Game On

Over Christmas break, I had the opportunity to read the book Explore Like a Pirate: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners by Michael Maltera. It was a really amazing experience for me, as a life long gamer. I mean, I don't know if you know anything about me but here are the shelves my television sits on...

My (family's) growing Amiibo collection and slightly camouflaged PS4 and WiiU. 

While I had heard of gamification in the classroom, I had never really looked into it much because it was intimidating and I just got caught up with other ideas. However, as I read through the book I became increasingly excited. Maltera does an fantastic job of explaining all the game systems that he incorporates into his classroom. He lists the pros and cons of each concept, how to peek the interest of students who may not play a lot of games, and ideas; lots of ideas. For me though, I understood all of this. Experience points are something I have been earning in games since I was like 8. Playstation trophies, literally changed the way I played games for a few years making me want to try things I would not otherwise have done in games. Just yesterday, I got a new item in the Legend of Zelda that opened things up in a dungeon and made beating a boss so much easier. The question I kept asking myself was, why hadn't I ever considered doing this with my students?

A funny thing happened as I read the book though, the timeline kept moving forward. As I set out reading the book, I told my wife the earliest I would consider doing this was next year. When I read about the competition created by levels and leaderboards, I thought maybe it would be really good for standardized testing review. After the boss battle idea clicked, I put the book down and said, "The last nine weeks. The kids will need a good pick me up." My wife stopped reading her library book and playfully replied, "Shut up. Thursday. You will be doing this stuff in your room on Thursday." She was right. I conceded, finished the book, and had my four entry concepts ready to roll.

I introduced The Quest for the Shards of Light to my class on Thursday. Consequently, that was the same day I read about the blog for 30 challenge. So I have decided to use this space to reflect on our classes progress. If anyone is reading this, I hope you enjoy.  Join us on this quest.