This is the final reflection from my class, Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning.
How did having choices about which lessons to participate in, and in what order, impact your learning experience in this MOOC?
When I first started looking into gamification, I took a quiz to find out “What Type of Gamer Are You?” It was no surprise to me to see that I was an “achiever.” These types of gamers loved to “catch ‘em all.” I am the type of person who wants to do well at everything (hence the reason that I took this MOOC on my own terms, as well as why I put a lot of thought into my answers). I also want to collect as many achievements as possible.
Because of this, I greatly enjoy the way that this MOOC is structured. I know that I can focus on particular parts of it to obtain an overall understanding of gameful learning, but I chose to complete each and every module. This way I know that I was able to delve into each and every bit of knowledge that is shared in the MOOC, helping me to fulfill my “achiever” tendencies.
What do you want your school/context to look like in 1 year? 3 years? 5 years? What are the barriers you foresee impeding progress to those milestones? How are you planning to mitigate those barriers?
The teachers in my building/district are of the same mind when it comes to what truly matters; we want our students to be productive members of our global society. In order to do this, many students need motivation. My district has been moving to grades based on summative assessments instead of based on formative assessments. We are also moving to standards-based grading.
I see us continuing to move toward these goals, but I know that introducing gameful learning can help us reach beyond those goals. Because gameful learning provides choice, students will be intrinsically motivated more often. With more motivation, they will be willing to complete more practice (formative assessments), which in turn will help them master the skills that we use summative assessments to measure.
The first barrier that I have already experienced has been our grading system. Our grading system is based on the A through F model, which does not meld well with the 4-point grading scale. Our district has been moving to remedy this by finding ways to put the 4-point grading scale into our existing system. The district also discourages giving students zeros and instead encourages pushing and motivating students to complete their work. In our district, 60% and above is passing, which is different from other districts. I’m not sure exactly how this motivates students, but a lower passing score does stop low grades from de-motivating some students.
Other barriers include teachers not willing to change their ways, parents not completely understanding the changes, and students resisting the changes. These can all be remedied with some professional development and the dissemination of information to each group to help them understand why we are making changes.
In addition, if I simply share out what is occurring in my classroom and show that students are motivated to succeed, I can prove the worth of gameful learning. Of course, everything isn’t hunky dory every day and there are times when students aren’t motivated, but I have noticed a connection. When the activities in my classroom devolve to traditional teaching methods, student motivation takes a dive. When I focus on gameful activities, motivation increases incredibly. Showing the difference to stakeholders can be all that I need to convince them that gameful learning makes a positive difference.
I can also share my journey with stakeholders. By showing them how I have set up gameful learning modules and activities, as well as how I find ways to motivate students, can also be helpful to persuade them that gameful learning is valuable.
What are the “bright spots,” i.e. learning experiences in your context that have already been designed to support learners’ intrinsic motivation? How can you build off of those bright spots?
I have found that games and simulations are a great way to increase motivation. Even when students don’t earn something outright (no points, no grade, no treats, just having fun), they are motivated when we play games or role-play in simulations.
In my gamified classes, I award experience points (XP) for positive behavior. Sometimes when we play games, I will award XP, but not every time. Here is an example activity in which I awarded points, though randomly:
I was teaching WWII. In general, I focus on the big picture and what we can learn from the past when teaching history. It is important to cover specific information such as battles (including who won, when they took place, and who was involved), but the most important part is understanding why each battle was significant and how it led to a long-term impact. I don’t force my students to memorize information such as the specific date of certain battles, as long as they understand an overall chronology of history.
For our WWII battle activity, I put together a “WWII Battle Stations” activity. I chose 13 battles (5 in the European theater and 8 in the Pacific theater) and put together a graphic organizer that required students to find the date, victor, and significance of each battle listed in the chart. I posted a short one-page reading about each battle around the room so students would get up and moving.
After reading about one battle and filling in the row in the chart, the students were to come to me and have me check for accuracy. If their information was accurate, the student was allowed to choose a card.
The cards were another element that I added in to increase motivation. I put together cards that either had positive effects (You have found some penicillin. This can help heal you.) or negative effects (You have run out of food. If you do not find SPAM by the end of the next battle, you die of starvation.) This made the information scavenger hunt into more of a game; after each battle, students chose a card. Some cards required students to roll a die to see if they lived, died, became sick, or deserted.
I added another mystery element by awarding a certain amount of XP to each student based on which cards they held. For example, one card was worth 10 XP, another was worth 100, and one very rare card was worth 500 XP.
Creating this activity was an example of building off of prior successes; I created a Civil War game just like this last year. Including the cards into the activity motivated students to complete the activity in just one class period instead of stretching it out over three days, which is how long it took before I introduced the cards.
I have also created other simulations and games that have captured my students’ interests and kept them motivated during class.
In general, I want my classes to be the classes that I would have wanted to be in while I was in school!
If you are a classroom instructor, what are going to be (or have been) your first forays into gameful curricula?
I have included gamification in my classes for the past two years. I first learned about gamification at a Social Studies conference. Michael Matera, a world history teacher himself, presented about how to increase motivation in the classroom by including game elements. I was hooked right away!
Since then, I have been using Classcraft to keep track of my students’ XP, HP, AP, and GP. They can also log in and train their pets, buy equipment, and use their powers.
Just including a system where students can “level up” has greatly increased motivation, but I have continued to add more game elements to almost each day to help increase motivation even more.
I have earned my certificate!
I successfully completed the course, "Leading Change: Go Beyond Gamification with Gameful Learning" on edX.
It was a lot of work but I learned so much!
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