By Isaura Ramírez When I think of the word “game” several thoughts come into my head: fun, run, dirt, scratches, UNO game, laugh, and share. They’re special reminders to me of what a fun childhood or even adult life away from electronic devices should be. Nowadays, fun often involves tablets, cell phones, Wii, Minecraft . . . . you name it. And it’s not a bad thing to enjoy these devices. It’s okay to take the best of technology and bring out the best in someone, or to achieve a specific objective or result. Indeed, it’s our job to take advantage of these new technologies and, as teachers, transform these gaming concepts from a face-to-face environment into a virtual one. And more importantly, use gaming concepts to teach vital cultural and life lessons. So in my search for how gaming or gamification has been used for teaching complex ideas in learning environments, I stumbled upon this story by game designer Brenda Romero, where she tackles the theme of slavery and demonstrates the impact it has on kids. In her TED talk, she utilizes the process of storytelling in helping the player understand the deeper and more profound aspects of this difficult topic. Several thoughts come into my head after watching this video, but the three most important are:
All of us know that the correct use of gamification determines the success or failure of a learning strategy. In Romero’s case, she is an expert and was dealing with her daughter, so her motive was more personal. But this makes the strategy far more effective and the main idea even more attention-grabbing. I am pretty certain Romero’s daughter will never forget this wonderful story-game her mother created, and will grow up to teach others in the same way.
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By Lisa Fish Gamification has always been a fuzzy concept to me at best, and a potential teacher nightmare at worse. Too many things could go wrong if done incorrectly and it just scared me off. To clarify what gamification is and get over my angst, I turned to Chris Haskell and Rezzly for part two (see Blowing Up the Gradebook for part one) on how to incorporate gaming principles into the classroom successfully. But first, what is Rezzly? Formerly called 3D GameLab, Rezzly is a gamified content creation platform where teachers can design quests and badges to create personalized learning for their students. Haskell gives an overview in his video: Looks pretty flashy, but what does it all mean? Dr. Haskell first makes the case that in the Information Age there are multiple ways to accomplish tasks and receive credit for those tasks. We must change our thinking first and foremost. Gone are the old ways of tracking student progress with pen and paper. Next, time-based delivery is starting to be a thing of the past. Alternative ways of pacing are now coming into play. With Rezzly, learning is built more around a continuum and takes into consideration how much a student already knows. If a student can move through curriculum quickly and accomplish 30 modules in one semester versus 10, then they may do so. It’s all about providing a variety of learning experiences and giving students meaningful choices. For example, a teacher can provide 80 activities for a math topic and require a student to pick 20 that appeal to them. Here is a screenshot of Rezzly’s dashboard that displays a pool of interesting activities from which a student can choose. Again, this reinforces the idea that multiple paths lead to learning. And the beauty of this system is that open resources can be pulled from all over the web and shared between users. There are a number of vital components shown here: the activity title, point values, resources, student’s ratings (effective feedback!), average time of completion, badges earned, comments, and other important communications found in a LMS. And as explained on Rezzly’s website: “As students complete each quest, they can level up to new assignments on their journey toward an “A.” Teachers have the ability to approve quests or put them on auto-approval so students can keep progressing while waiting for their teacher’s feedback on milestone work.” The important thing to note here is that students can redo the assignment for higher points. They are not penalized for what they do not know, but instead may expand their own schema and improve their work as they progress through the activity bank. Check out this student’s perspective of quest-based learning: One of the cool features of this platform is the ability to grant badges, achievements and awards for quests completed. And the badges can link directly to the Mozilla digital backpack system for handy storage. Teachers also have the option of unlocking extended features when certain levels have been reached, as well as granting virtual and in-class prizes for certain badges. For example, homework passes, ice cream coupons, donated gifts or special privileges can all be used to increase motivation. It may be a lofty conclusion to make, but I will venture to say Rezzly shows us the future of learning. It’s certainly a fun way to learn, in any case. Click here for Lisa Dawley’s most excellent Prezi about Rezzly and jump over to the resources page for her whitepapers on quest-based design. By Lisa Fish Chris Haskell, professor of EdTech at Boise State University, has a unique idea: let’s do away with grades in school altogether and replace them with achievements, points and badges. His idea is to swap out our traditional method of grading and replace it with something closer to leveling up in the game world, which he says is driven by intrinsic motivation and far more representative of the true quality of our work. Making a game of the gradebook? Gasp! Some would say this is absurd. But the idea is quickly becoming popular in educational circles. Haskell makes a strong case in his TedX talk that our Industrial Age model of education is based on an outdated sorting system which seeks to rake out the diamonds (good students) and bury the rest. Basically we “rate the product: A, B, C, D, F. . . F goes to the dog food, and the A goes to the top. We’re sorting by quality.” And certainly, for a time, this worked well for those who were not born into wealth. School was a vehicle for bettering oneself in life and moving out of poverty. But schools need to reflect the society they currently serve. The Industrial Age model is giving way to a new Information Age model, and this requires a set of skills for global citizenship. A global citizen must understand:
How can school accomplish this? Haskell emphasizes that games will be a key player in this new educational landscape. Games are a powerful for many reasons, he says. One is that they are not mandatory—no one is required to play them. We play them for fun, for growth, interaction, rewards and socialization. It’s a free and open field of exploration. With game elements in mind, Dr. Haskell suggests these classroom rules: No homework, no due dates, students have choice, we let them play through a curriculum, and as teachers, we just do a better job at tracking the learning that’s taking place. Sound crazy? Apparently not. Dr. Haskell and the faculty at Boise State University set up a class which awarded experience points for accomplished tasks and allowed ample room for failure. Indeed, failure is a highly valued commodity in the game world, because that’s how you win. Why can’t this apply to learning as well? Multiple paths were created through the curriculum, not just one “winning condition.” Badges, leaderboards, rewards and experience points were set up to take students on a journey through the multiple teacher-designed tasks, or “quests.” The system that formally punished students with Cs, Ds, and Fs was now a fun, interactive way to complete assignments in a more individual format.
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