Course Content

Before you begin:

This activity has two parts:

1. Utilizing Gamestar Mechanic ( sign up with a teacher account) create an account and spend some time on the resources page and external resources to learn how to create a small game that you could use in a hypothetical class you are designing. Then build a short lesson around it that situates the game in your classroom. Make sure the content of the game expresses/teaches some type of information that is to be communicated to give you an idea about the differences in constructs so you can make better entries/comparisons into your profile. Post a screen shot of the game and your lesson in the Drop Box in Canvas.
2. In this activity we are also attempting to broaden your definition of what it means to ‘gamify’ a classroom. Under this broader context, gamification is applying the science and psychology of gaming in a non-game context. We know that games, in any form, increase motivation through engagement. Nothing demonstrates a general lack of student motivation quite like the striking high school dropout rates: approximately 1.2 million students fail to graduate each year (All4Ed, 2010). At the college level, a Harvard Graduate School of Education study “Pathways to Prosperity” reports that just 56% of students complete four-year degrees within six years. even business and industry have become engaged in integrating video games. It’s been shown repeatedly that gamifying other services has resulted in retention and incentive. For example, website builder DevHub saw the remarkable increase of users who finished their sites shot up from 10% to 80%. We submit that the real beauty of games is the intrinsic value of the APPROACH to learning that is offered to the student, regardless if an actual game is involved.For this part of the assignment you are to re-create the same lesson as in #1 above but without a digitized game The interactivity should be between/among the students’ activities with feedback, competition, immersive activities, etc.… using the elements of gamification as noted below and other elements you may find in your own research. Remember, however, the main goal of this course is to have you build your media ecology notebook. The ultimate purpose of this activity is to help you further understand what the immersive learning/communicating ecosytem is all about. So, make sure you design your deliverable for this part of the activity with that goal in mind. Post the lesson in the same drop Box in Canvas.

Game Based Learning

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few years you probably have seen a lot written about game-based learning. Even if you haven’t been all that technical you have either created a lesson with or played a role playing game (remember Clue or Monopoly?). In an attempt to level the playing field (sorry for the pun), here are a couple of the people who have led the charge about how games (especially immersive, role playing games) can enhance the classroom experience:

• James Gee –
  

  Download Link: http://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Good_Learning.pdf

  Video Games Learning

  Good_Learning
• Marc Prensky –
  

  Download Link: http://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Prensky-Digital-Natives-Digital-Immigrants-Part1.pdf

  Digital Natives

  Prensky – Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants – Part1
• Kurt Squire

Here are two dissertations taken from the Gamestar Mechanic Site:

• Robert Torres –
  

  Download Link: http://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Torres_PhD_Gamestar.pdf

  Learning with Gamestar

  Torres_PhD_Gamestar
• Ivan Games –
  

  Download Link: http://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Games_PhD_Gamestar.pdf

  Gamestar and Literacy

  Games_PhD_Gamestar

Gamifying a Lesson Without a Game

While the list above is incomplete and it may be an over-simplification. Take Badges, Points or Rewards, for example, these are important but some of the lesser useful elements of games.

For our purposes, gamification in this class about media ecology focuses on engagement, storytelling, visualization of characters, and problem-solving. It is the application of any of the immersive game-play mechanics, aesthetics, etc with the idea to immerse the learner and to motivate and engage him or her. Gamification is adding fun to the learning experience without trivializing it. In spite of what you may read elsewhere, gamification needs no actual game but it works by the learning experiences more engaging, by encouraging player/learner to engage in desired behaviors, by showing a path to mastery and promoting autonomy without being a distraction, and by taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to playful learning.

A couple additional terms from gaming that we translate to the learning environment:

• Modding – a game design term which refers to allowing the players to create mods or derivatives of the game. In this situation we are referring to the constructivist practice of providing opportunities for students to allow them to create their own quests (i.e., learning goals and contexts)and badges (i.e., thier own measures of success).
• Removing the fear of failure – In gaming, failure is not a negative, but rather an opportunity to learn from mistakes and correct them. Set up mastery learning by allowing students to repeat without penalty until they have mastered the skill… require them to demonstrate skill acquisition before they move on to more difficult skills.
• Reward mastery – by more than allowing them to move on but applaud interim mastery and success in some fashion.
• Foster collaboration – Encourage learners to work together, a common practice of gamers who team up in order to achieve an epic win.

As you can see the immersive environment created by games and game like classroom settings is truly a different ecosystem than what we have seen in some of the others… and best of all it can be done in combination with any of other media types… from text to video to audio.. and to virtual reality. This is the intersection of media ecology studies and instructional design.