PE5 - Schoology

 I have continued using Schoology in my class this week. I have been trying out different parts of the interface in preparation for my RILS.

For this next installment, I was on to investigating the assignments page. I quickly learned how to upload a file and how to embed videos! This was awesome for their homework assignment which was to view two videos and write a reflection. Because they were embedded in the assignments page, the students could easily access them and watch from home.

The videos I chose go right along with Clay Shirky's idea of "cognitive surplus".  Jane McGonigal discusses how playing games can save the world. According to Wikipedia, McGonigal is "is a game designer, games researcher, and author, specializing in pervasive gaming and alternate reality games."
Her vision is to increase the number of gamers from 500 million to 3 billion and to have each gamer play 1 hour per day for a total of 21 billion hours/week. She does not see this as a waste of time since she believes games can change the world...and her games do!!  World Without Oil, Cryptozoo, Evoke, and SuperStruct all challenged gamers to unleash their creativity and to collaborate with other gamers around the world on their quest for the "epic win". Check the games and McGonigal out next time you are looking to productively use your cognitive surplus :-)

The game I had my students play was not one of McGonigal's creations. This one was designed by the University of Washington and engages gamers in a collaborative effort to solve protein folding problems. Anyone can create an account and start folding. You need not have any science background! In a matter of days, gamers solved the  mystery of how retroviral protease might fold. This information may help in the development of a vaccine for HIV...how's that for successful crowdsourcing! So, my students got started with FoldIt and I was amazed at how quickly they learned the interface. They even discovered the chat box that allows them to chat with anyone playing the game at that time anywhere in the world! I have always tried to find ways to bring games into my class. Finding collaborative, innovative, creative, engaging games online is the ticket to getting my students hooked on learning and changing the world while tapping into some of their cognitive surplus. I can't wait to finish EMDT so I can spend some time gaming too!

So far I have to say that Schoology is a huge hit. Yes, new technology always excites the students, but I think that the interactivity, the format, and the intuitive nature of Schoology will give it some longevity as an engaging tool to use in the classroom. 

Now I am on to creating the assignment, discussion board, 

and page for students to upload their work for my RILS project.