Gamification: Encouraging learning through play

Gamification is "the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior," according to the article 7 Things You Should Know About Gamification.  Learning doesn't have to  be lectures and worksheet after worksheet; learning can and should be fun some of the time. There are many reason that using games in a language classroom can be  beneficial. The TED talk video, Tom Chatfield sums up these benefits in his talk the 7 Ways Games Reward the Brain. "The first one is very simple: experience bars measuring progress...Second, multiple long and short-term aims...Third, you reward effort. It's your 100 percent factor...Fourth, feedback." By giving instant feedback and rewards, you can encourage a students ongoing development.

In a language learning classroom, one game that I could see myself using in an intermediate level ESL classroom is the point and click game Phantasy Quest. I've only played the game once through myself, but I can see how this would be very useful. It requires logical thinking skills as well as language skills. You pick up items, use them as needed, explore the island, put together clues, etc. For this game specifically, the learning objectives would be somewhere along the lines of being able to follow and later describe a logical sequence of events, as well as learning some of the vocabulary that is present in the game (ex. ship wreck). With any sequence of event type activity, the consequences of actions can be looked at as well. In this game, the students are the key participants. The teacher would serve a more passive role in the lesson after explaining the purpose of it. Depending on the number of students and the resources, it can either be an individual or class based game. If I used the walk-through (provided by The Best "Fun" Online Video Games for English Language Development), I would do as the site suggests and pair up students. They would then compete to see who could complete the game first. If possible, I would pull some key images to talk about about the walk-through after each pair completed the game. To assess and see if the objectives were met, I would have the students, on an individual basis, write a general sequence of events of the game in their own words.

For learning to continue outside of the classroom setting, the game Trace Effects. I've played through part of it one time. It's similar to the point and click game talked about above. It requires an (free) account to be created for it to be played. The game is presented as an option to improve your English through play. As it is teaching English through the game, it is also exposing students to a variety of relevant, everyday topics in U.S society. It gives objectives that are to be met before the next step. Similar to what I've mentioned above, the objectives would be learning how to follow a sequence of directions/objectives and vocabulary. The game provides vocabulary practice from the different chapters to reinforce what is in each section as well as links to resources.To assess if learning has occurred, I would look through the vocabulary that the game presents and create an activity to assess their usage. Or I would design an activity like I did above that would have the students use this new vocabulary to lay out the sequence of events.

For both of the above games, sequence of events/logical thinking is very important. It's a skill that can be carried over from the L1, but the new skill is being able to follow directions and describe what happened in an L2. By utilizing this previous knowledge, it can hopefully make the students more comfortable with the concept because they might have been exposed to it.

Twitterchats: PD of the future?

A Twitter chat is a set time each week that a group of people use the same hashtag (#). Within this agreed upon hashtag, people can discuss various topics. The argument is that twitter and twitterchats can be used for professional development or in a classroom setting.

After attending my first Twitter chat (#langchat) on Thursday night, I have reaffirmed my belief that twitter is not for me. It was difficult for me to follow all of the various conversations that were occurring. It was just a constant stream of pieces of conversations. There were so many different dialogues occurring at the same time, and to see any of them, you had to individually go through them. It was quite chaotic to go through. Maybe other chats are set up in a more organized fashion, this I cannot say. In general, I'm not a supporter of Twitter. I think trying to convey an idea in 140 characters is extremely limited and can lead to many mis-communications. I will not be using Twitter for networking or professional development in the future.

For those of you that do like twitter and can get it past the web-filters in a school setting, here are some suggestions for the classroom. From 35 Interesting Ways* to Use Twitter in the Classroom:

• Let teachers follow what you are up to
• Twitter Poll
• Word Morph
• Word Play
• Monitor the learning process
• Twalter egos
• Twitter as a research 

From 60 Inspiring Examples of Twitter in the Classroom: 

• Silencing blurters
• Attendance reminders
• Digital faculty lounge
• Classroom notepad
• Twitter recaps
• Talking to career experts

I think that Twitter, if it's going to be used in the classroom, is more suited to college classes than middle school/high school. Many schools prohibit the use of phones and block social networking sites  like Twitter, at least the handful I've been in. I would not use Twitter in my own classroom, so I cannot offer any of my own ideas. If I wanted to use a social networking site, I would stick to something like Edmodo where ideas can be expanded upon, surveys can be taken, etc. 

Connectivism and Collaboration: The classroom of tomorrow

A learner is like an ever growing plant. There are the roots that every learner has, but you don't always know how they are going to form, what they will look like when they bloom, or how big it will get. A learner can keep acquiring new knowledge everyday, forming new ideas and applying them. As a leaner, it is important to connect with other like-minded people and continue to grow and acquire. That is where the concepts of connectivism and collaboration come into play. Connectivism is the idea that learning does not only happen within oneself, but though connections to other people and their ideas. Collaboration is working together to grow with the people that you connected with. George Siemens explore these concepts further. 

In the article Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens, he states that  "Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital." With technology developing and changing at an alarming rate, knowledge is more accessible and plentiful. Without the ability to distinguish between the important and unimportant information, a learner can become overwhelmed, regardless of the network the connect with.

In the video The Network is the Learning, George Siemens states: "The network that I create when I follow the writings of an individual...that particular network that I create, it is what enables me to  continue to stay current in my own field, and just with the trends that are occurring in the rest of society as well." Staying current is the utmost importance in the field of education. Educating the leaders of the future requires the teacher to be relevant so that students can be prepared for whichever situations they might be put in. That is why a teacher must network and connect to stay relevant. In addition to connecting, a teacher must incorporate technologies that promote connectivism and collaboration in the classroom setting. Students will need to acquire this skill early on in order to be successful.

The social networking site Maestros de Español provides a platform for Spanish teachers from all over, the chance to connect and share ideas. The site itself just requires a yahoo email, but to join is free and open. The pages that it has are clearly labeled along the top of the page for easy access. It provides links to various items that would be useful for the classroom, a countless number of files that have games, songs, etc., discussion posts, etc. The resources that a Spanish teacher would be able to use in their classroom setting, but is also a place for teachers to share ideas and collaborate as a community. This is one of the networks that I shall immerse myself in. Going back to what George said, this is one of the ways that I will try and stay current in my own field.