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.
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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 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/ 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/ 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. Essential Question: What is the implication of player type on game design? I took 3 quizzes this week. Here are the results: So I would guess these quizzes are fairly accurate since I got the same results on all quizzes (assuming "Ace" is the same as "Achiever"). However, the description may not be totally accurate, but it is pretty close. "According to Bartle, there are personality types (Bartle's Player Types), each of which must be considered by a game's designer. In other words, people play games for different reasons -- some to socialize, others to collect objects, and others who compete to win. When designing virtual worlds, all player types should be considered. Similarly, when teachers design lessons, multiple modalities should be addressed" (Farber 2015). There is some argument that Bartle's grouping has some weaknesses. For example, "Players each have different strategies for play and that as well as large-scale groupings of behavior around preferred playings, there are also many hidden, appropriative or resistive types of gameplay that are worth considering" (Dixon 2011). In other words, to group them like this assumes that there is no overlap between player types and that all of our actions relate to a particular player which in turn means that we fit certain game characteristics. It assumes that the way we act in games is how we act in the world. This may be mostly true, but I am not sure that it is completely true.
I like how Kiang talks about using a player type quiz with students, and that he uses it for grouping students throughout the year. Instead of grouping by test scores, which students may not take seriously, he allows them to answer personal questions, which will probably get a more accurate result. This is something that I would love to include in my classroom. Sources
Dixon, D. (2011). Player Types and Gamification. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://gamification-research.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/11-Dixon.pdf Farber, M. (2015, April 14). Interactive Fiction in the Classroom. Retrieved October 13, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/interactive-fiction-in-the-classroom-matthew-farber Kiang, D. (2014). Use the Four Gamer Types to Help Your Students Collaborate - from Douglas Kiang on Edudemic - EdTechTeacher. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://edtechteacher.org/use-the-four-gamer-types-to-help-your-students-collaborate-from-douglas-kiang-on-edudemic/ Gamer Type Quiz Links https://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-four-player-types-test http://givercraft.wikispaces.com/What+Type+of+Gamer+Are+You%3FresponseToken=a3c04e48f207be2109c 53866b32fffbd http://www.4you2learn.com/bartle/bartletest.php?test=ind Essential Question: What research can support or refute Matera's claims? Matera (2015) state state that "the educational structures built on the needs and desires of our great grandparents’ generation are fundamentally different from those of students today. And yet, many schools are still practicing two-hundred-year-old traditions." He goes on to present a chart with his claims as shown below. I agree with his claims. For one I don't remember students acting the way they do today. Students are far more independent and they want to do things the way they want to do them. They are not afraid to let teachers know this either. I would've been terrified to assert my point of view on one of my teachers, but my students don't seem to shy away. One of the biggest things I see is students need a passion for learning. Matulich (2008) says students "prefer self-paced learning, engagement from and with their peers, real experiences, time to reflect, and find relevance in 'things that matter' to them. In fact, they might even ask you to clarify 'what’s in it for me?'" Students aren't just accepting what teachers say as being important. They need someway to connect it to what they know. We need new ways to teach these students. "Today’s 21-year old has spent 10,000 hours playing video games, 20,000 hours watching TV, 10,000 hours talking on their cell phone, sent 250,000 emails and spent only 5,000 hours reading. As a result of this exposure to a multimedia environment, their brains have developed to respond to such stimulation and they therefore process information differently than their professors, parents, and just about anyone older than them. Yet when they reach college, they are often asked to read copious amounts of material from textbooks, which they find boring and are unable to successfully process" (Matulich 2008). Textbooks are not inspiring and students cannot be convinced that they are. Instead of trying to force students to use them we need to be innovative and think of ways to engage our learners today. Our students today are not passive learners. "'Old school' methods, especially the all too common lecture on content to passive learners, are proving less and less successful in bringing students to appropriate learning and development outcomes" (Taylor 2010). According to Fraser (2007) student learning has plateaued after initiatives and policies have been implemented. I think we just haven't come up with the right combination of tools to educate todays youth. I believe Matera (2015) has some great ideas and advice that make me more curious to research and try gamification in my classroom. Sources
Fraser, A. (2007). Developing Innovation in Education: A Disciplined Undertaking. Retrieved October 6, 2016, from http://rube.asq.org/edu/2009/03/innovation/developing-innovation-in-education-a-disciplined-undertaking.pdf 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. Matulich, E., Papp, R., & Haytko, D. L. (2008). Continuous improvement through teaching innovations: A requirement for today's learners. Marketing Education Review, 18(1), 1-7. Taylor, M. (2010). Teaching Generation NeXt: A Pedagogy for Today's Learners. Retrieved October 6, 2016, from http://www.taylorprograms.com/images/Teaching_Gen_NeXt.pdf Essential Question: How can immersive virtual reality enhance gamification? Essential Question: How can immersive virtual reality enhance gamification? According to Merry (2016) "immersive VR will help increase retention among students taking distance learning courses." He goes on to clarify that gamification with VR can help students to take part in things they can't experience rather than just looking at them in 2-D. One option to use VR to make lessons come to life is through the use of "Google’s virtual reality field trip kit called Expeditions." This program allows teachers to take students on VR field trips to places like Mars or Mount Everest. One issue with this technology according to Castaneda, Cechony, & Swanson (2016) is that "users of VR bring their life experiences, emotions and fears into the immersion with them. Previous research along with our experiences with elementary aged students have shown that they may have difficulty separating virtual reality from actual reality." However as the teacher it is our duty to keep this in mind to try to create an atmosphere where students can explore and learn. VR can challenge students and encourage them to do things they wouldn't normally do. "Being able to be fully immersed and interact with the virtual environments takes courage for youth because, as one teacher puts it, 'They are willing to do things that would look goofy even without the goggles on because they are so excited and immersed in the experience.' This kind of comfort and safety to explore that environment comes from a strong set of teacher and student expectations for shared behaviors and norms" (Castaneda, Cechony, & Swanson 2016). Another comment that was more of a concern. is that a student didn't want teachers to ruin this technology of VR like other previous technologies. He said "I would like teachers to understand that VR doesn’t have to be the same as current schooling...students should explore instead of mindlessly following paths where they don’t even need to think to understand” (Castaneda, Cechony, & Swanson 2016). I think this is such a great point. Student need to explore. They need to creat their own path. One example is when VR was used to teach special relativity. It was described as "a software package is used to introduce concepts of special relativity to students in a game-like environment where users experience the effects of travelling at near light speeds" (McGrath, Wegner, & Savage 2009). This is a tough concept to be grasped for any student. In the end "Students found the simulation to be a positive learning experience and described the subject area as being less abstract after its use. Also, students were more capable of correctly answering concept questions relating to special relativity, and a small but measurable improvement was observed in the final exam" (McGrath, Wegner, & Savage 2009). Another key feature McGrath, Wegner, & Savage (2009) mention is that the special relativity VR experience challenged misconceptions that the lab did no target. Students were able to experience something that they could not experience in their everyday life. In the end all studies that I read found VR to be a positive experience. The study by Castaneda, Cechony, & Swanson (2016) found that "contrary to some concerns that VR would be isolating, the students and teachers in our study found it to be an excellent mechanism for shared experience, dialogue and bonding." They also found that VR "sparked further interest in pursuing tech courses for some of the young women who were already enrolled. Students and teachers in VR classes were eager to share the technology with the wider school community, and many students even became local experts in running and supporting VR." McGrath, Wegner, & Savage (2009) found VR to increase understanding and confidence in spatial relativity. Merry (2016) listed ideas for incorporating VR that could help student retention. He mentions Time Machine to help students experience dinosaurs. I cannot wait to get my own Cardboard to experience this. Sources
Castaneda, L., Cechony, A., & Swanson, T. (2016). Implications of Virtual Reality in Applied Educational Settings. Retrieved September 30, 2016, from http://foundry10.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Implications-of-Virtual-Reality-in-Applied-Educational-Settings.pdf McGrath, D., Wegner, M., & Savage, C. (2009, November 2). Student experiences of virtual reality - a case study in learning special relativity. Retrieved September 30, 2016, from https://arxiv.org/pdf/0911.0226.pdf Merry, P. (2016, September 29). Immersive Virtual Reality: Online Education for the Next Generation. Retrieved October 01, 2016, from http://www.centerdigitaled.com/blog/immersive-virtual-reality-online-education-for-the-next-generation.html What classroom strategies can contribute to or detract from "flow" ?"Game designers know that players walk away from games that are either too easy or hard. Finding that 'sweet spot; for the gamer is what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow found in Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology. Flow is a state of heightened focus and immersion one experiences while participating in activities such as art, play, and work" (Matera 2015). So this an an experience where the gamer forgets about everything else and is solely focused on the game they are playing. Matera goes on to talk a lot about creativity. "He defines flow as the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake. He says, 'When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life'" (Matera 2015). This means that creativity is a large part of experiencing flow. Creativity alone is not enough though. Berkling & Thomas (2013) discuss how humans are motivated to work on difficult tasks when there is a purpose, autonomy and some sort of mastery involved. Sillaots (2014) concludes something similar in that goals must be clear and the activities must be organized in an engaging way for participants to become immersed. To achieve flow Sillaots (2014) suggests the following:
Another argument to include games comes from Willis (2011) who is a neurobiologist. She states that "games insert players at their achievable challenge level and reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of incremental goal progress, not just final product. The fuel for this process is the pleasure experience related to the release of dopamine." When dopamine is released we experience pleasure. If you get feedback that tells you that you are correct you want to continue to experience this. "In a sequential, multilevel video game, feedback of progress is often ongoing, such as accumulating points, visual tokens, or celebratory sound effects, but the real jolt of dopamine reward is in response to the player achieving the challenge, solution, sequence, etc. needed to progress to the next and more challenging level of the game" (Willis 2011). Games can provide targeted instruction at the students' level helping them to continue to try a challenging task. One thing you need to give careful consideration to before changing your classroom to include gamification is how fast and how many changes you plan to introduce. Berkling & Thomas (2013) state that "the most important changes will be to use gamification elements without naming them explicitly and to introduce change from traditional style classroom to learning environment very slowly." It is not good to change everything at once. I am in total agreement with this because everything that I have tried to do all at once has at least partially flopped, if not fully flopped. Sources
Berkling, K., & Thomas, C. (2013). Gamification of a Software Engineering course and a detailed analysis of the factors that lead to it's failure. In 2013 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL). Retrieved September 25, 2016, from https://www.researchgate.net/ 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. Sillaots, M. (2014, October). Achieving Flow through Gamification: A study on Re-designing Research Methods Courses. 8th European Conference on Games Based Learning, 2. Retrieved September 25, 2016, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ Willis, J. (2011, April 14). A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool. Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/neurologist-makes-case-video-game-model-learning-tool Essential Question: What is the difference between Gaming and Gamification and why does it matter?First lets start with some definitions. A game is "a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck" (Davis 2014). Gamification is "'the use of game design elements in non-game contexts'" (Groh 2012). To understand gamification you first need to understand the different aspects or components of games. Games can be utilized in many contexts. For the purpose of this class I will focus on education. Davis (2012) states that powerful games for the classroom usually include the following:
Sources
Davis, V. (2014, October 13). A Guide to Game-Based Learning. Retrieved September 18, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/guide-to-game-based-learning-vicki-davis Groh, F. (2012, February 14). Gamification: State of the Art Definition and Utilization. Retrieved September 18, 2016, from https://oparu.uniulm.de/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/1800/vts_7866_11380.pdf?sequence=1#page=39 Nicholson, S. (2012, June). A User-Centered Theoretical Framework for Meaningful Gamification. Retrieved September 18, 2016, from http://www.quilageo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Framework-for-Meaningful-Gamifications.pdf |
Gamification & Open EducationCategories |