Evaluation of first weeks with Didactor

We have now been using the platform Didactor for some weeks and suddenly we needed some results to publish in a report. Of course we were about to ask for feedback but not so soon. Anyways, the feedback are now in and as students rarely understands completeness and only looking for what's best for themselves the feedback has been a bit negative. 

Thoughts of the students

The negative voices mostly because you can't be lazy anymore. You can't sleep during classes and doing else stuff and you must attend the classes. In the long run, when you look back at your education it's not a bad thing even though, at this moment, it of course can be very negative.

Also, everyone does not learn in the same universal way, but that's not something new, that problem we (teachers) always have had. Most funny, even though they tell us they hate the tool (Didactor) they learn and learn more and they are more active. Last but not least, they have a much better awareness of their knowledge, their self-evaluation and if they have passed the course or not.

In the evaluation we've been asking lots of questions, these maybe are the most interesting:

Prior knowledge

Self-assessment before

Self-assessment afterwards

Enjoy (using a new tool)

Motivation

 Activity

Proficiency after the course

What unintentional learning occurred?

• Information retrieval
• Languages (Finnish, English, Swedish)
• Use your computer (1:1 program)
• Be able to plan and be proactive
• Collaborate
• Problem solution
• Social media (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram)

I feel that my knowledge after the course is

Thoughts of the teachers

We the teachers has listen and are changing our ways (more variety) but will keep use didactor. Previously, students just been happy to pass the course, now they want to have more knowledge and higher ratings.

• We have never been so present in our courses
• It was a long time ago it was so fun to teach
• Entire groups come through the courses (higher throughput)
• Higher skill levels generally in the groups
• Less stress on the students (will I pass the course?)
• Less negative stress on teachers (has been replaced by positive stress)

Skills test

Now our first period has ended and we should finnish our courses, grade our students and start with new courses on Monday. So, what happened during my course 'PCs and Peripherals'? Did my Masterplan worked?

Usually when you force someone to do something, 25% loves it, 25% hates it and the rest can live with it. In my case when using Minecraft & MinecraftEDU 67% loved it and 33% could stand it. To have that many students loving it, even though they are 16-18 tells me the ways of learning starts to change. 

And to see those students have their 'epic wins' (succeed with a minecraft problem) and be able to take that feeling out in the real world is truly amazing. I've said it before and tell you again, from being the best to be worst, they have now aim to be the best of the best.

Instead of a written test we thought our Business Information Technican (datanom), first (14) year and second years (13) students, would have more benefits of a skills test. The 13-class has learned the same course I have had for the 14-class in an opposite way and it was very clear last week my masterplan have been working better.

You should also be aware of the 13-class had the course (I have run 14) last year with another teacher, the same one I hi-jacked btw... so they should have the same skills and lot more comparing to the first year students...

Instead of a written test in each course we also believed they could prove lots of knowledge (courses) with a skills test because of all the parts. We also put together the groups so there would be one strong and one weak student in each group, but both students in one team could have dyslexia. The strong/weakness was more about actually knowledge then diagnoses.

The skills test briefly: 

• get an old computer up and running, make a documentation of the process.
• Make sure the choosen computer works
• Install an old OS (win98, winXP SP1 or win2000) where plug and play doesn't work.
• troubleshoot and correct (drivers)
• Install Chrome, Firefox, firewall and antivirus (upgrade winXP to at least SP2 to get it working)
• Install MS Office, free of choice
• Connect a printer, print testpage
• Documentation at G Drive, share with the teachers.

The 14-class turned out to be much better problem solvers, they were more creative and collaborated even outside the groups. They wasn't scare to ask the teachers if they needed something, like if it would be possible to upgrade winXP to SP2 or a licence key to MS Office. The 13-class on the other hand, in the same situation, started to yell about how worthless the organisation was, how stupid the teachers were but had to face the fact, no matter what, they had to solve the problems.

When it came to the documentation, it was vice versa, the 13-class was a bit better, structure and layout but only one group (of nine) scored with highest marks, a team from the 14-class.

The average time for a 14-class was 3,5 hours and a 13-class 4,5 hour. In both classes there were students with crappy computers, as a result of lack of attendance, if you have been in school you would have had the chance to pick a working better computer. We had told our students there will be a skills test and they had a possibility to prepare themselves: chose computer, clean it, test run, search for drivers. They were even allowed to install the computers before the test, but the groups who did that installed winXP with service pack 2... You get more problems to solve with SP1 so that was also a good experience. 

And as you know: 

"Chance favors the prepared mind"

Before this course and during it I've asked myself these questions:

1. What will happen if I allow one game during class, a game of my choice? 
2. And within that game I give the students challenges, quest to solve?

One thing for sure, I havn't had any of those problems my colleagues usually have, negative energy to ban the games. The 13-class either play card games as often as possible or looked at youtube... 

In one class (13) games are not allowed, there the games and youtube is the wild factory. In the other class (14) one game has been allowed and only that. Those students (14) have became, as it showed in the skills test, better problem solvers, was more creative and could collaborate over the borders (with other groups/the other class).

Another thing, when I allowed the one game and they understod they could play that game, they could also better concentrate on the other tasks which is not gaming.

Finally, when we gathered feedback about the skills test we also realized there had been another, tenth, group: the teachers. With similar challenges and also one stronger/weaker group member. But as we told them, the strong/weak role depends on the challenge or task.

We asked them several questions, here are some results 

What did you feel about having a test like this?
The scale 1-4, 1 lowest, 4 highest

What did you think about the challenge?
The scale 1-4, 1 lowest, 4 highest

How important do you think this knowledge would be to you?
The scale 1-4, 1 lowest, 4 highest

What mark will you give the teachers?

About the marks below, 0=not passed, 3=excellent

Self evaluation, what mark do you deserve?

About the marks below, 0=not passed, 3=ex

Besides the fact I had one student with several epic win, me myself also got an epic win. My colleague saw what happened when I allowed one game and challenged them inside that game. He has now signed up for a Majong account and will use Minecraft to practice (challenge) stuff like Logic Gates...

How is my Masterplan working?

Comment:

English is my second language and according to all my former English teachers I should have a C or lower in English because I have no knowledge. Or as you can see, I have the wrong kind of language skills becuse I've learned English while playing games (Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft) and that's bad :D hehe well, of course not, but I want to point it out so you understand there's much learning going on when you play games even though it's not the primary thought of it.

How is my Masterplan working?

Well, this week I've started slow and easy with my course "PCs and Peripherals" and as you can see I have already done the opposite to my colleague. (I'm Steve and my students are also Steve)

He (and more colleagues) asks me all the time how I'm going to solve my course and most of them also panic when they realize my plan. It can't work! And therefor they try to shoot me down as fast or as often as possible... I do have some allies, but they work in silence and let me take the battles ;)

Anyway, before starting with theory I felt I needed to take up some basics with my students. My colleague started with theory from the very beginning and a whole day... Basics for me: how you problem solve, how you can be creative, how I want them to do documentations, start networking, stuff like that. And to make this happen without being boring I thought the Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology could be a way to trick them: make something boring funny.

So they did the test, and if You try this with your class I have to warn you, the site gamerDNA is slow, and they got their profiles (achiever, explorer, socializer and killer). I don't believe this work for games in general because when I took the FPS test myself I got another profile, something happens with my game role when I get my hands on a M249... 

What comes to a dungeon based game this was working just fine. We had three killers, three achievers, one socializer and two explorers (me and one more).

After the test they had to start working, first go to the wiki site and learn more about their profile. Understand the English, use Google translate if that's easier so you will have a hint what the text is about in Swedish (mothertounge). I believe you have a learning process going on even if you use Google translate, even if it's cheat what comes to language you problem solve and learn to be creative. Important skills as well.

When they had understood the description they now had to, with own words, reflect over their own gaming profile. Is it true? Why or why not? Motivate! Yes or no is not a valid answer. And they did that, all of them! A few sentences.

This, the reflection part, were the part where I realised - afterwards - I had succeeded with something school counselors usually fail with. Students with some kind of diagnose (ADHD, dyscalculia, dyslexia and more) usually have very hard to do this self analysis and put in on paper. I made this happen by misstake...

And as they are a new class, their group dynamic got a push, no matter the age: all are gamers! They started to discuss games and roles, and when I did the same test I was an important part of that discussion.

Back to the master plan!

I know our students, sooner or later, will loose interest if the lessons becomes boring (too much theory) and I know they will start play games. And when this happens, what will happen if I allow them to play one game and only that game. And what happens if I challenge them inside that game? 

• Will they learn more? 
• What unintentional learning will occurs?
• Will they be more interested in the course/lessons?

But I also start to understand build a computer or calculator will be a project too big, mostly because it's going to be a pain in the a** to debug what others have done. 

But if I put it down to the very smallest part of what a computer is, logic gates, and starts from there? Electrical engineering, something that our "cousins" ICT Assemblers study and learn. 

Actually, when I talked with that teacher today he had also been thinking of use Minecraft to get the students more involved in the education. The millennium kids, generation G, for sure learn in another way than we have been taught. And I thought I was the only teacher with that kind of thought in my school... hehe.

I know that the logic gates are not "PCs and Peripherals" but I also know if you understand this you will have much easier to do programming later in the education. 

And this leads to the same question once again:

If they anyway are going to play, what happens if I control the game?