Jonesytheteacher's N + 1

  • Authentic Assessment in PE
  • Powerful pedagogies for PE
  • Web Tools

Tag Archives: Gaming

Game on. Who’s with me?

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Brendan Jones Posted in Games for Learning, Inquiry, Learning, Popular culture, Technology .

Christmas saw Santa bring me Far Cry 4. I hadn’t played much in the way of these sorts of games in the past, and I’d just invested in a new gaming PC so I was keen to see what it looked like. Far Cry 4 is an open world action-adventure first-person shooter video game – you do kill lots of things and it is graphic, with adult themes. But the themes aren’t what captured my attention the more I got into it. What I repeatedly started thinking was – if only my classroom could be like a game.
I’ve had an amateurish crack at gamifying my teaching but it fizzled out due to lack of interest on the kid’s behalf, and my lack of knowledge. Partly because, in hindsight I was pretty ignorant about what game elements were and how they would work in a class. Badges aren’t the only thing from games that motivate people.

Since then I’ve been lucky enough to meet and mix with people that have given me some solid understandings of how games could work in teaching and learning. I’ve spoken and worked with people like Dean Groom, Bron Stuckey, Peggy Sheehy, Steve Isaacs and read about the work of Lucas Gillispie and Lee Sheldon. From them I learned that key game features like an engaging narrative, challenge (increasingly difficult levels of authentic quests and missions), player investment (physical, emotional and intellectual) in the experience, learning variability (game factors and skill development) , learning flow (losing track of time, being cocooned), goals and rules, instant feedback systems, the role of failure and resilience – these are what need to be considered in using game elements in teaching. (And incidentally- aren’t these all the things we want our lessons to have?)

Playing Far Cry gave me all these experiences. I was in the zone constantly.I might start at 7 in the evening, look at the clock and it was 1 am! I became intrigued by the narrative and found piecing the fragments of story to make a bigger picture to be very cool. I could choose where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do

Map

The notion that good acts are rewarded.

Karma

Continuous problem solving, where some tasks looked the same as the last time I did it, but needed a variation to successfully complete. The sense of satisfaction at beating a mission after constantly failing. The hunt for resources that I could then sell to move my existing abilities into areas I wanted them to go.

Search

The ability to craft something new to suit my needs. The chance to work with others on missions (co op play).  (And incidentally- aren’t these all the things we want our kids to experience in our lessons?)

So I’m playing with the idea of making one class this year an open world action adventure classroom. The aims, goals and win conditions will be relatively easy to work out – they’ll come from my syllabus. A scoring and reward system is needed – I have my eye on 3D GameLab for that. The most work intensive thing will be creating the task, missions and narrative that underpin the game/class. I would love to work with people that want to build something like this and use it themselves. Who’s with me?

 

Share
5 Comments .
Tags: engagement, Far Cry, Gaming, Inquiry, learning .

My tilt at gaming theory engagement in PE

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Brendan Jones Posted in teacherstuff .

As most PE teachers would agree, you can never quite get all kids active in the one lesson. It might be that some kids don’t like the activity, its too hot, too cold etc etc. I guess its always been my quest to get everyone involved and engaged in the work that we do in class.

Recently I’ve initiated something in our school’s Year 10 HPE classes that I see as a 21st Century approach to this challenge.

I had read a question in a thread in the DET Yammer feed asking about a rewards system to record and display positive behaviour.

This got me thinking. I’d seen positive behaviour charts work to engage and motivate students. Why couldn’t it be ramped up, 21st Century style,to include gaming based rewards and get it to work in HPE lessons as well?

The birth and growth of the concept was done in a 21st Century way too. The foundations were laid in a collaborative Google Doc, where HPE teachers (worldwide as it happens) were invited to contribute to a list of possible achievement levels or badges that could be awarded in PE lessons. The link for that embryonic document is here.

To make it an achievement based strategy, the progression path had to be established. This I took to Twitter again, and then to my staff, the people who would be making it work. The discussion draft of the Achievement Levels and Badges looked like this.

The poster we made to advertise the scheme and put around the school looks like this

The teacher record sheets, where the achievements are marked off, look like this.

We will award small badges and certificates to mark the achievements and levels.

The measure of success with this scheme will be two fold, we hope. Apart from marks (which we have to collect), I’m looking for anectodal and hard evidence that kids are motivated to engage more generally with PE lessons. Whether that’s because of  the sense of achievement provided by the scheme, or otherwise, I endeavour to determine that by surveying the kids.

I’ll admit, staff are cautious in their expectations (read – dubious it will work). But I’m willing to bet it will get more than a few in. It’s early days yet, but if the interest already amongst the kids is anything to go by, exciting times could be ahead. I’ll keep you posted.

What do you think? Is there a place for gaming based strategies in PE?

Share
3 Comments .
Tags: 21st Century, activity, engagement, Gaming, GBL, HPE .

Stay Sun Safe!

I use Strava

Categories

  • 21st Century Learning
  • Change
  • Cycling
  • Games for Learning
  • GoPro
  • Health Education
  • Imagination
  • Inquiry
  • Leading
  • Learning
  • Minecraft
  • Mobile technology
  • Outdoors
  • Pedagogy
  • Physical education
  • Popular culture
  • teacherstuff
  • Technology
  • Toolkit
  • Uncategorized

Tags

#derlibs #libsder #pegeeks 21st Century blogging Change collaboration create DER engagement fitness games games sense Gaming GBL GPS Inquiry iPhone leadership leading learning mobile mobile phones mobiles Moodle paperless PDF PDHPE PE pedagogy Physical education PLN professional learning QR reflection resources Runkeeper SCORM sharing technology Testing tools Twitter video Web 2.0

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 3,340 other subscribers

I back Glenworth Valley MTB Park

Fundraising with GoGetFunding

Pages

  • Authentic Assessment in PE
  • Powerful pedagogies for PE
  • Web Tools

Archives

  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • August 2011
  • June 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009

Categories

  • 21st Century Learning (1)
  • Change (8)
  • Cycling (1)
  • Games for Learning (12)
  • GoPro (1)
  • Health Education (2)
  • Imagination (1)
  • Inquiry (12)
  • Leading (13)
  • Learning (21)
  • Minecraft (2)
  • Mobile technology (5)
  • Outdoors (1)
  • Pedagogy (12)
  • Physical education (25)
  • Popular culture (5)
  • teacherstuff (62)
  • Technology (14)
  • Toolkit (1)
  • Uncategorized (17)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© Jonesytheteacher's N + 1