game-ed - motivating learners
DESCRIPTION
There are tens of millions of people, all ‘levelling’ up using all kinds of technology, and a healthy range of industries using this content for magazines, radio, television, theatre, books and performance. This interplay and burring of lines exists in our lives and in that of learners, from pre-school to higher education. The challenge for us is to be skilled enough to understand that motivation powers deeper learning and that without it, we become strategic ‘we do it to get though’.TRANSCRIPT
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How can we use gameplay?
Games don’t stay in the computer, the turn into drama, music, film, book, magazine, art and social connections. Learning how they operate can give teachers ideas on how to use them in classrooms
GAME-EDhttp://deangroom.wordpress.com
RealismRelevanceRetentionOne page guides to renewing classroom learning
16 MILLION QUESTS A DAY - BUT WHO’S LEARNING?According to Blizzard Game Designer Jeff Kaplan, there are sixteen million quests completed on a daily base in World of Warcraft. What is it about MMO games that educators can learn from?
Is Warcraft addictive, anti-social and disconnecting people or a genius combination of fun, social connection and goal orientated motivated ‘players’. The debate will roll on, but Warcraft is one of hundreds of MMOs, each with millions of players all ‘levelling’ to attain new power and skill. None are born with these skills, but are goal-orientated by various aspects to try and learn them and then transfer those skills between platforms, games, situations and problems. MMOs require soft skills of co-operation and collaboration and social interaction. At the centre of all of this is motivation, supported by a narrative, process failure recovery in learning how to play. There is a context to the gameplay – some reason to participate and compulsion to return to get better. In the world of Linux, millions of people have been collaborating to solve problems, develop better software, better
ideas, share them, talk about them and give them back to the community to use them. At the centre of all this is motivation, that basic human interest – to learn more about the world in which we not only live, but shape. In the work of graphic design – millions of people are busy creating unique artworks in physical and virtual space, and at the centre is a personal interest. YouTube adds hundreds of millions of videos, millions of which are original content, Fan Fiction, Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, Blogs, Wikis – all spaces in which motivated people are using technology to to not only learn, but to share what they learn in public spaces. The amount of ‘free’ content dwarfs the commercial and much of it, contrary to the media-spin – is great software, great writing, great film and a great deal of fun.
What is it that game designers add
that teachers can use in the classroom?
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There are tens of millions of people, all ‘levelling’ up using all kinds of technology, and a healthy range of industries using this content for magazines, radio, television, theatre, books and performance. This interplay and burring of lines exists in our lives and in that of learners, from pre‐school to higher education. The challenge for us is to be skilled enough to understand that motivation powers deeper learning and that without it, we become strategic ‘we do it to get though’.
So how do you start to use ‘gameplay’ in the everyday classroom?
Motivation – what is it about the lesson that is
intrinsically motivating
Process – Is this lesson part of a chain?
Feedback – How can they tell how they are
going?
Chain – does the learner know how many
parts are in the chain
Goal – Does the learner know what the goal is
to move to the next link in the chain.
Duration – how long do they need to learn to
‘level’ up
Resources/Skill – does the learner know what
skills/resources are needed in order to attempt
the task?
Persistence – why would I not want to
abandon it and give up?
Experience – Does the lesson allow for
novices and expert engagement?
Collaboration – Does the lesson allow co-
operation or co-production
Safe-Fail mode – does the lesson allow the
student to fail and try again?
Practice mode – can the learner ‘practice’
before or after the same task?
Expert mode – what is it about the lesson that
only those who ‘level’ up will be rewarded?
GAME BASED LEARNINGTaking a look at how games use motivation,how can we use that inside classrooms?
Lesson IdeasLet students use the free trail of Warcraft,
get them to look at the range of
characters offered. Ask them to write a
story, using screenshots as illustrations.
Ask students to design a ‘safe-gaming’
ad campaign, researching a game, and
using images and themes from the game
on a range of packaging (Coke Cans) or
some other consumer item that young
people use all the time. How can they use
the game and their research to come up
wiith what they think is a ‘safe’ and
‘positive’ guide to playing online games.
Let kids play Disney’s Surf Well Island,
and answer the cyber-safety quiz. Ask
them to come up with more storyboards
that Disney could use
Get kids to watch the Toyota ‘Warcraft
Ad’ on YouTube. Get them to select
another game and create a similar ad for
another car - using Machinima.
Ask students to use a game-maker
application and design their own game,
get them to collaborate, write proposals,
storyboards and plan the game from idea
to packaging.! SCAFFOLD IN FUN!
Use the process to motivate!