I'm not a gamer! - Why I'm going to "gamify" my courses.

I'm not a gamer!  OK, I do spend countless hours on Angry Birds, but doesn't everyone?

Thanks to EdmodoCon2011 and a presentation by Hyle Daley, I'm going to "gamify" my courses this year.

I had absolutely no idea what gamification was.  When Hyle started his presentation, I thought, it's all about turning your course into one big "game", like an RPG (roll playing game for those of you like me who really aren't gamers) - WRONG!  I thought, this would work for all the boys in my classes because they are gamers - WRONG!  I had a conversation with my Miss17 (academic student going into Grade 12) and after outlining what gamification was, she said she would really enjoy it - to say I was surprised - an understatement.

Enough - what is gamification?  A member of the Edmodo Gamification Group posted a really good summary - only 2 pages - and I think it explains it very well:

 Things you should know... Gamification

As a starting point, I'm going to try using ClassDojo for monitoring of student work and then issue badges within Edmodo after certain levels are attained.  Remember, last week I hand no idea what gamification was!

I'm really excited about this!  It helps turn the class learning upside down.  Rather than everyone starting with 100% (with no place to go but down) - which is exactly how my classes were (up until now) - with gamification everyone starts at zero and works their way up!  

EmodoCon2011 recording available here (including my session!).

 

I certainly welcome input on this from parents, students, teachers, and the public.  What do you think?

Comments

[Richfarm]

I like this idea. It has a lot of potential with minimum changes to the course. You could even create non-academic achievement badges and post who has received each of the badges. Going non-academic with the game atmosphere may help motivate those non-academic types. If you look at the World of Warcraft achievements, you will see a mixture of the achievements tied to gameplay mixed with completely silly achievements. Also some ideas for badge names.

[Mr. McAsh]

Richfarm
I'm thinking I'm going to keep this total non academic, to start. I'm hoping it will be a motivator to improve participation, especially on time participation. Haven't figured out, yet, how to relate badges obtained to academic performance!

[Andrewgerrard89]

Very cool idea. How has it worked so far?

I thought it was funny how the PDF discussed the professor who "sold" his grades to his students using currency acquired through correct multiple choice answers. Amazing how students would receive the same grade either way but it seems so much more fun when they are "buying" a grade with currency that they earned themselves.