Engaged Learning: Bringing Students Into Lessons With Technology and Games

Engaged Learning: Bringing Students Into Lessons With Technology and Games Or: How to Teach Critical Thinking Using Experiential Learning Noah Levin, PhD Golden West College

Have you ever used clickers? • Yes • No 30

Clickers • Wonderful tools for a variety of reasons: • Survey/quiz throughout class • Automatically recorded • Get immediate feedback • Use as basis for discussions • Easily do more in-depth analyses on data • More importantly: keep students awake, attending, and paying (some) attention

Do you know what engaged learning is? • Yes • No 30

Engaged Learning • Any type of learning that drags the student in to intimately engage the lesson • Often leads to quick internalization of the learning outcomes • Examples: • Games (give immediate and good feedback) • Puzzles (implementing key points) • Activities (active involvement) • Clickers (not passive) • Lectures and discussions (when done right)

Do you know what experiential learning is? • Yes • No 30

Experiential Learning • Slightly different then engaged, and most experiential methodologies will also engage • But experiential learning can be a subcategory of engaged learning • Have the experience of applying the lesson points while learning about them • Games • Internships • Other examples?

Let’s play a game • Round 1 rules: • If none of the options are exceeded in terms of the maximum number of people, then you all get what you asked for • If any single option is exceeded, then no one gets THAT prize

How many candies would you like? 3 (1 person max!) 2 (2 person max!) 1 (2 person max!) 0 (30 person max) 30

Let’s play a game • Round 2 rules: • If none of the options are exceeded in terms of the maximum number of people, then you all get what you asked for • If any single option is exceeded, then NO ONE gets ANYTHING

How many candies would you like? 3 (1 person max!) 2 (2 person max!) 1 (3 person max!) 0 (20 person max) 0 (20 person max) 1

Tragedy of the Commons There’s a field with 4 farmers, and they each have a dairy cow The field feeds the dairy cows just fine year after year and they all succeed One farmer then decides, “I can have another cow!” And he gets one, and does even better, and the field survives just fine So the others get extra cows…and they all die Why would they get an extra cow? How could this problem have been avoided? Real-life examples? International fishing, others?

How many candies would you like? 4 (1 person max!) 3 (2 person max!) 2 (3 person max!) 1 (4 person max) 0 (30 person max) 1

So what’s the key to all of this? Discuss and agree! But these things only work if we are predictable and reliable So if you say, “We’ll never win because people are greedy” then you’re giving in a little to a deterministic view of human decisions At least people must be predictable in some way for you to win this game

1st box need not be shaded! Because a comma can be more than one space Nonograms Rules Each square is either shaded or not

This is wrong! ‘1,2’ Nonograms Rules Numbers are used in order and commas are spaces

Nonograms Rules Let’s try one! puzzle-nonograms.com shadypuzzle.com or the iOS app

Deductive analysis • Start from a point of certainty • Solve piece-by-piece • Negative information can be useful • Generate options & eliminate contradictions • Mistakes are good • If you learn from them!

Disjunctive syllogism • Either a cell is Shaded or it is Blank • It is not Shaded • Therefore…what? • It is Blank • Can you put this in standard argument form? • S v B • ~S • ∴ B

Engaged Learning: Bringing Students Into Lessons With Technology and Games