Posts

Week 11

Essential Question: Why Games in Education? The first time we were asked this question, I ended my blog by saying it boils down to motivation. After eleven weeks of research, I still stand by that statement. According to Michael Matera, “Gamification and game-based learning have the power to amplify what happens in your class” (2015, p. 4). Gamification can take a normal and - dare I say it - boring experience and turn it into something fun and exciting. Games teach students to push through failure and encourage them to be resilient. As I have said numerous times before, teaching our students to have a growth mindset is at the core of good education. Games are an easy way to foster this way of thinking because the stakes tend to be relatively low and students are more willing to put themselves out there. Games in the classroom promote 21st century skills. Gamification allows us to “create opportunities for students to explore, practice, and embody skills like confidence, focus, r...
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Week 10

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Essential Question: How do you currently infuse play into your class? How might you change this as a result of some of the ideas you’ve encountered? Teaching in a high school science classroom lends itself to experimentation and play. I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts that an article written by Ashley Deese states that Dmitri Mendeleev was using gamification, before it had a name, to create the periodic table way back in 1869. She periodic table analogy lesson I introduce my students to the periodic table with is actually one of the gamified lessons that popped into my head first when I started thinking about answering this question. I provide my students with rectangular puzzle pieces (seen below) and they have to work as a team to find the patterns and develop a periodic table with patterns for each property and then use the created periodic table to predict the missing “element”. It is always one of my favorite lessons because they must use a growth mindset to figh...
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Week 9

Essential Question: What are the elements of story and game mechanics? Which might be useful in your class and how might you use them? Michael Matera explains each of the following game mechanics in chapter seven of Explore life a Pirate (2015, pp. 81-138): Experience points Levels Leaderboards Guilds Onboarding Achievement Power Ups Quests Items Skills Currency Cascading Information Theory Micro-Challenges and Mini-Games Life Jackets Player vs Player (PvP) Communal Discovery Time Events Punishment Easter Eggs Trade Farming Special Challenge After reading this book and understanding how Matera employs gamification in his classroom, I could see how each of these game mechanics could be useful in my classroom. However, the idea of using all of these right away is overwhelming. With that being said, Matera notes at the beginning of the chapter that this is an extensive list so we have options and ideas as teachers, but it is likely that our gamified courses wil...
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Week 8

Essential Question: How do you or might you use language to change the way your students think about learning in the classroom? In chapter 4, Matera discusses the need to change the language of learning. By gamifiying his classroom, he was able to change learning from a process to earn grades to instead be about discovery and growth. Learning is the outcome, not just to get a grade, but learning for the sake of learning and advancing. Matera compared it to “climbing a mountain; there are many paths to the peak” (2015, p. 42). As a teacher, it is important that I structure my class in a way to help students see that, but it will require a shift in thinking and language. Adam Moreno came up with these ten words that successful people have in common: confidence, creativity, enthusiasm, effort, focus, resilience, initiative, curiosity, dependability, and empathy. These words can be used to define Purpose-Driven Learning. “With Purpose-Driven Learning as our primary language, thoughtfu...
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Week 7

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Essential Question: What is the implication of player type on game design? There are four player types according to the Bartle Test, which was originally designed for MMOs, or Massive Multiplayer Online games. Bartle’s theory “offers insights into gamers’ likes, dislikes, and motivations” (Matera, 2015, p. 54). The four key groups of gamer personalities are achievers, socializers, explorers, and killers. According to Richard Bartle (n.d.), the personalities to be expected for each type of player are as follows: Achievers are interested in doing things to the game, ie. in ACTING on the WORLD. Achievers are proud of their formal status in the game's built-in level hierarchy. Explorers are interested in having the game surprise them, ie. in INTERACTING with the WORLD. Explorers are proud of their knowledge of the game's finer points, especially if new players treat them as founts of all knowledge. Socialisers are interested in INTERACTING with other PLAYERS. Socialisers ...
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Week 6

Essential Question: What research can support or refute Michael Matera’s claims? In chapter two of Matera's book, Explore like a Pirate (2015), he dispels the myths about gamification and in doing so makes claims about why gamification is so great.  He states that "games are filled with motivation and complexity that can be used to shed light on topics and increase content acquisition" (p. 10). This claimed is supported because games can create alternate worlds for students to be involved in while learning. "Students must exercise critical thinking, resilience, and creative problem solving to succeed in an alternate reality game" (The benefits of Gaming, 2017). Matera’s second claim is that “combining the many elements of game mechanics helps create memorable experiences that push students well beyond the bounds of the traditional classroom” (p. 15). What he is getting at here is that gamification encourages teachers to incorporate many different eleme...
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Week 5

Essential Question: What are the arguments for using gamification to improve learning? According to an article written by Ashley Deese (which I really enjoyed because it talks about Mendeleev using gamification to create the periodic table way back in the 1869), gamification improves students learning in the following ways: Gamification aids in cognitive development (and in some cases, physical development) in adolescents. Gamification increases the level of engagement in classrooms. Gamification aids in accessibility in the classroom (Deese, 2020). Another important benefit of gamification is the freedom to fail. Freedom to fail means giving students the chance to experiment and fail without pressure or fear of irreversible damage (Stott & Neustaedter, 2013). As I have mentioned many times before, it is so important that we foster a growth mindset in our students and gamification is one way to do so. Michael Matera’s book is filled with arguments for using gamification. ...
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