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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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. 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. 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. 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. Gerald commented on my blog about other researchers adding more categories to Bartle's. I think this would definitely help with more accuracy on getting the right gamer type and it being a good description. More categories break it down even more.
Aleta commented on my blog about giving a gaming type quiz and more of a personality quiz to see the comparison. I think this would be great if only I had more hours to analyze the results. I feel like I would never have enough time to look at the results and figure out how I wanted to use the information. Ali talked about how she didn't agree with her results. I find this interesting becasue I took 3 gaming quizzes and got the same results on all 3. Kiang had a great description of what each meant outside of the gaming world as well as in the gaming world. I agreed with his description of achiever for outside the gaming world but I don't know about in it. I don't really play any games because I don't have time. I only have one one my phone. It is a puzzle game and usually this is my preference. I like to play alone becasue that is when I have the free time. I wonder if my game type would really fit in the gaming world? It is hard to tell at this point. I guess I need to play more games. I am in total agreement with Mariah. I did the same thing she did with taking multiple quizzes. She talked about the difficulty she had in answering some questions. I found the same to be true. There were some quiz questions I just picked an answer because I wasn't sure. I guess that is why there are so many questions so that a few questions you don't know probably don't really matter. I liked how at the end she summed it up with the fact that people learn differently. I think that is really what this week was all about. Differentiation would be the educational term for it and she is right that it is not new. It is just a different way of thinking about differentiation through gaming. This week I was reminded to ask myself why I am teaching something. Kids today have grown up with way more curiosity and we must be able to tell them why we are doing something. Both Anthony and Gerald commented about this on my blog. I know some things might seem useless if you aren't passionate about it, but how would we know what we like and don't like if we weren't exposed to it? This is a tough line as to when enough is enough for some subjects. Theresa commented about the screen time that kids today are exposed to. It just makes sense that they would process things differently. They are used to a lot of stimulation and multi-tasking. They seek challenges and sometimes school does not provide what they need.
Ali talked about how certain types of games are only intriguing to certain types of people. Even though it makes total sense it is not something I would've given thought to. It is definitely something to consider when I go to make a gamified plan for my classroom. I will have to really think about the components I use. Ali also had a great table that showed the different components of games that could be added. This will be very helpful to me because I am not a serious gamer. I enjoy playing any type of game when time permits but I rarely have time. I will really have to weave as many components as possible so all students are engaged. I really like the way Aleta laid out her blog post with the 3 claims. I believe all are true. The first claim is the claim that I latched on to right away in that our students now have not learned in the same way we have outside of school. Things are different. She points out dial up internet and when cell phones first came out. I remember all of this happening as a kid. If I look at how much things have changed over my lifetime I can see huge differences and I am only 27. I remember getting a computer and when cell phones first came out. Now we have smartphones with so much capability to connect us to others. These kids are just different and that is not a bad things. In the second claim Aleta mentions that students feel challenged and inspired by games. I think this is at the heart of gamification. They get in the "flow" and that is a place where they can really learn. The last claim she mentions I believe has always been true but we aren't always good at it. We must be flexible. There is not use in getting upset at things we cannot change and in the bush I have found this to be even more true. For example, planes come when they come and we live with that. Unfortunately my post this week was a day late. Cross country is officially over when I return tomorrow night. I'm happy for myself that it is over but I know my athletes already miss it and are talking about next season.
Anthony talked about Nearpod VR, and I was super glad he did. Our school district is piloting Nearpod, with hopes of maybe using it in the district in the future. I am a lucky teacher who gets to pilot it. I used to pay for it but then stopped, for no reason in particular. Thanks to Anthony I will now be able to try Nearpod VR when my pair of Cardboard arrives. I think Anthony is right that VR can be huge in establishing flow in the classroom. Students become immersed in a virtual world. I just need to test it out myself first so that I can figure out a way to best implement it in my classroom. Larissa posted a list of ideas to help with flow in the classroom. Even though she did not directly talk about VR in her post I can see how her ideas would help a teacher successfully implement VR in the classroom. She talks a lot about helping students leading their learning. This contributes to a student-centered learning environment which I have learned so much about in all of my classes. I firmly believe the more student-centered a class is the more engagement you can get from students. I am currently working towards providing as much teacher-centered learning as possible. She give a few suggestions to help achieve flow such as goal setting meetings with students and closing circles. Both these would help students to learn at their own pace and share their learning with others. |
Gamification & Open EducationCategories |