Gaming, gamification, game thinking--what fertile ground for our teaching!
In my words, what is Gaming vs. Gamification? Gaming-Taking existing curriculum and applying it. Taking game mechanics to a non-game environment. Leverages badges and elements for reward. Provides choice in learning path. Gamification-Actual curriculum that is designed. The learning comes from playing the game. It promotes critical thinking and problem solving, and can be non-digital. What am I playing? What are my students playing? I enjoyed being able to try on some different tools that are out there, I was first introduced to gamification when I took on supporting the implementation of iRead. It is a HMH/Scholastic product that systematically teaches students early literacy skills. ln my mind it would be considered gamification, because it is actual curriculum which provides a path for students to master reading foundational skills. It is adaptive, provides badges, and allows students to customize their avatar continually throughout the process. We have seen some great success with this tool in K-2. As teachers is hard to constantly reach students at their many different levels to support their learning and progression of early reading. iRead is a tool that can provided the independent, systematic direct instruction to support the teacher's first instruction and small-group instruction. When used together and at the right time, the student is able to leverage iRead as the mortar to the big bricks of foundational skills. Creating a tight understanding of decoding and then can more forward in now understanding what they are reading. I have also worked with Imaging Learning English, ST Math (Jiji), and Dreambox. These are other gamification like programs we use in the district, and to varying degrees provide our students with that specific independent instruction. As with anything the key here is to utilize these tools in the RIGHT way. They are not babysitters for students, they need to be used at the right time and support the learning that is already happening in the classroom. I think the biggest key to this is that teachers use the data from these "games" to inform and support what they are already doing. If you don't make the link for students then I believe it won't be as successful. I am currently out the classroom to support teachers with ELA/ELD K-5. A lot of my work is to support the above programs we have in place, and work with teachers to leverage them in the best way possible for students. I love the idea of gamification, and believe, like with anything, there is a balance. You need to be able to connect the knowledge they are building through a game-like experience with their knowledge they gain in other ways throughout their day. If you don't do that you are losing a valuable learning opportunity. To quote the research from John Hattie (yes, again!), feedback has a very high effect size, and for the student to know that you know what they are doing in that software reinforces that feedback. I look forward to more conversations in our class to better understand other thoughts on how to bring gamification into what we are doing in a meaningful way.
2 Comments
Todd
5/7/2017 08:12:49 pm
First and foremost, great graphic!
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Karly
5/9/2017 07:21:05 pm
Hi Todd,
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AuthorKarly Miller Archives
May 2017
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