Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Gamification and Student Choice

This VLOG is the second in my Gamification videos.  This is about Gamification and the importance of Student Choice and Grading inside a class.  I hope everyone will think and reflect about this and think of ways to implement it in a classroom.

http://youtu.be/xkEhX52hmy0

Friday, April 25, 2014

Mastery Learning and Gamification

Gamification and Mastery Learning

 by Keenan Kibrick

Today's Blog Post is the first part in multi-part series on Gamification and Education. Each of these videos will cover a small part about the concept of Gamificaiton and Education.  Each video shows a concept from video games that relates to prior models of education, and how they have been merged in schools to improve education.  Today's first video is on the topic of Gamification and Mastery Learning.   I hope you will all use the information to improve education in the classroom.  When you do please let me know about your successes so that I can compile a list of successful implementations.

Finally a special thanks to Erik Ward of the Oxnard Union High School District who taught me about Gamification and Education.  The teachers of his district were inspiring and are some of the examples in this video.   I hope you all will enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WnRgBLvn7c

Monday, April 14, 2014

Education through Video

by Keenan Kibrick


I decided to change the format this week for the blog.  Instead of reading it’s time to watch.  I have 2 videos for you that are both very good and about education.  One is quick and the other is longer, but both will make people think and reflect about the practice of education.

Extra Credits: Games in Education


Why I Watched It:   I love so many videos from Extra Credits and I think they are great educational resources.  I recently watched one about Games in Education and I wanted to compare it to the idea of Gamification (the concept) in education.

Why I wrote about it:   This video addressed a misconception about the gamification of education that I felt needed clarification. When people first hear about the concept of gamification of education their first thought is it means bringing games into the classroom.  In reality, it’s about making the classroom a game.  This video reflects why bringing games into the classroom isn’t necessarily a plan for success.  It focuses on the aspects about video games that make them so enjoyable to play, and highlights that bringing them into the classroom may hinder a games appeal.  The choice of playing a game impacts a student’s desire to play games, and the piece focuses on how a classroom requirement might reduce that choice. If video games are placed in a class for a grade or credit then the students lose that choice over their actions and the game becomes ineffective in the classroom.  Technology in education is great for the future of education, but we need to be cognizant about how we implement technology in the classroom.  Imposing technology is like imposing games, it’s not as effective as allowing technology to naturally blend into the classroom.  This is another great commentary on education and technology and I recommend all read it to spark creativity on ways to implement games in the classroom.

It’s perfect for:  Wanting to implement games in the classroom, Technology implementation best practices, Favoring pedagogy over technology and letting learning lead technology implementation



Talking Creativity with Dr. Jonathan Plucker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugcpdO2EoJI#t=17


Why I watched it:  I know the interviewer Tim Green very well.  He was my professor when I was in Graduate School at CSU: Fullerton.  He posted up this interview and at first it was just interesting about creativity, however by the end when they discussed merging technology and creativity it became a video that I began taking notes on to help apply to classrooms.

Why I kept reading it:   It was research based, and it focuses on defining the word creativity and trying to help standardize the terminology in terms of the education community.  It gives example of how to phrase questions for students to evoke creativity in their writing, and helps faculty be cognizant about question writing on assignments.  Around 16 minutes in is a great discussion about how a 15 word instruction for assignments hindered creativity for an entire class.  The realization of this gave me pause, and helped me reorganize the words I use on assignments.  20 minutes into the video they begin the discussion of technology and creative output which is also fascinating, and really helps guides the academic discussion about the online community as a place that fosters creativity.  

It’s perfect for:  Rethinking learning, wanting to improve creativity in the classroom, researched/tested methods of incorporating creativity