Theresa shared some awesome resources. The first being Quizizz which looks awesome!! It looks a lot like Kahoot and at first I was trying to figure out what the difference was. Then I saw the homework button. I think it would be great to give an xp boost to those who play outside of school hours. She talked about using Newsela as well. I really like this reasource but can't fit it in to my classes with the curriculum I need to cover. I hadn’t considered that in a gamified classroom I could include it as a side quest. Right now I just use it for sub work. But I think it would be great to have students research and find their own articles. Lastly she talked about a point system that she said she got from Genevieve. I think I will do something similar as well.
•Epic Quests (Tests) – 1000p •Heroic Quests (Quizzes) – 500xp •Side Quests (Hw) – 400xp •Social Quests (Part/Disc) – 300p Matt talked about his chemistry class and having them crack a code. I would think that as some start to get into it others would get pulled in as well. It is like the game telephone where you want to know what was said. He said that he would start with just the XP and the goal of the game. I agree that starting out with just the basics is good. Then as you need to you can add more to keep students interested.
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Essential Question: What is the game you are thinking of writing up for your classroom?My game would be made to just overlay my courses. It would not be directly related and rather I would just intertwine my storyline with the content. My storyline would be directly related to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which conveniently was recently made into a movie. I already talked about this a little in week 8 so I will try to add some more details I have thought about since then.
I think the next part would be making up the teams. I would make the teams represent loops. The teams would just be in one class to test this out and then hopefully each class I teach could be a loop in the future and they could work with other classes and challenge them. In Miss Peregrine's some of the main loops include; Miss Peregrine, Miss Wren, and Miss Avocet. I would give students these as ideas and then let them choose their own loop leader and name the loop after that. This would set up perfectly for characters. Each student could be randomly given a peculiarity. I would give different powers for each peculiarity; able see hollowgasts, lighter than air, talk with bees, invisibility, make fire, resurrect the dead, make fire, prophetic dreams, bee talker, extra mouth in back of head, and incredible strength. Each chapter would be a quest to beat a hollowgast as a team and progressively the hollowgasts would require more xp to beat. Students would gain xp based on a list of tasks they can complete. If they do not beat the hollowgast by the date assigned they would lose their peculiarity until they are caught up. The peculiarity will give them special powers. I'm thinking powers would include things such as leaving the classroom for 2 minutes (invisibility), one assignment is worth double xp (incredible strength), Clue for sidequest (prophetic dreams), etc. For sidequests I would have students try to defeat wights. These are more powerful than the hollowgast. If they don't beat the wight then they will lose their power for the next quest. These would be individual quests and not groupwork. If they beat the wight they will earn bonus xp to help them battle the hollowgast. That is all I have so far. I'm still thinking about the assignments and how much they would be worth. Genevieve talked about a point system that matched the required percentages. Here is what she came up with.
Ali talked about the fact that “we are all at different levels of comfort in implementing gamification into our classroom.” I think this is huge. I don’t know that the rubric will ever fit everyone especially if some people do just a lesson and others do a whole semester. It just isn’t the same. Essential Question: How would you change the rubric for the final project to better reflect what is important in games? I like the rubric but I think you really need to play the game to judge some of the categories, especially # 3 on down. I think we need to look more at adjusting the categories to judge a game before it is played. Maybe #6 could be changed to flexibility. Meaning more that students have choice. ("What Makes a Good Game? " n.d.). I think a lot of game play involves students taking different paths and learning in the manner that best suits their learning style. On #2 I think Gerald is right that a game does not have to have a storyline. I think what you need is for the game to be interesting. According to "What Makes a Good Game? " (n.d.) a storyline "isn't essential to every kind of game (for example, not for a scavenger hunt), especially when players are competing against each other. In that case, the excitement of the competition is likely to engage them. However, a good storyline can liven up a competition still further (look at pro wrestling!)." So if you don't use a storyline you have to look elsewhere to engage. Topic #4 touches on this a little. Maybe #4 could be broken down into one that is about engagement and the other part could be about the challenges the game provides? I think there might need to be a category that deals with keeping the playing field level, especially if the game is to last an entire semester or year. It is not fun to play a game when you know who will win, especially if you aren't the person who will win. Kramer (2000-2006) talks about this being called the "kingmaker effect." I think there needs to be some built in ways to deal with this. I know Matera talked about using challenges that only certain teams can do or different teams receiving different amounts of points. He explained it like Mario Cart and the star power up. You only get the star when you are in the back but other players still come back to play again. If you win without the star the win is that much better. I think it would be important to explain this to players at the start so they understand and don't get upset later in the game. Sources
Kramer, W. Translated by Kramer, A. (2000-2006). What Makes a Game Good? Retrieved November 11, 2016, from http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/WhatMakesaGame.shtml Matera, M. (2015). Explore like a pirate: Engage, enrich, and elevate your learners with gamification and game-inspired course design [Kindle Edition]. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting. What Makes a Good Game? (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2016, from http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games/goodgame.html Sarah talked about a Go fish game with ions that she plays in her chemistry class. She has noticed a huge benefit because students understand ions and want to keep playing. It may get loud but the students are engaged and learning. I have seen the same benefit in my classroom. I am teaching a program that has a few board games. Really these games are nothing more than some spaces that give you points, some space you lose points on, and the others correspond to cards you try to answer correctly. My students go crazy and, we end up playing it at least 2 days. It is a board game about the seal types and by the end the students who really played know them. I have very few students who don’t really get into it, and I have more student engagement than when there is a worksheet or something similar. I tend to wonder if these mini games tied into a larger class game if you would get the other students to join in. I like Matera’s ideas of having class challenges. This way you only get some of the things if the whole class is on board. A little peer pressure can go a long way.
Ali talked about a game called prodigy that she uses. This game looks amazing and will be sharing with elementary to middle school teachers. She shared a video that was excellent! The video talked about how you can read as much as you want but you need to be able to have experience to really learn it. Gee talks about class text and argues that "you have to live in its world and play its game." Some students have an advantage because a game they play is actually teaching them what is in the text. Not all students have the same experiences so we as teachers need to create these experiences. Essential Question: How do you currently infuse play into your class? How might you change this as a result of some of the ideas you have encountered?"Playful learning can in turn lead to deeper engagement with school, better retention of learning and a stronger motivation to persist all the way through school" (Stavely 2015). This is so true!! I my expereience I have tried many resources, but Kahoot and Quizlet.live take the cake as my students go crazy for it! They love the competition and just find it really fun to play even if they don't win. I also have a lot of fun watching them. When playing Kahoot they will yell out answers sometimes it is the right answer and sometimes it is wrong. They have so much fun seeing how many students will take their answer. Sometimes it is really funny to see which students don't want to think on their own. They start to change their habits when they realize taking the easy route sometimes doesn't get the results they want. With Quizlet.live it is fun to watch students work in teams. They have developed strategies and they really take their time. Now my students only get some Classcraft points for winning, and it is not a lot, but yet they still love to play. “It’s important that they’re doing it for its own sake. They’re not doing it for a reward, they’re doing it because they love it. Especially for teenagers, who are under a lot of stress,” Russ said.(Stavely 2015) I know there are so many ideas I have learned about that would make my classroom even more engaging. I think I will have to start by thinking about the big picture. Stavely (2015) talks about engaging students in the real world. I need to create lessons that focus outside of school. "When putting real-world play into the classroom, students are more motivated when the projects are expansive, big ideas. The most successful teachers first think critically about the big ideas they want students to walk away with, and then find where those big ideas live in the real world." It is easy to include a game but it is not so easy to create a game that helps students see the big picture. “Some of the best scientists we know will say it’s much more about creativity and innovation than understanding the basics of science. You have to know the basics, but you also have to have that creative bar to design an exciting experiment,” Pope said (Stavely 2015). This is hard for me because I have 6 different science classes and teach 7 classes. I cannot make this happen for each class when I also am taking my own classes, helping seniors fundraise every weekend, doing robotics, and trying to figure out when I can start science fair. I think this is my biggest struggle. I need to start with one class but then I get discouraged because I can't choose which class. If I can choose a class, here are the ideas I found that I would like to try at some point:
Sources
Matera, M. (2015). Explore like a pirate: Engage, enrich, and elevate your learners with gamification and game-inspired course design [Kindle Edition]. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting. Pak, R. (2011). Engaging Classroom Games for All Grades. Retrieved November 04, 2016, from http://www.teachhub.com/engaging-classroom-games-all-grades Stavely, Z. (2015, July 24). How to Bring Playfulness to High School Students. Retrieved November 4, 2016, from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/07/24/how-to-bring-playfulness-to-high-school-students/ This week I was part of a team that hosted a discussion/tutorial on Classcraft. I think it went very well. It was a little slow to start with troubleshooting all problems, but I think that was good for all to see for teachers who might want to use it to see the problems students might encounter. Once everyone got logged in things went smoothly and the boss battles were a lot of fun.
Genevieve talked about 4 main elements to include: theme, characters, setting, and the action. I too thought in this way. I was having a tough time at first but then when I thought about a book or movie that I really liked and knew about I was hooked. I was having so much fun trying to set up this fantasy world in my classroom. I then realized that if I was having this much fun planning it how could students not get excited? She then talked about the many aspects of games, and I believe this is the challenging part. I'm not entirely sure what I would include. I know that you need game mechanics to keep everyone involved. I liked the analogy Matera used of Mario Kart. Even though there are unfair power ups everyone still enjoys it and want to play again. I think this really got me to thinking about how to use this to my advantage to bring up the lower students and get them involved or even get the students involved who don't seem interested. There are just so many game elements. I guess you just have to start with one and add as you go so you don't get too overwhelmed. Aleta's post was similar to Genevieve's and mine. She talked about: Theme, Setting, Characters, and Action. I'm guessing this was a similar topic for all this week. It was definitely my biggest takeaway from the reading. I think it is so central to starting to fantasize about how to gamify your own classroom. As I was picking a theme I couldn't help but get to the rest. I just started to get really excited once I had my theme. I was wondering where I could put certain elements and how they could be most useful. Then I ran out of time to ponder due to my other duties. It really just seems like the best place to start. Once you get the theme, setting, characters, and action in place the rest seems like it would start to fall into place. Essential Question: Which aspects of story and game mechanics will be useful in your class and how might you use them? OH MY GOODNESS!! There are so many aspects to a game that I never considered. "Choosing a theme is the first step in gamification and will set the tone for the lesson, unit, or even the year ahead." This week I was really challenged to think of the storyline or theme for my classroom. I think I was thinking in the wrong direction for how to gamify my own classroom. I was only really considering the game elements and not how to add the story to make it a game. The advise Matera (2015) gives is to "find possible themes from books, media, historical events, and your content." This made me think of one of my favorite series of books, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which conveniently was recently made into a movie. Now that I have my story I need to figure out the other elements. I think the next part would be making up the teams. I would make the teams represent loops. The teams would just be in one class to test this out and then hopefully each class I teach could be a loop in the future and they could work with other classes and challenge them. In Miss Peregrine's some of the main loops include; Miss Peregrine, Miss Wren, and Miss Avocet. I would give students these as ideas and then let them choose their own loop leader and name the loop after that. This would set up perfectly for characters. Each student could be randomly given a peculiarity. I would give different powers for each peculiarity; able see hollowgasts, lighter than air, talk with bees, invisibility, make fire, resurrect the dead, make fire, prophetic dreams, bee talker, extra mouth in back of head, and incredible strength. I would also have to think about leveling up. I like the idea of students turning in a weekly sheet. Then I can verify their level and update accordingly. For leveling up I would give XP for "completing required and optional tasks, or by earning achievements and badges, or by participating in free play and special events" (McCarthy 2016). I like McCarthy's idea of having boss challenges, which I would rename hollowgast challenges. Students would have to reach a certain level to attempt these and these would be assessed for grades. "A great tool to set up your leaderboard is Google Sheets. This makes it easy to share with students if you would like" (Matera 2015). I love Google sheets and am already familiar with it so it makes perfect sense to use it. I'm not sure as to the activities in the game yet but know that I would want to provide many choices, maybe a choice board, as McCarthy (2016) suggests by calling it free play. One activity I really liked was an example by Matera (2015) to have an impromptu trivia game using a program called Celly. I also like the idea of side quests to gain more in the game but Matera lists rules that I really like:
Two pieces of advice from Ronan (2015) really stuck out to me as I was getting wrapped up in creating a gamified class room. "Start small, dive in, see what works, and tweak your plans along the way." This really made me consider just doing a class rather than all of my classes. Another idea I really need to think about first is backwards planning. I need to think about what I want students to accomplish before I start planning all of my activities. Sources
McCarthy, J. (2016, October 20). Gamifying Your Class to Meet the Needs of All ... Retrieved October 28, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/gamifying-your-class-john-mccarthy Matera, M. (2015). Explore like a pirate: Engage, enrich, and elevate your learners with gamification and game-inspired course design [Kindle Edition]. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting. Ronan, A. (2015, July 30). The Ultimate Guide to Gamifying Your Classroom. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.edudemic.com/ultimate-guide-gamifying-classroom/ Anthony talked about his use of classcraft and how one student gave XP to the whole class. Anthony had to take away these points the next day and took away extra for the cheating. The class was able to write a note to this student (who was absent that day) about how they felt and if they forgave them. The cool thing is they all ended with forgiveness. They were mad but they were able to process through it and realized that we all make mistakes. Another teacher at my school has had this problem as well. But usually these students only give themselves points. When this happens we reset them to "0." I thought this was a good punishment but there is no processing. I like what Anthony did and feel that this might be something to share with my colleague. Anthony also talked about students saying "I don't care." I have had this problem as well and didn't think about how our language might be able to change this. It is something to consider. I know sometimes I am not positive. I try to be, but sometimes I just get worn down. I think I need to have a shift in the way I think and need to make a habit out of using some of this new language.
Genevieve also reminded me that “whatever language you choose in your classroom or school, should stay consistent.” I really need to look at this for my classroom, but just don't have the time at the moment. What is common in my classroom is the grade, and this is what students are working for. However I have changed my philosophy on late work and corrections. I am allowing students to do much of their work whenever they have time and allowing corrections so that they can get a better score. Students are now working harder on their assignments. But they are still focused on the grade. So they are almost to the process, maybe this is an in-between step until I have time to focus on what type of language to adopt. Essential Question: How do you or might you use language to change the way that your students think about learning in the classroom?Reading this week all I could think about was the growth mindset. Dweck (2016) says "a growth mindset is the belief that you can develop your talents and abilities through hard work, good strategies, and help from others. It stands in opposition to a fixed mindset, which is the belief that talents and abilities are unalterable traits, ones that can never be improved." This sounds very much like Matera (2015) describes in his book but he calls it purpose-driven Learning. He uses the following qualities to drive his instruction: confidence, creativity, enthusiasm, effort, focus, resilience, initiative, curiosity, dependability, and empathy. The way Matera uses these words, or ideas, is by layering it over his course. He claims this has "encouraged collaboration and offered a ton of self-exploration. Learning was no longer about earning a grade; it was about discovery and growth." I believe this is exactly what Dweck is advocating for in a growth mindset. We as educators have a duty to help every student learn and this idea of purpose-driven learning or a growth mindset could really help us be successful with every student. The biggest struggle is that we as educators want an easy fix. "Growth mindsets, grit, and resilience are being championed not as paradigms that will take all people to whatever's next on their journey, but as pedagogical methods for classes, schools, and districts populated with students who don't achieve at the metrics we're using" (Hochheiser 2016). I think this is the hardest to stay away from. Instead of using these concepts and language to only help bring up those who are failing is the wrong idea. We need to use it pervasively throughout our classes. "Research has shown (and continues to show) that a growth mindset can have a profound effect on students' motivation, enabling them to focus on learning, persist more, learn more, and do better in school" (Dweck 2016). I think Matera's ideas would show the same results. "We need to help students understand that they learn as much, if not more, from their failures as they do their successes" (Matera 2015). If we teach students how to be more inclusive and how to help each other they can build more relationships with others and not learn to be so dependent on the teacher. This mindset or language includes ideas mentioned by Hochheiser (2016) include:
Sources
Dweck, C. (2016, January 11). Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset. Retrieved October 21, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck Hochheiser, D. (2014, September 16). Growth Mindset: A Driving Philosophy, Not Just a Tool. Retrieved October 21, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/growth-mindset-driving-philosophy-david-hochheiser Matera, M. (2015). Explore like a pirate: Engage, enrich, and elevate your learners with gamification and game-inspired course design [Kindle Edition]. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting. |
Gamification & Open EducationCategories |