The NCOE has gamified their Ed Tech training program and I’ve been participating in that, I also participate in various gamified systems when I shop at places like Starbucks and Safeway. Although I tend to be choosey since I don’t want every corporation out there to have a record of what I’m buying and when attached to my identifying info.
When it comes to games in the classroom students are mostly using what they are directed to by teachers, but outside of the classroom they are using gamified systems too. My students are using a lot of the same kind of shopping gamification/rewards systems that I do. Buy something and get a reward in your app, the more you buy, the more you earn (ex: Starbucks.) In the classroom my students are really enjoying Cool Math Games and Free Rice, both award points for correct academic answers. I use Class Dojo with them, but really I interact with that system more than they do.
I found a site called Chorewars, that I'm looking to maybe incorporate into my classroom. It's designed for getting kids to do chores at home, but I'm looking at ways to adapt it to classwork at school. Maybe even have students use it to track work within their group projects.
I think more parts of our daily lives are gamified than we realize. Nearly every shopping chain has it’s own customer rewards program. Even in “pre-tech” days many stores and shops had the buy 10 get 1 free punch cards. Banks and credit cards have instituted rewards systems as well as increasingly gamifying their customer websites. Gyms and personal training apps have programs designed to track and reward workouts and weightloss.
TAGS: 702, HW, Gamification