Mastermind

The classic game of Mastermind is great to play by yourself,  or against an opponent.  It is also great to play as a group.  Incorporating the game of Mastermind into your class or meetings can be rather beneficial.

I use Mastermind in my classes often as a fun way to introduce logical thinking and problem solving but also collaboration.

5 Simple Games to Develop Creativity and Problem Solving Ability

The following word games are a fun and simple way to develop creativity and problem solving ability.

Strong problem solving ability is important for many professions.  It is a skill however that is somewhat lacking in today’s education systems.  It is easy to incorporate into your classes and the plan below is an effective way to do just that.

Plan of Attack

A solid foundation in problem solving is created through a set of strategies that should become second nature to students.  We can develop this through simple games to promote creativity.  Begin each of your classes with a simple word game and use it to illustrate an important strategy.

Moodle Activity – Audience Response

Audience response systems are becoming popular in education.  It is both fun and interesting to get real time feedback from the class about a question.  Today we are going to take a look at a way you can create a simple audience response system in Moodle.

Moodle Activity – Septines with Q and A forum

Septines are a useful tool created by Edward de Bono which you can use to inspire thought about a topic in your classes.  You can very easily incorporate this activity into Moodle.  To understand what Septines are read here.  To find out how you can incorporate them into Moodle read on.

Moodle Idea – A more appealing Front Page

For many people,  the front page of their Moodle installation consists either of a list of courses, categories or a news section with a few other things down the side such as upcoming events.  It occurs to me that this is not the most effective use of this area of Moodle.  I am going to throw some ideas around for making better use of it.

Moodle Activity – Student Welfare

Students will often not let you know when they are in trouble.  Trouble can be defined as several things including,  being bullied,  not understanding the material,  having other bad things happening etc.  What we need is an easy way for students to let us know when things are not ok.  Moodle gives us just this.

Moodle Activity – Negotiation skills

Many students can benefit from developing negotiation skills.  Some people find that it comes naturally.  For everyone though,  it can be improved with practice.  Here we are going to present an activity that involves the whole class having to negotiate on the breakup of marks.

Moodle Activity – Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose your own adventure books are fun.  You have an element of control and that makes you part of the story.  Why not create a choose your own adventure story in Moodle using a variety of activities including the Lesson activity.

Moodle Activity – Subject Selection

One activity that students often have to do,   and one that can be stressful for them is subject selection.  A typical approach is to tell them about the various options available and then to give them some time to decide.  Today we’re going to use the quiz activity to support this with a questionnaire that will offer useful feedback.

Moodle Activity – Character Development

Your class is writing a book or creating a play.  You need to develop characters and you want a structured way to approach it.  Why not use a database in Moodle.