To Be or Not To Be: Copyright Edition

Pooh's News

     Having read the copyright book assigned for this class I would not agree that the school's use of the name Pooh is a copyright violation.

1. The school used the name of this character for a new use.  Winnie-the-Pooh is not known for having any type of news reporting nor does he read/write reviews of books. 
2. The name is being used for educational purposes.  The school added this section to their announcements to tell students about different pieces of literature. 
3. Even though they are not exercising this right in this case, the school has the right to use copyrighted material to enhance curriculum and to sell said curriculum. 
4. The students are creating new material with their reports and fair use gives them the right to broadcast those new materials. 

I tried again to find five reasons I do not think the school violated copyright laws but really I only have three... since one of the listed is not applicable because the school is not using the material in this way.  The school refrained from associating their news segment with photos of Winnie-the-Pooh and his voice to avoid direct copyright infringement.  They also put the name to a new use. I do not think they violated copyright laws in this case. 

(4/4)

To Be or Not To Be: Copyright Edition

Movies All Day

     The school was very cautious not break copyright laws regarding local businesses.  What they did not consider were the copyright laws governing the videos they were showing.  I believe the school is in violation of copyright in this situation; fair use does not apply here.

1. Although the school may have purchased the videos they were showing they do not have the right to show the video to the public or to large groups of people.  There is a special license for that. 
2. The school is not changing the use of the videos for an educational purpose.  Students are not learning/creating something new by putting videos on a loop for a festival day. 
3. The school is not using the videos to enhance a lesson or curriculum; they are using it for a festival day.

I really tried to make five points from this prompt, but really there are only three. The school did not buy (unless that information was left out) the proper viewing rights for the videos to show them during a festival.  The videos are not being edited and applied to new learning for an educational purpose (though some would argue fun is educational).  And they are not being used to enhance a lesson or curriculum. 

(3/4)

To Be or Not To Be: Copyright Edition

Gap Steal?

It definitely seems as though Gap broke copyright laws in this situation.  Two tips from the "tipster" in this article convinced me that this was a copyright violation.  First, he noted that this is not a picture of your typical Jaguar.  The sketching across the windshield is very unique.  Second, he notes that the aforementioned lines on the windshield are "as good as a barcode" in this situation. (I guess that is only one point).

After reading the Copyright materials for this course and reading this article I do believe that Gap broke copyright violations to make money from an image they stole from flickr.

If this were an educational situation, the only thing that might change my mind is the profit being made.  If the school/class chose to use this image and were not making a profit on this I would not consider it to be copyright.  Or, if the school were making money for a charity rather than for personal gain, I would not consider it to be copyright. (But maybe I would be a super lenient copyright judge).

(2/4)

To Be or Not To Be: Copyright Edition

A Family Christmas Card

In this situation, neither the family nor the photographer took steps to mark that the photograph belonged to someone.  If the shop owner sincerely believed the image was generated then his ignorance is bliss (in this situation).  Furthermore, the shop owner made new use for the photo.  He did not post this on a Christmas card, rather he used to advertise a grocery delivery service.  This falls under the act of fair use.

My decision would not be considered differently if this were an educational situation.  I do not find the shop owner guilty to copyright violation.  His ignorance and intended use make him innocent, in my ruling.

(1/4)

Game Based Learning: Dogwood Trail

Prompt:

Sociology
     It was hard to leave the Field of Daisies, but you feel you have a duty to explore this Dogwood Trail further. It seemed like you had traveled only a little further before you saw quite a site to behold -- a 1,000 year old Ebony Tree!

Ebony Tree: 

Strong Social Connectivity from Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

Stronger Social Connectivity

• Applications in conjunction with social media sites such as Facebook allow users to keep in touch with family and friends across the world. 
• The game mentioned in McGonigal's book was Lexulous-a scrabble like game equipped with chat. 
• For a while, I played Words with Friend, similar to both Scrabble and Lexulous. It allowed me to connect with family and friends that were at home in Pennsylvania while I am in school in Tennessee. 
• Applications in conjunction with social media sites such as MySpace Facebook also allow users to meet new people and make new friends. 
• Lexulous was designed so that users could create "random" games and battle opponents they may not know. 
• I remember, back when I had a MySpace page, that I began adding people that played the same gardening game that I played so that we could send each other time or seeds or whatever other needs we had. 
• Asynchronous Game-play
• Players do not have to be online at the same time to continue a game.  This allows people to be flexible and play whenever they are free or between appointments. 
• This is the key factor to the addictiveness of games such as Lexulous, Words with Friends, Trivia Crack and so on.

Happy Embarrassment 

• Every type of game comes with some type of banter. 
• Players taunt one another to brag about their win or high score and to encourage one the other player to be better. 
• This last part, encourage the other player to be better.  It doesn't seem like banter would be able to do this, but as we taunt our opponents it drives them to beat us.  This would go back to the fun in failure that I wrote about in my last post. 
• Excitement in these social games has even created a new lingo. 
• Pwned, often pronounced poned or pawned, derived from the misspelling of owned in phrases like, "I just owned that game."  I included this under the happy embarrassment section because it is slightly an embarrassment to the intelligence of gamers.  They misspell a word so often that they have created a clip of the word owned.

Vicarious Pride

• Naches
• This Yiddish term means bursting with pride.  Many gamers say they experience this type of euphoria when they have taught or mentored has succeeded.  Players that report this feeling often experience this euphoria when they are coaching someone at a game and the player gets closer to or completes their mission. 
• Mentoring our friends and family makes us happy and brings us closer together. 
• The happiness we receive when we cheer on our family and friends demonstrates our desire to invest in other people's growth and achievement. 
• On the other side of the scale, if we are not actively helping someone achieve their goal, we often feel jealousy or resentment.  
• Our lack of participation in their success is visible through the lack of pride shown in our emotional systems. 

Ambient Sociability

• Sometimes company is better from a different room. 
• Massive multiplayer online games allow people to communicate (via chart or headphone/speaker devices) and work toward a common goal from different rooms (or houses or states or countries).  Many players, however, have reported that they prefer to play these games alone. 
• Researchers have found that players enjoy playing video games side by side. 
• They may or may not be playing the same game, but they are likely not playing the game together.  This ambient sociability is the sensation of sharing the same space with one another. 

Game Based Learning: Dogwood Trail

Prompt:

     Coming out of the cave, off to your left, through a small gap on down the ravine from the cave, you see the most marvelous Field of Daisies in sort of a natural meadow within these woods! You can do with a bit of sunshine and openness after the dimness of the cave and you take off that way jogging will you keep an eye to the ground for the twists and turns of your path. You used to use daisies to gauge your love life ("Loves me, Loves me not") but you always felt like such a failure.

Field of Daisies: 

Fun Failure and Better Odds of Success from Reality is Broken  by Jane McGonigal

Failure and Better Odds of Success

• When you are playing a well designed game failure does not disappoint. 
• Failure makes gamers excited, interested, and optimistic to try again.  They were paying attention to the moves they made before and they are likely to recognize where they made a mistake and attempt to fix it in the next round. 
• Failure at well designed games allows the users to develop mental toughness. 

Why Failure Makes Us Happy

• Researchers have identified three factors that demonstrate the emotions of failure
• Heart rate
• Users pump blood faster when they are more emotionally involved. 
• Skin Conductivity
• Researchers noted that people were sweating more which is a known sign of stress. 
• Electrical Activation of the Facial Muscles
• We make different facial expressions when we are experiences different emotions-smiles, scowls, frowns.
• Researchers found that the strongest bursts of positive energy were displayed when gamers made a mistake. 
• Watching their mistake play out and thinking about how to avoid it next time brought emotional reactions of excitement, joy, and interest.
• The animation sequence made failure enjoyable. 
• When game designers create a failure scene that is fun to watch gamers are more at ease with failing.  I have witnessed many people crash cars in games like Grand Theft Auto because they enjoy watching vehicles smash into one another with no repercussions in reality.  
• In the game world, the more users fail the more eager they are to do better. 
• The right kind of failure feedback (such as a fun animation) is a reward; these 'rewards' get users engaged in their activity and make them more optimistic about the odds.  Furthermore, it reinforces the user's sense of control over the game's outcome.

Better Hope of Success

• Winning tends to end the fun. 
• Once you master a level it is mastered.  You can go back and play the level again but you probably know where all the traps are hidden and the best way to complete the mission. 
• There are games, such as Crash Bandicoot, that encourage users to replay levels to look for missed boxes or to beat their score. 
• But in most games, the hope of success is better than success-in other words, failure keeps the fun going. 
• The unnecessary obstacle becomes less of an obstacle over time. 
• Continued play time and practice helps gamers master the challenges that stand between them and their missions.  Over time, they master more challenges and move on to harder ones.  But in the end, they learn how to overcome their obstacles to succeed. 

The Hope of Rock Star Success

• Rock Stardom is something that is out of reach for most gamers.  But games such as rock band allow them to live out their fantasies. 
• You don't reach actual rock stardom, but users enjoy the thrill of playing famous songs and performing with and for friends and family. 
• Rock band provides users with a semi-real life experience.  The microphone has a pitch register to detect whether or not the singer is meeting the right notes at the right time.  The drums are designed like modern electric drums. 
• Even games such as rock band include entertaining failure. 
• When players get behind on a song the song begins to visually crash.  The music slows and sounds worse.  The crowd boos.  If you are bad enough you character will be booed from the stage and will sulk away pouting. 

Review: 

     Failure can be fun... in games at least.  Games designers take the time to make failing at their game seem like a reward.  They include fun animations that stimulate the same physical responses that come when gamers complete an epic win.  Failing at a game encourages users to master the challenges and prevail at their mission. 

      This would be an awesome strategy to include in the classroom but I do not see how I would make this work.  Create a cool video for students that fail a spelling test? In video games, users sometimes fail on purpose, and that is the last attitude I want to encourage in my classroom. 

Game Based Learning: Dogwood Trail

Prompt:

     Dogwood Lane is such a pleasant walk. The flowering trees are beautiful. When I see the opening to a Cave, just down the hill from where the path turns, visions of cool subterranean beauty come to mind as the perfect complement to this trek in the sunshine that is starting to get a little bit warm. Someone has carved "Csikzentmihalyi" into the stone by the cave entrance.What does that mean? You go explore for a few minutes...
     Oh, and of course, Stalagmites... That is a curious one over there. It almost looks like writing along the side... "Auto..." "Autotelic?" What? You are not sure what autotelic means, but that does not appear to be a stalagmite!

Cave: 

Stalagmites

     Work will always be hard, but it does not always have to be unpleasant. According to Csikzentmihalyi, there is evidence in the Bible that shows that work has the ability to be the most enjoyable part of life.  In some cultures the community works to make daily chores feel like flow activities. People from these communities seldom distinguish work from free time. But even in these communities the test of time has taken its tool.  People of the older generations valued and enjoyed their work whereas people in the younger generations, twenty to thirty years old, would have preferred to work less and spend more time in leisure.
     Autotelic jobs are more about the person doing the job than the job itself.  People with an autotelic personality have the ability to, despite limitations, change constraints into opportunities for expressing their freedom and creativity.
      For people with non-autotelic personalities the job must be changed to fit the characteristics of a game in order for them to enjoy the work.  The job would inherently resemble a game equipped with variety, opportunity, clear goals, and feedback.

Review:

     This was a very interesting article to read.  It is weird to think that people did work based on what they wanted to do or how the weather was.  People would do what needed to be done for the sake of production for that day.  In our world, since the industrial revolution, people do what they are told to do, regardless of the weather.  Very few people make their work related decisions based on the weather.

If life were a game, we would enjoy our jobs more. 

Game Based Learning: Dogwood Trail

Prompt:

     Dogwood Lane is such a pleasant walk. The flowering trees are beautiful. When I see the opening to a Cave, just down the hill from where the path turns, visions of cool subterranean beauty come to mind as the perfect complement to this trek in the sunshine that is starting to get a little bit warm. Someone has carved "Csikzentmihalyi" into the stone by the cave entrance.What does that mean? You go explore for a few minutes...
     Ah, Stalactites, beautiful! As you gaze up, though, you feel a breeze, as though someone brushed by you. Your imagination? Then why did the candle flicker and what are the papers in your hand. Arghh... you are startled and drop the papers - should you pick them up? Is this a time when you should Flow with the activities around you?

Cave:

Stalactites

     Flow activities are designed to make the optimal experience easier to achieve. These include activities such as chess, dancing, sailing, making music, and rock climbing. These activities include all four main traits outlined by McGonigal in one of my previous posts: goals, rules, feedback, and voluntary participation. The structure of flow activities enable participants to reach a highly enjoyable and ordered state of mind.
     Games off the opportunity to go beyond the boundaries of ordinary experience in the areas of competition, chance, alternate conscience, and mimicry. Each of these areas of gaming provides the common factor of equipping the participants with a sense of discovery; they push the participants to new levels-sometimes to levels they didn't know they could reach (epic win).  Some activities even help people balance boredom and anxiety.
     In order for flow activities to combat boredom we must understand the four stages that people would go through as the play a flow game.  The first  stage would be in flow because the participant is learning how to do the rudiments of a new game.  The second stage is boredom as the participant loses interest in the basics.  The third stage is anxiety, when the participant meets someone that challenges the basic skills they have mastered.  The fourth stage returns to flow as the participant challenges himself to be better at the game.  This cycle continues and participants move up in the category of flow as they master more challenging skills.

Flow Channel's to Combat Boredom and Anxiety

1. Tennis
• Stage 1: Flow: Getting the ball over the net.  Participants are in flow as they learn how to master the basic skill.  It is thrilling to see how the ball reacts to how you hit it, based on force and speed. 
• Stage 2: Boredom: Hitting the ball over the net becomes boring; there are only so many ways you can hit a ball. 
• Stage 3: Anxiety: Participants meet someone that has mastered skills beyond their level.  This motivates them to learn and master more skills. 
2. Bingo
• Stage 1: Flow: The excitement of hearing the numbers called and finding them on your sheet is thrilling.  You enjoy seeking and marking in the effort to fill your sheet. 
• Stage 2: Boredom: Beginning participants only have one bingo card, so they get bored as the caller shouts combinations they do not have on one sheet. 
• Stage 3: Anxiety: Participants get anxious when they are only a few spaces away from BINGO when someone else shouts BINGO. 
• Stage 4: Flow: They learn to master dobbing multiple bingo cards and the thrill waiting for the number to be called. 
3. Skydiving
• Stage 1: Flow: Participants are excited to learn about the adventure they are about to embark on. 
• Stage 2: Boredom: Participants begin to snooze as they continue book work and safety instructions for the upcoming adventure. 
• Stage 3: Anxiety: The thought of jumping out of a plane and plummeting to the Earth begins to sink in.  Participants begin to realize the risk they are taking and my even second guess themselves. 
• Stage 4: Flow: The day comes and they step up to the plate and jump  out of the plane.  They thrill of falling to the Earth gives them a huge adrenaline rush. 
4. Dance
• Stage 1: Flow: Learning a new skill brings a lot of excitement to the participants.  They are overjoyed at the idea of learning a new step. 
• Stage 2: Boredom: Practice makes perfect but it also gets boring.  Doing the same steps over and over are tiring. 
• Stage 3: Anxiety: A much more advanced dancer comes along and out dances participants.  This makes them want to learn more advanced moves. 
• Stage 4: Flow: Learning more advanced steps and choreographing them to a song brings a new sense of flow. 

Game Based Learning: Dogwood Trail

Prompt:

Dogwood Lane is such a pleasant walk. The flowering trees are beautiful. When I see the opening to a Cave, just down the hill from where the path turns, visions of cool subterranean beauty come to mind as the perfect complement to this trek in the sunshine that is starting to get a little bit warm. Someone has carved "Csikzentmihalyi" into the stone by the cave entrance.What does that mean? You go explore for a few minutes...
You carefully creep into the Cave Entrance. Is there something stuck in that small hole over there?


Cave:
Cave Entrance

   In  Mihalyi Csikzentmihalyi's book Flow the author takes the time to define happiness in the eyes of psychology.  Csikzentmihalyi believes that happiness is out interpretation of outside events.  It is not something that happens to us, but rather something we, as individuals, prepare and cultivate for.  Once we have the ability to control our inner experience we can determine whether or not an event or sequence of events makes us happy.

     Csikzentmihalyi goes one to describe what he calls the optimal experience.  He does not view this experience as the times we have to relax and sit down.  Rather, he believes these are the times when we have control of our actions and are masters of our own fate. 

     Flow, the title of the book, is defined as the state at which people are so engrossed with what they are doing nothing else seems to matter. The author wrote this book on flow and optimal experience so that it could be the first book presented to the general reader. 

Review: 

     Reading Csikzentmihalyi's work in light of having read McGonigal drives me more to have a game based learning classroom (dependant on my schools expectations and restrictions).  Csikzentmihalyi's insights through the lens of psychology are very similar to those presented by McGonigal.  

     People find happiness whiled doing what they love, not while doing nothing.  We are happy when we are achieving a goal and being productive.  Both authors have pointed this out. 

     

Game Based Learning: Chestnut Trail

Prompt:

     Back on the Chestnut Trail you meander along, around a curve and down a slight hill, when you see those bright juicy cherries strewn across the path. There are Cherry Trees just off the path on the left!

Cherry Trees: 

Chore Wars

     Chore Wars was designed as a simplified version of World of Warcraft with goals that resemble real world cleaning tasks.  Being an alternate reality game, players work with real people such as roommates, siblings, or other family members.  This is also a downfall to the game, you can only play if you know others that are playing the game.  The designer created the game to help households keep track of what chores are being done and to inspire house members to do more work.
     Users have the ability to design household chores and set point values based on the activity.  A good strategy is to make less desirable jobs worth more points, this will attract other users to do the job.  Households are also encouraged to create ways for players to redeem the points they earn.
     The author of Chore Wars makes the point that you can win even if you lose. They mentioned this comment when discussing the record of points earned.  They noticed that their husband had accumulated more points than they had over the nine months they played this game.  This is a huge bonus for all the wives and mothers out there!

Review:

     I was slightly disappointed that I could not play this game because I did not have other people to play this.  It would be nice if there was a stimulation added so that people could see how the game works.  This would be great to use in the classroom in conjunction with the Montessori Method.  In a previous post you may have noted that Montessori had her students to real life activities as part of their course work. I love that idea for my classroom and a fun way to implement it would be through Chore Wars.  Students can complete tasks in the classroom and earn points on Chore Wars.  The image below will take you to the chore wars website if you would like to explore for yourself.

Game Based Learning: Chestnut Trail

Prompt:

     Down a short path on the right, you are drawn by some carvings on a small grove of Cedar Trees where quite a few people have gathered in small groups. Each group seems to be in the throws of a vigorous discussion as hands gesture very animatedly. "What, exactly, is a game?" you hear one person query as the discussion turns to a new person in one of the groups. You decide to go join in...

Cedar Trees: 

Traits of a Game

     McGonigal beings her book by discussing the different terms related to "player" and "game" and their different meanings.  For example: 

• "Gaming the systems" is generally interpreted as doing something to cheat the system for your benefit. 
• "Get in the game" is understood that someone must do whatever it takes to get ahead. 
• "Player" is often used to describe someone who manipulates others for their benefit.  Generally, someone who is a "player" is not trustworthy person. 

It is intriguing to see how language and context can change the meaning of words or phrases. McGonigal goes on to explain that the way these terms are used in metaphors do not accurately reflect the gaming world.  She goes on to state that this manipulation of the words/phrases mirrors the fears people have about games: loosing track of the line between game and reality.  McGonigal moves forward to outline four defining traits of a game: 

1. Goal
• The outcome that players will/hope to achieve.  Goals gives players a sense of purpose and focuses their attention what they need to do to win. 
2. Rules
• These are limitations as to how players achieve their goal.  In some cases, rules push the players to discover new ways of reaching their desired outcome. 
3. Feedback System
• This informs players on how far they have come/how far they need to go to reach their goal.  This system takes many forms such as: 
• points
• levels
• scores
• progress bar
4. Voluntary Participation
• Everyone that is playing the game knowingly and willing accepts the rules and works toward the goal: whether that is an individual or a corporate goal; and the feedback system. 

The traits McGonigal has outlined are different from the traits most outline which include: interactivity, graphics, narrative, rewards, competition, virtual environments, and the idea of "winning."  These are all common features of a game but they are not what define the game; they are merely supporting characteristics that evolve from the four main traits. 

     McGonigal goes on to define playing a game as the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.  She further states that game play challenges us with voluntary obstacles that enhance our personal strengths.  Finally, she spends the last pages of the chapter arguing that games promote positive emotions and to outline different types of work. McGonigal believes that games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose to complete.

Types of Work: 

• High-stakes Work
• Busywork
• Mental Work
• Physical Work
• Discovery Work
• Teamwork
• Creative Work 

Each of these areas of work provoke us in different ways.  We respond differently to each type of work and our enjoyment varies based on how we handle and interact with these types of work.  Additionally, each of these types of work can be found in a video game.  Games manipulate these works to their benefit and the enjoyment of their users.  They make these types of work thrilling and necessary to reach the users goal.  They user does not think about the fact that what they are doing is high-stakes or busy work, but they know that what they are doing is necessary to reach their goal.  

     McGonigal concludes by stating that a good game is a unique way of structuring experience and provoking positive emotion.  She further explains by noting good games possess an extremely powerful tool for inspiring participation and motivating hard work. 

Review: 

     Yet again McGonigal has opened my eyes to the building blocks of the gaming world.  It is astounding to read about the foundation of gaming and game strategies and compare them to the foundation and strategies that I am expected to teach as an educator.  I truly believe that the game based learning model would be a blessing in the classroom. 

Game Based Learning: Birch Trail

Prompt:

     On down, past the Bamboo, there is a small Beech Grove on your right. You find a long wooden box, with a clasp on it...

Beech Grove: 

Mancala

     The name "mancala" came from the Arabic word "naqala" which literally means "to move."   The object of the game is to collect as many rocks in your mancala (the rightmost cup) as possible.  You and your opponent will take turns to move the rocks according to the rules:

How to play: 

• Players fill 12 holes, aligned in two rows, parallel to one another, with four rocks in each hole. 
• You can only move the rocks on your side of the parallel. 
• each time you move, you pick up all the rocks in one hole and distribute them in a counter clockwise direction to the next cup. 
• If the last gem of a move landed on your mancal, then you can move again. 
• If you round the board you do not place a mancala in your opponents cup. 
• If the last rock of a move landed on an empty cup on your side and there are some rocks in the opposite cup, then the gems in the two cups will be captured in your mancala. 

The earliest evidence of the game has been found in Aksumite ares in Matar and Yeha.  Archaeologists have dated this remains between the 6th and 7th century AD.  This game symbolizes the actions used in agriculture which explains why some refer to the game as "the sower." 

Review: 

     This game is a testament to strategy, critical thinking, and math.  Students would exercise these skills as they attempt to collect the most rocks in their mancala space.  I was first introduced to this game by my husband when I visited his family while we were dating.  He loves the challenge of strategy that this game brings. The image below will take you to an online version of this game.  It is also available in app form. 

Game Based Learning: Birch Trail

Prompt:

     Further along on the Birch Trail you see what only can be a Bamboo Stand. There is a small package at the base of the stand, so you reach to get it, and...

Bamboo Stand: 

The Montessori Method

     Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator.  She is best know for the educational philosophy that bears her name as well as her writings on scientific pedagogy.  Montessori's influences came from scholars who emphasized exploratory/sensory learning and the use of manipulative's.  Her first works were at a school for disabled children where she taught them tasks such as how to walk and how to use implements such as a spoon. 

     She viewed her work with these children as scientific pedagogy.  The methods she employed were designed to be adapted and improved my students needs.  She believed that, by monitoring her methods and accommodations that science could transform education. 

     She developed her educational method that we know as the Montessori Method when she began working with non-disabled students.  These students learned in an environment that was crafted to their developmental needs. Part of the student responsibilities also included "practical activities" that included sweeping and cleaning tables. 

     In her book, she described a method in which the students learned to read and had the opportunity to play.  Students will pick a piece of paper out of a hat, read the paper, then stick it back in the hat.  Then, students would go tot he front of the room, correctly say the name of the toy that was on their paper and locate the toy.  If the student both pronounced the word correctly and located the toy they then had the opportunity to play with the toy. The students enjoyed this method and some refused to play with the toy they picked because they were eager to learn more. 

Review: 

     Montessori  developed a method that was innovative for her and and still seems to be innovative today.  I love the concept of matching the learning to what it represents. This is definitely a method I would like to use in my classroom, especially since I will be in a kindergarten classroom this fall.  Her method resembles the immersion method of learning a second language.  Students (children and adults) learn what objects and actions are by labeling or practicing them.

Game Based Learning: Birch Trail

Prompt:

     Down the trail, the shift from Birch to Balsa Trees on the left side of the trail is subtle. The trees are spread out more and there is more undergrowth, almost like a thicket around the base of the trees. A flash of sunlight from something shiny at the base of a tree not too far away grabs your attention as the trees and leaves sway to change the patterns of the sun shining through. "I wonder as I wander," you think as you step into the thicket to see what reflected that flash of sunlight...

Balsa Trees:

Quintilian

     Marcus Quintilian (c. 100 CE) was sent to Rome by his father to study rhetoric during the early reign of Nero.  After his studies Quintilian opened his own public school of rhetoric during the Year of the Four Emperors.  Some believe that Quintilian was the first to pursue his version of what we call a student centered classroom.  Quintilian's surviving work discusses the issues of rhetoric in addition to his educational development.

Ludus: Latin for: game, play, sport, training

    Ludus was versatile term in Rome.  Ludi were schools found throughout Rome where young children, up to age eleven, studied under an educated slave or freedman.  Students studied the areas of math, science, reading, writing, and poetry; some schools also taught rhetoric. Ludus also referred to the training that gladiators pursued. Ludus was also the word used for board games. Because ludus referred to the training of gladiator games and board games, Latin poetry often used the term to resemble playfulness.

Institutes of Oratory

     This author believes that children learning the name of letters and their order before their shapes hinders their learning and understanding. He believes this method encourages the mind to take the lead in the learning process then the student skims over the letter shapes, failing to commit them to memory.

Review:

     The history of gaming is intriguing; it is always fun consider why and how we have what we have.  I do not quite understand how this applies to the development of the gaming world today but I am sure that as I continue down the Birch Trail I will gain more understanding.
     It was interesting to read this perspective of teaching the alphabet, and it makes sense.  I see how I have done this in the past with other areas of learning.  Working in a restaurant, it is one thing to learn how something is prepared and describe how it should look, it is another to build the dish yourself. 

Game Based Learning: Aspen Trail

Prompt:

On the Aspen Trail, on past the Alder Tree, you realize you are walking downhill - moreover, to the left side of the trail, the ground drops away so swiftly that you see only the tops of some trees. There is a sign here angled across the top of a small small pillar. "Ash Forest" it says. a smaller sign dangles on eye hooks below the Ash Forest sign to say, "Forester is IN." That is when you realize the sound you have been hearing from down in the valley is saw being pulled slowly back and forth. You decide to go down (carefully) to investigate.

Ash Forest: 

More Satisfying Work from Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal 

Satisfying Insights

1. The amount of time spent paying World of Warcraft is equivalent to the age of the first record of of an upright human primate-5.93 million years. 
2. World of Warcraft is so successful because it attracts its users with ¨blissful productivity."
• Users are immersed in work that produces immediate and obvious results. 
3. Games provide clear missions and more satisfying, hands-on work; reality, in comparison, is boring and unproductive. 
• There is no "how-to" guide for life; there is no clear goal for the hours we spend in reality.  People are expected to find their purpose through trial and error, eventually they will find hands-on work that satisfies them. 
4. Satisfying work begins with
• Clear goals which motivate us how to act
• Actions steps which ensure that we work toward the goal immediately. 
5. Well-designed work (action steps) allow progress to be made even when problems arise. 
• Action steps guarantee productivity. 
6. Assured progress, in the form of motivation and reason, is the beginning of satisfying work. 
• Satisfaction is achieved through completion. Please are encouraged to complete a work when they receive immediate results.  Results must be as direct, immediate, and vivid as possible. 
• Visual results are satisfying because they reflect a positive sense of our abilities.
7. Feedback.
• In my final semester of my undergraduate career I read many articles on the affects of feedback.  Feedback can be positive or negative; in the classroom, positive feedback can help students achieve higher goals. 
• Feedback can be used as an individual or corporate motivator.  If you tell the entire class that they must quiet down or they will lose recess the students will be more determined to keep quiet and keep their neighbor quiet. 
8. Computer games give users the power of real agency: the opportunity to do something that feels concrete because it produces measurable results. 
• Furthermore, users have the power to act directly on the virtual world. 
9. Games help people feel less stressed.
• Office executives have reported that they take, on average, fifteen minutes to an hours to play games on a much smaller scale than WOW.  McGonigal refers to these games as "casual games."  
• Causal games only require one player and they are designed for the user to achieve their goal quickly.  
• The office executives also reported that the time they spend on causal games helps them feel less stressed. Some reported that these games helped them feel more productive. 
10. Playing games can give users a taste of individual agency and impact in a world where the work they do may be challenging and sometimes feel fruitless. 

Review: 

     It is mind-blowing how often we seem unsatisfied in our daily lives.  We may be challenging ourselves but our work appears fruitless.  Gaming allows people to escape reality and put their efforts to a good cause, immediately.  McGonigal makes eye opening points about the effect of feedback in video games that we lack in reality.   People continue to play games because they receive feedback about their progress.  Even when the feedback is not what they were looking for, helps them to achieve their goal.

Game Based Learning: Aspen Trail

Prompt:

Around a curve in the Aspen Trail, you see a beautiful, stately old tree -- an Alder Tree. A small creature, elf or leprechaun (?), quickly darted out quickly to tack a small sign to the base of this tree at a rather low height. Who wouldn't be curious? With getting down on one's hands and knees, one can see the message on the sign "Engineer apply here." You get up, brushing off your knees, while walking around the old tree and into the magic of an alder tree woods...

Alder Tree

Rise of the Happiness of Engineers from Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

Interesting Insights

1. The science of happiness was invented only 35 years ago (in 2011) by an American psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi after his study on the effects of a satisfying exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment.  
• Thirty-five years ago, Csikszentmihalyi's flow-inducing activities included chess, basketball, partner dancing, and rock climbing.  Each of these activities are 
• challenging
• have clear goals
• established rules and 
• potential for increased difficulty. 
2. Csikszentmihalyi noted that the highest form of happiness is, "Intensive, optimistic engagement with the world around us." 
• The highest form of happiness makes people feel fully alive to their fullest potential. 
3. Flow is reliably and effectively produced through: 
• self-chosen goals
• personally optimized obstacles 
• continuous feedback
4. Csikszentmihalyi and McGonigal believe that our most pressing problems
• depression
• helplessness
• social alienation 
• could be addressed by integrating a gameful workplace into our everyday lives. 
• Csikszentmihalyi noted that the people that need the stimulation of gaming most are children in the suburbs and bored housewives. 
• This stuck out to me because I have noticed many Facebook status' from my cousin where she, a stay at home mom, posts about wishing she could play World of Warcraft but she can't because of the looming housework.  In the past, I have dismissed her notions as laziness, but this article has given me a new perspective on her feelings.  People, in general, and bored housewives, need more to work toward than keeping up with their house... and the Jones'.
5. At first, the deepest experiences of flow-induced activities were product of years or practice and mastery. 
• Flow required learning the structure of an activity then strengthening of the required skills and abilities. 
• Flow was not indented to come easy, but video games have made achieving flow almost immediate. 
6. Human flourishing, however, cannot be all flow. 
• In reality, humans require a continuous approach to well-being; we need to find ways to relish in life even when we are not performing at our peak potential. 
7. Positive psychology believes that we cannot find happiness, we have to make our own happiness. 
• Happiness cannot be found by obtaining extrinsic rewards such as money, grades, promotions, popularity/attention, or material things. 
• Happiness can be obtained through intrinsic rewards such as positive emotions, personal strengths, and social connections.
8. Intrinsic rewards can be achieved through: 
• satisfying work
• experience of success
• social connection
• meaning
• The above intrinsic reward are the most powerful motivations we have (aside from survival basics) and they are ways of engaging deeply with the world around us (e.g. environment, people). 
9. We have been "conditioned" to believe that the wrong things will make us lastingly happy. 
• We live in a fallen world.  When Adam chose to eat the fruit his wife presented to him from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he chose to subject himself and his family to our extrinsic needs. 
• As a result, we are "conditioned" (as the article stated) to desire the extrinsic needs.
10. Good games produce a higher quality of life. 
• McGonigal believes that reorientation toward intrinsic reward is the backing of the 3 billion hours of game play, weekly, around the world. 
• This exodus to the gaming world is producing people who are: 
• self-motivated
• self-rewarded
• happier

Review: 

     I have come to love articles/books/videos by Jane McGonigal.  She has really done her research regarding the effects of gaming.  My mind is spinning with ways on how to incorporate this in my classroom.  This article, in particular, has helped me understand the how organizing real life like the gaming world can be extraordinarily beneficial.  Using the principals developed in the gaming world we can teach children, young adults, and adults how to channel their energy toward intrinsic rewards. 

Game Based Learning: Aspen Trail

Prompt:
Continuing on the Aspen Trail, again to the right, the Almond Walkway is a breathtaking beauty. "Gaming Can Make a Better World, by Jane McGonigal" looks like a program cover stuck on a long stick pushed into the ground by the entrance to the walkway. "Better see what that is about, you think as you start down the path.

Almond Walkway

Gaming can Make a Better World by Jane McGonigal 

     Jane McGonigal believes that we can solve world problems such as hunger, poverty, obesity, and more by increasing our game play to 21 billion hours per week (it is currently at, according to her 2010 study, 3 billion hours a week). 

     Epic Win: An outcome that is so extraordinarily positive that you had no idea it was even possible until you achieved it.  Almost beyond the threshold of imagining.  McGonigal believes that problem solvers all around the world need to understand the rush, excitement, and thrill of an epic win.
     McGonigal's inspiration to study gaming rests in the questions, "What about games makes it impossible to feel that we can't achieve everything" and,  "How can we take those feelings from games and apply them to real world work."  To answer these questions McGonigal researched what makes epic wins work.

Characteristics of Epic Wins:

1. Characters (people) are willing to trust you with a world saving mission immediately. 
• This isn't any mission, this is a mission that is matched to your ability in the game.  You never have a challenge that you cannot achieve, but it is on the verge of your ability so you have to try hard. 
2. You are surrounded by collaborators. 
• Characters (people) are ready to work with YOU to achieve YOUR epic mission. 
3. There is an epic/inspiring story for why you are doing what you are doing. 
• You are constantly receiving positive feedback (e.g. experience points, extra life). 

However, the problem with the appeal of an epic win is that we spend all of our time playing games.  We need to channel this energy and drive and make it useful in the real world.  All of this sounds good, but what is it that gamers are getting so good at? 

Gaming Virtuosos

1.  Urgent Optimism
• Extreme self-motivation.
• The desire to act immediately to attack an obstacle combined with the belief that they have a reasonable hope of success. Gamers always believe that an epic win is a success; so they continue to try and try until they succeed. 
2. Social Fabric
• Research shows that we like people better after we play a game with them because it takes a lot of trust to play a game with someone. 
•  Playing a game with someone builds bonds, trust, and cooperation. 
3. Blissful Productivity
• People spend so much time playing games because they enjoy being productive over doing nothing.  Gamers view the achievements they receive as production; games are something they are willing to work hard at. 
4. Epic Meaning
• Gamers love to be attached to awe inspiring missions and to human planetary scale stories.  To demonstrate this McGonigal informed the audience that the second biggest wiki in the world (second to wikipedia) is the World of War Craft Wiki.  Gamers are so devoted to this game and understanding that there are over 80,000 articles. 

These gaming virtuosos add up to create super-empowered hopeful individuals. Devoted gamers are people who believe they are capable of changing the world. 

Review: 

     In the household I grew up in video games were not a big deal.  We didn't obtain a Wii until I was in high school and up to that point the only virtual gaming world I was exposed to was computer games such as Mahjong and Solitaire so the gaming world is not something I completely understand.  To be honest, I discounted the idea of playing video games because there was/is always something more important in my life going on.  But it is awesome to listen to a scholarly perspective on video games. 

     It is eye opening to hear about the strategies that people develop as they play games.  Also, as I mentioned in one of my other Aspen Trail posts, it is wonderful to reflect on the characteristics I built as I played board games with my mentor family.  

     Gaming is something that I am definitely considering for my future classroom. 

Tablet_Tableau: Literacy for Education

App Review

• Preparation 
• My Spelling Test (Non-Dictionary)
• This is a free app that would be great to use in the classroom.  The teacher must record the words onto the tablet. The student can begin the test on their own and the app immediately tells them whether or not they have spelled the word correctly, then it will move on to the next word. At the end it shows the teacher how the student spelled the word and whether or not they got the word correct. The app can be used on tablets and smart boards.
• Merriam Webster (Dictionary) 
• The mobile version of this dictionary for tablets and cell phone devices is very simple and easy to use.  Some words will give the user an option to "play back" the word or phrase so they can hear the correct pronunciation.  This feature is very appealing to ESL teachers.  This app also allows the user to do a voice search; this requires the user to speak enunciate and speak clearly.  The user also has the option to recall their search history. 
• An awesome feature for the classroom is "word of the day," this could be used as a beginning activity.  Each day one student may be assigned to find out what the word of the day is and write it and the definition on the board. 
• Visual Presentation
• White Board
• White Boards are a commonplace in most classrooms today.  White board use expands well beyond using it as a writing tool.  One area to consider is Educreations: 
1. This particular tool allows the user to record their writing.  The app picks up noise so teachers can use this to record lessons for missed work. Using the undo and redo options will allow educators to emphasize a particular part of their lesson or reteach a portion of their lesson. Educreations also allows users to add images to their documents and add multiple pages to their recording. 
2. When adding a picture to the document Educreation pauses the recording until the image is completely uploaded  The user must manually choose to restart the recording once the image has uploaded. 
• Students could upload images of assignments then annotate them.
• Stories 
• Puppet Pals from Polished Play
• This app is equipped with a Wild West theme.  Users have the option to buy new themes or create their own. 
• This app brings a new kind of creativity to the classroom.  Students could recreate scenes from books they've read or pieces of history to demonstrate their understanding of the topic.  They do not have to have characters/themes that match their topic, that is what allows for creativity. 
• The video below is of a Harry Potter Puppet Pals project.  This project was done using a different Puppet Pals program. 

Game Based Learning: Aspen Trail

Prompt:
A bit farther down the Aspen Trail, there is an apple tree on the left side of the trail with apples strewn across the path. On the other side of the tree is a path that seems to lead back into an Apple Orchard. There is no gnome by the trail - just a sign that says "Games." Oh, a little behind that is another little sign that says "strengthen." Before you know it, you have started down the path to see the third sign, "lives -" and a fourth sign that says "Burma Shave." You know that long ago Burma Shave advertising consisted of short, pithy truths in a series of small signs ending with "Burma Shave." So, the short pithy truth here seems to be "Games strengthen lives." You wonder "OK, but how so?"

Apple Orchard

One Minute Interview: Jane McGonigal on Positive Impact

Four Ways Playing Games Strengthens Lives

1. Increase Optimist/Sense of Ambition
• After we play a game we are good out we go out into life and set higher goals for ourselves or we are more successful at taking tasks. 
2. Strengthen our Social Relationship 
• Playing with friends or family builds relationships to help us trust and enjoy the company of the other person more. 
3. Feeling of Awe and Wonder
• This encourages people to be more cooperative in their lives. 
4. Sense of Productivity 
• We feel as if we get more done so we bring more energy and enthusiasm to out everyday lives. 

Review: 

     What another eye opener.  It is amazing to learn about the positive aspects of gaming.  I really liked how Jane McGonigal said that games actually change who you are and what you are capable of.  I have definitely experienced the aspect of strengthening social relationships.  During high school my mentor family, my pastor family and I spent many hours playing a lesser known game called Dirty Marbles.  This game is a combination of cards and marbles on a wooden board where each player takes turns trying to reach their home space. Although the game seems individual it is very much partner based.  Throughout the game you know that the two players opposite of you (a total of three per team) are your partners.  So you make decisions to protect your teammates and advance yourself.  This article has helped me reflect on how much this time affected who I am. 

     I am very limited in my understanding of the video gaming world but I can see how video games have strengthened the relationship between my husband and his best friend.  The make plans to play games together and across town as they work toward common goals within their games. 

Game Based Learning: Aspen Trail

Prompt: 
A small trail to the right leads to a small Ring of Apricot Trees. Just where you turn off, there is a small statue (at least you think it is a statue) of a gnome with hands outspread holding a sign on the left "Engage me" and on the right "Enrage me." Knowing well the possibilities of enchanted objects, and not being too sure either if the statue actually is a live gnome, you walk on by. The gnome's question gets your thoughts rolling, "Engage me or Enrage me." What could it mean?

Ring of Apricot Trees
Engage Me or Enrage Me: What Today's Learners Demand by Marc Prensky

     Marc Prensky outlines three types of students in today's classroom: Students that are self-motivated, students that are going through the motions, and students that have "tuned out."  Educators have learned to accommodate the first two groups of students by creating reward systems and focusing on these students because they are easy to work with.  But the students that have "tuned out" do not respond to rewards, because the rewards do not appeal to them and they are the farthest thing from easy to work with. In order to work with the "tuned out" students and help them with their academics educators need to uncover why they are so enraged, as opposed to being engaged.
     Engaging students in the classroom is a rising concern because the learners of this century expect to be engaged in everything the do.  Their standards have raised because they live in a rich culture.  Not just a culture that has grown monetarily, but we live in a culture that is rich in media and special effects.  Subsequently, the learners that have developed rich in media have lacked development in engaging communication. 
     Prensky believes that the learners are so enraged because they are challenging educators to engages them at their level, and educators are failing.  Teachers are stuck on the curriculum of the past and are blind to the new opportunities they have to teach the basics.  He proposes that educators teach the "old stuff" but, as they are doing so, challenge their students to the edge of their capabilities.  Encourages the students to make important decisions daily that would help them reach self made goals. Students will reach higher goals if the goals are important to them. 

Review: 
     If I were the gnome I would say that is article as engaged me.  It is mind blowing to have insight as to why our students, most of whom we diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, are so disengaged in the classroom. When I first heard about game based learning I was a bit skeptical, but what I read in this article makes sense.  Learners are continuously over stimulated with the rich media in their life that school becomes a bore. Teachers should not be so uptight when other educators call them boring because they are! That is, in comparison to the life that their students are living. 
    One area of this article that I did not agree with was when the author stated that children are much less rich in creative opportunities outside of school.  Just because students may not be participating in ballet, band, or other areas of the arts does not mean their creativity is being stifled.  The technology available today offers many other opportunities for creativity. 

Tablet_Tableau: Basics for Education

• iPages vs Word
• Similarities
• Both offer advanced text editors and there are many options to embellish the document with pictures, charts, and symbols. 
• Both offer online storage: Microsoft utilizes OneDrive and Dropbox where Apple has the iCloud Drive.
• Both allow the user to work on a document at the same time with another person. 
• Differences 
• Word is better for note-taking and outlines.  When creating an outlined list Word recognizes a tab to be a new indent and gives it a new bullet, and a backspace (before information is typed) means the user wants to go back one level in the outline.  Pages moves the bullet to the right when the user presses the tab key, but the move is minimal and the bullet does not change.  Additionally, if the users backspaces Pages erases the bullet and the user must manually put in a new bullet at the desired indentation. 
• Pages paintbrush provides an easier method for modifying different components of the document.  All you have to do is select what you would like to edit-text, images, charts-then select the paintbrush and it will open a separate box with multiple editing tools. 
• An extensive comparison of Microsoft Word and Apple Pages can be found at the website titled Macworld
• Box.net
• Box.net is an online storage space that allows the user to store everything from documents to photos and presentations to videos. 
• This program also allows the user to save documents for offline use. 
• Uploading Documents
• iPad
1. Pages has a sharing option that allows the user to upload documents to different accounts such as iCloud and and Box.net.
2. Uploading is very user friendly. 
3. Photo editing is more difficult on the iPad, but document editing is just as easy. 
• Computer
1. I uploaded the document using the web browser and searching for a document from the computer, this was like any other upload. 
2. Editing the photo I uploaded required the download of different desktop application.
• iThought
• Review
• iThought and mind-mapping applications were designed for professionals.  There intended purpose was task management.  iThought allows the user to expand and collapse diagrams.  Each individual web and box can be manipulated.  
• iThought is equipped with a shortcut to creating new webs.  Three returns creates an branch from the current web and three spaces creates a daughter to the web you are on. 
• Classroom Use
• Although iThought was designed with professionals in mind I think it would be a great tool for webbing in the classroom.  Teachers instruct students on webbing techniques to aid them in brainstorming and note taking. 
• Macsparky is a blog with more information about iThoughts and iApps in general. 
• Safari vs Rover  
• Similarities
• Both are equipped for your typical web browsing needs such as viewing and interacting with web pages and using search engines. 
• Rover is designed for safe web browsing and Safari offers many filters to protect viewers from adult content.
• Both include a "tabbed browsing" feature.
• Differences
• Rover is designed as a browsing app and specifically equipped with educational games. Furthermore, it is a supplement for applications that need flash software that Safari does not support. 
• Rover requires significantly less bandwidth for operation than Safari. 
• My Preference 
• In the classroom, Rover seems to be a necessary app. If the classroom is equipped with iPads (as apposed to Android or Microsoft tablets) Rover would allow the teacher to be more confident that the students will find clean results in their searches.  Additionally, Rover allows students to play games and watch videos that require flash software that is not applicable to Safari. 

Tablet_Tableau: Tablet Options, Tablet Uses, and Tablets in Education

Prompt: 
Your school has been offered the opportunity to apply for a 1:1 grant for the purchase of tablets at certain grade levels (elementary) or for particular disciplines (middle school/secondary/languages). Some of your colleagues have very definite ideas about what should be purchased and do not hesitate to state those prefaces with grate authority.  Since you (and you're "teaching buddy") are relatively new to the school, you have wisely held your counsel on the subject - which your Principal has noted.  The Principal calls you into the office to ask for your assistance.  The Principal asks the two of you to work together to prepare a neutral review of the array of options available that the principal can use as a point of reference for future discussions. 

Research:

1. Pros and Cons of 1:1 Tablets in Elementary Schools
• Partner: Tiffany Keener
• Pros
• Tablets would allow technology to be more available in the classroom. 
1. Teachers would be able to accept assignments, conduct lessons, reward students, and more if they have access to tablets for each student. 
• Tablets give teachers to teach their students responsibility. 
1. All things come with a certain level of responsibility.  Electronic devices require special handling to ensure their upkeep. 
• Receiving a 1:1 supply will eliminate an aspect of discrimination. 
1. Providing each student with the same quality of tablet will keep one student from claiming that their product is better than another students because they are a better student (or whatever qualifications they can dream up). 
• Tablets may lessen and/or limit the cost of books. 
1. Textbooks are very expensive, even at the elementary level; and if a student breaks or damages the book the book has to be replaced.  If the textbooks were on an electronic device, however, the teacher/school can just download the books on a new device which may be cheaper than some textbooks-and is definitely cheaper than five or six textbooks. 
2. There will still be textbook costs, however, whenever books are updated. 
• Tablets offer greater access to current events. 
1. With access to the internet tablets provide classrooms with the opportunity to access local and national newspapers and magazines.  This will allow the students to readily access current events from the local news and the world news. 
2. Additionally a news website NEWSELA allows teachers to differentiate the articles based on students' reading levels.  
• Tablets provide different opportunities for audio books/reading. 
1. Applications such as Audible and Kindle (both by Amazon) allow students to listen to copies of books. 
2. Applications such as video and audio recorders allow students to read to the device then listen to seek out their mistakes (self monitoring).  
• Tablet applications provide an opportunity for natural differentiation. 
1. Most teachers will (should) download learning specific applications/games.  As students play the games they will advance to he next level based on their ability to complete the level they are  on. 
• Tablets reach out to many aspects of Gardner's Multiple Intelligence's 
1. The multitude of available applications (many free) reach out to Gardner's areas of visual-spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical-mathematical. 
• Currently, their is a hot discussion/debate regarding the affects/influences of electronic vs traditional books.  Monitoring the use of electronic books and traditional books in the classroom will allow teachers and the school to participate in the discussion and make the best decision on this subject for their classrooms and schools. 
• Cons
• Tablets can be a distraction in the classroom. 
1. Knowing that the tablets are in the room and that they, sometimes, have the opportunity to work with them may distract their attention from the lesson.  This will vary based on age, maturity, and attentiveness. 
• Schools would have to hold training sessions for teachers. 
1. Tablets are a very widespread piece of technology but there are some generations that do not have as much access nor have the spent much time using technological innovations.  Schools would have to provide some type of training to insure that the teacher is appropriately using the tablets to aid instruction, not just as a reward system.
2. The time and money for these training sessions is also a con factor. 
• Security 
1. Physical
• All devices of high value bring the risk of theft to the table.  Theft from the school and from the students (if they are permitted to take the home). 
2. Internet
• Schools would be required to set up internet security on each device to protect the device from viruses and to protect the students from adult content. 
• Maintenance 
1. Any electronic device would require special care.  Schools would have to provide teachers with cleaning products that are not harmful to the students and that would keep the devices in good condition. 
• Report: My partner and I agreed on most of the pros and cons we "hashed out."  As I prepared my list, however, I decided to move one item from the cons list to the pro list: that was tablets application to Gardner's Multiple Intelligence's.  My partner and I first listed this as a con because it does not reach the area of bodily-kinetic.  As I was typing my list I realized that no classroom device (electronic or not) will meet all areas of the multiple intelligence's.  Furthermore, the tablets reach a majority of the intelligence's (as listed above); which is more than a textbook can say. 
2. Small iPods/MP3 devices vs Medium to Large Tablets/iPads
1. Device size is dependent on a few factors, namely: age and intended use.  Age: some of the larger tablets are more difficult to hold for extended periods of time.  Younger students would benefit more from small to medium devices because they won't have built up the hand/wrist/arm strength to hold the large ones.  Intended use: if the classroom teachers plans to use the devices primarily for audio/voice recording the small devices such as iPods and MP3 players would suffice.  If the teacher, however, wants to take class polls, use them as a lesson supplement (where students are using them during instruction) or to use them for writing then the medium to large devices would be best.  Overall, with the idea of a 1:1 supply, I believe that the medium-large devices would be the best choice.  Smaller ones for listening/recording could be supplied minimally in the library or some other central location. 
3. Positives and Negatives of Operating Systems
• iOS (Apple) 
• Positive
1. Guaranteed virus free.
2. Better connectivity between devices. 
3. Lightweight 
• Negative
1. The batteries in these devices cannot be replaced.  If the device were to stop charging the device would have to be completely replaced. 
2. Would require the purchase of an office program if the teacher wanted to use the device for writing or presentations. 
• Android (Google) 
• Positive
1. Higher compatibility with third party applications and modifications. 
2. Equipped with a simplified office program. 
3. More affordable.
• Negative
1. Google accounts must be created for use. 
• Although it would be equipped with an office program the users must have a google account to use the software. 
• Microsoft (Microsoft)
• Positive
1. More user friendly. 
2. Most can function readily as a computer in tablet form. 
3. Comes with Microsoft office software and is equipped with advanced design software. 
• Negative  
1. Requires a strong virus protection software. 
4. Cellular: What it is and its affects 
• Cellular is the devices ability to maintain connectivity to a cellular phone tower. These devices require antenna and firmware so they can negotiate the signals to send and receive from cellular towers. This is how we have 3G and 4G connectivity.
• These devices are equipped to make phone calls in addition to the typical tablet functions. They also require a cellular plan to use the 3G and 4G connectivity. They are helpful for travel because the cellular connectivity allows them to use GPS functions. This feature is not necessary for classroom functions but may be helpful in the case of a power outage in the school, to allow teachers and administrators to communicate. (That is if the cellular towers are still functioning in a power outage).
5. How the Pros and Cons in number three relate to the school
• The pros and cons of number three are important for the schools decision of what devices to purchase for their classroom.  This information, however, may not be necessary if the school is given a grant or other funding that is applicable to only one operating system.  In that case the school must look deeper into the comparison of devices within one operating system. 
• If the school is using their budget for the tablet purchases they should highly consider the Android operating systems.  They are very efficient and cost effective.  Additionally, they are equipped with easy to use office software programs and they are most compatible with applications and third party devices.