Module #5 - Gaming and Gamification

It's NOT about the Games.  It's about the Gaming.

Did you know that in 2017:

• 65% of US households played video games?
• Almost 1/2 of the video gamers were adults < 49 years old?
• The average gamer was 35?
• 2 out of 5 gamers were women.?
• 67% of parents play video games with ther children once a week?  Entertainment Software Association Press Release

Gaming is not a fad. Video gaming is a way of life. Gaming is an activity that provides sufficient positive feedback to cause players to exclude all else. It is challenging enough to entice gamers to continually attempt to beat their last score.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if school was like gaming? Where students would be so motivated by their learning activities that they would get up early and stay up late to engage themselves in the learning process.

Our understanding of learning has taken a HUGE leap forward in recent years.  It is time that we were Rethinking Learning with the 21st Century Learner.



Is it about playing the game or getting involved in something that is rewarding and challenging.  Maybe it has something to do with "getting into the flow of things . . . "

Flow - The Psychology of the Optimal Experience 
Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Chick-sent-me-hi) has studied states of "optimal experience" for over two decades. He is exploring the conditions and attitudes that engage people's concentration and attention to the point of total absorption. He calls this state of consciousness Flow.  In this state of attention, learners are at their most receptive level.

Dr. Csikszentmihalyi discusses his theory of Flow in this 5-minute video. 
It is the primary introduction to the Flow concept. He further explains its application to education in this short interview on Edutopia.org:  Motivating People to Learn.

9 Characteristics of Flow have been identified. Learn these characteristics so that you can later relate them to the apparent aspects of gaming and learning.
Pay careful attention to this concept of Flow because while it may seem like "good common sense," it is an underlying principle of learning.

Gaming's Elements Make for Good Learning
Gaming is a directional process where the player is guided towards a selected goal through positive and negative reinforcement. Isn't that similar to a good learning situation? How does that relate to the 9 characteristics of Flow?

Read this posting which discusses a list of 8 characteristics of Gaming. Relate these to those of Flow. What similarities do you see? What distinctions?  You will also find a video of a leading gaming researcher, Dr. James Paul Gee.  Watch this video and correlate it with the connections we have been discussing.

Gaming in Your REAL Life
Gaming is the basis of living and learning.  When you do something correctly, you are rewarded.  When you faultier, you fail.  It's about how you interact with the world. Before you can explore how you would do this in the classroom, you need to know something about how it works in your life.  Seth Priebatsch shares some interesting ideas about how Gaming appears as a layer in your real life.  



If you are interested in really applying gaming to your real life, Explore Chore Wars.  It is a quest game where you can claim experience points for housework.

Consider your present concepts about gaming. Have they changed in the past 24 hours? If so, what have you realized?  How does this affect your perspective as a trainer, teacher, educator?

Using Gaming Practices to Improve Learning
In this 10-minute video, Paul Anderson explains how he reinvented his course to make it a gaming learning experience. Pay attention to the insights that he shares about the elements of active student-centered learning environments.

 

Explore Like a Pirate
One of the leaders in the gamification world is Michael Matera, is a 6th grade world history teacher who has been using interactive play, passion and purpose-driven learning to transform the classroom for a decade. He has designed his classroom to build upon the human need to earn recognition through achievement. 

Captain Matera's book, Explore Like a Pirate: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners, explores how he developed a gamified classroom and leads readers through the process of gamifying their learning environment.  While this is not a required reading for this class, it could be useful for you to review if you decide to use gamification for your final project.

Short of reading his book, listen to this 25-minute interview with Michael Matera on The Principal Center podcast.  This is a unique interview because it involves a principal interviewing a rogue teacher who is having incredible success in his classroom. Listen to what he says about 80% failure rate and how it aligns with Csikszentmihalyi's concept of Flow. 

Gamification and Instructional Design
All of this background is "well and good" but how do you really adapt this to your own classroom.  I have looked for a number of resources - templates maybe - that you could use to begin thinking about this for your own teaching/learning situations.  There is a PLETHORA of possibilities out there.  I 

One resource that I found that might guide the instructional designers in us is an Infographic called Gamification and Instructional Design from Ethical Island.  Follow this link to find a succinct overview and Instructional Design process based upon Understanding By Design.  It is a good beginning.

Here's YOUR Challenge (If you decide to accept it)
This doesn't fit the aspects of gamification necessarily, but here is YOUR chance to add to the stew.  Next week's assignment will involve you beginning the process of planning how you would include gamification in your teaching/learning situation.  Instead of having Dr. Z find all of the resources to guide you towards the end, here is the Gamification Resource Page where you can place guiding resources that you would like to share as you explore gamification this week. You might begin at this Gamification Pinterest Page or whereever you want to go.  

This week you read and explore.  Next week you will begin the process of exploring the opportunities of gamification in your learning/teaching space.  You will have the opportunity to finish this for your final project.

Here are some foundational resources for gamification:

What is Gamification?  A Few Ideas (video)

Outstanding 8-minute video introducing gamification. Introduces the gaming concept and then explains how gamification fits into education.

Kahoot on Gaming

ChoreWars
Claim experience points for homework

The Ultimate Guide to Gamifying Your Classroom
Provides overview of gaming and a step-by-step process for gamifying.