I have been a little self-obsessed recently due to a job interview and as a result have let the blog updates lag a little. My email inbox is also becoming home to a variety of tweets that I marked “useful”. I hope to work through the inbox over the next few weeks, sharing anything which could help learning and teaching and reflecting on how it could be used in my own classroom.
The first one I’m going to look at today is CSI Web Adventures posted by @russeltarr. This is an educational resource which puts you amongst the characters of Las Vegas CSI, showing you around their work areas and letting you solve one of three ever more challenging cases.
I can see immediately where this resource can fit in with my current S3 Int 1 Computing Studies Multimedia Applications and Int 2 Information Systems Applied Multimedia hybrid: allowing pupils to experience good user interface design and well thought out scripting to create a CAL (computer aided learning) application suited to Secondary level students (at last!). However with the Curriculum for Excellence courses being developed for S2 I’m looking for ways to help ICT integrate with other subject areas. So this post is about how I think CSI Web Adventures can be used in line with CfE experiences and outcomes, but before I look at it I want to share a very useful CfE planning resource.
I met Maggie Irving at the 2010 MIICE conference in Dundee in May and enjoyed her presentation on the website she had worked hard to create. If you are involved in any way in development planning for Curriculum for Excellence you should have it bookmarked as it is an excellent reference for all the experiences and outcomes. I actually find it more useful than the official site, it’s certainly faster to load and navigate!
I used Maggie’s site today to help me quickly note how the CSI Web Adventures resource could be used to support science outcomes for third / fourth level (secondary school):
SCN3-14b: I have extracted DNA and understand its function. I can express an informed view of the risks and benefits of DNA profiling
SCN 4-13c: I can debate the moral and ethical issues associated with some controversial biological procedures
With a little planning a summary task could be added where the pupils reflect on their experience of using the game and construct a report / recording. This could overtake the following literacy outcomes:
LIT 3-15a: I can make notes and organise them to develop my thinking, help retain and recall information, explore issues and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.
LIT 4-15a: I can make notes and organise them to develop my thinking, help retain and recall information, explore issues and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.
The three crimes require reading the conversations carefully and note-taking is advised for the end of training quizzes. I would estimate 2 hours spent using the resource would be a good amount of time to explore the user interface and undertake a number of the tasks. Any less than that and some pupils would not be able to complete the training course!
