Reflection of Session 6 on 151010

On the previous session, we first entered to the MXL room. It was true to be a room to be wow-ed for, as mentioned by Cheryl. For someone who's happy enough to be in an air-conditioned room, I was definitely amazed; with three sets of projectors, a theatre area and 4 stations, fully equipped with big screens and wii sets, it was definitely not your average learning environment.

Dr Tan has prepared for us to go through a round robin fashion and that allowed us to experience every station (though not all yet).
On Session 5, I had the opportunity to be in Station 1, where we could either play the MacDonald farm or Dafur is dying. I was very excited to play the latter, because it was visually appealing to me and the MacD's farm was alot like farmville from facebook applications and I had enough of farmville. Dafur is dying, to me, felt was very effective for me to have experience, even for a few minutes, the struggle dafurian children go through just to get some water and i felt really depressed after the game yet thankful for what I have. (Even thankful that I'm not living in a refugee camp and I get to go to the MXL lab every Friday ha-ha.)

For Session 6, yesterday, I had the opportunity to play the wii game, Trauma Centre in station 2 and CSI game at station 3.

For the station 2, what I have learned that day that observation and communication is key to improving through out the game and to achieve a successful outcome. As the players observe those before them, they also learn through the steps they have taken. The players who would have had a go would also mentor those after them. The game also provide certain details about the surgery , although we kind of skipped those parts.
The instructions that were given by the game in fact were pretty unclear but I definitely learned to find a solution as I played through it. At that point in fact, I had flashbacks of lessons that I previously had where my students had difficulty understanding my instructions. During those lessons, I felt that I was a terrible teacher for not being able to give clear instructions. However, when playing the wii game, I remembered that my students would understand the technique as they begin to give it a try. Similarly, I only knew how to stitch the wounds/ apply gel/ pull the bones out, effectively, by actually doing it. I personally felt that that station made me realize/remember how our students can learn by doing and by collaborating.

At Station 3 however, there was a list of games that we could play but personally I had no interest in any of the games, maybe because none of the games were related to my CS. (We tried to play CSI but we kind of got bored).
Therefore, I went on to do my own resourcing for sites of online art tools and there were plenty. Plenty that was not quite good.
However here are some that I found that I could use for my future students.


http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/
This is like Microsoft Paint, to create artworks virtually, its quite fun because you can replay the painting and watch the brush move! You can also view amazing artworks from other users!

http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/collagemachine.htm
This is like creating a virtual collage

http://vn247.net/flash/Color-and-Me.swf
This is an interesting website where it can read your personality through the colours that you choose for certain objects. This website is effective in teaching the topic of Symbolism of Colours and Objects in Art.

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
A flash based website, where you can paint like Pollock





http://www.picassohead.com/create.html
Having fun with Picasso's cubist technique to create a portrait. Students can try to imitate an actual Picasso painting.

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html
I 'stumbled' into this 3d flash site of the Sistine Chapel and students can take a look at all of Michelangelo's paintings.

Main view

Top View

Close up (Son of God)

As a kid during primary school, my favourite computer game was 'Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego'?. Surprisingly, I learned most of my geography from the game! I also gained a lot of knowledge of the world history from 'Where in TIME is CS?" , English from 'CS Word Detective' and Math from 'CS Math Detective'. The games basically put me in the profession of a detective and I have to find the criminal, Carmen Sandiego, and to find her, I had to go through a series of games and answer various questions. It was really fun.
In relation to that, I found this website:
http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/index.html

I like this website the most, although its not the most visually appealing, it is also a detective game where students can look through artworks and search for the actual artist behind the paintings by observing and comparing the Colour, Style, Composition and Subject matter of the artwork. I feel that this game is the most engaging for art students to learn their art history and to learn to 'appreciate' the artworks by reading into it.

The only problem I felt with these virtual painting sites is that I feel that they lack a hands on element. Call me old-fashioned but , I still feel that the best tool to paint is with a brush, and not a mouse. However, for Art History and personality art tests, they can in fact be more engaging and fun through games.

Currently reading : Video Games in Education readings. Will reflect in part II.