Jean-Claude Bradley presents on the use of smartphones, wikis and games for educational applications at a Drexel University Faculty Showcase on November 12, 2010.

1. Using Smartphones, Wikis and
Games for Teaching
Jean-Claude Bradley
E-Learning Coordinator
College of Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Drexel University
November 12, 2010
Drexel Faculty Technology Showcase
2010

2. So many tools … so little time
blogs
free online textbooks
recorded lectures (e.g.
podcasts, screencasts,
videos)
wikis
CMS (e.g.
Blackboard)
free course content (e.g.
OpenCourseWare)
clickers
games virtual worlds (e.g. Second
Life)

3. Smartphones: the new “thing”

4. Smartphones are becoming popular

5. Smartphone Demographics

6. Smartphone Advantages for Education
• Nearly ubiquitous access to the internet
via 3G networks
• Affordable unlimited data plans
encourage experimentation
• The most portable mobile device (pocket
sized)

7. Smartphone Disadvantages for Education
• Not all students currently carry them
• Text-rich assignments are inconvenient
• Whether an application will work on a
specific smartphone is unpredictable
(i.e. Flash, Java, etc.) – even YouTube
videos don’t always display

8. Examples of Smartphone Educational
Applications
• Recorded Lectures
• ChemTiles Game

9. What is the best use of your time as a
teacher?
• Lecturing?
• Manual grading?
• Discussion groups?
• Posting to a blog?
• Motivating?
What are your objectives?
• Increasing the baseline understanding
of the average student?
• Helping the best students actualize
their potential?

10. Screencasting: easy solution for recording lectures

11. 0.00
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CHEM 241
89 students
CHEM 243
64 students
Student Response to Screencasting: Attendance

12. Student Response to Screencasting: Usage Patterns
•Some students get ahead and watch lectures several times
•Some students wait for night before test and try to cram
•Most students fall in between and appreciate a suggested
timeline
•Podcasting/vodcasting an archived course not convenient
•I recommend downloading a zip of all recordings safest
•However with smartphones on demand Flash may be best

13. Best use of Class Time
Mainly repeating lectures
Mainly workshops
One-on-one
mentoring
Doing
problems
Games

14. Wikis
A wiki is a website that allows the
easy creation and editing of any
number of interlinked web pages via a
web browser using a simplified
markup language or a WYSIWYG text
editor.

15. Educational Uses of Wikis
•Organizing course content
•Student assignments
•Student generated content
•Easy to make content public and
rapidly indexed on Google

16. Example: Chemical Information
Retrieval FA09 (CHEM367/767)

17. Use of Web2.0 Tools for Sharing
Recorded Lectures

18. Technical Note for Camtasia 7 and
Web2.0 Hosting
•For highest resolution and small file size
select FLV – highest quality option at 3 fps
(1 or 2 fps generates an error)
•Most video hosting services do not accept
FLV but SciVee does
•For short recordings (<10 mins) other
formats (m4v, AVI, etc.) are fine and can
be uploaded to YouTube

19. Students participate to collect resources

20. Assignments

21. Article summaries on Web2.0 site

22. Student Research Logs: DMTStudent Research Logs: DMT

23. Green Tea ProjectGreen Tea Project

24. Chemistry of ChocolateChemistry of Chocolate

25. Students generate course content

26. SiteMeter to discover content use

27. Students curate data on ChemSpider

28. Five Sources for the solubility of EGCG

29. =2.3 g/L
Students expose unreliability of “trusted sources”

30. The Chemical Information Validation Sheet

31. The Chemical Information Validation Explorer
(Andrew Lang)

32. Student Response to Class Wikis
•Some students do extra credit assignments (ChemSpider
curation, multimedia component, Acawiki) and add resources
•Some students do only the minimum required of assignments
•Most students fall in between
Most students kept research logs and used feedback
(reported progress/asked questions)
Almost all students used their real names

33. Open Wikis in Laboratory Research

34. Motivation: Faster Science, Better
Science

35. There are NO FACTS,
only measurements embedded
within assumptions
Open Notebook Science maintains
the integrity of data provenance by
making assumptions explicit

36. TRUST
PROOF

37. Crowdsourcing Solubility Data

38. ONS Submeta Award Winners

39. Teaching Lab: Brent Friesen
(Dominican University)

40. The Log makes Assumptions Explicit

41. The Rationale of Findings Explicit

42. Raw Data Made Public
Splatter?
Some liquid

43. YouTube for demonstrating experimental set-upYouTube for demonstrating experimental set-up

44. Calculations Made Public on
Google Spreadsheets

45. Revision History on
Google Spreadsheets

46. Wiki Page History

47. Comparing Wiki Page Versions

48. Solubilities collected in a Google
Spreadsheet

49. Rajarshi Guha’s Live Web Query
using Google Viz API

50. Data provenance:
From Wikipedia to…

51. …the lab notebook and raw data

54. Reaction Attempts Book

55. Reaction Attempts Book: Reactants listed
Alphabetically

56. Lulu.com Data Disks

57. Student Response to Research Wikis
•Students appreciate rapid feedback via the wiki
•Students learn to properly document experiments by using
a research log
•The use of Google Spreadsheet templates makes it easier
for students to record data and others to verify calculations
•For teaching lab based deployment sufficient structure
must be given while still allowing students to think
•Students appreciate being co-authors on a book and
having a bio/pic included
•Although interaction via wiki is invaluable, face to face
meetings (or phone calls) are also very important

58. Games for Learning
•Technology?
•Learning Objectives?
•Rewards?

59. Wheel of Orgo

60. (Andy Lang, Tony Williams)
Open Data spectra from ChemSpider for education
(Jean-Claude Bradley, Andy Lang, Tony Williams,
Robert Lancashire)

61. The game starts easy

62. Later in the game: time limit and more
molecules

63. Database Curation via Game Playing

64. Over 100,000 spectrum views so far -
worldwide

65. Link Spectral Game to Open
Educational Content

66. EduFrag Unreal Tournament Maze (without weapons)

67. EduFrag Unreal Tournament (with weapons)

68. Quiz Obelisks in Second Life (Eloise Pasteur)

69. Spectral Game in Second Life (Andy Lang)

70. Student Created Exhibits on ACS Island

71. 3D Periodic Table (ACS Freebie)

72. Conferences on Second Nature

73. Student assignment: networking in
Second Life and FriendFeed

74. http://www.journal.chemistrycentral.com/content/3/1/1
4

75. ChemTiles Game on the
Web/Smartphone

76. ChemTiles Rules

77. ChemTiles Play

78. Multimedia student project: the Beer Game

79. Student Response to Games
•Occasional rewards (textbook) can be helpful but
don’t require mandatory participation
•Especially in group games, make participation
optional (allow skip turn)
•Most students are shy and not tech savvy– use
games as a content base for workshops
•Keep technical requirements as low as possible
•Encourage other uses of the game – i.e. student
who hacked SpectralGame got prize

80. ClickTiles: Try it out!
(Andrew Lang)

81. ClickTiles Flickr Group
•Create 256 x 256 pixel images on Paint
•Name them starting with true or false
(Andrew Lang)

82. Conclusions
•Think about your educational objectives
•Experiment with technology
•Talk to students
•Keep what works
•To make this efficient learn from others