Bloom into EdTech: The Blog

Topic : Gamestar Mechanic: learning how to design a story-based game. Suggested Grade : 6-8 Materials: Gamestar Mechanic Account . Free or paid. It is cheap to have a paid account ($2 per student exclusive education price, and I strongly urge you do. You can survive without it though.) You can set up an institution and track student progress! Pixabay.com or other sites that offer royalty free images. Intro to gaming video:  https://youtu.be/x24KoVNliMk Tech Tips: What better way to teach students about game design than playing a game while they learn? Gamestar Mechanic also allows students to design as well as share their games. This is my third year using Gamestar mechanic as an introduction to game design. Students will learn about the principles of game design: space, components, mechanics, goals and rules, as they learn how to independently design on their own. Gamestar Mechanic takes the stress out of students learning to code and places value on ...

Being a computer teacher has its rewards- one of which is working collaboratively with your coworkers. Study Island can provide just that. Pre-planning to use Study Island (well, the pre-planning on behalf of the classroom teachers that is) in the computer lab can make implementation run more smoothly and build a stronger connection between the classroom lesson and the computer lab. Have the classroom teacher create a test based on what they have been learning about and post it to their class page. The teacher log-in also provides resources for teachers, such as; lesson plans, printables and videos! All of this is available under My Assignments. Please note: that Study Island Provides State Standards for the core within the program. Goal: Develop a strong classroom teacher- computer teacher relationship to make Study Island in the computer lab a success! How and when to implement Study Island in the computer lab? First and foremost,  spend a computer lab class or two introducin...