Connecting Educators Through Digital Games: SimCityEDU Preview and Giveaway! Date(s) and Time: October 31, 201304:00 pm - 05:00 pm EST Provided by: Institute of Play Description: GlassLab’s SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge! Will be officially released on November 7. But we’re teaming up with Connected Educator Month for a special preview and early bird giveaway just for the Connected Educator community. Archives: Be sure to ask the event organizer for a code to claim your digital badge for this event. A 6-Step Process For Adding Gamification To Your Classroom - A 6-Step Process For Adding Gamification To Your Classroom Gamification is the integration of game-like mechanics into non-game “stuff.”
For years, schools have been gamified. Points for performance. Points accrue to earn “badges” (e.g., letter grades). Students are separated and ranked (e.g., class ranks). While this approach offers tremendous potential that has yet to be tapped (uncovering the nuance of the learning process, for example), it can also be approached from a simpler point of view–added in to the instructional design process, which the following graphic from Mia MacMeekin takes a look at. Rather than “gamifying” a typical unit, this graphic promotes building a unit centered around a game and featuring game-like mechanics. Pretty cool, no? 6 Steps To Gamifiying Instructional Design 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Mobile Devices Are K-12's Pearl Harbor. Being Mobile | Blog Mobile Devices Are K-12's Pearl Harbor We have said this many times — and been taken to the wood shed for saying it — but we absolutely are convinced of its veracity: To a first approximation, the impact of computing technologies on K-12 education in the United States has been zero.
The classroom still looks the way it has looked: desks facing the front of the room where the teacher stands and tells learners stuff. On those desks is dead-tree technology. Laptops? As Winne Hu noted in her New York Times article: Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops. OK, OK ... in YOUR school — in pockets around the country — we have seen impacts. Our comment is not a value judgment: we are not blaming anyone for this situation. The reason for the lack of impact is actually quite simple: Access — well, lack of access, actually.
And, for the last 40 or so years, K–12 has stumbled along with computers. Why? Home - 3DGameLab Wiki. How to Become a Game Designer. You’ve been called a “gamer” for as long as you can remember, so you might as well make a career out of it, right? Well, it might all sound like fun and games, but game design has evolved from the days of scribbling a great idea on the back of a napkin into an elaborate process involving a specialists trained in a variety of disciplines who collaborate and sometimes work long hours to create great computer or video games replete with state-of-the-art animation and visual effects. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 59 percent of multimedia artists and animators, which includes computer and video game designers, are self-employed, often working from home but also in offices. It goes without saying that it is helpful to possess artistic ability and talent, but people lacking in those areas may compensate with robust technical and computer skills, preferred by some employers.
Infographic source: Schools.com. Two Types of #Gamification | Kapp Notes. CSU Resources Here are some resources you may find helpful from the workshop. When you are in the classroom or teaching online, you may want to find new and interesting ways to engage students. Here is a course titled How to Increase Learner Engagement which provides ten great ideas for breaking away from the lecture and working toward engaging […] Continue Reading → A conversation with GamEffective The other day I had a chance to have a conversation with Roni Floman of GamEffective.
Continue Reading → Screening of an Innovative Film Locally If you are in or around the Bloomsburg area….You might be interested in what is below: I’m happy to announce our screening of a new documentary that takes audiences into three innovative public schools where students are taught HOW to think rather than WHAT to think. Continue Reading → A Conversation with Brandon Carson The other day I had a chance to catch up with Brandon Carson who contributes to our industry in so many ways. Continue Reading → Alternate Reality Game (ARG) for K-12.
World of Classcraft. New school trend: Zombie-based learning. A day on the job for Bellevue-based middle school teacher David Hunter starts just like any other teacher's day: He gets to class, settles his students down and takes attendance before he gets down to business -- talking about zombies and geography. Hunter's unique approach takes subjects that some kids struggle to pay attention to and turn them into something that they look forward to. His idea was to create a full geography curriculum (using National Geography Standards) taught in the context of a zombie apocalypse. Using textbooks, teaching plans and role playing as tools, he draws his students into a dynamic scenario that allows them to have fun while learning. The geography teacher funded his original idea for the project, called Zombie-Based Learning, on Kickstarter in June of 2012. It got more than twice the funding he hoped for, which made him realize that he just might be on to something.
"It is amazing that we aren't already there," Hunter said. About the Game - World Peace Game Foundation. The game is actually far more complex than glimpsed in the TED Talk or in the documentary film. Here’s what the game requires to be facilitated, played, and maintained: Students who play must: possess a certain “intellectual stamina” and can wrestle over an extended period of time with tough problems that are without quick or easy resolutioncan interact constructively with others different from themselves (diversity as much as possible)can forestall closure and handle the certain frustrations of endless challenges and conflicts as they collaborate to achieve peace Teacher / Facilitators who wish to use the game must: In short, charisma, compassion, connectivity, creativity, patience, and awareness are all necessary in great measure.
It has taken me over thirty five years to develop enough skill to facilitate the game. Even now I am quite often in situations where failure is normal and routine, and I am completely in the dark about what to do next. Obama says we need more gamers. Who are we to argue? Technology came up again and again during President Barack Obama’s first “Fireside Hangout” on YouTube. In order to ensure that America remains a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship, he emphasized the importance of education, economic, immigration, and patent reform, and said he strongly supported teaching compute programming in schools. He even endorsed video games thanks to a recent encounter with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“The concept of vocational education got a bad rap at some point because of the perception it was tracking folks into blue collar jobs, but all those categories have eroded,” Obama said. Look at Mark Zuckerberg. I was sitting next to him at dinner a couple of years ago, and he said he taught himself programming primarily because he was interested in games. For people who already live in the U.S., education is a key factor in supporting economic growth, not to mention the startup scene. Despite high unemployment rates, technical talent is in high demand. Game-Based Learning Ideas from ISTE. 8 Reasons that We Should Teach to the Game (#GBL) From James Paul Gee, David Williamson Shaffer : Looking where the light is bad: Video games and the future of assessment Abstract In the past we have referred to games as good “learning engines.”
Here we argue that games are good learning engines because they are first good assessment engines. Games require the kind of thinking that we need in the 21st Century because they use actual learning as the basis for assessment. Key points Why should schools and other learning sites use the learning principles that are embedded in good video games? These good principles for learning are even more important in the 21st Century, where students need to learn to work with others and with digital tools to produce and not just to consume knowledge.
So what stands in the way? The answer is simple: assessment. Our standardized tests, coupled with our accountability policies, force teachers to teach to out-of-date tests. 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Citation: Gee, J.P. and D.W. Long games and grand strategies. How Gamification Works - 3D GameLab | 3D GameLab. Instead of courses consisting mainly of textbook learning and lectures, classes built using game mechanics such as badges, experience points, levels and leaderboards, boost student engagement by allowing students to choose from “quests” and progress at their own pace through a series of educational activities. Students are motivated due to personal choice and meaningfulness, real-time feedback, the ability to collaborate or compete, and over time, they learn stay persistent in learning due to prior successes. Quest tasks can range from listening to a podcast, collecting and analyzing real-time data, or watching a short video to partnering with a classmate for discussion or writing a short essay.
As students complete each quest, they can level up to new assignments on their journey toward an “A.” Teachers have the ability to approve quests or put them on auto-approval so students can keep progressing while waiting for their teacher’s feedback on milestone work. Virtual Education Journal | Leveraging Technology for Learning. Jane McGonigal: “Gaming turns you into a. 20 Educational Games Perfect For Young Students. Even though older adults might still carry a negative association with video game consoles and devices, today’s technology is vastly different than it was 20 years ago.
Apps have exploded on the scene, and while there are plenty of time wasting games available on the market, today’s offerings also include a wide range of affordable apps that enrich learning and allow for quick on-the-go play. Whether your child is waiting for the doctor or relaxing on a long car ride, the following apps are some of the best games that pack an educational punch. 1. The Letter School The Letter School app won the Editor’s choice for Children’s Technology Review for 2012. 2.
From the makers of Angry Birds comes Amazing Alex . 3. If your child likes puzzle games and math, Awesum is a fantastic combination of Tetris and Sudoki. 4. Traveling explorers and geographers will love the Barefoot World Atlas app available for iOS devices. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. The app is available for the Windows Phone. The BYOT Daily. A Good Chart on Traditional Classroom Game Play Vs Game-based Learning. Refining “Game-based Learning” In case you hadn’t noticed, education is full of jargon and rife with an alphabet soup of programs, policies, and practice.
It’s often challenging for me as a professional in education technology to keep my terminology defined. What’s the difference between CIPA and COPPA? When you say PBL, do you mean problem-based learning or project-based learning? Of course, my own area of passion in education, the use of games and game principles for learning is faced with a similar, murky sea of words and ideas. Recent discussions, between David Warlick, Mathias Poulsen, and myself via Twitter during ISTE 12, forced me to consider the issues. For me, it’s time to refine the definition of “game-based learning.”
It’s exciting to watch the idea of game-based learning gaining market share in the discussion on educational change, especially, since I’ve been pushing it for a few years now. Playful Learning Using Games To Teach Serious Games Gamification (Edited 7/2/12 – Added Serious Games) -Lucas. VEJ June 2013 by Edovation. Virtual Education Journal | Leveraging Technology for Learning. G.A.M.E. - Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education. Edurealms.com. JumpStart Launches Educational MMORPG School of Dragons. JumpStart has launched its newest educational multiplayer online game, School of Dragons™.
The game is based on DreamWorks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon franchise, and is one of the first massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) to incorporate basic science educational features in its gameplay. School of Dragons blends together three fields – film, online games, and television– to create an immersive online gaming experience for youth, allowing players to interact, play, and learn with familiar faces from the hit animated film, such as Hiccup and his dragon Toothless. As players train their own dragons and become fierce Viking adventurers in the game, they will learn key concepts in the scientific method through activities based on earth, life, and physical sciences.
Also, later this summer, School of Dragons is going places no other online educational MMORPG has gone before — seamless, simultaneous mobile and online gameplay. Source: Press Release.