Gaming

I tried out the game, Word Bubbles. I played the game probably about 20 times, switching between the four different levels - toddler, kid, big kid, and grown up. 

This game involved users looking at a picture with floating letters around it. If the picture were of a cat, the letters C A T would be floating around separately. The user would have to click on the letters in the right order to spell the word correctly from left to right. 

When using this game in the classroom, the teacher would play a passive role, just going around the supervise and observe the students. This game could be a choice option during iPad time, or it could be used during a specific language block, such as spelling. The student would be active participants, as they would be playing individually with the iPad or on the computer. 

I definitely think that a walkthrough would be necessary for the game, especially for ELL's. A simple demonstration on the SmartBoard to model for the students how to play would work.

Performance indicators and objectives:

STANDARD 4: Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for classroom and social interaction.
8. Negotiate and manage interactions to accomplish social and classroom tasks. (L, S)

Given a picture and the correct letters, students will be able to identify a picture and unscramble the letters to correctly spell the word that matches the picture.

By walking around the room to observe while students were playing, I would be able to track their progress and see how well they are doing. Players are not allowed to move on in the game if they can not correctly identify and spell the word. By seeing how many new words the student moved on to, I would be able to assess the performance indicators and objectives. 

Gamification in Education

Gamification is the use of game design and game mechanics to benefit areas in a non-gaming context. According to the blog, Tophat,
"We’ve seen this approach in a variety of settings: completing our Subway punch card to win a free sandwich, receiving a badge on Foursquare for being the first of friends to check in at a particular restaurant, or expanding our profiles on LinkedIn to bring the “completion bar” up to 100%. Gamification has even worked its way into the automotive industry with the innovative dashboard of the Ford Fusion hybrid. A high-resolution display features a rendering of vine-like leaves. Waste gas, and your vines wither. Conserve, and they blossom."

Along with Subway punchcards and the dashboards of our Fords, gamification has also worked its way into our classrooms. Educators are gamifying their rooms in very simple ways, but they are beginning to see big rewards. The Tophat article gave me a lot of ideas about gamification, a word that I had never even heard of prior to this mod. However, even though I had never heard of gamification before, I realized that it is something I have integrated into my own teaching without even noticing. Tophat suggests 4 ways to introduce gaming into the classroom: gamify grading, award students with badges, integrate educational video games into your curriculum, and stir up a little competition, such as tournament module platform in the classroom. 

I think that these are all great ideas. I have used point systems before in my classroom, which worked as a great motivator for my students. I did not even think about how the point system linked to games, which is probably why it worked so well with my students!

Gamification in the classroom is a great tool to motivate students and to reach those students who sometimes just need a new perspective on school work - if the student scoffs at assignments, turn the assignment into a game without him knowing and maybe you might see some results. 

Gamification is not the end all, be all, however. Gamification should not be the only motivator in the classroom, as it may take away from some intrinsic motivation. Tophat concludes their post with the quote, "Games can’t be used to replace pedagogy, but can be used to enhance the overall learning experience." I agree with this closing statement 100%. Games are a great tool for the classroom, as well as outside the classroom, to motivate and engage students. However, gaming in the classroom should have a specific time and place. 

Articles read for this post :

http://blog.tophat.com/4-ways-to-gamify-learning-in-your-classroom/

https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/TLE_pdf/TLE_Oct13_Article.pdf

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/gamification-in-education-vicki-davis

Following a Twitterchat

My initial thoughts on this mod, which focused on using Twitter in education, was that I would breeze through it easily, since I am a veteran Twitter user. However, prior to this, I had never really explored the educational chats and accounts. I follow several teacher accounts on my personal account, but I had never participated in a chat or really delved into looking through other educators accounts. So needless to say, I was on a sensory overload when I began browsing through different accounts and chats and what I thought had been ten minutes of browsing through tweets turned into an hour.
I decided to follow the #ELTchat. ELTchat is a platform for new and old teachers alike to share their thoughts, ideas, questions, and experiences with each other. It is a place where teachers from all over the world can connect with each other to network and grow their professional learning network. I think #ELTchat is a great resource for teachers to be apart of. I am new to the whole Twitter chat thing though, so I think I need some more time to explore what else is out there as well as follow a live Twitter chat to see what it is all about.