My experience with Games and Gamification

 (Just putting something out there just in case, reminder I wasn't in the class we discussed about this topic)

https://www.elfie.co/knowledge/the-gamification-of-healthcare-emergence-of-the-digital-practitioner


Whilst I can't answer Prompt 1 as I wasn't there, I have actually made games in the past at Wash during my (advanced) Video Game Marketing and Design classes. Actually, I don't really think that matters a lot, not exactly the kind of game we're talking about, games more like the fancy number cards I saw in my CT classroom where they have a picture of a rube goldberg machine and 2 numbers that follow some sort of pattern. 

I was assigned to the group of Marshmallow Tower Building, where students would build a tower out of marshmallows and toothpicks. Funny thing about this game is that i've actually played it before, I think in Amy's class, and it definitely requires great communication to build an awesome tower, but that is also dependent on the marshmallow, some MMs are bigger and by nature allow more toothpicks and thus less reasons to communicate because there is enough Marshmallow to go around for everyone. You want to achieve an effect through the game as naturally as possible, or at least that's what my process would be. So if you want to facilitate communication to achieve a goal, how do you make it natural to want to communicate whilst not being too potentially frustrating? Do you change the toothpicks, MMs, and other resources like glue, paper? It's really tough to balance all that out.

I've talked about this example of Gamification before but its the most memorable for me because it fooled me, an 18 year old at the time. This Ghoulish, Garish, Devilish Penguin game that was for Math I think. This game frustrated my little brother intensely, and it wasn't because of the content, the game wasn't malfunctioning, but the game communicated instruction so poorly that I didn't even know what to do half of the time, the way you interacted with the game to get the answer CONSTANTLY changed, sometimes you have to click on Ice cubes to add up to get 7, sometimes however, you had to CLICK ON THE SEVENTH ICE CUBE because that was also seven. Sometimes you were adding blocks for your little penguin to walk on but other times you would subtract ice cubes and then the penguin would walk across transparent cubes instead? This wouldn't have been too bad if there weren't LIVES, if you got the wrong answer to many times, you would restart the entire level, which could be like 10+ randomized questions long. IT WAS BRUTAL!

Comments

  1. LisaMarch 6, 2024 at 9:44 AM

    Poor Penguin planning! Games need easy to follow, explicit instruction (especially if they're self-driven drill-based games like this math game!).

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connections I've Made

 So, I have been sick with Influenza A for the first two days of student teaching, luckily for me, I had recovered enough to go in on Friday! I had prepared a "Get To Know Me" Slide show for the students to view. I put on there pictures of my dogs and my family and my Job at SpareTime, we had fun and had a time at the end for the students to ask questions. The way my CT set was very interesting, She had them stand up and give me their names,  however, on a few of them, of course I've been practicing their names, so I accidentally blurt out a couple while doing the questions, one kid even looked at me with the side eye and stated, "You already knew my name".  We had a really good opportunity to do a bonding activity when I suggested using DannyGo during our "Fit break". A few kids already knew about it, but some were seeing it for the first time, and some were acting like they weren't having it, but once me AND Kris got into it, all of the class was...
Read more

Goodbyes and transitions

     Goodbyes are always bittersweet but mostly sweet, I think of it like coming to the end of a large journey, all the hard work has finally paid off. But you will miss all the friends, the students, you made along the way. I always get a little teary eyed as I see my students walk in the classroom for the last time during my placements, but it always gets easier near the end of my time on the last day, the sense of accomplishment will always motivate me to go again!      I have a tradition for my placements, questions are part of being a teacher. Students will talk to you and ask about your interests. I give them the opportunity to do this at the beginning and end of the placements. I don't really want a big party or event or anything like that because I feel to pressured to make it so amazing that it keeps any and all sad emotions down, but then my CT has to deal with the fallout, so I keep it simple and clean.      For this placement, I u...
Read more

Staff Development and Other Professional Areas

     Currently, I have been to quite a few PLC meetings and have had the opportunity to go to some student and staff leadership meetings. At Kenwood, it is called the Student Lighthouse. At our last two meetings, we discussed who the winners were for our fundraiser, what rewards are available, and how the students want to do jobs around the school. Jobs like cleaning, or the message of the day, or student goals. I learned that my CT was the Fun Brain and one of our 5th grade teachers is the Logic Brain, it was nice to see how the communicate and I plan to try and sit in on their meetings so that I can get all of the details on our fun run!     One of the professional areas that I would like to observe and understand better is the behavioral and special education professionals in the field. A long time ago in high school I was actually in a class where you were partnered up with exceptional students and play games and work with them in a PE setting. I actually re...
Read more