I have always been kind of techy and try to incorporate things into my instruction that are "fun" for my students (hopefully) but I haven't really tried doing anything really big yet so I was excited to go to the MACUL conference on Friday.
I also had never been to Grand Rapids- It is a pretty cool place! :)
Moving on,
I went to a session on "Gamification" mostly because I like video games and the speaker, Liz Kolb, works at the UM School of Education. We had previously talked about making our classes like a game and I had come up with sort of the same thing she talked about. Using quests and such to maneuver students through content.
Liz talked about the resources she used to "gamify" her classroom and they look really interesting. I think from a World Language standpoint these "quests" would be great for assessing where students are in terms of culture, vocabulary, and grammar knowledge- depending on how you create them. I haven't had a chance to really dive into the 3dgamelab.com things to see. I like the idea of using badges to get students to new levels and not having to grade everything with paper. BUT what about those students who don't have internet? Liz gamified a university classroom where everyone has internet. I think that using this concept in a high school depends on the demographic and socio-economic status of your students. There are schools where not everyone has internet at home.
The only issue I have with all of this is that it costs money. If you want to use it for more than 75 students, you have to pay a monthly fee. I understand that these companies have to make money but it bothers me that all this super awesome stuff we learn and talk about costs money. Then I remind myself that I live in the US and get back to reality.
I like the idea of gamification as well, though the reality is, that no classroom experience actually moves as fast as the video or online games students are used to playing. The “game” requires more patience on the students’ part as they work toward earning points, moving on to the next level, or making a “move” that requires someone else, a teacher or other student, to respond in order for the move to be put into play. For a specific example - I really enjoyed learning something about the complexity of the peace process and other issues surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict through gaming, it was a refreshing and creative way to approach learning about such a heavy topic, but I did see some student frustration at the lack of speed with which courses of action were implemented – they wanted things to happen quickly, and I find that to be understandable.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that equity is an issue for many schools, and that it may even vary from class to class within a school; perhaps some form of non-tech gamification could be implemented, but is that defeating the purpose?
I have never been into gaming and I'll be honest, I'm not sure if I would ever really seek it out. I say that knowing that it's because of my own preferences. Now that I've typed that, I suppose I would consider gamification if it would dramatically improve student learning. Oh, and I would love to be a part of Stanzler's AIC program again... maybe I'm becoming a convert?
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Jeanine's concern about the students' desires for immediacy in academic gamefication, I saw the same thing with my students in AIC. I think your concern about access and equity is legit, even in the US!
I'm glad you liked GR. It's my hometown and makes me really happy when people have good experiences there. :)
You all know that I feel that the gaming angle can be an educationally productive one to bring into the classroom, and I feel like we're just beginning the process of figuring out how to do this. When we introduce gaming into the classroom we should think both about play and design, and I think that we shouldn't limit our horizons to thinking about video games. You are absolutely right to remind us that there are equity issues at play here, Destiney, but I feel confident that we can leverage some of this innovative potential without leaving some of our students behind.
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