Thing 29: Professional Development

Today I watched two conferences on Youtube from the K-12 Online Conference site.  The first one I watched was called "Our Journey To Innovation," hosted by Don Wettrick.  Don started a new class at his high school called "Innovation," which is very much like a STEM or STEAM course we offer today.  His class is built on the idea that students should have the freedom to learn about what they are interested in, not limited to technology.  I like this idea in theory, but am still unsold on giving students complete creative freedom to "innovate" without direction.  To many students this just ends up being too relaxed of an atmosphere, and can lead to little getting done with their time.  In the situations where students are self-determined it can be an amazing thing.  

The second video conference I watched (I literally watched from my PJ's) was about Gamification.  Gamification is a huge buzz word around our district and the nation right now.  Kids love games and if you can "gamify" your curriculum you can really engage students beyond what they would typically give.  The video conference I watched was by a teacher named Sarah Thomas @sarahdateechur, she teaches English and Technology in Maryland.  She is a very upbeat teacher who was inspired by a professional development her school put on, to redesign her class into a gamified classroom.  Sarah explains how she "gamifies" her curriculum, and shows her website that shows the students current levels and how to earn points to gain levels.  Sarah meets with her students in person to discuss leveling up, and when they are ready to start the next level of their "gaming."  This is a really cool concept, where kids have to earn points to be awarded privileges in the classroom and choice of topics.   I really like the idea of gamifying the classroom, but there are a couple of things I would change regarding her "game."  For one thing, the kids "score" was visible for all students to view, which means that the low score students are known by the whole class, which can be embarrassing to those students.  She gives the students an option to use a "gamertag" which is cool, but I'm sure kids will figure that out pretty quickly.  This concept is really cool, and I am very interested in learning more about it.