Games Based Learning MOOC

What technology-mediated methods have you used so far for educational purposes? What were your results?

I think this post and linked video definitely applies, here! ^_^

I use Twitter, @educatoral, a lot to share and learn from people who are sharing.

I also use Google+ to share and learn from those sharing although I use Twitter much more.

I blog using Wordpress, wordpress.org (thanks, ThereseEllis), at educatoral.com/wordpress.

I use RSS readers, now Feedly, to keep up with blogs. I spend a lot of time reading all the blogs I follow.

I use Facebook, I have a Facebook page but am thinking of using a Facebook Group this Fall instead of a page. A group seems more flexible. I don't Facebook all that often but students do contact after school hours to ask questions, submit assignments and say hi.

I have my students blog at ClassBlogmeister.

I use Collaborize Classroom with students for discussions. I've never used Edmodo and am very curious. Wondering if I should ditch Collaborize and try Edmodo??

This fall I will be using 3D GameLab to gamify my classes. It's just what I needed after a failed attempt this past school year.

For collaborating with other educators I've used a lot of things:
*email (of course)
*Google Wave (before it died)
*Google+ (for another MOOC)
*Google Groups (for a Collaborative Learning Network, CLN?)
*Twitter (I follow interesting people, who post interesting things. Occasionally I post interesting things.)
*blogs (I post on Blogger, I read wherever other interesting people post)

As a student I've used:
*PBWorks (for sharing projects with other students)
*Google Wave, Google Docs (for working on collaborative projects)
*blogs (often Blogger, but some other ones where in there too, for collaborative work, sharing images, video, and of course text)
*Flickr (for sharing images for a project)
*a bunch of other things that I made an account for, used for awhile, then completely forgot about.

As an educator I've used:
*blogs (you can read all about that on the SoMe thread)
*D2L, Blackboard (LMSs. I use these for everything in every class. I don't even know how to keep a gradebook that isn't in an LMS. I post assignments, have students submit assignments, post readings/notes/demos/links/etc. Not sure I could teach without them.)
*yep, I'm pretty boring, because other than some software that's about it.


Results:
I love blogs, but find that students don't love them as much as I do. You can read all about that here.

I probably couldn't live without an LMS or something similar. If I didn't have one, I'd probably build one out of a blog and/or wiki (or build one up from scratch, depending on how desperate I was). I find that some students take awhile to adjust to this approach (for example, I often get emails asking questions that are easily answered on the course site), and others really like it. I won't harp on this too much, because you all probably use them too.

Obviously I've used a lot of Google services, and some of these work better than others. The nice thing is that almost everyone has a Google account these days, so you're usually not asking people to create a new account. Google Docs works well for collaborative projects, and I've had students use this to good effect to track tasks/problems while working on group projects (I did not require the use of Google Docs, but did suggest it as an option). I'd love to see more of my students use Google Docs (or Google Drive now? I forget) for working on collaborative documents, but I don't force this.

I used PBWorks (then PBWiki) in a class I took, and it was definitely neat. The downsides are that editing pages requires some know-how, so it doesn't work as well for students who aren't tech-savvy. I use my LMS for most of what I'd use it for, so I haven't done much with it on the educator side.

I'm teaching some hybird/online courses next year, so I plan on adding video, podcasts, and interactive content (applets or HTML5 canvas most likely) in the future. These will probably be presented through my LMS, as long as I can figure out how.

I use Twitter, Feedly (for the hundreds of blogs I follow), Google Docs, Youtube, and my class website for communicating with both my PLN and my students and their parents.

I have my students complete an ePortfolio during the year, and this past year I had them use Google Sites. Big mistake. It worked ok, but there were more hassles than learning victories. This next year, I will allow my seniors to pick their platform, offer them training time in class, and go from there. My students had no problems working with blogs (most chose Blogger), Youtube (go figure), or Twitter. I will stick with those programs this next year.

In the past i wrote a few words a week in a reading activity for ESL students. That web site packed it in though. I haven't had the opportunity since then to create content for use in education. But i constantly send students hither and yon throu the ether for activities, but I would like a place to make content! It would be wonderful to make an actual games learning space. But... I am on my own as far as funding/content/server space go, so virtually nothing yet.

Mangahigh for homework with some ASN pupils, they also like the memory game Simon on mathsisfun. Sub tangent.com provided access to countdown both the numbers game, good for mental arithmetic and thinking, and the letters game for spelling, vocabulary and thinking.

Some we did collaboratively via SMARTboard, which allowed competitiveness for those who wanted it, turn taking on some activities, and even peer assessment/tutoring by daring and checking answers.