Pandemic II

                     I actually had a lot of fun playing a few rounds of Pandemic II. The objective of Pandemic II is to kill every human on the planet by expanding and enhancing the disease you created. You start out the game by choosing the name of the disease and if you want to be a bacteria, virus, or parasite. Each one of these options has strengths and weaknesses. After you are done with that, the game starts and selects one country that is initially infected with one human. Then with your disease points that you earn throughout the game you are able to upgrade your disease to make it stronger. You can purchase upgrades that make you resistant to certain weather conditions, and buy different symptoms that affect how fast your disease spreads. This game has a lot of different layers and strategies. The game is over when you win, or the world has found a cure to your disease.  The first time I played this game my disease started in Madagascar and I couldn’t figure out a way to spread the disease to the rest of Africa. Eventually the world came up with a cure after hundreds of thousands of people died in Madagascar and I lost. It is a lot harder to spread the disease when it starts out on an isolated island, such as Madagascar. The next game I played the disease started in India. I upgraded my disease to be resistant to drugs and spread faster under a warmer climate. I chose symptoms such as a severe fever because it is less noticeable to other individuals. I created the disease to be airborne so it could spread to surrounding countries such as China and the Middle East, and that is exactly what happened. Soon China, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Russia were infected and thousands of people were dying by the day. The world started to research a vaccine and shut down all airports and water ports to prevent further spread. After a while, everyone in those infected countries died and I couldn’t figure out a way to spread it to the rest of the world. I am obviously a novice at this game and it takes a lot of strategy to win the game. Eventually the world came up with a cure and I lost.

        This game would be a great addition to a high school or college classroom. It fits in with the standard, “HS-LS1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes” for a ninth grade science class. Pandemic II would go great with a lesson about pandemics and epidemics. You could teach about how disease is able to mutate and spread and then immediately have the students play this game. It has tons of symptoms that I am sure would be brought up during the lesson and would complement it nicely.  The rules seem overwhelming at first but once you play your first game it becomes pretty easy to get the rules and basic game play aspects. It takes about 20 minutes to complete the game and would be fun for the students.

        I really enjoyed playing Pandemic II and wish that when I was in school teachers allowed us to play more in depth games to learn about the world around us. Video games offer an immersion that students can really get behind. They are able to make mistakes and learn from them all while having fun.

PLN

I have never heard about feedly before until now and I think its really cool how you can find all your favorite blogs and articles in one place. I subscribed to three different blogs about educational technology.  One of the blogs give out great websites and tips and tricks on how to implement technology into the classroom.  Another blog I followed looks like it’s more for elementary school teachers and middle school teachers which is what I am working toward.

            I have never used twitter until this class. Once I figured out how to work everything I followed few people that talk about education and educational technology. Edutopia is one of my favorites because it takes real classroom stories and shows what is working in the classroom. It also gives great advice to teachers. When I become a teacher I can see myself on Edutopia all the time looking for new ways to make learning fun and interesting. My network isn’t too big I have twenty- four followers and most of them are in our EDUC 422 class.  My network will expand by having fellow classmates retweet other educational tools and hopefully I will see that and follow so then I can learn more about how to be a better teacher.

            Linkedin I can see will be very beneficial to me in the future when I am looking for a job. It is almost like you have a resume with you at all times. I have followed some of my old professors and business employers in hopes that they endorse me someday in the future.

            I really enjoyed looking at all the different PLN’s I subscribed too. I can see how important they can be when looking for a job. One of the main ways people get jobs nowadays is being connected and knowing people. Linkedin and twitter can really help with that. Once you land the job you have been searching for these tools can still be helpful for improving your profession and constantly getting new ideas.

Kahoot Quiz

Kahoot Quiz

            Last semester in EDUC 350 I had to log 40 hours of observation time in various classrooms. One 5^th grade class I observed had a Google chrome book cart and all the children were excited to do a Kahoots Quiz. I was really impressed about what Kahoots could do and the teacher told me all about it. Kahoots allows her to make a quiz, survey, or even flash cards to test the knowledge of the class. The way it test the students isn’t just a standard multiple-choice test that is protected onto the screen. Kahoots makes everything feel like a game. Each of the students partnered up and shared a Chrome Book. Their first step was to come up with a creative username that they can both agree on and is appropriate. Then the teacher can start the quiz when all the students had made a username and are ready to go. The teacher can either make a quiz really fast when they are making a username or start a premade quiz. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up the quiz. The quiz rewards you for getting the answer right and also for doing it fast. It penalizes people that just click on a multiple-choice option right away. At the end of each question it shows the top five players points and their creative username. Once the kids see their name on the leader boards they get really excited and feel like they are accomplishing something. I have never seen a class so excited to do math before. I was really impressed.

            I feel like the best way to implement a Kahoots quiz is when you just finished a topic and you want to check where everyone’s level of understating is in a fun way. It only takes about fifteen minutes and does seem too hard to set up. Kahoots quizzes also work on smart phones and tablets so if you don’t have enough computers a student could pull out his phone and be just as effective.

            A disadvantage to using Kahoots is that when I was observing I noticed kids were being really rowdy and getting distracted with what there neighbors were doing. The teacher would have to threaten to shut down the quiz to keep them all settled. It also possible a child could use an inappropriate username and everyone would be able to see that.


How it Works
https://getkahoot.com/how-it-works







  Kahoot Quiz in College Setting

Kahoot Quiz in Elementary Setting