game we all agreed to present and evaluate. This game
is relevant in my Biology class because it does not only cover Science but also
other content areas such as English and Math that are very important in the
application of my content area. The layout and design of the game relates to
Science. The background information is like an anticipatory set for learners
where they can be part of Sperox’s adventure in space. The storyline of the
game starts by asking the learner to help Sperox find his way home by solving
content-related problems. Aside from the cognitive learning development aspect
of the game, it also engages other distinct intelligences of the learners which
may include but not limited to musical, kinesthetic, logical, linguistic,
spatial, and naturalistic intelligence (Gardner, 1983). Sperox navigational
tools engages kinesthetic and tactile learners.
We were
confronted with many bottlenecks when we started deciding what technology tool
to use in presenting our game. We started with using Prezi but realized that it can make some
of our classmates suffering from PTSD dizzy with the zooming in and out
features. I for one was irritated with the complex and busy features of this
tool. I guess I just need more time to explore about it. We then decided to
transfer our presentation outline in Spicynodes. The
tool is user-friendly and simple. The disadvantage of using Spicynodes is the
limitation of background and graphic designs that you can use aside from the
templates provided. We were briefed that our presentation must be excellent and
we need to practice our part. We feel that it needs to be grand and
eye-catching. Thus, we again explored other presentation tool options and
decides to use Emaze. We were all “emazed” with Emaze. The
format is similar to PowerPoint only that it can be very animated. It is also
easy to use. One of our group members made an account for our Emaze
presentation where we can help each other edit the slides. Given the time and
the different challenges we had encountered in our group, we decided that Emaze
is the tool that can bring the best in our presentation.
It is
interesting to note that we were able to use a lot of interactive tools (ICT)
for this project. Nevertheless, majority of the time we shared and edited
documents and spreadsheets using google apps. We were also able to use email, WhatsApp and Google hangouts aside from the calls and messages sent
through our digital phones. After using these tools in class, it made me more
confident in using more ICT in the classroom. The usage of ICT leads to more
improved intentions to continue using these technologies in the future
(Hernandez, Montaner, Sese, & Urquizu, 2011).
References
Bandura, A. (n.d.). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple
intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Hernandez, B., Montaner, T., Sese, F., & Urquizu, P.
(2011). The role of social motivations in e- learning: How do they affect usage
and success of ICT interactive tools? Computers in Human Behavior, 27(6),
2224-2232. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.001
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