In this task we were working on creating a game-based learning strategy.

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We had to design a game that should be focused on one of these Assessment Criteria from the Spanish curriculum. We have chosen one of the 3rd cycle it is the 2.4 Proponer posibles respuestas a las preguntas planteadas, a través del análisis y la interpretación de la información y los resultados obtenidos, valorando la coherencia de las posibles soluciones y comparándolas con las predicciones realizadas.

 

Now, we are going to talk about the game:

 

Name: ESCAPE THE ISLAND

 

Goal: Answer the questions correctly and do the mini-games well in order to get money to buy and win the star.

 

Level: 3rd cycle. 5th or 6th of primary school.

 

Assessment Criteria: 2.4 Proponer posibles respuestas a las preguntas planteadas, a través del análisis y la interpretación de la información y los resultados obtenidos, valorando la coherencia de las posibles soluciones y comparándolas con las predicciones realizadas.

 

Inspiration: It is an inspiration for Mario Party. Besides, we have set it in that game. We have taken inspiration from Mario Party to make it more dynamic and with characters that children feel comfortable and familiar with.

 

Objectives of the game: WIN THE STAR.

 

Rules: Below is an explanation of the rules of the game.

 

Social Design: The game is an individual game. There can only be one winner. You should

be at least 4 players. The number of players can be between 4 to 7 players. We have made

7 figures based on the mario party. So if you wanted to play more there wouldn't be enough

figures. It is also individual because the questions and mini-games have to be answered by

one person and that person is the one who wins the money. 

But you can also help each other in some activities. There is also a lucky wheel where you

can win good or bad things for you or your partner.

 

Materials:

The materials we have used  are: 

To create the board:

- Cardboard

- A base 

- cardboards

- Paints

- Images to decorate (colour printer)

- Image for each square in the shape of a shell 

To play:

- Activity cards and mini-games

- Push button 

- Paper to use for some of the activities 

- Money

- Characters

- The star

 

The time needed to carry out the activity is approximately 30 minutes.

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

1. The game is won by being the first player that collects the star. The star will be at the last tile of the board and will only be able to be bought spending 120 euros. 

2. At the beginning of the game, each player will roll the dice ONCE. The player that gets the biggest number will be the one that starts the game and then the order of the players to roll the dice will be clockwise or anti-clockwise (whatever option you prefer). In case that there is a tie between 2 or more players, said players will have to roll the dice again and the same rules will be applied.

3. Each round, every player will roll the dice ONCE and will advance the exact number of tiles that got on the dice (for example if you get a 4, you advance 4 tiles on the board).

4. When everyone has rolled the dice, the round will end. A roulette will be spinned by the player that got the highest number on the dice during the round (if the highest number during the round was a 5 and Pepito got it, Pepito will spin the roulette and will get one ‘‘advantage’’).

5. After spinning the roulette, a minigame will start or a question will be asked (the minigame/question is decided with a random blue card).

6. In a minigame/question it’s the time to earn some money! In a question the first 3 people to answer correctly will earn 20, 10 and 5 euros (20 for the first, 10 for the second and 5 for the third. Yes, the others don’t get anything so you’ve got to be quick). In a minigame it’s a little different since the winner will get 50 euros instead of 20 and then the rest of the prizes are distributed the same as with the questions.

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THAT IS ALL! But one more IMPORTANT thing… If the player that reaches the star DOESN’T have enough money to buy it, the star will be moved to THE START of the board and the players will move to the beginning of the board instead of to the end (this way the players that were at a disadvantage now will have a chance to win). If the star can’t be bought at the start of the board, it will be moved back again to the last tile of the board and the players will stop ‘‘advancing backwards’’.

 

Our game is very dynamic and it makes the development of the skills. It is very fun.

 

We tested the game on Tuesday. What we changed from the Tuesday class was that we added a ring to see how to answer first and the money that the start costs because we didn’t know what amount of money is adequate and give time to raise it.

 

Our process of making the game:

- First we painted the board blue, white and brown to make it look like a beach.

- With the cardboard we make the floor that goes on top. 

- We cover it with cardboard

- When the paint has dried we glue the floors on top.

- Then we glue the shell-shaped squares (there are 25)

- Glue all the Mario Party-inspired decorations on the island (the palm tree, the fish...)

- Then we made the roulette with a cardboard base and each part of cardboard.

- The figures are made on the front and back

- Finally, the star is printed

This would be the whole process of making the game ;)

We hope you have been inspired and liked it.

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The questions and games are:

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QUESTIONS

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1. NAME AN INSECT

2. NAME A COLOR ON THE RAINBOW

3. NAME A SEA ANIMAL

4. NAME AN EVEN NUMBER

5. NAME A VERB DESCRIBING A PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

6. NAME A SPANISH RIVER

7.NAME A BODY PART

8. NAME A PIECE OF CLOTHING

9. NAME A VERTEBRATE ANIMAL

10. NAME A SYNONYM OF PRETTY

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ACTIVITIES

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1. CONNECT THE EMOJIS

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Different emojis will be shown and the player will have to guess the movie or tv show the emojis are describing.

 

2. BEST ORGAN WINS!

 

Individually, players will draw an organ of their choice and the most accurate one will win this round.

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3. WHAT MONUMENT AM I?

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Each player will receive a different card with a differente monument in it without seeing it. They will have to guess which monument they are through yes/no questions.

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4. DISCOVER THE MOVIE

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A couple will describe a movie by just using gestures and the other players will have to guess which movie it is.

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5. STOP THE BUS!

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Player will play by pairs to this game. They will be given 8 categories such as food, animal, etc and a letter. They will have to find words that start with that letter of each actegory. The first couple to finish wins the game.

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The activity of the week started on Wednesday. We were told to try out a website in which there were many games that had the theme of coding. The objective of all of them were more or less the same (to teach the basics of coding to children) but there were some differences that made them different from one another.

 

We had to choose 3 activities from the website: one was mandatory to be used without computers; another was compulsory that didn't require Internet connection and the last one wasn't restricted in any way.

 

We ended up choosing the following games: ''Mario's Secret Adventure: Build Your Own 3D Mario Game''; ''Let's Play with the ScratchJr Kitten! Activity Pack'' (computerless activity) and ''Learn to Code with Monster High'' (no Internet activity). 

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The ScratchJr game consists of a brief tale that has to be told to students oreferrably by the teacher and then the pupils would recreate the story using a mobile application that allows to code in a really simple way.

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The Monster High game consists of two games: in one you have to advance through levels by coding and in the other you have to code the character so that she dances.

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In the Mario game you have to overcome different levels (just like in the Monster High game).

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After trying out the games, we were told to make a radio programme in class in which we had to talk a bit about them, make an interview to the star of Coconuts (in our case) about the games they chose and make a reflection about the topic (to learn using digital tools and more specifically, videogames ).

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Here is the podcast!-->

 

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The interview guideline we followed for our guest (Quique) was the following:

Good morning ...........! How are you doing?

 

Well, tell us about the games you have chosen this week.

What are they about?

 

Have you found them interesting and entertaining for primary school children?

 

Do you think these games can have a positive impact on children's learning?

 

Have you seen any games that are too complicated? that you did find difficult to play too? or that you don't think are appropriate for children?

 

Of the three games you have chosen, which do you think is the best, either in terms of content or entertainment?

 

When teaching in the future, will you use games like this for your students?

 

Do you really think they add value to learning? Do children really learn or is it just a tool for entertainment?

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Here is the script for our podcast (although there were slight variations for the sake of sounding more natural, relaxed and fluid):

ROLES:

LOCUTOR 1: RAQUEL

LOCUTOR 2: LUCÍA

ALVARO (ScratchJr)

INMA ( Mario)

MARINA (Monster High)

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LOCUTOR 1: *introductory music* Good morning everyone and welcome to our 8 o'clock programme, 7 o'clock in the Canary Islands: we are study buddies !!!!!!

 

LOCUTOR 2: In today's programme we will talk about different coding games for primary school children from the website Hour of Code. Have you ever heard about this? It was an interesting discovery for us, as we had never heard of it and its games.  As a result of our curiosity, we decided to try it out with different activities.

 

LOCUTOR 1: Our experts have tried these activities and are going to give us their opinions and experiences. Good morning Marina. You have been in charge of the activity "Learn to Code with Monster High", haven't you?

 

LOCUTOR 2: Could you explain what the activity is about?

 

MARINA: Sure, the activity is very simple. Monster High organises a scavenger hunt. Students complete a set of 20 coding puzzles that introduce them to all the basic coding concepts they need to start building their own projects. They then create and publish a music video in which they use coding blocks to choreograph dancers.

 

LOCUTOR 2: Wow, that sounds really interesting and fun to play, doesn't it?

 

LOCUTOR 1: Sure, now I want to play too! Do you think it's a difficult game to play? Do you have to be good with technology to play?

 

MARINA: No, not at all. It's a video game for beginners. And personally, as I played last week, I don't find this activity very difficult to understand and play. What's more, my son has enjoyed it so much that he keeps on playing and you can tell that he is learning a lot.

 

LOCUTOR 1: What are the requirements of the activity?

 

MARINA: This activity requires computers with a web browser and Internet connection. Headphones are recommended. You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store.

 

LOCUTOR 2: Why do you think children like these activities so much and how do they benefit from them?

 

MARINA: they use game-based learning to teach programming and computational thinking concepts in a fun way. Tynker tutorials guide students through all the steps to create storytelling projects, games, animations and more. The Tynker Workshop allows students to create anything they can imagine with code. 

 

LOCUTOR 1: Next, we'll introduce the famous Mario Bros game. Good morning Inma, tell us more about it.

 

INMA: Good morning guys! I'm glad to be here today. Well, Mario´s secret adventure is an attempt to introduce students to the concepts of programming too. By the end of an hour, students will not only have prepared their very own 3D Mario Game that they will be able to play on their computers, tablets or mobile devices.

 

LOCUTOR 2: In this game, do students need to know well about videogames or have some experience?

 

INMA: No, they don’t. Students do not need to have any prior knowledge about coding, Mario Bros, or playing video games to begin this lesson. The only thing that you must have is a stable internet connection, and I recommend using a computer to play this game. 

 

LOCUTOR 1: Amazing, do you think students could face some problems doing this activity? 

 

INMA: The problem we could face is the socio-economic level of the school, it is very important to have computers to be able to carry out the activity. Technology is a very important but very expensive medium, which is a factor to be considered.  Also, there may also be problems of comparison.

 

LOCUTOR 2: Thank you so much Inma. And now, to finish with the game selection, we have the game “Let 's Play with the ScratchJr Kitten! Activity Pack”, tell us more about it, Álvaro.

 

ÁLVARO:“Let's Play with the ScratchJr Kitten!" Activity Pack is a Read Aloud Story with accompanying worksheets. The Story walks through the code for a great first project for brand new coders. A grown-up can read the story to a class of pre-reader students and then guide students to code the story in their tablets using the ScratchJr app. Students with early reading skills can read the story themselves and independently complete the Activity Pack.

 

LOCUTOR 1: And what about the time, the student experience or the classroom technology?

 

ÁLVARO: Well, this activity should take an hour max. Regarding the experience of the students, this is an activity for beginners, they don’t need any experience at all, only initiative to learn and have fun. Finally, this game it's perfect to play with no internet and no computers.

 

LOCUTOR 2: What is the added value of using digital tools in this case?

 

ÁLVARO: Although it is not required to use a computer, using a tablet is mandatory since at the end of the day, the commands need to be used with a smart device. If the activity was carried out with no smart devices we would need to draw the scenes instead of coding the actions. 

 

LOCUTOR 2: Thank you so much Álvaro.

 

ÁLVARO: Thanks to you.

 

LOCUTOR 1: And this is the end of today's podcast, thank you very much to all of you, our listeners and followers, and thanks to you too ........, for coming here with us this morning. 

 

LOCUTOR 2: Remember that this podcast will be available on our blog. You can contact us through our website, email studybuddies.umu@gmail.com, and instagram @studybuddies.umu. See you on the next show! 

 

Using these types of activities involve making learning much more enjoyable and fun. Children are very active and dynamic people. They can’t just sit back and listen to a lecture. They need to do things and nowadays, technology and videogames have opened up so many windows for opportunities for newer forms of learning and teaching.

 

Coding is something very innovative that has become the order of the day lately. It is a very dynamic activity in which they have to learn to think for themselves. It is an activity in which the level of difficulty increases as the level rises. The children learn to use technology in an educational way and through self-improvement they reach their goals. They learn in an educational way, since lately they are glued to their mobiles without doing anything productive. 

 

Taking everything into account, we come to the conclusion that the importance of the use of these activities is the use of technologies, that they learn to use them by themselves and to programme games to motivate them and to learn by themselves, connecting all the elements.

 

How do they learn on their own? Quite simply, as they level up, everything becomes more complicated and they have to think about how to put the elements together to code the game. Even trying these games, I have had to stop and think about how to put the elements together. In this way, they learn in a more autonomous and reflective way and with more motivation because they have to overcome greater challenges every time they complete one.

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The activities we have used it are the following ones:

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Poor internet: Monster high

No computers or devices: scratchJr

No requirements: Mario

 

MONSTER HIGH

 

• What level would be appropriate for this? 

This activity is suitable for children from the second year of primary school onwards, as Monster High does not require very complicated coding. 

 

•  What is(are) the objective(s) of this task follow the Bloom Taxonomy? 

In this type of activities, in which there are different levels to learn little by little, it is necessary to remember what you have learnt in order to be able to program the game, which in other words would be to create.

 

•  What content/standard from the curriculum would be suitable to be developed with this activity? 

 

CONTENT 

Construcción de estructuras sencillas que cumplan una función o condición para resolver un problema a partir de piezas moduladas.

 

STANDARDS

4.4. Conoce y respeta las normas de uso y de seguridad de los instrumentos y de los materiales de trabajo. 

2.1 Construye alguna estructura sencilla que cumpla una función o condición para resolver un problema a partir de piezas moduladas (escalera, puente, tobogán, etc.) de forma individual y en equipo.

 

•  What is the added value of using digital tools in this case? 

 

Well, the main idea of this activity is programming, and that can only be done on a computer or mobile phone. It is complicated or almost impossible for programming to be done manually.

 

•  What ethical problems could you (or your students or the parents) find doing this activity in the classroom? 

 

The only problem I see is that if you don't have a computer or a digital device you can't do this activity. In fact, there will probably be families who do not have this type of resource and therefore their children cannot carry out this activity at home. However, they could do it at school with the resources that the school has and provide it to the children. 

 

•  What changes do you need to make to allow your students to do it from home?

 

As I have said previously, it is an activity that can be carried out at home as long as there is a digital device within reach and if this is not the case, the school could provide these families with the resources such as the computer so that the child can carry out his or her education without any problem. 

 

And if that is not possible, the child could meet up with a friend who has a computer and do the activity together in a more fun way.

 

MARIO

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QUESTIONS TASK 7

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• What level would be appropriate for this?

This activity would be appropriate for children between 2nd grade to 5th grade. Moreover, the difficulty of this depends on any child and their manipulation of the technology activity.

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• What is(are) the objective(s) of this task following the Bloom Taxonomy?

This type of activity achieves the highest level in the bloom's taxonomy, because they have to create the movements so that mario can reach his destination without any problem. the child should construct, investigate and develop their own understanding to be able to achieve the objectives in the activity. Of course, it starts with the lowest level, because you have to start by remembering and decoding until you gradually reach higher levels until you can program and create and become an expert.

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• What content/standard from the curriculum would be suitable to be developed with this activity?

The contents are the set of knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that contribute to the acquisition of competences and the achievement of the objectives of the educational stage. In this case, it would correspond to the area of first foreign language (English) and Computer Science. Since the activity is developed in English, you must understand what they mean and everything by programming through the computer.

CONTENT 

Construcción de estructuras sencillas que cumplan una función o condición para resolver un problema a partir de piezas moduladas.

STANDARDS

4.4. Conoce y respeta las normas de uso y de seguridad de los instrumentos y de los materiales de trabajo. 

2.1 Construye alguna estructura sencilla que cumpla una función o condición para resolver un problema a partir de piezas moduladas (escalera, puente, tobogán, etc.) de forma individual y en equipo.

 

• What is the added value of using digital tools in this case?

It is impossible to do this activity without technology, it is the main source of the task as we learn to programme and perform movements by linking keys and boxes. In our opinion, it is impossible to do it without technology and it would not be effective because you would not be learning. Technology implies many things and especially in this case we can do many things in the shortest possible time with a single click.

As far as I know in this activity you learn to research and to think about what you are going to use (what you are going to use) because if you do it wrong you don't advance.

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• What ethical problems could you (or your students or the parents) find doing this activity in the classroom?

The ethical problem is above all the socio-economic level of the school, it is very important to have computers to be able to carry out the activity. Technology is a very important but very expensive medium, which is a factor to be considered. 

There may also be problems of comparison, there may be children who are better at the activity than others and this may lead to a lack of motivation on the part of those who do not develop it properly. Likewise, in a class with 25 children, it is very difficult to know in detail how each pupil is doing.

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• What changes do you need to make to allow your students to do it from home?

This activity can be carried out perfectly well from home, as it is a page where everyone can access, although the only condition is that they have the necessary technological resources, i.e. a computer. Another problem can be that if they do not understand or are stuck on something and do not have help, it is difficult to continue. 

 

Well, for us the activity would continue to be the same from home, helping those who do not have the necessary resources by lending them a laptop and if they have doubts about something, offering them help, by message or other means to be able to carry out the activity successfully.

 

ScratchJr Kitten

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• What level would be appropriate for this?

According to the creator of the activity, it is designed for children between 3 and 6 years old (so although it is more focused towards Infant education, it can be used in a first grade class).

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• What is(are) the objective(s) of this task following the Bloom Taxonomy?

In the Bloom Taxonomy they would be applying the story they heard into a kind of programme. They are also creating something even if they are following some sort of a guideline.

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• What content/standard from the curriculum would be suitable to be developed with this activity?

The contents are the set of knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that contribute to the acquisition of competences and the achievement of the objectives of the educational stage. In this case, it would correspond to the area of first foreign language (English) and Computer Science. Since the activity is developed in English, you must understand what they mean and everything by programming through the mobile device/tablet..

 

CONTENT 

Construcción de estructuras sencillas que cumplan una función o condición para resolver un problema a partir de piezas moduladas.

 

STANDARDS

4.4. Conoce y respeta las normas de uso y de seguridad de los instrumentos y de los materiales de trabajo. 

2.1 Construye alguna estructura sencilla que cumpla una función o condición para resolver un problema a partir de piezas moduladas (escalera, puente, tobogán, etc.) de forma individual y en equipo.

 

• What is the added value of using digital tools in this case?

It would be impossible to recreate this activity without a digital tool since it would be impossible to make the commands work with a piece of paper, your brain or whatever else you might think. It’s an activity that only a computing device could carry out.

 

• What ethical problems could you (or your students or the parents) find doing this activity in the classroom?

For the children this would be a wonderful activity and they would do something much more entertaining than usual in class. However, some parents may be reluctant towards the idea of letting their children handle tablets (for whatever reason) so that may be a complication.

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• What changes do you need to make to allow your students to do it from home?

No special changes would be necessary to happen. Maybe if a student does not have a smart device they would need to buy one, but if they cannot buy one then it would be really hard to carry out the activity from home, we’re afraid.

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Personal Learning Environment or PLE [acronym of the original expression Personal Learning Environment] is an expression that has been used to refer to the set of tools, services and connections that we use to achieve various goals linked to the acquisition of new competences.

In this task we had to do some questionnaires to see how we use and distribute resources and tools in our learning.

Through this, we have realised that due to the day to day life of each of us and our schedules, we make different use of each of these resources. We have represented this through a diagram that we have made showing the small differences as well as the section of the PLE to which they belong: reading, writing or reflecting and sharing. 

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In fact, it can be observed that the places where we most use resources such as Canva or the virtual classroom are the university and our homes, while to a lesser extent, we find that some of our group, because they live far away, use them on the bus. That is why if we look at the diagram, the stars, which represent the home and the university, are bigger than that of the bus.

The same is true for the means by which we access the tools: computer, mobile and tablet. The larger it is, the more people in our group use it, while the smaller it is, the less it is used, only by some members. 

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Finally, it remains to classify each tool in the section of the PLE to which it belongs, and we have represented this by means of circles of different colours, which are distributed among the different tools.
 

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