Allosaurus

Developing Social Awareness with Ayiti:The Cost of Life

by Youssef, Melissa and Dana

Summary-

American high school students are not generally thought of as being the most socially aware or socially conscience individuals.  It can be difficult, unless faced with adversity, to understand and appreciate many of the things we have access to on a regular basis.  However, throughout the world (including here in the US) many individuals do struggle with access to things like education, healthcare, and the basic resources for survival.  While the reasons for this vary and it may not be possible to solve all the worlds problems; we, as educators, should aim to foster in our students a basic social awareness and ability to empathize with others.

Social games offer children a chance to experience and understand issues that they may not readily face in their everyday lives.  In, Ayiti: The Cost of Life, a game created by Global Kids and hosted on the Brain Pop website, individuals are asked to make decisions about work, health care, education and the purchasing of basic resources for a family of five in Haiti.  Each decision comes with a cost and a benefit and students must work to keep the family health and happy.

Our lesson aims to help students understand some of the basic needs of a family and how easy or difficult it may be to meet those needs.  After playing Ayiti: The Cost of Life we hope that students will be exposed to some of the challenges other people around the world may face.  Students will be asked to reflect upon these challenges and select an issue or social cause that they feel is most important to helping.  Students will be asked to find others (people, social networks, NGO’s, etc.) that also support their cause.  They will participate in discussions and present their work via Edmodo.

Please visit our website to see our lesson and learn more about Ayiti: The Cost of Life game and Edmodo.

http://642sociallearning.weebly.com/

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Feedback from Classmates (updated 8/7/13)

Average rating = 4.86

5	I saw that your project is aimed at elementary, but I was hooked! I am very familiar with BrainPop and I didn’t even know about this game. The lesson was organized well. It was very easy to follow. The rubric was well done and the website had lots of information!I noticed that you had a pre and post test. Great way to see what was learned! You explained why it this was an important lesson for students to learn. I completely agree with your statement that book knowledge is important, but social awareness is just as important. The page that linked the lesson to common core standards is very helpful. I think that your explanation of edmodo (how to use it, sign up for it) shows how effective it is in the lesson. I really like your lesson plan. Overall, there are no complaints from me. There was nothing missing and I would definitely use this in my class. Thank you for sharing!
5	CATEGORY I: I Heard … The topic of social gaming is detrimental to the specific age range targeted in this project. The importance of targeting students from grades 6-12 or sooner encourages improved quality of life for the local and global communities. The use of a game with a real life example encourages students to explore the economic and societal situation outside of their own environment and promote civic responsibility. The lesson plan provides effective tutorials for the educator to easily complete the task and guide students. The link to other potential learning opportunities in math and reasoning provide ample information on using this activity in multiple educational settings. CATEGORY II: I Noticed … The use of a developed online game is appealing as the use of tablet games is rapidly increasing. As a user of tablet games and not a prior online gamer, I can attest that the ease of use and interactive component encourages individuals to play more frequently. The embedded tutorials are helpful and brief. Thank you for explaining “edmodo”. The practical use of this tool in the classroom is obvious and can be used for multiple lessons and assignments. The pre and post test is wonderful. CATEGORY III: I Wondered … I cannot think of anything that I was left contemplating other than how awesome this presentation was. In looking over the project rubric, it appears as though you hit all of the key points and fulfilled the objectives. Great job team.
4	Great work Team Allosaurus!Your group provided a good explanation of the game itself and your target audience in the WordPress summary which made me want to check out your website! I agree that helping students to understand the “game of life” is so important and learning to do so through gaming gives them the opportunity to see how their decisions affect the bigger picture. What I liked about Ayiti is that the players could see the outcomes of their decisions and then have the opportunity to make necessary changes. We don’t often get to that in real life until it’s too late. Many children today seem disconnected to the realities of the world and the struggles students their age are facing which this game addresses. Overall I thought your game choice was great for your purpose. The website was very easy to move through and the screenshots were helpful in understanding the environmental challenges of the family in the game. I really the color scheme you chose because it worked well with the visuals presented. The tabs to the different pages were appropriately marked and well layed out. The lesson plan was clear and concise and seeing examples of the pre- and post-test helped me to visualize the lesson from start to finish. My only suggestion would be to slow down the pace of your demonstration video. I was very excited to be able to see how the game actually works to see if I could use it on my school, but the pointer moved so fast that I could not read or take in the visual being focused on. I also wonder if there is a similar game that depicts the challenges in life in a more modernized country like the US or Europe. It might be easier the younger students of your target audience to identify with those in a similar environment. Nice work!
5	CATEGORY I: I Heard …In this lesson I heard how students can learn real life skills to improve their understanding of decisions that will improve their ability to have a healthy and successful life. The group used an interactive game and videos to help students understand this. The organization of this lesson was very well done and easy to follow. The videos in the lesson helped me to visually follow and understand the object of the game. The use of Bloom’s Taxonomy helped to define student’s improvement of understanding. The content was great and very engaging which I think students would enjoy. These real life skills should be taught at all levels of education. As a math teacher I focus on academics and common core standards which in-turn focus on improving student’s ability to score high on entrance exams for colleges. I continually see a need for real life skills to help students who may not go to college or are in demand of this skills because they have not been taught them. I think this is a great lesson and should be taught at the 6-12 level in all schools. CATEGORY II: I Noticed … What worked well in this lesson is the active engagement with the game. It gives the students the ability to manipulate the characters in a real life setting. It is also able to give students a better understanding of the importance of education, work, and natural settings to improve their own lives. I really like the way the common core standards are tied to the game and questions building creditability to this lesson. What I will remember about this assignment is how engaging it was and the great questioning embedded within the lesson. I would like to see this lesson taught in my classes to see the students’ reactions and improvements in their daily decisions. CATEGORY III: I Wondered … I wondered first why Haiti was used for the location of the game. I thought some of my students would make negative comments or not take the game seriously. Could this game be changed to a local location such as Hawaii or somewhere in the United States? I think this would give students a clear understanding of the importance of the environment near their location. Another thing I wondered was did any of the team members use this game in their classes or do they know if this game is being used in a social studies class? I do not have any wonders about the lesson or the organization as I think it was done very well. Lastly, I wonder how well Edmodo works in class, as I have not used it, and do students adapt well to using this platform? In summary, I really liked this lesson and its content. I am curious if it could be modified to specific grade levels and build on life skills for the appropriate age level. I would like to see the lesson done in a class setting and am interested in the students’ results.
5	I saw a website providing insight into the implementation of social games into course curricula for the purpose of supporting teaching and learning. The website is broken up into 6 sections: Introduction, Brain Pop, Lesson, Assessment, Edmodo, and Team Allosaurus. Each section is pretty straight forward with providing content in relation to the respective section heading. I like how the order of each section was placed within the website. Starting with information about social games in general then discussing a specific social game, which is the focus for this lesson. Well detailed description of the lesson/assessment (purpose, rubric, tasks, and target audience) is included and touches all the important points readers should be aware of. There is thorough instructions on how to use a resource that is important to the lesson and learning experience. Lastly, there are short biographies and/or links to more detailed biographies for each member of the website author team.What I noticed the most from this website was the use of supporting media, whether they were content, graphics, or video footage. There were 2 sections of the website, Brain Pop and Edmodo, where I found the respective supporting media to work best. For Brain Pop, I liked the screen shot images of game play for the AYITI game. For the intended age group of this lesson, having such eye capturing graphics will help peak student interest in the activity. The same can be said for the Youtube video demonstrating AYITI gameplay. I can see students viewing the mentioned media, and coming out with a desire to want to participate in the lesson. Lastly, I was caught by the section dedicated to the social networking website Edmodo, in particular how the author team included step by step instructions of how to create an Edmodo account. Since the lesson calls for the use of Emodo I am glad that content discussing how to set up an Edmodo account was included. As educators it can never be assumed that students know a particular skill. I am glad that the author team preplanned for any confusion that could result. I wondered about the Brain Pop website and what other types of games that are offered through that resource. I thought it was really cool how the author team was able to relate the AYITI game with educating students about social awareness and social consciousness. I wonder about how other educators can look at the resources available via Brain Pop, and use them for innovative learning opportunities.
5	Very cool lesson Team Allosaurus! I do not work with kids in schools nor do I have any idea about lesson plans for this age group but I found your assignment a great lesson on teaching social consciousness and awareness. I will be exploring this with my son at home as he has never been assigned a lesson to cover this topic. There were a lot of things that I enjoyed about this lesson, from the clear and effective writing to the subtopics that your team developed in the website. A meaningful conversation about poverty in developing nations is a difficult one to approach with kids but this game was done in a very engaging way and in an appropriate manner. Since Microsoft supported it, I am sure it was well researched and pilot tested.I liked the way that you explained Ayiti in About the Game. I tend to be the kind of person who likes to read directions first before jumping into a tutorial or class that I know nothing about. When I Googled the video, I found that it just takes you straight to the game so your explanation set a good foundation. Like many of the other peer reviewers for this assignment, I also appreciated the example Pre/Post Assessment that you provided. Did your team develop this yourselves? Including how this lesson also meets the Common Core State Standards was very effective and something that I am sure our cohort of teachers will be using in the classroom this year. The Edmodo page gave me some much needed information about this application that I’ve been hearing so much about but yet to have experience in as my son has not had any teacher introduce it in class (He’ll be a 5th grader this year). I am wondering how your team did playing this game? How long did it take “win”? And what does winning look like? Is everyone health, happy, educated, or wealthy? Can a family be all four? Oh so many questions, I guess it’s time to play.
5	The tool chosen for this project is very interesting, combining interactive design, awareness of real-world situations, and development of social consciousness. The project would do a marvelous job of opening students’ minds to realities of life in less fortunate countries, and I can see adequate possibilities for discussions to enhance and solidify understanding. The real-life nature of the game seems particularly able to convey a sense of reality that might get through to even the most entitled student. The inclusion of interaction via discussion posts brings the assignment into accord with our class parameters. Social media serves as the medium to bring the lesson home.The presentation of the project on Weebly is very well done graphically. The inclusion of video elements was a real plus for seeing what was going on, particularly regarding Edmodo, though I am not clear about its exact relevance. Inclusion of the Common Core was a good way of showing how the project ties to current educational standards, but I was not clear how this would be implemented. I wonder if this was a function of biting off more tasks than were needed for the assignment parameters. I wondered why the initial description in WordPress was not more comprehensive. I would have liked a clearer description that covered a little more ground, and I never was clear about the exact age-group intended. The Brain Pop tab seemed a little informal for a college project: I wondered why they chose that modality. Perhaps I missed something, but I did not understand the jump to Edmodo. I also wondered about the changes from one page to another in format, but I suspect that is inherent in collaborative projects.