I just completed another MOOC, "Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technology" from MIT

I was a bit of a rebellious student in the fourth MITx class on educational technology: MITx: 11.133x Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technology.

This course was less interesting to me than the previous two on educational games because it focused on traditional classroom management and government school administrators and evaluators. I'm not that hopeful about trying to enhance the current system with technology.  And, I'm biased against central planning.  I'm more interested in the use of technology to allow kids to do self-directed learning.

Anyway, I watched all the video lectures, did the readings, did some assignments and participated in the student discussions to see what I could glean.

Much of the material seemed irrelevant to my interests. And, I saw evidence of many things I already knew: Technology is not a magic bullet. Change is slow and painful in U.S. government school systems. Childrens' curiosity and initiative get squelched in schools.

But, I was surprised by some new information. Also, I participated in specific discussion groups on game design, math teaching and homeschooling.  Beyond these groups, I was delighted by the many intelligent viewpoints and projects of the other participants who live all over the world. Many of them were dedicated teachers.

My top 10 tidbits from the  course:

10. A new position in some U.S. schools is "Educational Technologist".  An Educational Technologist helps teachers find good technology to help them teach and checks to see that it will work with the school's computers and connectivity. This position is often held by the geekiest teacher in the school for no extra pay. They may also be responsible for maintenance and repair of the equipment.

9. In the state of Massachusetts (for example) there are hundreds of entities that must sign off on any technology proposed to be used in the public schools.

8. A computer game for use in a classroom doesn't have to be very well designed for kids to want to play it. As one prof said, It just has to be "better than jail".

7. Homeschooling parents are actively interested in computer games and debate their efficacy.

[The four above affirmed my focus on the consumer market for my games.]

6. My questions about the development of logical thinking in children may be better answered by Vygotsky than Piaget. We'll see. I've acquired two thick books to study. And, the reason I'd never heard of Vygotsky when I studied development psychology in the 70s? He was considered "Soviet" at that time.

5. You-tube is a fabulous technology for learning just about anything.

4. The public library is probably a better place to facilitate self-directed learning than the public school.

3. In a case study a grant-funded iPad learning app needed to be tested in preschools. So it was put in the iTunes Store for free. The kids (inner city) mainly had iPads and so did their teachers. But, the preschool teachers couldn't download the free App because they didn't have credit cards, which are required by iTunes.  [This speaks to the advantage of easy access to HTML5 games on the Web]

2. There's nothing new under the sun in educational technology.

1. Or maybe there is.

My Newest Game, NUMBER ROUND-UP Is Ready for Testing

UPDATE:

The games in this post have been moved. You'll find the latest versions of my games at the Logical Game Studio.

I've been working obsessively on this game. Lots of fun to code and (I hope) to play. Number Round-Up runs on Safari on the iPad and in most computer browsers.
It's not completely done, but I'd love to have you try it out. All critique and suggestions are welcome.

http://logicalgames.co/NumberRoundUp

I haven't set up a form to receive reports on testing this time. But, I'd very much appreciate any response by email. thelogicalwoman@gmail.com

Like Marble Factory, Number Round-Up is a cooperative game for two players using one iPad (touch) or computer (keyboard  arrow keys and mouse).

Number Round-Up includes 3 activities at 4 levels.
I hope you'll try each type of game: Practice, Round-Up, Ribbons Round.
The Challenge Level (Level 4) can be customized. Click the menu button to see the customization page.

Please, first take a look at Marble Factory if you haven't already seen it.
http://logicalgames.co/MarbleFactory

Some concepts of sorting into sets are presented in Marble Factory which provide background to playing Number Round-Up. So, kids who have already played Marble Factory will understand much about Number Round-Up without a lot of instructions.

Please note that some usability tests of Marble Factory have shown me that several basic changes need to be made to that game and I plan to work on those soon. Meanwhile, I've incorporated those suggestions into this game.

Public thanks to my sister, Jan, who has been tirelessly testing this game for weeks.

More information for those who like reading long blogs:

Number Round-Up is the next of several games I'm working on to help kids learn logic, attributes and sets.

Because I always tried to help my young math students become logical thinkers, my first learning objectives for these games are these 3:
1. Observation of attributes, similarities and differences of things (in this case some marbles) then, in Number Round-Up moving on to the attributes, similarities and differences of numbers.
2. Introduction to set theory including cardinality, intersections and empty sets.
3. Gaining clarity in the logic terms: and, or, both, neither, not.

Number Round-Up can also provide practice in multiplication facts and factoring.

These are cooperative games and I hope that lots of thinking together and conversation between the players as they work as a team to win will enhance the learning.

The ability to customize a challenge will allow kids, teachers, parents to focus in on what needs practicing. I plan to allow multiple challenges to be saved, but currently you can only save one.

Should you come up with a challenge that you think is especially useful, I'll share those ideas around.

Thanks for your interest and for testing Number Round-Up!

 Marcia
 The Logical Woman