Web 2.0 Treasure Hunt (Week 4)

There were a number of ideas behind our 'Treasure Hunt' week. One was to let us experience a quest, this I would define as a journey with a clear start and end point, with learning along the way. (Our teachers Prezi did work well for this and was nicely done). To show we had visited all the stops in turn we created a 'code word' which, when checked by our teacher, enabled him to very quickly establish that we had indeed done the work.

Another experience available from the 'Treasure Hunt' was to allow us to engage with 'distance learning'and even 'flipped learning'. This was only available to people who completed the 'Treasure Hunt' before the lesson and proudly presented their code to our teacher either in person or via some electronic means. We got our learning 'in the bag' before the lesson even began, that felt surprisingly good. It also enabled us to miss the lesson if we wished and have a 'catch-up' week.

I got the code right and have the certificate to prove it! Go me.

I should mention that the Treasure Hunt was all about Web 2.0, very enlightening it was too.

I have made a quest of my own about DNA. It's full title is 'Nucleic acids quest - for A2', although I can easily alter this title for the BTEC students. I particularly love the links hidden behind pictures and the fact they have to guess where the link is on many of the slides. I gave the Box link to my A2 Biology students and encouraged them to look at it, but, they did not. One said they tried to download it and failed, this I find hard to believe. I created a Linoit board for them to give me feedback on, to this day it is still empty. Once again students prove to be resistant to technology. Maybe I should have conveyed it via a series of SnapChat screen shots? I also created a Box link for the BTEC students to enable them to get an Excel document of class data from an experiment, like the A2 students they did not 'go for it'. The college position would be for me to use the VLE, which I should start to do again, however, the temptation of Box is it leads precisely to where they need to go.

I also made a Padlet resource for the IGCSE Biology students about the human transport system, for them to use when we have our lesson in the ICT room. Unfortunately I forgot the constraints of Padlet and so when they all logged on it started to freeze. It seemed OK at first, then sort of 'ground to a halt', I should have made one pad / eight students. Since then I have gone back onto Padlet and cannot find it. Note to self: try Padlet again. Another good resource is Pirate Pad, I must remember to use that in an ICT room lesson sometime soon.

So, my conclusion is: this has been a valuable week and I have now created a resource that I will use, have a little more confidence in ICT and have learnt much.