Sometimes choosing a theme for a unit can help students get into their learning. I suggest trying a Minecraft theme. Even if you do not have Minecraft or MinecraftEDU for your classroom you can still create Minecraft themed activities. You could theme a math unit around the Minecraft blocks or ask students to do fictional writing using a character in… Read More »Try a Minecraft Theme
Gamification and badges are something we see in many settings outside of school. Essentially a badge is micro certificate to visibly recognize accomplishment of something. In the classroom, badges can be used to recognize students mastering content, to reinforce classroom behaviors such as timeliness and homework completion, and for encouraging students to extend themselves beyond minimum requirements. Extrinsic or Intrinsic Gamification… Read More »Badges and Intrinsic Motivation
If you are providing a professional development workshop you may want to consider trying to gamify the event. I have created a template using Google Sheets that allows you to create a list of activities the PD participants will engage in. Assign a difficulty level, XP points and a badge to each task. As the participants complete the activities they… Read More »Gamify Your PD: Badges and Level Up
Last week many classrooms are participating in the hour of code. Even Kindergarten teachers are doing the hour of code! Exposing students to programming provides them not only with a valuable skill but enhances their critical thinking skills. There are many ways you can get your students started with programming. For younger students check out the hopscotch app for iOS. Scratch… Read More »GameSalad – Creating Video Games Without Coding
Thinking about adding badges to your class? There are many ways to award students badges including using Class Badges. If you would like to organize your own badges here is a system you may want to try that uses Google Sheets. Google Drive Create a new spreadsheet in Google Drive (http://drive.google.com). Create a list of badges. You may want to… Read More »Creating Badges with Google Sheets
Players of video games learn how to strategize and how to perform sometimes complex actions in order to achieve a goal. I believe we can all learn to engage students through studying video games. Here are 5 things we can learn from video games and adapt to the classroom. 1) Players Do Not Read Directions In school we tend to give… Read More »5 Things Teachers Can Learn From Video Games
If you have thought about adding an element of gamification to your classroom, having students level up might be fun to do. How do you do this….. The answer is always a spreadsheet 🙂 Create a Spreadsheet In Google Drive (http://drive.google.com) create a new Google Sheets. New Tab In the bottom left of Google Sheets is a plus icon to… Read More »Gamification: Creating a Level Up for Your Students
Second Life is a 3D virtual space where each player has an avatar that has the ability to explore the world. Second Life is free to use, although you are able to purchase virtual items within the space. Second Life is a tool that could be utilized in the classroom. A caution is the required bandwidth and computer processing power. Second… Read More »Second Life in Education
What is nice about a digital environment is the ability to differentiate. Google Classroom allows you to build a set of resources for a single assignment. This makes it possible to offer students choices as to how they access the information or how the student would like to address the assignment. Learning Outcomes. Rather than focusing on the directions for… Read More »Using Google Classroom to Differentiate Assignments
Image Credit: Quia This article was originally published on Edutopia on June 4th, 2014 Game-based learning (GBL) and gamification are hot topics in education. These terms are often used interchangeably, but they actually describe different phenomena. GBL is when students play games to learn content. Gamification is the application of game based elements to non-game situations. Playing games can give… Read More »Beyond the Worksheet: Playsheets, GBL, and Gamification
This years Horizon report is out. If you are not familiar with the Horizon report it is a document put out by the New Media Consortium each year that looks at what technology is on the horizon. It looks at trends in education and what technologies are up and coming. The report does not just list toys that will be… Read More »2014 Horizon Report K12 Edition
If you are curious about Game Based Learning and Gamification in Education I invite you to join me for the Serious Play Conference which is at USC in Southern California this year. July 22nd – 24th. The day before the conference are some dive deeper all day workshops. One of the workshops focuses on integrating games in the K-12 classroom.… Read More »Summer Workshop on Integrating Games in the K12 Classroom
Recently I downloaded the Blek game onto my iOS device (android is coming). I have really enjoyed playing this game due to it’s unique gameplay. The objective is to draw a pattern with an ink line and to hit all of the colored dots. The pattern you draw loops infinitely. The line will bounce off of the sides. The top… Read More »Blek Game – Learn by Failure
Laser Sharp What is the difference between an 87 and an 88 on a paper? Do we as educators have the ability to be so laser sharp with our assessment that there is a difference? How about between an 89 and a 90. Same gap, yet a completely different assessment. B+ vs an A. Do you grade with the… Read More »Abusing Students with Math
For my doctoral program I am part of a cohort. This means that all of us have the same assignments that need to be completed. We have found that it is motivating to know that someone in the cohort has completed a task, thus lighting a fire under other cohort members. We created a Google spreadsheet to keep track of… Read More »To-Do List Competition: Level UP