MindLab Blog 2019- Part 2

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? This week was a very busy one as my school had only been open for two days prior. I decided to flag my Year 10 only part of my inquiry as I only have a small class list, to begin with. I have 11 students that I have planned to use ClassDojo with which range from Year 5 to Year 10. I decided to do this so I had enough numbers. This week I sent out informational emails welcoming students back for the year and explained that I needed to set up face to face meetings with them. I followed these emails up with texts to the supervisors to say that I had sent them an email. Being a distance school, contacting students and families can prove to be very difficult at times and sometimes an email won't even get a response. I found this to be a much better strategy as it prompted responses via text from the supervisors and they went on to check their emails. It worked extremely well as I had four stud...

The potential impact of the findings What are the possible benefits (and disadvantages of the inquiry)? Benefits- that it improves the students engagement and I get higher levels of students contacting me, completing work and enjoying their learning. Disadvantages- the students may see the points as being unmotivating and therefore not want to participate or see it as a negative competition. How might it impact on your communities or your practice? It may impact on my student's engagement levels, which may warrant other colleagues to become interested and perhaps even try something different themselves. The knowledge that I took from my research essay was that e ngagement is the biggest challenge for a distance learner and it is very difficult to overcome the challenge as all responsibility is down to the learner themselves. My inquiry will provide some insight into what may motivate and engage distance learners. The results of this inquiry may show that using gamif...

Plan Data Collection (Learn) To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for Year 10 distance learners? Week One: Baseline data Quantitative and Qualitative combined Anonymous Google Form sent to students and supervisors that asked for attitudes towards engagement. Examples of questions: Do you know what it means to be engaged in your learning? What should engagement in learning look like? What does disengagement look like? Are you persistent in your work, despite challenges and obstacles? Are you motivated to finish your work and feel accomplished when you do? Are you always interested in your learning and want to find out more? How often do you complete a My Te Kura lesson/learning for your teacher? Do you think you are an engaged student or disengaged? Why do you think so? Any other feedback? Quantitative Tally of Week One engagement through My Te Kura portal, noting times, length and topic. By taking a tally of who en...

Research Ethics Video Must avoid harm, distress, disadvantage, and anxiety It could disturb, intrude, have secrecy, cause embarrassment, lowering self-esteem, resentment balance these concerns with the benefits Key principles of NZ:  Seek at all times to avoid harm and do good. The rights and welfare of learners, research participants, and the public should take precedence over the researcher's self-interest. Have a specific duty of care to research participants: to avoid unnecessary anxiety or harm to participants, groups or communities by the research procedures that are used, by the details in the research reports, or as a consequence of participating in the research. Give participants a clear description of why the research is being undertaken, what it involves, how it will be reported, and the extent of public availability before participants make a decision about their involvement in a project. Their consent to being involved should then be sought without undu...

Define your community(ies) Who will be involved? Why have you chosen to engage with them? Year 10 students. I have chosen to specifically target this year group level as it is the one I have the most students in and is also recognised as a hard year level to engage due to them transitioning into a young adult. Supervisors- mum, dad, aunty, or other family members How will you engage with your community?  My engagement is going to be through ClassDojo, emailing, phone calls and face-to-face visits. What is the context for the communities?  Majority of students have been expelled or alienated from their previous school and the majority of the families are beneficiaries.  All year 10 students do have a laptop available and parents do have a smart phone so are able to download the ClassDojo App. Defining the key terms in your inquiry questions To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for Year 9 distance learners? Gamificati...

Developing, Articulating and Evaluating the Inquiry Question(s) in Your Research Essay Depending on the insights you gain from the literature, the inquiry question might seek to answer  ‘how’  or  ‘what’  or  ‘why’  about an aspect of your area of focus in your particular context. It might seek to provide an answer about something that is a  gap  in the existing research. Your inquiry question should be  open-ended , and not answerable with a simple “yes” or “no”, or a few factual statements. Try to avoid terms that are too broad or vague such as "modern technological practices" and presumptions like "most effective in...". Structuring Your Inquiry Question To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for Year 10 distance learners? Whānau - the family structure principle The whānau and the practice of whanaungatanga (family connectedness) is an integral part of Māori identity and culture. What other persp...