Gaming and gamification all deal with bringing the positive aspect of games into teaching. So, if you take a step back and really take some liberties life is a big game. I mean I know we have all heard the antidote but, for real it is. After listening to the ted talks and the edutopia clips, I can see that I already do incorporate gaming into my methods for teaching. I have never called it that but that is what it is.
As far as actual games that I play in my class, I will play Kahoot (really all of it’s different versions) and we have a couple of Jeopardy game kits at my school. I also play online Jeopardy with different stories that we read. I try and use the reward of game playing in my classroom management. Actually, now that I think about it I use Class Dojo and that is a kind of gamification. Thinking back to my childhood I have always kind of had game or gamification incorporated into my life. I was in boy scouts, and I now am a cub scout leader. The whole scout reward system is based off of games. I mean you earn badges for different things you do and you also level up or receive a higher rank. Haha This has led me to think about how I am going to conduct my classes next year. So I have toyed (haha pun intended) with the idea of incorporating a more different model for my grading and homework. I was talking with a colleague that is actually retiring this year and he has an awesome approach to having the kids really buy into their own learning. He explains it like a job and money. And working overtime is like homework, so he gives the base grade of a C and when you do better than a C you of course earn extra just like if you work harder and you get opportunities to advance in the company. I was thinking about changing this a little and creating a game out of it. I like the idea of badges and levels (ranks). In order to fully earn top credit you need to do xy and z. I am still working on details but this is how I want to do it. Also, I think back about different things like I could earn certain achievements by reading or doing some sort of work and I think that setting up learning like that would be a positive change in the right direction.
6 Comments
Jennifer Wade
5/7/2017 07:28:24 am
I like where you took this topic. And from the tech guy no less! The earning of badges or money (stickers for my grade level), seems like a way we have always been doing this; earning outcomes, positive reinforcements, a little healthy competition. These are all great motivators. I have some of the standards posted in my window and when a student masters that standard their name goes up above it . Parents can see whether their child is needing support and I must confess, I do this to create a little competition among the parents too. Some buy in and make it a point to get their child's name up. I never saw this as a gaming technique, but now that I have read you blog, I may see it differently. I am just starting to set up my Dojo class. I hear great things and I think what I will like the most is that it seems to have several utilities. Do more than one thing for me and I'm in. Thank you for the read and helping me to see gaming in broader terms.
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Todd
5/7/2017 08:31:34 pm
Adam,
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Diane
5/8/2017 06:52:59 pm
I like how you presented your topic on gamification. I can connect with earning badges in a scout club. I was in a coed club called "pathfinders" I earned the badges similar to girl scouts when I was young.
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Zack
5/8/2017 09:19:14 pm
Adam, I like how you bring up the existence of gamification in your childhood through the boy scouts. That is a great example of how earning badges (and of course showing them off), is motivating. The strongest scout would have the most badges, and the younger boys would dream of the day with their sash was so full. It provides incentive and a hierarchy, that in themselves have no value to anyone outside that game, but within they are priceless.
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Kelley S. Miller
5/8/2017 09:30:00 pm
Adam, your blog brings two thoughts to my mind. First, what's an ELA teacher to do? And second, aren't grades a kind of game already?
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Joseph Hall
5/9/2017 06:43:48 pm
I love your analogy of game based learning with boy scouts. I think both have completely different learning outcomes: one being to master something electronically and the other to master something (mother) naturally.
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Adam Vedomske father of Danger Archives
May 2017
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