Tried "Gamification" in my classroom.(Check updated post 283 for User Group info, it's now ready)

[Trolldor]

It's still just applied behaviorism, gamification just refined it. Seriously, we should be leaving behaviorism behind, not improving it.

Why? Human beings are animals. It's time it was exploited for good instead of evil, like most companies do.

We're animals who can do better.

We can do better, yes, but you can't modify someone's behaviour as much as people claim you can.
They must be receptive and have a predisposition to the behaviour or else you're going to have to seriously fuck with how their body behaves.

A child doesn't grow up to be abusive because he was abused, but because he shares the genes of his abusive father.

 

[Chiefwakka]

2) this system worked on the principles of bribery. the children were getting a reward for doing what they were meant to do in the first place. if you a permanent teacher for the class, all day achievements/all week achievements would be a much cheaper way of doing this.

3) my biggest concern is that these kids may have been interested because it was something new. the novelty of the idea may wear off eventually.

I'd like to chime in on these two points. First though, let me say Brian, well done.

Also, disclaimer: I was home schooled until college, with only minimal classroom experience (once a week for 6-8th grades, and then concurrently attending college in 11th and 12th).

Now on to the long term/bribery aspects (Excuse my atrocious use of comma splices in this next part, I'm a chronic comma user)

One of my FAVORITE classes was in 7th grade, and it was called "simulations" I have no idea if that was the actual class name or just the one the teacher told us. Looking back of course I realize it was a US history/Geography class. Our homework mainly consisted of coloring state maps (and filling in all the important details, large cities, monuments, geographical features) while also (I think this is right) answering some questions about the state (Population, when it became a state, etc). This was kind of boring to learn but also fun to do, because really, who doesn't like to color for a school assignment? Outside of this and other assignments I don't remember though, my favorite was the 10 minutes of class where we were dividing into groups and traveled along the Oregon trail. Essentially we were playing an extended group RPG in class. It felt very much like a game to me and the experience was what motivated me to behave myself in class. The better we were for the 'dull' parts the more time we had for the 'fun.' Also, it was slightly competitive since we were divided into teams (I still remember that only half my group made it because we got caught in the mountain pass just east of our destination, while the other group didn't make it at all because they chickened out and turned back to a lesser destination.) We did not receive rewards every week but on occasion we were receive food in keeping with where we were (beef jerky, some kind of themed candy).

Anyway, my point on this being that if you get a chance to have a recurring sub role, you should try to have daily achievements but also some longer, over-arching meta-achievements/goals to see if the idea is sustainable long-term.

So almost like a DnD kind of thing where your teacher facilitated scenarios like a dungeon master? That's definitely an idea to input for a social studies class, I'm going to make note of that...role playing

I also remember Oregon Trail the old computer game, not sure if you recall that one. That was a classic game and it taught you a lot about the hardships of the western settlers especially when you crossed a river blindly for the first time and watch you whole wagon sink into oblivion hahaha.

 

[redisforever]

Wow. Cool. I recommend Wreckamovie. Look it up for the documentary help, and use kickstarter if you need money for it. I may be able to help.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

You went and set off my brainpan. Since I know for a fact a decent number of people simply won't care about the meta-score. I know I certainly don't. To try and engage them, I'd say set up a deal where you rank people based on their "gamerscore" (say like 10 points per achievement, and have the leaderboards for the class prominently displayed somewhere), while at the same time people can use that score as a "currency". For example, you can buy X candy for Y points, but if you spend the points, it drops you down the rankings. It would take some fine-tuning for the prices (off the top of my head, I'd guess around 300 points for a snickers bar or somesuch), but it would engage both those who must have outside confirmation of their ego (tbh, most people in 6-10th grade) and those who don't care about such.

Good suggestion with the rankings. I'm writing that one down.

I wouldn't suggest doing rankings, my school does that and absolutely everybody hates them. It makes you feel bad being in last place...I know =(

 

[InnerRebellion]

Interesting. I want to teach English.. or Literature or something. I think I may have to try this as a student teacher.

 

[Chiefwakka]

The major problem I see is if it becomes a constant thing it may end up being ignored after awhile. There are some work arounds to that though. Perhaps having larger prizes but only provide them after several classes.

For example: you could have a list of 50 achievements and give whoever manages to get them all a free "I can skip this test!" ticket (I know I would prefer that to a piece of candy anyways). You could have achievements for attending classes for three weeks straight, doing several extra assignments, asking questions/giving input for discussion, etc.

The trick is to only have five or so "easy" achievements available each day. Stuff like showing up for class for a period of time would be available all the time but if you are planning on having a discussion heavy class make the participation achievement available for that day but don't have the no electronic devices one available. The idea being that if they are discussing the topic they either don't have time to use their phone or they can look up information with it (or just screw around like they always do but hey whatever).

Granted my example probably wasn't the best but I think you will get the idea. I just fear that your particular method, while quite appropriate for subbing won't work well for full time teaching. As much as they like it, there will come a time when the kids won't care about the candy and will go back to goofing off.

Yup, this won't work for a long term class. But, I just got off the phone with the teacher I was subbing for today and I who I will sub for this Thursday and she loved idea and asked if we could meet sometime this week and perhaps organize some long term applications for Gamification.

So the opportunity to try different methods, apart from just achievements, presents itself

 

[Venereus]

It's still just applied behaviorism, gamification just refined it. Seriously, we should be leaving behaviorism behind, not improving it.

Why? Human beings are animals. It's time it was exploited for good instead of evil, like most companies do.

We're animals who can do better.

We can do better, yes, but you can't modify someone's behaviour as much as people claim you can.
They must be receptive and have a predisposition to the behaviour or else you're going to have to seriously fuck with how their body behaves.

A child doesn't grow up to be abusive because he was abused, but because he shares the genes of his abusive father.

Biologicist answers are always shortsighted and don't add much to pedagogy. I can't take those explanations seriously. No one should.

 

[Chiefwakka]

I have come to the conclusion that Gamification can work. I am going to pursue this further as a video documentary. I am going to get some real materials, different rewards, use different methods, and film myself doing this in various classrooms. Not only that, but I have decided to use Gamification as my capstone Masters project for my school (a subject that, up to this point, has been hard to come by). I will provide updates as they come along on this forum and post preliminary findings as I get them.



Thank you for time and please, any feedback is welcome.

R,


Brian
A teacher trying something new.

Good experimenting on your part. A documentary would help spread the message.

I wonder what the next step would be. A company backed by government and Microsoft?

I see a future where gamification extends all the way to a school record, becoming part of your identity. Universities and colleges can sort out students based on gamerscore/achievements.

Perhaps the committee on the board of acceptance at Yale will one day say...

"Hmmm an "S-Class Ranked" high schooler, haven't had one of those in our school in a while, let's bring him on board"

 

[saejox]

there is always a clever one who ignores rules. he will look cool while others will look like nerds.

being cool is better than candies.

 

[Venereus]

It's still just applied behaviorism, gamification just refined it. Seriously, we should be leaving behaviorism behind, not improving it.

Why? Human beings are animals. It's time it was exploited for good instead of evil, like most companies do.

We're animals who can do better.

No, we aren't. Not on a subconscious level, which is what this taps into. Besides, are you really against kids learning?

Tell me more about this "subconscious level" of yours. What does it mean to you? Where does it come from? Why sould I believe you?

I haven't said anything that might point to me being against kids learning. Did you misunderstood or just trolling?

Your subconscious is the part of you that's just as primitive as a rat or dog. It's the base impulses, the illogical learned behaviors (phobias, for example) and the stuff that falls for those kinds of things. These kids learned more by using these techniques, yet you are against them. You are against things that help kids learn. You are against them learning.

Still missing the most important of my questions. Why should I believe what you're saying? What's backing your statements?

 

[Chiefwakka]

You went and set off my brainpan. Since I know for a fact a decent number of people simply won't care about the meta-score. I know I certainly don't. To try and engage them, I'd say set up a deal where you rank people based on their "gamerscore" (say like 10 points per achievement, and have the leaderboards for the class prominently displayed somewhere), while at the same time people can use that score as a "currency". For example, you can buy X candy for Y points, but if you spend the points, it drops you down the rankings. It would take some fine-tuning for the prices (off the top of my head, I'd guess around 300 points for a snickers bar or somesuch), but it would engage both those who must have outside confirmation of their ego (tbh, most people in 6-10th grade) and those who don't care about such.

Good suggestion with the rankings. I'm writing that one down.

I wouldn't suggest doing rankings, my school does that and absolutely everybody hates them. It makes you feel bad being in last place...I know =(

Ahhh, that's a good point. I think a ranking system could work, but maybe tweak it being on the bottom doesn't take your self-esteem for give it a kick in the jimmy, Lord knows kids get enough of that everyday

 

[Chiefwakka]

Wow. Cool. I recommend Wreckamovie. Look it up for the documentary help, and use kickstarter if you need money for it. I may be able to help.

I will definitely google this later tonight and check it out, thank you

 

[Schreck157]

I don't care what motives or meanings are behind Gamification; whether people think it's just behaviorism or bribery, I just want something that can work to get students learning in school. And this can do it. You sir, are winning at teaching and I hope this idea pans out properly.

 

[Krion_Vark]

*SNIP*

Tell the control group or another variable group without putting it out as achievements that they will get candy if they follow your directions to a T and I can almost guarantee the same results as your variable group. Kids LOVE candy. I can tell you from my own experience in Middle School a teacher of mine would give out candy for doing a good job or just listening to her and you got candy. Probably one of the best behaved classes I had in Middle School.

 

[zehydra]

A step in the right direction, but obviously there will people who won't care, just like there are a lot of people who don't care about achievements in games either.

Still, nice!

 

[Chiefwakka]

there is always a clever one who ignores rules. he will look cool while others will look like nerds.

being cool is better than candies.

Say I go beyond candies and go into privileges. One suggestion I received (and I'm still pondering it, but it's in the notes) is that achievements will give you a certain ranking and that said ranking will allow you to do things. Like say, "S-Class" ranking will allow a student to text WHILE doing an assignment (assuming he/she does well and retains the knowledge). Which cool kid would you wanna be then? You are correct, I have to expand the concept of Gamification and I shall take it to new realms...as a gamer I know what makes these kids tick and I intend to work it to their advantage.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Btw I must say you are the most dedicated OP in a forum I've seen xD

 

[littlealicewhite]

This would be perfect at my school! If we all had a gamerscore that a computer kept track of and we earned points with achievements..

Ten Hut! - Was not tardy or absent for a month 10p
Silent but Deadly - Did not talk in class the entire day 1p
It is Always S.T.A.R.s - Got a Proficient or better on all subject on the S.T.A.R. test 500p

This could be awesome. The last one would be the best. The thing that trips schools up the most about star tests is that the students don't care about them. If we could get even a quarter of the student body actively trying to earn those points...