Our Top Stories of Gamifiying Education in 2013
When it comes to gamification, no community can match the level of excitement, engagement, and dedication to the concept as much as our education readers do.
To wrap up our first week of the best gamification stories of 2013, we’d like to present 5 stories ranging from the emergence of World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and zombies in schools to increased US government spending on educational game initiatives. It’s a good (read: fun) time to be an educator for 2014.
Gamifying the Classroom with World of Classcraft
We’ve heard of Lucas Gillispe using World of Warcraft in school and it was a huge hit. It’s no surprise that someone decided to take this concept even further and just “MMORPGify” class into a gamelike system. Read on about Classcraft, a role-playing game for teachers and students to play together in the classroom
What Critics Don’t Understand About Gamified Education
Some people just hate the idea of gamification no matter what. Old ways die hard. But at least in education, critics should take the time to understand that it’s not just about making learning more fun – it provides perspective, increased engagement, and new technologies/methods of making learning more effective overall.
MinecraftEdu: Now Teaching in Over 1000 Schools
Educators are rapidly embracing Minecraft and educator Joel Levin is leading the charge with MinecraftEdu. This version of the global gaming phenomenon has been developed specifically for game based learning and is actively in use in 1000+ schools.
How to Teach and Engage Students… with Zombies
David Hunter is a Washington-based educator dedicated to combining zombies and geography into one cohesive and fun curriculum titled “Zombie-Based Learning: Geography Lessons Set in a Zombie Apocalypse”
U.S. Dept of Ed Investing Big Money into Educational Game Development
This past May, the Institute of Education Sciences announced the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award winners, a competition for edtech companies to develop or continue to develop products for educational implementation. Out of the 200 some proposals, 20 companies received grants from the SBIR. What’s notable, however, is that 12 of the winners were game-related companies, nine of which received $900K – $1M in funding.
And that wraps up our top education content for 2013! Check back next week for our Best of 2013 series with our top posts in Op-eds and staff pieces.
Cover Image by “lapolab”
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gamification w edukacji