Positivity!

Awesome thing today. One of my students who is in grade 7 and always had trouble remembering to speak in French and not litter his French with English words, caught himself speaking English and switched immediately to French, re-saying what he had started saying in English. What was great about this was that I didn't remind him to switch back, his classmates didn't remind him, and he didn't switch because I was standing too near - he didn't glance in my direction to see if I could hear him or not, the way he often does. I was very proud of him! I know students are often made nervous when they are praised in front of the class, but that many of them they crave it all the same. This is where the awesomeness of gamification comes in! See, I'm the gamemaster, so I can do what I want. I can change the rules whenever I feel like it, as long as it suits the game and doesn't come off as unfair or break a player's connection to the game. So I awarded his team one Francais point. This got his teammates excited for him, and pleased for him, instead of resenting him as a goody goody. High fives were exchanged all around, and a new precedent was set - if you correct yourself when you catch yourself speaking English, you might just gain a point for your team!

My sources of Gamification

Sorry for the delay! I've been working on this draft for awhile now. I keep having things pop up in the middle, and there were a lot of links to add in. Hopefully it will all be worth it! As promised, these are the sources I have used to develop my concept of gamification.

Extra Credits: These guys were my main inspiration. Hosted on the Penny Arade website (one of the go-to places for video gaming information, especially on new games and little known games, and the founders of PAX, one of the biggest gaming conventions in North America, as well as the founders of the Child's Play charity), they explore many issues surrounding video games. They examine the good and the bad of games, but are entirely inspired by the potential of games and the gaming community, and the way this potential is being explored. They have two videos on gamification: Gamification, and Gamifying Education. They have a lot of amazing ideas and explain them really well, and very simply. Their video on Tangential Learning is also more than worth a peek.

Gamification.co: This blog is absolutely amazing! It focuses on gamification as a concept, but there are a LOT of excellent posts about gamification in education specifically. This is what fed my understanding of gamification and really helped me plan the different ideas I am currently using. In particular, check out his series on The Gamified Classroom (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.) and Gamification vs. Game Based Learning in Education. I haven't been keeping up, (shame on me!) but I'm really looking forward to checking out his TEDx talks.

Quest to Learn: This is a school that has been build on the underlying principles of gamification. Their website is being redesigned, so it is somewhat difficult to navigate right now, but the Overview and the Curriculum & Assessment pages helped me a lot. In particular, the way they organised the curriculum sparked a lot of ideas for me in setting up my schedule and pursuing my goals of having stronger integration in my classroom. From Quest to Learn, I have learned not to be afraid of letting my students tinker with the design of the classroom game - it is their tool, so they will be able to use it better if they have a part in building it. It also is a great learning opportunity for them.

Khan Academy: Khan Academy hosts videos and skills based interactions usable by anyone (in English.) They use the principles of gamification to create a progression model that really inspires students. Their badges are really something to brag about (as they describe them on the site) as they are not given out easily - they really have to be earned. Looking through the experiences on Khan Academy, I have really been inspired regarding the details of my classroom game and gathered a lot of ideas on how to motivate and encourage my students to continue pushing forward.

3 Reasons NOT to Gamify Education: This inclusion may come as a surprise, but it is an incredibly good, insightful blog post on the pitfalls of gamification. It reminds me that gamification is not a catch-all solution. It comes laced with serious pitfalls, like the reliance on external motivation that I have talked about before. This blog post helps me keep perspective and stops me from getting too swept up in the hype surrounding gamification. It helps me stay focused on what the benefits are and lets me see through the wrappings they come in.

Gamification of Education infographic: I love infographics. I am a visual person, and seeing information organised in a visual pattern helps me decode it more easily. This particular infographic presents some of the key elements of games I am trying to bring to my classroom through Silvercraft, and the reasons why they are important.