Gamification has to do with the learning that comes from playing the game. In Edutopia’s video “Katie Salen on the Power of Game-Based Learning (Big Thinkers Series)” focused on the school Quest to Learn: School for Digital Kids. This school believes that design-thinking is a meaningful way to look at the world, and wants students to be in charge of their own learning so that they can stay motivated to learn throughout their entire lives. This school acknowledges that students learn in different ways, and they look at how students learn outside of school. They have developed a pedagogical approach to game-based learning. The students are presented with a complex problem to solve. Mission and quest-based-quests get harder as students develop the knowledge and experience to reach the next level. This video supported the statement that game design can help students think deeper and more abstractly. This gave a clear picture into gaming and game-based learning being used effectively.
In Edutopia’s article, “3 Ways to Use Game-Based Learning” I read that in effective game-based classrooms students are provided with, “gameful learning experiences driven by play.” Games could be shared experiences. For example students can build in Minecraft, and then have a meaningful conversation about the difficulties of building Jamestown and setting up a colony. One crucial point of this article is that the game is not the teacher; the game is just an activity. Edutopia’s article, “A Game-Based Approach to Test Prep” by Pete Barnes discusses the powerful impact that using games for test prep can have for students. Barnes states that giving students choice about where to start and how to complete the tasks empowers them in the process. To make this happen, Barnes created an online scavenger hunt with optional links. When students are motivated by a game, they rarely rush through just to finish. Instead, they are motivated to correctly answer the questions. I have seen this firsthand with using Prodigy in my classroom. My objectives are for students to increase student performance in mathematics and collaboration through this game. This Common Core-aligned math game motivates students to correctly answer questions by entering into battles they win through correctly completing math problems. There is embedded help through clicking a question mark that will guide students to completing the problem correctly. This site also provides beneficial feedback to the teacher on each individual student in relation to Common Core math standards. Another game-based learning tool I have used is Quizlet. My objectives are to increase student performance in Language Arts and vocabulary. This is a program I learned about through class. This program creates games, flashcards, etc. in order to help students review material before an assessment. I have used paper flashcards and white-board review for vocabulary in the past. When I implemented Quizlet this year, I saw an increase in student motivation and in test scores. Another powerful tool I have learned about in class is Google’s Be Internet Awesome. This awesome interactive game helped solve my problem of teaching effective Digital Citizenship in the classroom. My students love using code.org and have participated in the national Hour of Code. My objectives are to get students involved in design thinking and in problem solving.They love getting to choose which game to build, especially with popular options like Star Wars and Minecraft. They also are motivated by the videos from popular celebrities and athletes endorsing using coding. After reviewing different gamification and game-based learning tools this week, I also want to try out Seterra, WriQ, No Red Ink, and Kahoot. In the Handbook of Games and Simulations in Teacher Education I learned that, “…games and simulations can effectively engage students in direct experience with casual mechanisms and structures of systems, and through experiment and discover, assist them in acquiring higher order knowledge and skills.” Gaming is so much more than sitting in front of a computer screen. It is a way to have student use design thinking to solve complex problems and engage in critical thinking skills through a method that is engaging, fun, and motivating. In Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk she states that games make us motivated to do something that matters, collaborate, and apply persistence in order to achieve. McGonigal wants these principles to apply to real-life. She talks about how a quest in a game is given at a level the player can achieve. It may be difficult, but it is possible. There are many collaborators along the way to help, and gamers get feedback and rewards. These are motivating factors for success we want to see happen in real-life. A statistic from Carnegie Mellon University stated that the average gamer will have spent 10,000 hours playing online games by the time they are 21 years old. This is an interesting statistic because 10,080 hours is the same amount of time spent in school from grade 5 to grade 12. It makes sense that we need to start integrating gaming into education. McGonigal says there are four things that gamers are “getting good at.” They are:
McGonigal states that these four components create people who feel they are super-empowered, hopeful individuals. The goal is to bring these strengths from the virtual world to the real world. McGonigal has created games that have real world problems and challenges. She encourages gamers to imagine the best case scenario for our future, while giving them the means to make epic wins. Bringing people together to help solve real-world problems is going to be a powerful part of our future.
5 Comments
Scott Marsden
4/28/2019 05:21:52 pm
Jennifer,
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Jona Sandau
4/28/2019 08:57:17 pm
Jennifer, your blog got me interested in an article on Edutopia that I did not click on (there are so many to try). I think I will go back and read “3 Ways to Use Game-Based Learning” to find out more about gamifying my classroom! The nuggets you shared about all the resources were great. Your take-aways resonated with me and also expanded my understanding as well. That is what I love about the blogging aspect of this class--we are all learning from each other. Thank you!
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Jennifer Perkins
4/29/2019 08:05:44 pm
HI Scott, that is great to hear about Quizizz having a flashcard option! I will look into that. Additionally, I want to also use Seterra, WriQ, No Red Ink, and Kahoot. I was the most excited this week about Seterra and WriQ. Seterra looks like such an engaging way to teach geography! WriQ provides an effective and efficient way to provide feedback to each student in the area of writing. I like the score summary feature that is posted on the top of each student's paper. It seems seamless how you can post the score summary on an individual paper, and then return to your dashboard to see all of the student scores in one spot.
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4/29/2019 11:17:24 pm
Hi Jen
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Catalina Goldstein
4/30/2019 09:12:34 am
Code.org is really exciting to me. I'd be really interested to watch you or someone model a lesson. I didn't realize there were so many resources available through the website. Scott mentioned they even do trainings!
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