Increase Student Engagement in the Classroom Digital games and learning have a long, storied history together that spans several decades. Ever since computers were introduced into mainstream culture in the 1980s, games have been used to supplement traditional teaching methods. While the early 1980s saw Nintendo make its way to American shores, the mid to late…
What happens in the classroom when learning becomes a heroic journey? Rather than desks and chalkboards, what if students had quests and guilds? Going beyond simply swapping grades with badges and achievements, Lucas Gillispie, founder of the WoWinSchool Project, will share the journey he and other adventurous educators have begun using World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs to engage students in a playful approach to practicing reading and writing skills. Along the way student-heroes are becoming better communicators, leaders, and connecting with a global audience.
Watch Lucas’ full GSummit SF 2013 talk below! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest videos from GSummit SF 2013 as they’re released. You can also download a copy of this presentation by downloading it here.
Many would argue that there is a clear distinction between videogames and the art of gamification since the latter specifically applies game mechanics to non-game contexts. However, with a generation brought up on videogames and the need to engage these children in the classroom, the lines are becoming ever more blurred.
Traditionally, one may think of gamification in the classroom as an instance where a game was specifically designed and implemented in order to achieve learning through the application of game mechanics. This embodies the stereotypical edu-tech games like Mavis Beacon where students are taught how to type more effectively through a series of challenges. Games like Mavis Beacon apply gamification through the use of game mechanics like rewards to incentivize completion (whether by points, badges or leveling up), leaderboards to instill competition amongst other participants, and analytics to track the progress of the player as well as overall implementation success.
The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Be sure to catch our next episode next Thursday, September 26 at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature the best and brightest in engagement.
Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.
In this review, we feature Mike Skocko, a visual-arts educator at Valhalla High School in California. We had first heard of Mike through an esteemed recommendation from Adobe’s Tacy Trowbridge on Mike’s awesome gamification initiatives. Listen to Mike’s story below to learn about the questing system he adopted into his visual-art class to deliver curriculum in an interesting way.
This is a great conversation about a real-life teacher using effective game mechanics in the classroom. Watch Mike’s full interview below.
The Gamification Revolution is the only live gamification webcast featuring Gabe Zichermann and fellow gamification experts every week. Join us and have all of your gamification questions answered by these experts. Today we’ll be looking at last week’s guest: Karl Kapp, Professor/Consultant at Bloomsburg University and Gamified Learning Veteran.
Be sure to catch our next episode this Thursday, September 5th at 1PM ET/1800 GMT, where we will feature Jon Radoff, entrepreneur, author, and game/gamification designer.
Remember you can participate in the show if you sign-in and RSVP! Signing in will allow you to receive show reminders, ask questions, and even join Gabe and our guest for a live question.
In last week’s episode, Karl and Gabe went through many of the anxieties teachers have with games in the classrooms and how to address them. This is a great episode to watch if you’re an educator and are unsure about the right way to incorporate games into the classroom. Karl goes into some really top-notch insights about not only the games but the teachers themselves!
Check out the full interview in the video below:
Critics of gamified education always seem to miss some major points:
Gamified education should be advocated for its most practical reason: It’s the best method we know on how to organize learning environments to increase knowledge in both diversity and density. Gamified education is not merely an improvement from the current traditional educational model; it’s a completely new innovative way of learning.
Kaplan University teamed up with gamification platform Badgeville to test whether gaming techniques and mechanics would have an effect on the motivation levels of students in higher education. According to a Techonomy article written by David DeHaven and Susan Ferebee the initial pilot program showed very promising results.
ClassDojo, founded by Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don, has recently announced that they have received $1.6M in seed funding for their education startup. The founders set out to solve the most common problem teachers face in the classroom. After asking hundreds of teachers about their issues in the classroom, feedback suggested that teachers felt like…
Part II: Technology’s Role in a Gamified Classroom. This is the second part of an ongoing series on the role of gamification in modern education by Andrew Proto. For the first part, visit “Part I: the Unique Obstacles Teachers Face“ In every classroom across the country, the technology that we are teaching our students with…
Gamification, “the use of game play elements for non-game applications,” has taken the marketing world by storm, as companies use fun techniques to make their websites, social media, and mobile apps sticky, viral, and engaging to customers. While it’s a hot buzzword for today’s marketers, it’s hardly a new concept for teachers and trainers. In…
Part I: The Unique Obstacles Teachers Face Today’s 21st century students are not like their parents’ generation. Never before have we, as a civilization, experienced such a large generation gap — and the reason behind it is video games. Within the span of only one generation the world’s dominant form of entertainment has shifted from…
