I’m an Experimenter! Reflections.
- Which three experimenter activities did you choose to complete and why? Include the links to your Activity Bank responses.
- H5P Drag the Word: I chose this one as I have experience with H5P, having created modules not unlike this one for a summer contract. Through that process, I had never actually created something for my own topic!
- OER Commons – Simple 2D Character Controller in Unity C#: I was stuck on this one for a minute, but I settled on doing a very simple demonstration of programming 2D character controller for Unity in C#. The reason I chose this one is that there are many, many, MANY tutorials online on how to do this, and a lot of them take different approaches. However, a lot of these online tutorials overlook optimization. Instead of doing a lesson on why a YouTube tutorial may not be the best resource, I decided to provide the resource!
- Quizlet – Terms and Definitions for Unity Execution Order: This one is based on a question I get almost every year, “what’s the difference between Start and Awake?” In Unity C#, there are several built-in functions that we use for creating software, and using them incorrectly can lead to disastrous issues such as infinite loops. It is important to remember where these functions are called in what is called “Execution Order.” This activity is a way for learners to remember the definitions, but also where each event occurs.
- Identify and explain three overall lessons learned from experimenting with these three activities. How might you use these activities going forward in your teaching practice?
-
- For H5P, chose to look at Sound Design as a topic for this, and while the Audio Recording tool makes the most sense at surface level, I decided to take a slightly different approach. The recording industry is full of acronyms and short-hand. While my sound design classes do not have quizzes like this, a simple drag and drop experience is a familiar way for learners to remember one of many acronyms. This showed me that there are aspects of my classes that could be covered in different ways!
- I am a proponent of experiential learning. Gen Z aged students (which a majority of them are now) do not respond to 3 hour lectures as well, if at all. Using a simple and familiar flip card system for a seemingly complicated concept (C# Execution Order) is an avenue to showing learners that programming is not that scary! I am going to begin investigating adding activities such as this to break up the monotony of me showing code.
- I had never heard of Open Education Commons before this module, and it’s a great concept. In the video games industry we deal with Creative Commons quite often (especially with students using placeholder assets they find online) so I am familiar with the overall idea, but creating a hub of resources for a broad range of topics is a fantastic idea, and beneficial to all educators!
- You were asked to complete at least one experimenter activity on a tablet or a smartphone.
- Identify the activity completed and on what type of mobile device?
- I did the H5P Drag the Word on my smartphone (Galaxy S20)
- Identify and explain the advantages and challenges of using this technology tool on a mobile device.
- Every student I have had in the last 5 years has a smartphone. I have done activities on Kahoot which relied on it, and during the pandemic I was teaching a sound design class online and students were using their phones to record audio. It makes a lot of sense to me for tools like this one to be accessible on a mobile device. From a learners’ perspective, it allows for them to do the activity in a different environment. I can say, “go to the coffee shop, grab a drink and do the activity in a group of 3” for example. From my perspective it means that I can check in on things quickly, and if I am not at my desk!
- A drawback I can see with this is the simple fact that once a learner is looking at their smartphone, they are wont to continue looking at it, logging in to other apps and texting, etc. Providing a time limit on the activity would be an easy way to mitigate this.
- Comment on how you might plan for an upcoming assignment to be completed on a tablet or a smartphone.
- I gave this away in my previous answer, but I am actually planning to use this. One of the tools on H5P is an Audio Clip/Recording. In my sound design class, I am thinking of a quick task where I ask them to go to a different room in the college to capture audio (I have done a version of this with capturing background chatter in the cafeteria.) With the H5P tool they can quickly capture and submit their examples. I could even use a “treasure hunt” approach to this.
- Explain the steps you might take in making access to these devices available to all students.
- It is presumptuous that every student will have a smartphone, but anecdotally every one of my students do. In cases where they do not, my college has a tech library where students can borrow laptops, tablets, audio recorders, etc. at no cost to them (just liability if they break it :-).)
- https://youtu.be/vrVMqeAG_So
Tweet
Example for "I’m an Experimenter! Reflections.":
https://youtu.be/vrVMqeAG_So
Leave a Reply