More of the Same

This week’s focus was on reading and organizing. I had gathered a lot of articles and links in several different places and was struggling to find what I needed. I ended up spending quite a bit of time revisiting all of my different links and matching the article, blog, or video to the topic that it goes with. I also noted a brief summary of each item so that I could find what I needed more easily. Another great discovery was that the author of one of the sites that I had bookmarked had published a book about gamification called Even Ninja Monkeys like to play. I have read about a third off the book so far and am finding it very useful.  

Our Weekly Meeting

Molly and I met on Monday and discussed a few different things. Onboarding was an area that we were looking at as something that we wanted to model and also something that is useful even in non-gamified situations. If done correctly, it could help get students off to a strong start in a class. We aren’t quite sure where it belongs in the course, but it will probably go in either the elements unit or the gamification design framework unit.

The Player Journey

Another thing that came up in our meeting was the player journey. This is actually a topic that we need to cover but had forgotten about. We spent quite a bit of time at our meeting discussing where it fit. I am not sure that we decided, we just figured that we would keep it in mind as we develop our content and see what happens. The areas that we were looking at are thinking like a game designer, game design or motivation.

 

What's Next

This week I intend to keep reading and start outlining my content in Canvas (I have things on paper, but haven’t transferred them yet). I expect my content to be an iterative process as I figure out what needs to be in Canvas, what I want the students to watch on video and what articles I want them to read. Some reading will probably be required and other articles will be available depending on their interests. We won’t be meeting this Monday, because Molly is traveling, but I am hoping that this will be the week that I start having something to show for all my work.

Finally Some Progress

Things are starting to move along in the course. I have been reading every spare minute that I have and am finding some great sources. The more I read, the more inspiration I get. I have come up with several ideas for assignments that we can use in the course. Some of them apply the game concept of looping, which means that we are revisiting the assignment when we tackle a new topic. I also put together my learning outcomes for each of the units that I am developing, which give me some direction as I am doing my research.

Monday’s Meeting

Molly and I had a great meeting on Monday. We came up with the idea of organizing the readings into a “library.” Within the library the articles can be grouped or tagged by subject. Some readings will be required, and others will be supplemental depending on the interests of the student, but it should be a great compilation of literature on the topic by the time we are done. We decided that we should do the same thing for videos. We can call it the “theater.” It will also have required and supplemental content.

Assignment Ideas

One of the things that we want the student to walk away with from our course is the ability to think like a game designer. Teachers are already designers, so it shouldn’t be too difficult a task for them. One of the ways that we will help them to do this is to look more closely at games. We are planning to have a web quest/scavenger hunt as part of the module on game elements. Once they are familiar with all of the mechanics, dynamics, and components, we will send them out to play games. While they are playing, they will need to look at the elements that are being used by the game. They will need to share a picture or screen shot of the game and explain the element and how it is being used/why they think that it works. They can earn points for each element that they find. They are required to find a minimum number, but we will make it a competition, so the person with the most “wins.” Don’t know what they win yet, but we will figure that out later.

The other exciting ideas was our looping assignment. At the beginning of the course, we will have them pick a game that they enjoy, and that has some complexity to it (i.e. not Candyland). They will describe the game, what they like about it and what they think makes it fun to play. When they complete the Game Elements module, they will go back and look at the same game from a game designer’s view point. They will look at the dynamics/mechanics/components used by the designer, then analyze how these work together to make the game a good experience. After the psychology unit, they can analyze the game from that view point, and also look at the elements of the game that they may be able to use in their work. Finally, after the Gamification Design Framework module, they will look at the game from the perspective of someone who is designing their own game or gamification project. They can look at what it does well, what it doesn’t do as well, and ways that can use what they have learned in their project. I really think that by digging deeply into one game, they can really get good insight into what they are learning in the modules.

Other Random Things

There were a few other things that we talked about in our meeting that are relevant. It is very important that the student comes away with a strong understanding of what gamification is and isn’t. It is NOT adding a game (like Jeopardy) to their lesson. This is something that we will need to ensure comes across in our lessons. Gamification is the use of game elements in a non-game situation, making it a very useful and flexible tool.

We also want to make sure that the students are reflecting on what they are looking and looking for ways that they can use what they have learned. I’m not sure that we came up with the best way to do that, but it is on the list of things to be included.

We spent some time talking about the project that they will do the second half of the semester. This will be somewhat of a challenge since we feel strongly that the project should be something that the student will be able to use in their work, and the diversity of the students will ensure that there will be a large variety of projects. We threw around a few ideas. I am sure that this will start to come together as we get more of a grasp on the content.

 Plans for This Week

Now that I have learning outcomes and the drafts of assignments, I can begin putting together my modules. I am hoping to start adding content to my modules in the course site. I am still struggling with the best way to deliver the content, since we know that ultimately it will all be part of the story/game, but I guess that I will just need to bite the bullet and get something in there. We can change it later as needed to fit the storyline. 

Please Disregard Last Week’s Blog – Or “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”

Progress is an interesting thing. It is something like dancing the fox trot (I called it a cha-cha when I was explaining it to my son who is a dancer and he corrected me) – one step forward then two steps back. Last week when I started reading the book we were considering for our gamification course, I was very excited about it. The book (Gamify Your Classroom) seemed like it would be just what we needed as a framework for our course. While the book started out promising, the further into it I got the less I was able to align with what we were wanting to do. Molly came to the same conclusion in her own reading, so at our weekly meeting last Monday we decided that while the book has some great resources, we shouldn’t use it as a text for the class. Once that was decided, we were back to square one with content, and had to decide where to go from there.

Learning Objectives

One of the things that we decided to do was to formalize the learning objectives for each topic we were going to be covering. I think that we each had ideas of what should be included, but we never formally put them into writing and we felt that would give us a little more direction and structure. I have been working this week on creating learning objectives for the portion of the course that I am developing. This includes the language of games, game elements, uses for gamification, gamification design framework, and tools for gamification.  I have been taking notes on these subjects and have begun to formulate my objectives, but they are not quite ready to be written about in this blog. Hopefully that will be the focus of next week’s post.

General Brainstorming

We did have some fun at our meeting brainstorming things that we can do to make the course feel more like a game. We had the idea of having an NPC (non-playing character) introduce the topic that the student would be learning about in any given village by giving them quests. Upon completion of their quests they could get some kind of clue that would help them to advance to the next area.

Another thing that we talked about was that to be able to create a gamified course, it is important that you understand games and how they work. Reading about games is all well and good, but to really understand games you need to play them. I doubt too many people will complain that we will be assigning games as homework. I am in the process of developing a “game scavenger hunt,” where the students will demonstrate their understanding of game elements by finding them in games that they play. They will document these elements using screen capture or pictures and explain the element and how it was used. This should be a really fun assignment.

We also talked about wanting to create some games for the course, which might require the use of JavaScript. Unfortunately, JavaScript doesn’t work in Canvas so we will need to link to an outside site if we are going to do that.

Also, in keeping with the game theme of allowing the player to choose the path that they follow, there will be 3 tracks in our course. One will look at gamification in the K12 classroom, another will look at gamification in higher ed, and a third will look at gamification in business.

The final project in the course will be the boss battle and will happen as the final quest in the game. This will be the focus of the second half of the semester and will be dependent upon the goals of the student. It will give them a chance to use everything that they have learned.

This past Monday’s meeting was a wonderful brainstorming session and lots of ideas were thrown around. I have listed just a few of them. I am currently in the process of researching and further brainstorming, and will be spending a lot of my weekend doing just that. Things are starting to get exciting, and hopefully things will start to come together. I am optimistic that we are finally on a path that will lead us to what the course needs to be. Let the games begin….

Digging Deeper in the Textbook

This week was spent digging in the Gamify your Classroom book. I had read through the first two chapters over Christmas break, so I started with Chapter 3 and have made it to Chapter 9 of 13 so far. As I have been reading, I have been taking notes on each chapter and trying to figure out where it will fit in to our planned course content. For this week’s blog, I thought I would discuss the highlights of each of the chapters that I read, my thoughts on how it will support what we are trying to teach, and any ideas that I had about “quests” we can have the students do based on the reading (Note: I didn’t necessarily have assignment ideas for each chapter at this point, but for some I did). I hope to finish reading the rest of the book this weekend, so depending on how my meeting with Molly goes this Monday I may finish this analysis of the chapters up next week (or I may be talking about something completely different – that is one of the joys of working with Molly)

 Chapter 3: Who Plays Games and Why

This chapter discussed Bartle’s Player Types and how they are used by game designers. It looked at rewards and motivation (both intrinsic and extrinsic), as well as the flow channel. It also looked at how the different types of fun could lead to engagement (the different types of fun are hard fun, easy fun, altered states, and the people factor). This chapter should fit quite nicely into Molly’s section on types of fun. There is a Bartle’s Player Type quiz that the students could take, and they could also test out a game called Darfur is Dying, which the book discusses.

Bartle's Player Types

 Chapter 4:  Iterative Design

The author basically states that in his opinion, teaching is designing, and that it is possible to use what you know as a teacher to implement games as a form of teaching in the classroom. Paper prototyping is explained, as is prototyping with interactive fiction. He also discusses play testing and using students as co-designers. He also discusses the importance of doing a post mortem with your students after you have tried out a new game or gamified unit. This chapter will tie in with the unit on gamification design framework/tools for gamification. I didn’t have any specific ideas for assignments, but this chapter lists quite a few authoring tools that are available, so having the students test drive one of those might be fun.

 Playtesting Image

Chapter 5: Play Based Learning

This chapter was all about play as a method for learning. It discussed Montessori, Piaget, and the Zone of Proximal Development. This chapter spent a lot of time talking about digital toys, and more specifically sandbox games like The Sims, or Minecraft. It also discussed the Playmaker School which uses open learning, but not structured games as a teaching method. Chapter 5 could be used with the unit on types of games, or the unit on uses for gamification. We will need to see which one it ends up fitting in with. Having the students try out a sandbox game or look into ways that schools are using them could be a potential assignment.

Chapter 6: Learning in Cooperative Mode

This was a great chapter on cooperative learning. There was an interview with Lee Sheldon who is a pioneer in the gamified classroom. He explains how to use narrative to drive learning and gives examples. The chapter also introduces a way to build civilization as a class with a game called Historia. There were several other examples as well. The main point of this chapter is that cooperative learning is basically a game. I found this chapter to be very interesting, but couldn’t really match it specifically to any of the units that we have designated for our course.

Historia

Chapter 7: Gamification and Quest Based Learning

This chapter contains a definition of gamification and gives examples of gamified experiences. It introduces the gamification mechanics of leaderboards, badges, modding, avatars, in-game economies, game geography, Easter eggs. It also stresses that gamification should be a tool for learning, not tacked on as an after-thought. The second part of this chapter looks at quest based learning and project based learning and discusses the Quest to Learn school. The player journey (see image), and Amy Jo Kim’s Social Action matrix were also discussed. This chapter will tie in quite nicely with our unit on game elements. A few ideas for assignments might be some kind of learning quest (although that is basically what the first half of the course is going to be), or analyzing how a game that they play uses different game elements and the player journey.

Chapter 8: Personalized Learning

Games are a great way to personalize learning, and proposes that the current system of organizing schools grouped by the age of the children is lazy and ineffective. A lot of time in this chapter is spent on badges, why they work, and different ways to use them. The author also talks about how badges can show progression and growth in education as the student “levels up.” Another exciting area that was discussed was adaptive assessments. There is research into ways that video games can be used as assessment tools since they are so good at collecting data. The concept of stealth assessments was introduced. It explained the concept of dynamic difficulty adjustment where the challenges adjust as a student progresses through the lesson. This chapter will tie in quite nicely to our unit on tools for gamification. One assignment idea that I had was to have the student design a badge.

In Conclusion

I didn’t get a chance to finish chapters 9-13. Reading through this book has taken me longer than it usually would because I am trying to take notes and explore ideas that it presents. One of the great things about the book is that it includes lesson plan ideas, games, and resources at the end of each chapter. If I am anywhere near my computer when I finish a chapter, I have spent time on-line examining the resources. I am quite excited about everything that I have been learning and I am looking forward to using what I have learned in the development of our course content. Molly and I plan to meet again on Monday. I believe that she was re-reading the textbook as well, so we will compare notes and see where we need to go next.

Picture Sources

Caron, F. (n.d.). My Take on Bartle's Types. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://frankcaron.com/Flogger/2011-07-23.html

Glover, I., & Latif, F. (2013, September 13). Open Badges in Higher Education - Perception and Potential. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/IanGlover2/open-badges-in-higher-education-al-tc

Kim, A. J. (2014, February 28). Beyond Player Types: Kim's Social Action Matrix - Amy Jo Kim. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://amyjokim.com/blog/2014/02/28/beyond-player-types-kims-social-action-matrix/

Kim, A. J. (2014, June 09). The Player's Journey: Drive sustained engagement with Onboarding, Hab... Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/amyjokim/the-players-journey-drive-sustained-engagement-with-onboarding-habitbuilding-and-mastery

Kirjavainen, A. (2013, February 22). How to Design and Playtest Your Games? (version 2.0). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from https://learninggamedev.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/how-to-design-and-playtest-your-games-version-2-0/

ODonnell, L. (2014, February 02). Multi-School MinecraftEDU Server Launches! Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.gamingedus.org/2014/02/multi-school-minecraftedu-server-launches/

SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.playfully.org/games/SC

W, Z. B. (2015, February 28). Historia – The Mythical Mobile Board Game ‘Soft-Launched’ on Google Play. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://justsaying.asia/historia-soft-launch-google-play/