Warning: Any posts with “brain dump” in the titles are just that. They are working posts, not polished reflection posts.
On my walk tonight I was listening to a great chapter in Reality is Broken. The chapter focused on different types of alternate reality games, including the Quest for Learning school and SuperBetter which I have been playing. At the end of the chapter I switched my ipod to instrumental because my head was full of ideas for the typing game I want to design.
Typing you say? Ugh you say? Exactly! I say. Next year we won’t have weekly computer classes. Our homeroom classes are not 1:1 with computers or iPads. As a result, I am not confident they will be come accurate and quick enough to make the computer a viable tool for efficiently completing the class projects. Besides, there isn’t enough time in school for them to practice to become proficient. It is an ideal skills to work on outside of school. Those children who are self motivated or who have a parent motivating them make good gains. They learn to type well enough that they can type their projects.
Seeing Jeff Utecht’s post on his Google Apps Ninja game. Seeing how with almost no promotion students and even staff were diving into the optional learning opportunity, I think a game could motivate my upper elementary students to voluntarily improve their typing skills.
After my walk I logged in to Mind Meister to get my ideas down before I forgot them. Here are my initial ideas. Of course, since this is the actual mind map embedded, unless you are viewing it on the day I posted it, it will show more than my initial ideas.
Cool Resources
Here are some resources I might use when I am farther in my thinking.