InnEdCO18 -- Gaming your Classroom

Session 4, Day 1: Gamification in your classroom

I've been trying to build in gamification into my tech classroom (and have a few teachers in my building who are curious).

http://bit.ly/leveleduplearn

Creating a game:
1) aesthetics
2) story development
3) mechanics
4) What type of tech will you use?

Story Tip:
-Goals, Obstacles, and Conflicts
-Simplicity & Transcendence
-Be consistent and accessible

Examples of Gamification in the classroom:
https://skellysites.wixsite.com/leveled-up-learning/veritas

Resources:
https://skellysites.wixsite.com/leveled-up-learning/resources

ClassCraft & Google Classroom

ClassCraft, a behavior management role playing game for your classroom, is now fully integrated with Google Classroom. It easily allows you to add classes from Google Classroom to Classcraft. I can't wait to get started with my 3-5 grade students.

Games in the Classroom

EdSurge released an interesting article about the division between teachers on the appropriateness of games in the classroom. Many of the arguments against "gamifying" include shortening students' attention spans and turning them into tech addicts. The article argues the following important points:

1) Games provide a safe environment for failure and learning from mistakes.
2) Games provide a way for students to collaborate and solve problems.
3) Games reach all types of learners (The article even provides specific games for certain types of learners).
4) Games provide a different way to learn for struggling students.

Makerspace Resources

Here's another fantastic resource for Makerpsaces, Coding, Video Game Creation, and Video Creation: Lewis and Clark Elementary School. Living up to their school's moniker as explorers!

Summer Learning

With summer vacation quickly approaching, parents and educators are working together to create learning opportunities for our students to prevent the "summer slide." Educational Technology and Mobile Learning released a few game based learning opportunities. I'm familiar with Minecraft, but this list also includes games for gaming consoles like Xbox and Playstation. Would you add anything to this list?

Review Games

We've all created review games, usually in the form of jeopardy, to help students prepare for an upcoming assessment. What2Learn has created a way for teachers to use more than a jeopardy game. Users can create a Hangman style game, Q & A quizzes, Anagram games, Matching activities, Interactive word searches. Free Tech 4 Teachers has a full review of the What2Learn website.

Video Games for Learning

TeachThought just released 50 of the best Video Games for learning. They conducted their search using the following criteria: playability, cognitive load, and innovation. Would you add any to this list?

Online Reading Program

Teach Your Monster to Read is a great example of game-based learning. Teachers can create free accounts for students, and the students are assigned a monster. They listen and read the sentences and move the monster according to what the sentence tells them. It's an excellent way for primary grades to practice sounds and reading full sentences during a game based exercise. Here's a full review from Free Technology for Teachers.

Math Apps for Fluency

Edudemic just released what they believe to be the best Math Apps for fluency.  The list includes Operation Math, Free Graphing Calculator, and DragonBox Algebra 5+.  Operation Math allows users to complete spy missions through math drills and is suited for ages 9-11.  Free Graphing Calculator speaks for itself.  It's a FREE graphing calculator which is typically a $150 purchase.  DragonBox Algebra 5+ covers the basics of algebra: addition, division, and multiplication.  Users must manipulate cards to isolate DragonBox just like isolating X to solve an equation. Dragon Box is heralded as the "perfect example of game-based learning." Read a full review of all 3 apps on Edudemic.