Brian Housand East Carolina University Angela Housand University of North Carolina - Wilmington Jennifer Troester O’Neil Public Schools Jillian Gates Anchorage School District Susan Jackson The Daimon Institute for the Highly Gifted In this highly interactive session participants will explore the social and psychological implications of living in a world with boundless technology opportunities. Using case studies and current research we will explore how to help students create balance, navigate digital environments safely, and advocate for their own well-being. This session addresses the tough questions facing teachers, parents, and administrators as they help students navigate a new world online: How do gifted students deal socially, emotionally, and intellectually with “constant connectivity”? How do teachers and parents bridge the digital divide to support gifted students while keeping them safe online?

1. Brian
Housand
East
Carolina
University
Angela
Housand
University
of
North
Carolina
-­‐
Wilmington
Jennifer
Troester
O’Neil
Public
Schools
Jillian
Gates
Anchorage
School
District
P.
Susan
Jackson
The
Daimon
InsBtute
for
the
Highly
GiEed
FOR
HANDOUTS
VISIT:
hDp://bit.ly/techthat

2. How do you use
technology and
how do you use
technology with
your students?

3. Digital Natives

4. (Internet World Stats, 2009)

5. (De Moor, 2008)

6. (Valcke, et al, 2008)

7. (NPR March 16, 2011)

8. Whiz Kids
or
Risk Kids

9. Internet
Risks
Content
Contact
Commercial
Risks
Risks
Risks

10. Internet
Risks
Content
Commercial
Contact
Risks
Risks
Risks
ProvocaBve
Wrong
InformaBon
Content
InformaBon
Overload

11. Internet
Risks
Commercial
Content
Risks
Contact
Risks
Risks
Online
Offline
Contact
Contact
Cyber
Sexual
Privacy
Bullying
SolicitaBon
Risks

12. Quick
Web
Search
of
Known
Student

13. Internet
Risks
Commercial
Content
Risks
Contact
Risks
Risks
Online
Offline
Contact
Contact
Cyber
Sexual
Privacy
Bullying
SolicitaBon
Risks

14. Internet
Risks
Content
Contact
Commercial
Risks
Risks
Risks
Commercial
Personal
Data
ExploitaBon
CollecBon

15. NegaBve
Consequences
of
Unsafe
Internet
Behavior
• Aggression
• Fear
• Symptoms
related
to
Psychological
Trauma
• NegaBve
Self-­‐Image
• IdenBty
Confusion

16. NegaBve
Consequences
of
Online
Sexual
SolicitaBon
• EmoBonally
Upset
• Shame
• Anxiety
• Developed
Stress
Symptoms

17. Boys’
Exposure
to
Sexually
Explicit
Content
May
Effect
Their
• PercepBon
of
the
role
of
sex
in
a
healthy
relaBonship
• View
of
females
as
sex
objects
• AVtudes
about
Sex
• Respect
for
females

18. NegaBve
Consequences
of
Online
Harassment
or
Cyberbullying
• Felt
Threatened
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Severe
Depression
• Felt
Less
Safe

19. Shout Out!
Give me a number between 1 and 10…

20. Parent Strategies!
" Review the Search History"
" Be Part of the Social Network"
" Centralized Location for ALL
Technology"
" Limit time or earn time on the Internet"

21. Parent Strategies!
" Model the Behaviors you Expect to see"
" Make Connections – Online & Offline"
" The rules that apply to physical safety
apply to virtual safety"

22. The Parent Perspective!

24. InformaJon
Overload
CogniBve
oversBmulaBon
that
interferes
with
our
ability
to
“think”
(Toffler,
1970,
p.
350)

25. Anxiety May Result!

26. Why Can’t
Johnny
Search?

27. Barriers to Information Literacy
• Do not realize Internet does
not have all of the answers
• Have not learned to judge
quality
• Too many choices and too
much information

29. “Every man
should have a
built-in
automatic
crap detector
operating
inside of him.”

30. NEW LITERACIES
newliteracies.uconn.edu/

32. Teacher Strategy
 Explicit Instruction for Search
 Use Correct Spelling
 Use Root Words
 Use Boolean Logic Operators
 AND
 NOT
 OR

33. http://www.google.com/educators

36. Teacher Strategy
 What
About Kid Friendly
Search Tools
 TekMom’s Search Tools
 Kids’ Search Tools
(rcls.org/ksearch)

37. Barriers to Personal Safety
• Cyberbullying activities are devoid of
emotional feedback component
• Willing to disclose personal information
• Willing to send personal
pictures
• Engage in f2f contact after
initial online contact

42. ¢ Bruner, 1996, suggested: “education typically disregards
learners' perspectives on knowledge and their
understanding of their capacity for learning”
¢ What are the ways we can provide environments and
educational strategies that engage gifted kids in
understanding and directing their own learning in
contemporary classrooms wherein growth, enquiry, and
personally relevant education are the focus?

43. MINECRAFT
is a game about placing blocks to build anything
you can imagine. You, the player, will be dropped
in a randomly generated world made out of
cubes . . .

44. MINECRAFT
The game
starts by
placing the
player on the
surface of a
huge
procedurally
generated
game world.
The player
can walk
across the
terrain
consisting of
plains,
mountains,
caves, and
various
water bodies.
The game world is
procedurally
generated as the
player explores it.

45. There are no spaceships,
no lasers, no bullets, no
armies, and no blood. In
place of the fast-twitch
first-person-shooter
games dominating
console and PC gaming
is a construction oriented
world set in primitive
times that has captured
the imagination of about
10 million free users and
3 million paid users
worldwide. ( . . . more
than $66M in revenue in
less than two years.)

46. GAME BASED LEARNING AND
NEXT GENERATION SOCIAL
NETWORKING
¢ An approach to learning that is multi-
sensory, reflective and collaborative
¢ Allows learners a safe, creative
environment with many options for
interaction and creativity.
¢ The simple structures (single blocks) means
that it is relevant and meaningful because
of what they can do, rather than some
inherent element of the game.

47. Minecraft is a sandbox game: a virtual world that
allows free-roaming with almost no artificial
barriers where you build and create.

48. MINECRAFT’S EDUCATIONAL USE
¢ Can be used as a direct tool to address curricular
based teaching and learning and replace some of
the teaching materials that are in use right now.
¢ It is easy to use
¢ How do we wake the teachers’ interest in games?
There is something incredibly compelling
about this game.

49. MINECRAFT
The game is
focused on
creativity and
building,
allowing
players to
build
constructions
out of
textured
cubes in a 3D
world.

50. ¢ Core gameplay revolves
around construction.
¢ Game world made of
cubical blocks arranged
in a fixed grid pattern
which represent
different materials, such
as dirt, stone, various
ores, water, and tree
trunks.
¢ Players move freely
across the world, while
objects and items can
only be placed at fixed
locations relative to the
grid.
¢ Can gather these
material "blocks" and
place them elsewhere,
thus potentially creating
various constructions

51. BUILD BY ADDING BLOCKS

53. ¢ Players destroy or harvest blocks and
inventory.
¢ Placed down elsewhere to alter the
environment or used in the game’s crafting
system.
¢ Two modes:
¢ Survival mode:
¢ usethe blocks to build shelter while
¢ monsters that at night.
¢ Playershave to find the blocks they need on
their own. Creative mode: removes all the
enemies and grants players a supply of
every type of block available to use.
— multiple players, while survival

54. THE “CREEPER” CAN LEAD TO
DESTRUCTION

55. Some materials
require special
equipment to be
mined.
Stone: wooden pickaxe
Gold: iron pickaxe
Obsidian: diamond
pickaxe.
Create shovels and
normal axes to mine
sand, dirt and wood
faster.
Mining no longer
instant: hit the block
a couple times, tools
reduce the time.

56. ITEMS TO SELECT IN THE GAME (YOUR
TOOLKIT / INVENTORY / STORAGE)

57. ¢ Method by which many blocks, tools, and
CRAFTING
other resources are made in Minecraft.
¢ Must move items from inventory into a
crafting grid.
¢ Grid can be accessed in the player's
inventory or on a Crafting Table.
¢ Must then arrange them into the pattern
representing the item(s) they wish to
Some
create. blocks can
not be
¢ As long as the proper pattern of resources is
placed, it will not matter where within the found in
grid the ingredients are placed.
nature
¢ Crafting recipes can also be flipped but
horizontally from their depictions: for
instance, you can make a bow with the require
strings on the right instead of the left. crafting.

58. ¢ Clay:
split into clay balls, which when baked turn into
bricks which can be combined to form brick wall blocks.
¢ Baking happens in a stone oven, needs a steady supply
of coal: oven itself needs to be crafted at a workbench
(needs to be constructed first).

59. The pickaxe is
CRAFTING
created by placing
two sticks down the
middle of the 3×3
grid
Visualize this as
two small sticks
being put together
to form a long
handle for the
pickaxe.
Three of the same
resource (wooden
planks, stone, iron,
gold or diamond)
are then placed
across the top three
boxes in the grid.
Picture this as
being the blade of
the pickaxe that is
attached to the top
of the handle.

60. Randomly generated world structured such a fashion that more
valuable resources are either rare or only spawn in deep caverns far
below the ground.
Aside from building blocks the game also offers more complex building.
The player can create railway systems and ride mine carts, row in a
small boat, and build pressure plates, switches, doors and electrical
circuits to power various contraptions.

61. MINECRAFT
ENVIRON
¢ World is divided into biomes
ranging from deserts to
snowfields.
¢ The in-game time system
follows a day and night cycle
¢ Throughout the course of the
game the player encounters
various non-human
creatures, referred to as
mobs.
¢ During the daytime, non-
hostile animals spawn, which
can be hunted for food and
crafting materials.
¢ Hostile monsters, such as
large spiders, skeletons,
zombies and the dangerous
exploding "creeper" will
spawn in unlit areas, such as
in caves or during the night.

62. KIDS RESEARCH BIOMES AND SHARE FILES
TO FIND OPTIMAL ENVIRONS

63. MINECRAFT BIOMES GOOGLE MAP

64. BRIDGE TO THE OTHER SIDE

65. ¢ when
on multiplayer, they have to decide as a
group what the settings will be or what they
want to create or how they are going to play
¢ to
make many of the structures they create, they
have to calculate the layout and position of doors/
windows/other items within the structure
before they begin, will it physically fit in the
space, have the right proportions, etc

66. ¢ There is no manual so they have to find other resources to
figure out what they want to do and there are many ways
to do that that involve research skills
¢ Students go on youtube, and other people's blogs, and then
try the things out:
- this is how Daniel learned to set up his server
- also how he's learning to do the mods - he watches a bit,
then tries, then when he's stuck he goes back and finds
more info and tries again
- he is learning how to differentiate between those whose
information is very useful and well-presented, and those
who are either bogus or clueless

67. ¢ Complex systems can be built using the in-game physics engine
with the use of primitive electrical circuits and logic gates.
— For example, a door can be opened or closed by pressing a
connected button or stepping on a pressure plate.
— Similarly, larger and more complex systems can be produced,
such as a working arithmetic logic unit – as used in CPUs.

68. Boys: there are no rules. Parents : they have to design
rules based on what they want to
get out of the game, especially on
multiserver

69. Boys: There is no one to tell Parents: They can indulge
you to stop or settle down themselves with no
or just let it go repercussions and
recriminations
¢ Lucas (Mr. Fireworks) can
build things, then arbitrarily
smash and blow things up, then ¢ Daniel (Mr. Perfection) can
go back to building, then go get 3/4 of the way through
exploring, and then blow things an enormous construction,
up again, then hang around
and make a complex item using and realise that it won't work
pistons and redstone out the way he wants because
(electricity). all the windows will not be
perfectly equidistant, and so
destroy it and start again
¢ Also, they can reach a point
where they choose to stop, or let
it go, or settle down, which is a
priceless learning process.

70. Boys: We have control They learn how to self-
over how we play monitor; it invites deep
engagement
¢ Me: The game has a number of
modes which require them to follow
rules to achieve specific goals (aka
other video games), but in general
they can decide how they want to
play (soon-to-be-released Adventure
mode, Player vs Player, Creative
with no Monsters, No Cheating (no
using the Inventory Edit mod, etc).
¢ But more importantly, it is an Open
Source architecture so anyone
(including the kids) can create skins
and modifications and join in the
creative process so the game is
always
changing and personalised

71. Boys: There are cool Learn new techonology skills:
videos out there endless resources need to be
vetted and utilized
¢ ¢ Me:This gets them
excited about what
they could create, and
they are motivated to
try things they see in
the videos,- also they
. are motivated to make
some videos
themselves, and so
learn
video editing, etc

72. BRIDGE TO THE OTHER SIDE

73. In order for a class of, for example, 25 to have full access to Minecraft
(such as may be needed in order to demonstrate fully) it would cost
$373.75. Perhaps you could negotiate with Mojang themselves to
lower this cost. Much of the basics of Minecraft is available in
Creative mode which completely free, but at least one or two full
accounts would need to be set up for demonstration purposes alone.
Order the game at: Minecraft.net

74. Minecraft is the inevitable progression from one-dimensional social networks like Facebook
to virtual world social networks. If the Mojang folks supported a more robust server
architecture and possibly larger game maps, we could see worlds with hundreds of
thousands of simultaneous players. I believe Minecraft fulfills the promise Second Life and
IMVU have not; these players are not waking up and deciding to go into a virtual world.
They are deciding to play and build in Minecraft and the world and social rules follow from
that. Minecraft gives its players a reason to come together to interact, much like an outdoor
BBQ brings us together to eat and socialize or a dance club brings us together to dance and
socialize.
Minecraft also presents a number of challenges to traditional video gaming in general.
every single block in the game is moveable and alterable, exept bedrock (the only truly
indestructile block in the game), which prevents players from falling into the void (the
space beneath every minecraft world)
The entire game landscape can be redrawn by the players, one block at a time.
This is enormously empowering to a child who lives within a strict set rules about what
may and may not be touched in the real world. In Minecraft, you can touch everything. (The
blocks do adhere to primitive logical rules like gravity and the effects of states of matter, so
it is not a complete free for all.) In addition, the marvel of the game’s success cannot be
understated. It has not even been formally released and it has 10M players? And it was
developed by one person until early 2010, and then a tiny team (relative to big game
development) who built and then leveraged a rabid community of their users, many of
whom are technical enough to hack and improve the game in all sorts of unimaginable
ways. So where can this all go? If the team at Mojang wanted to and thought this way, I
think this game could be a platform for global social interactions and easily become the
largest virtual world social network.

75. Working desk
of 11 year old
exceptionally
gifted boy:
built pyramid
to scale, runs
own server,
using in school
projects,
architect of
the social
contract in
which his
Minecraft
community
operates.
In school
highly
unmotivated.

76. The entire game landscape can be redrawn by the
players, one block at a time.
This is enormously empowering to a child who
lives within a strict set rules about what may and
may not be touched in the real world. In
Minecraft, you can touch everything. (The blocks
do adhere to primitive logical rules like gravity
and the effects of states of matter, so it is not a
complete free for all.)

77. NINE YEAR OLD EXCEPTIONALLY GIFTED BOY
AT WORK BUILDING A MOD FOR MINECRAFT

78. The entire
MULTISENSORY LEARNING
game
landscape
can be
redrawn by
the players,
one block at
a time.
This is
enormously
empowering
to a child
who lives
within a
strict set
rules about
what may
and may not
be touched
in the real
world

79. MINECRAFT’S EDUCATIONAL USE: SOME
IDEAS
¢ Give students login information and have them all log into a school-hosted
multiplayer server (Yes, you can host your own private server). Tell them they
have arrived on a deserted(?) island (think Lost, maybe?). They need to work
together to build a society. Who will gather resources? Who will build? Who
will plan? How will they feed themselves? How will they defend themselves
from the skeletons/creepers at night (though these villains could be turned off
as a feature). The key here is to have them plan and write all of this based on
their in-world experiences.
¢ Have students journal daily life on their island as though they were a real
person in a real place. Imagine… “Day 1 – Not sure how I got here. Haven’t
seen another person. All was fine until nightfall. I began to hear a groaning
sound in the forest and that’s when I saw the zombies. Now I’m holed up in a
cave hoping they go away.”
¢ Have students think of a real-world machine and attempt to recreate it in their
Minecraft world. People have even made basic computers out of Minecraft
materials. Yes, it can be that complex. You can craft circuits with basic logic
functions out a material called redstone. Players have built working rail
stations, musical instruments, and more.
¢ Of course the multiplayer potential for the game opens up lots of collaborative
opportunity. Imagine different classes working together to build something,
different grade levels, or even students from schools in two different parts of
the world!

80. ¢ it is
2010 MAY BE THE YEAR OF GAME BASED LEARNING.
It is
becoming
clear to me
that
educators
are climbing
over the
mountain of
scepticism
towards
using games
to learn and
embracing it
with open
arms.

81. USING MINECRAFT FOR LEARNING
building the
logic
separate
from the
theme,
allowing
users to
specify their
own style
and context
but keeping
the
challenges
fun,
educational
and
relevant.

84. Teacher Strategy
 Utilize “Teacher Invitation”
 Blogs
 Chat rooms
 Messaging
 Sharing files

85. Teacher Strategy
 Internet Use Contract
 Mutual Teacher/Student
Agreement with Signatures!
 Specific Expectations
 Consequences

86. Teacher Strategy
 Utilize Creative Productivity
 Provide a purpose for online
activity
 Require product oriented
outcomes
 Student choice

87. Teacher Strategy
 Support Positive Interactions
 Value individuals
 Honor and celebrate diversity
 Open and honest communication
 Demonstrate respect and
integrity

88. Teacher Strategy
 The
rules that apply to physical
safety apply to virtual safety
 Don’t talk to people you do not
know
 Bullying is unacceptable
 No Tolerance

91. Edmodo is a free, secure, social learning platform for
teachers, students, schools, and districts.
FREE!
FEATURES:
Groups
Messages
Assignments
Calendar
Poll
Student Emails NOT required!

92. Questions