Using Smartphones, Wikis and Games for Teaching

Jean-Claude Bradley

E-Learning Coordinator College of Arts and Sciences

Associate Professor of ChemistryDrexel University

November 12, 2010

Drexel Faculty Technology Showcase 2010

So many tools … so little time

blogs

free online textbooksrecorded lectures (e.g. podcasts, screencasts, videos)

wikis

CMS (e.g. Blackboard)

free course content (e.g. OpenCourseWare)

clickers

games virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life)

Smartphones: the new “thing”

Smartphones are becoming popular

Smartphone Demographics

Smartphone Advantages for Education

• Nearly ubiquitous access to the internet via 3G networks

• Affordable unlimited data plans encourage experimentation

• The most portable mobile device (pocket sized)

Smartphone Disadvantages for Education

• Not all students currently carry them

• Text-rich assignments are inconvenient

• Whether an application will work on a specific smartphone is unpredictable (i.e. Flash, Java, etc.) – even YouTube videos don’t always display

Examples of Smartphone Educational Applications

• Recorded Lectures

• ChemTiles Game

What is the best use of your time as a teacher?

• Lecturing?• Manual grading?• Discussion groups?• Posting to a blog?• Motivating?

What are your objectives?• Increasing the baseline understanding

of the average student?• Helping the best students actualize

their potential?

Screencasting: easy solution for recording lectures

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CHEM 24189 students

CHEM 24364 students

Student Response to Screencasting: Attendance

Student Response to Screencasting: Usage Patterns

•Some students get ahead and watch lectures several times•Some students wait for night before test and try to cram•Most students fall in between and appreciate a suggested timeline

•Podcasting/vodcasting an archived course not convenient•I recommend downloading a zip of all recordings safest•However with smartphones on demand Flash may be best

Best use of Class Time

Mainly repeating lectures

Mainly workshops

One-on-one mentoring

Doing problems

Games

WikisA wiki is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.

Educational Uses of Wikis

•Organizing course content

•Student assignments

•Student generated content

•Easy to make content public and rapidly indexed on Google

Example: Chemical Information Retrieval FA09 (CHEM367/767)

Use of Web2.0 Tools for Sharing Recorded Lectures

Technical Note for Camtasia 7 and Web2.0 Hosting

•For highest resolution and small file size select FLV – highest quality option at 3 fps (1 or 2 fps generates an error)

•Most video hosting services do not accept FLV but SciVee does

•For short recordings (<10 mins) other formats (m4v, AVI, etc.) are fine and can be uploaded to YouTube

Students participate to collect resources

Assignments

Article summaries on Web2.0 site

Student Research Logs: DMTStudent Research Logs: DMT

Green Tea ProjectGreen Tea Project

Chemistry of ChocolateChemistry of Chocolate

Students generate course content

SiteMeter to discover content use

Students curate data on ChemSpider

Five Sources for the solubility of EGCG

=2.3 g/L

Students expose unreliability of “trusted sources”

The Chemical Information Validation Sheet

The Chemical Information Validation Explorer

(Andrew Lang)

Student Response to Class Wikis

•Some students do extra credit assignments (ChemSpider curation, multimedia component, Acawiki) and add resources•Some students do only the minimum required of assignments•Most students fall in between

Most students kept research logs and used feedback(reported progress/asked questions)

Almost all students used their real names

Open Wikis in Laboratory Research

Motivation: Faster Science, Better Science

There are NO FACTS, only measurements embedded

within assumptions

Open Notebook Science maintains the integrity of data

provenance by making assumptions explicit

TRUST

PROOF

Crowdsourcing Solubility Data

ONS Submeta Award Winners

Teaching Lab: Brent Friesen (Dominican University)

The Log makes Assumptions Explicit

The Rationale of Findings Explicit

Raw Data Made Public

Splatter?

Some liquid

YouTube for demonstrating experimental YouTube for demonstrating experimental set-upset-up

Calculations Made Public on Google Spreadsheets

Revision History on Google Spreadsheets

Wiki Page History

Comparing Wiki Page Versions

Solubilities collected in a Google Spreadsheet

Rajarshi Guha’s Live Web Query using Google Viz API

Data provenance: From Wikipedia to…

…the lab notebook and raw data

Reaction Attempts Book

Reaction Attempts Book: Reactants listed Alphabetically

Lulu.com Data Disks

Student Response to Research Wikis

•Students appreciate rapid feedback via the wiki•Students learn to properly document experiments by using a research log•The use of Google Spreadsheet templates makes it easier for students to record data and others to verify calculations•For teaching lab based deployment sufficient structure must be given while still allowing students to think•Students appreciate being co-authors on a book and having a bio/pic included•Although interaction via wiki is invaluable, face to face meetings (or phone calls) are also very important

Games for Learning

•Technology?

•Learning Objectives?

•Rewards?

Wheel of Orgo

(Andy Lang, Tony Williams)

Open Data spectra from ChemSpider for education

(Jean-Claude Bradley, Andy Lang, Tony Williams, Robert Lancashire)

The game starts easy

Later in the game: time limit and more molecules

Database Curation via Game Playing

Over 100,000 spectrum views so far - worldwide

Link Spectral Game to Open Educational Content

EduFrag Unreal Tournament Maze (without weapons)

EduFrag Unreal Tournament (with weapons)

Quiz Obelisks in Second Life (Eloise Pasteur)

Spectral Game in Second Life (Andy Lang)

Student Created Exhibits on ACS Island

3D Periodic Table (ACS Freebie)

Conferences on Second Nature

Student assignment: networking in Second Life and FriendFeed

http://www.journal.chemistrycentral.com/content/3/1/14

ChemTiles Game on the Web/Smartphone

ChemTiles Rules

ChemTiles Play

Multimedia student project: the Beer Game

Student Response to Games

•Occasional rewards (textbook) can be helpful but don’t require mandatory participation•Especially in group games, make participation optional (allow skip turn)•Most students are shy and not tech savvy– use games as a content base for workshops•Keep technical requirements as low as possible•Encourage other uses of the game – i.e. student who hacked SpectralGame got prize

ClickTiles: Try it out!

(Andrew Lang)

ClickTiles Flickr Group

•Create 256 x 256 pixel images on Paint •Name them starting with true or false

(Andrew Lang)

Conclusions

•Think about your educational objectives

•Experiment with technology

•Talk to students

•Keep what works

•To make this efficient learn from others