Conducting Presentations Like An Upcoming Tech Wiz

The online educational game Team B chose is called, “Garbage Dreams” which is geared more towards middle and high-schoolers (essentially, secondary education). The game is based on a documentary by Mai Iskander with the same title (2009) featuring the trash trade lifestyle of Cairo residents and promotes how recycling benefits both the environment and economy. Our group preferred this game compared to the others brought up as our focus due to the following: the information and background on recycling provided in the featured tabs and within the game itself, allows the player to foster strategizing and management skills, and the connection with the reality of Cairo’s problem along with bringing awareness to Guam’s trash dilemma.

Although our group appeared to mix in well with each other, there was a moment within our session that had us butting heads when it came to the construction of the rubric (more specifically, the rating system). At first, the rating started out with a score of 1, 3, and 5 points since we were basing off of one of the student examples featured in Moodle. One of the debates that came up was deciding whether to keep the original or change it to the criteria of the 0-1 (unacceptable), 2-3 (acceptable), and 4-5 (target) point system. The issue revolved around how a score of 4 points should not be included and be considered the target rating along with a score of 5 points. Despite the little arguments, we have come to a conclusion of moving forward with the latter, which is finalized and featured on Team Beta’s Online Game Rubric (2016).

Because I am majoring in Elementary Education, my future profession covers a wide array of topics. Ranging from science and math to reading and writing, throwing this game into the agenda will be a smooth transition being a general education teacher. I would incorporate the aspect of the game revolving around the topic on recycling and some introduction on management skills.

As mentioned earlier, this educational game proves to be rather difficult to accomplish even for the members of our group whom are familiar with the components of the game and are college students. In addition, having elementary students play this game as it is will produce no winners in the process. I would have to make the modifications necessary that will be geared more towards my student’s level of learning. Based on my previous observations in primary schools, I noticed how students are more engaged and willing to learn with hands-on activities. With this, I would conduct a tactile-learning activity for the children where they would have to physically sort out pictures of the trash items into the designated boxes with a much longer time limit and exclude the expansion factor of the game.

Technology has come a long way in productivity and efficiency, just like how beneficial it proved to be for our group in the construction of our project. For example, we presented our educational game with a website we created using a web designer called “WIX.com.” For much faster communications pertaining to the updates each of us make to our presentation, the group communicated via “WhatsApp.” Also, to test our classmates on our presentation while having fun, we used “kahoot.it” for their engagement. At the end of each kahoot activity, the participants have the opportunity to give their own rating of the game. We used this to our advantage where we had our classmates rate how we did on our presentation on top of that.

This project challenged our team to make use of the knowledge learned from class in using assistive technology for our presentation. Collaborating with a group of differing experiences in technology allowed us to learn from each other on what we know and didn’t know. All in all, this brought about the application of our learned technology skills in fitting our personal needs.

References

Iskander, M. (Producer & Director). (2009, July 31). Garbage Dreams[Documentary]. United States: Iskander Films

Borja, R.; Cruz, K.; Dela Cruz, R.; Medina, J.; & Reyes, S.(2016.Online Game Rubric [Google Excel Spreadsheet]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yWwyVty2fPcr616W-qMexCnxihwM9Wv3Dd8Wnp6X6Xk/edit#gid=0