My BIG idea to use Quest Based Learning for Professional Development:
I'm my school's technology coordinator and am responsible for planning six paid hours of tech training for teachers every year. Usually I grab the teachers who have great tech talent and ask them to present something. We try to find one day before school starts and hope that most of my teachers can make it.
I know that I'll never get full attendance and then I spend the rest of the year trying to find a way to make sure that everyone gets their six hours of pay.
That's a headache as is the fact that all of my teachers are in different places in terms of their level of tech integration into the classroom.
After spending some time reading other people's ideas on the 3D GameLab Guild site, I've decided to try something REALLY big and restructure the day around a Quest Based Learning model. I made the following Bubbl.us Web to organize my ideas.
The hopeful advantage is that all of my teacher-learners will find something that fits their abilities and what they want to learn AND the people who miss my big training day will be able to go through training on their own at another time.
If I have time and the ability, I'm going to put the quests into 3D GameLab. Because that would be SOOO COOL! If I don't, I'm going to make the quests available on our Web site and will create a Google Form for "finishing the quests" accountability.
Minecraft: One of the reasons why I wanted to take this course is to come up to speed on Minecraft, which my 5th and 6th grade boys love to play and I'd like to give them the chance to work collaboratively on it. This will require me to purchase Minecraft.edu and to host a game on a server. I thought that I'd start small by simply learning how to play it myself first.
Minecraft Log (August 4, 2012)
After three days, this is what I've managed to accomplish but it was hard going. There's not a lot of day light to burn in Minecraft and I've spent a lot of night time treading water in the ocean near my island because I wasn't able to build myself a hidey hole fast enough. The Minecraft Wiki and the beginner's YouTubes have been very helpful.
Minecraft Log (August 5, 2012)
I'm continuing my quest to learn Minecraft. This is a screenshot of the sun rising to prove that I survived a night. But I really didn't. I was holed up in my hidey hole when I heard the sun coming up and I wanted to capture this picture. My hidey hole is right next to the ocean so I thought that I could break open my door and make a run for it. Didn't work out so well.
I've been rained on, treaded water at night for days and killed more times than I can count. But I can see why this is somewhat addictive.
I'm also thinking of all the cool writing projects a teacher could do around Minecraft.
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