Same Course, New Heading

About a week ago I had several meetings with heads of department in the university along with Rob Kurta my module tutor and a handful of other professionals in education and while speaking with them I decided id gather some feedback on my progress with this project. Rather than just bullet point back my responses (which I am proud to say were all positive) I am going to point out course corrections to my project and back them up with the feedback given.

Firstly and most importantly is the shift in what I am going to be producing at the end of my project. After speaking with Dr Erica Joslin (Head of department for children, young people and education) I have decided to make the move from producing singular gamified worksheets to instead producing a gamification tool kit. This tool kit will be a pipeline which will enable educators (specifically in primary education) to take their own existing worksheets and gamify them. I will still be producing the worksheets, however this will not be my end product, simply a form of example and testing.

This also leads on to another point from the same meeting, field feedback. Dr Joslin has kindly offered that in February she will put me in contact with teacher trainees whose focus is teaching science at upper key stage 2 and allow me to pass on my preliminary kit for field testing. This will allow me to gather detailed feedback on how user friendly the kit will be as well as give in depth pointers in regards to educators and learners needs which I may have missed. This also means that I will be amending my projected time table. The new timetable can be seen below.

All other aspects of my project shall remain the same, focusing on KS2 students as they have a curriculum which open to far greater gamification avenues. When looking at secondary education, gamification can still be applied however the work needs to be structured to a far greater extent, however most of the elements from my proposed tool kit will not be exclusive to KS2 and so can still be used to an extent in other aspects. I however will only be focusing on KS2 for this project and any cross applicable elements will be purely coincidental.

Many existing tool kits are very word heavy and provide plenty of guidance however these can be a chore to read in themselves and I want this to be as painless for the educators using it as the worksheets produced are for the learners. I will use my knowledge of pipelines in game design and form an end product based around this style of direction. I am looking to produce documents for analysing worksheets, for choosing which game elements to use, examples of elements in games and in gamification and examples of class delivery. I am also looking at providing information on resources that can be accessed by educators to aid in increasing interaction and engagement within the class room. Lastly I want to include some example structures for homework and assessment of learners.  

PROJECT MILESTONES

21 - 25 Dec	Xmas Break	Consolidation of findings so far and creation of gamification pipeline outline along with gamification design document.
28 Dec - 1 Jan
4 - 8 Jan
11 - 15 Jan		Produce a preliminary draft of the pipeline along with sections that require attention
18 - 22 Jan		Flesh out and iterate pipeline, ensure that all wordings are clear and concise.
25 - 29 Jan	Week 13	Sprint week five. Consolidate elements, readings and findings and prepare for presentation week while further iterations continue.
1 - 5 Feb	Week 14	Seminar Presentation Week Annalise feedback and create a feedback path for when I field test my kit.
8 - 12 Feb	Week 15	I will produce a full pipeline document/tool kit ready for first distribution. I will contact Dr Joslin to arrange a meeting with the teacher trainees. At this point I will be looking into any digital elements if deemed required.
15 - 19 Feb	Week 16	Further iterations, further assessment based on feedback from the field. Focus this week will be on ensuring all elements still tie together.
22 - 26 Feb	Week 17	I will assess further needs, further improvements and write a final plan to incorporate  and implement them
29 Feb - 4 Mar	Week 18	Further iteration, The project will be approaching   its final form by this point and is just being polished.
7 - 11 Mar	Week 19	As previous week.
14 - 18 Mar	Week 20	Final assessment week before elements are finalized and materials are brought together for the final time.
21 - 25 Mar	Easter Break	Focus on polishing up any digital elements that may have been produced.
28 Mar - 1 Apr	Easter Break	Further polish to digital elements as required.
4 - 8 Apr		Final design phase. Tweak any elements which remain unnecessary or are not achieving the required outcome from final feedback.
11 - 15 Apr	Week 21	Continue to tweak elements. Use core design readings to maximize this final development step.
18 - 22 Apr	Week 22	Package all materials together into the final, deliverable product.
25 Apr - 29 Apr	Week 23	Contingency week to allow for unforeseen setbacks in development
2 - 6 May	Week 24	Contingency week to allow for unforeseen setbacks in development

Gamification Tool Kit: Poll Everywhere

I wanted to include this post as it shows some of the tools I have been discovering throughout my studies. This time it is a free to join and use website called Poll Everywhere. This is an online service in which polls can be taken live at any time as long as you have an internet connection and the answers can be submitted via text message. In terms of gamification, technologies such as iPad's and other text or web browser devices can be used in the class room to submit answers to open questions. A plugin for Microsoft Powerpoint is also available which when installed automatically opens polls which update in real time. The free account I have set up is limited in how it can be used but I will run through the basic functions below and then elaborate on what the paid service can offer.

First of all head over to www.polleverywhere.com to set up an account. After that you can start setting up poll questions. First of all is a basic poll. as shown below:

Wright a question, choose the answers and click create

Viewers can then follow the on screen instructions to submit an answer. Settings can be changed to enable multiply submissions or restrict it to one per user. Short keys and usernames can be customised if you have a paid subscription.

Then there are Open Ended polls where viewers can post any text they like. This can be used for ideas and statements relating to a question or problem posed. Submissions can be organised in the four above ways.

Responses are displayed on screen like this using the Cluster format. With a paid subscription you can automatically censor text input to omit foul language or have responses entirely monitored and not displayed on the screen until authorised by the presenter.

Brainstorms can be used in the above ways. Q&A can be used for an audience to submit questions for a panel to answer or for Brainstorming any ideas can be posted on the board.

Responses can be seen above and once posted other users/viewers can up or down vote the ideas to show who agrees etc.

And finally there is the picture poll. This can be used to select individual pictures OR can have a single picture with checkable areas. In learning this can be used to identify elements of a diagram for example. 

Through this tool a lot of doors open for use in the class room. I plan on using this service in upcoming events and also including it within my final product if its use is positively received in testing.

References

Text message (SMS) polls and voting, audience response system | Poll Everywhere. 2015. Text message (SMS) polls and voting, audience response system | Poll Everywhere. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.polleverywhere.com/. [Accessed 13 December 2015].

Learning Theories: Scaffolding in Games

Many elements from games can be directly linked to existing learning theories. For this post I want to focus on the theory of scaffolding and its gamification links in practice.

Scaffolding is a learning tool that teachers can put in place for learners to help them increase their learning potential and reach goals previously perceived as impossible. As its name suggests it is only intended to be a temporary measure to help a learner reach the next logical learning tier, and as such is designed to be removed as the learner progresses towards that goal.

Many games are already built with this structure in place. A player is taken on a journey of learning as they explore and experiment within the confines of the games rules. When a player is introduced to something new, be it a game, level or mechanic, they are given help in the form of tutorials, hints, and clues to help them master the new skill required to complete the game. These elements are all elements which can be added strategically when gamifying learning.

There are many examples of this out there but I would like to share a perpetually noteworthy example from the game Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo 2013) on the Nintendo Wii U. Koichi Hayashida (Co-Director of Super Mario 3D World) has developed a "level design philosophy" that allows for new mechanics to be introduced, learnt, and mastered by a player very quickly. He uses a 4 step approach which he says is inspired by a Japanese narrative structure called Kishōtenketsu, used in four line Japanese poems and four cell Japanese manga. First of all the mechanic or idea is introduced in a safe environment. Then it is developed by removing the safety net or support that was previously present. The idea or mechanic then adds a twist by either changing an aspect of the mechanic, the way its presented or by adding something else (usually collecting or another mechanic) and is then finished off with one last opportunity to show off player mastery of the new skill to conclude. 

Below is a brief step by step of this formula in action from the game Super Mario 3D World's Level Cakewalk Flip (Nintendo 2013).

Firstly the mechanic is introduced. In this case the panels flip every time Mario jumps. The player is immediately presented with these panels on screen when level starts. A small jump is set prior to reaching the panels to demonstrate how they work.

  

These first panels have a platform below them as a safety net. If the player falls when getting to grips with these panels they wont loose a life. This is a form of support for the player.

Then the mechanic is developed by first removing the safety net.

And then giving visual clues as to other ways the panels can be used. In this instance they are used to ascend an otherwise insurmountable wall, further establishing the concept in the players mind.

Then once the mechanic has been firmly established and developed, a twist is presented. In this situation the player has to negotiate the flip panels while jumping over the harmful blast wave from the bumper enemy in the centre. This bumper enemy was also established in the same way earlier in the level. The optional addition to this, if a player is feeling brave or wants to push themselves, is to grab the green star to add another mechanic, collecting green tokens positioned over the panels (not shown).

Finally the player is brought to the conclusion of the level where a final and safe "flag pole" sequence can be used to show of their mastery of the new mechanics and skills.

These steps allow Nintendo to introduce new ideas, have them mastered by the player and then throw them away in as little as 5 minuets, only to be brought back entire worlds later and have you easily pick them back up again.

 Similarly to how the story telling narrative has been adapted to fit level design, This style of level design can be transposed over to the classroom and used to help learners pick up and master new knowledge, concepts, and skills. I propose to use this style of scaffolding narrative creation to help learners and support them while studying the materials I produce. This means not only can my gamification project improve engagement and motivation but also potentially expand the range of learning to each individual student.

To see the full video on how Nintendo achieved this please visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmIkEvEBtA

References

Game Maker’s Toolkit (2015) Game maker’s Toolkit - super Mario 3D world's 4 step level design. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBmIkEvEBtA (Accessed: 13 December 2015).

Nintendo 2013, Super Mario 3D World, video game, Wii U, Nintendo, Japan.

Kapp, K. and Learning, G. of (2014) Gamification of learning. Available at: http://www.lynda.com/Higher-Education-tutorials/Gamification-Learning/173211-2.html (Accessed: 10 November 2015).


Instructional scaffolding to improve learning (no date) Available at: http://www.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/strategies/instructional_scaffolding_to_improve_learning.pdf (Accessed: 13 December 2015).

Kishōtenketsu (2015) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish%C5%8Dtenketsu (Accessed: 13 December 2015).

Nutt, C. (2012) The structure of fun: Learning from super Mario 3D land ’s director. Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/168460/the_structure_of_fun_learning_.php (Accessed: 13 December 2015).

Structural Gamification

Karl Kapp (2015) states that "structural gamification is the application of game elements to propel a learner through content, with no alterations or changes to the content". This means that structural gamification is formed around pre existing content in order to help motivate an engage learners within both within the class room and outside the class room.

Common game elements linked with this form of gamification are points, scoring, levels, badges, and accolades. These can be seen all over everyday life and most of which, will be overlooked as they have been carefully applied in an intelligent and meaningful way. A good example of this would be store club card points. These points are usually accumulated by purchasing items in store or online with points directly linked to the amount spent. You are then rewarded with money off or other incentives when you reach certain goals. These types of elements should be used to unlock or gain additional things and not a requirement, else the learner feels punished for not knowing the answer and it will inevitably lead to loss of interest and engagement.

Some of these elements can be applied outside of the classroom to homework or other activities. An example given again by Karl Kapp is to have an app on the learners smart device or computer which offers a question a day. If the learner gets the question right they earn points which are posted to an online leader board that the students can keep track of. If the learner gets the question wrong however, they would be immediately presented with a short instructional piece or slide on the topic. This activity need only take 30 to 60 seconds each day, can be performed as part of a lesson or outside of class, and can be used to see where problem areas occur in the form of compiled feedback from the apps.

As easy as structural gamification may seem to add on to materials points badges and leader board's (PBL's), when applied liberally with no thought or intelligence it will quickly become boring and ultimately short lived. Doing five 30 second quiz's every day would rapidly become a chore as would earning points for every little thing you do. Learners points and scores require meaning. A learner should be proud of their points and wish to share them with friends both in and out of school, this is perhaps the hardest mentality's to nurture and therefore great attention should be given when applying such theories into practice. Learners should be encouraged via these PBL's to engage with internal learning while being externally incentivised to increase motivation.



References

Kapp, K. and Learning, G. of (2014) Gamification of learning. Available at: http://www.lynda.com/Higher-Education-tutorials/Gamification-Learning/173211-2.html (Accessed: 9 December 2015).

Kapp, K. M. (2012) The Gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education. 1st edn. San Francisco, CA: Wiley, John & Sons.

Narrative Mapping

Today I have been reading narrative mapping. This is a process in which to map out learning outcomes and structure lessons to optimise motivation in students. The mapping focuses on three distinct areas:

Mastery:       The desire to become good or better at any given skill.
Autonomy:   The ability to put our own unique mark on something.
Purpose:       The clearly defined reason for learning something.

The idea is to first write down on paper the above three criteria, then write down activities within the class. Then in turn draw lines from each area to each activity and write on the lines, what skill will be learned and mastered, How can students have autonomy and why would students do the activity?

Once this has been done the triple mind map that has just been created can be a bit of a mess, so it is best to place it into a table in chronological order.

Below is the examples given by the article from Imagination Facilitation.


Shown below is my version taking two activities from the first worksheet and mapping them with the table below that.




This already conforms to some of what I have included in my first worksheet. However when I move to future worksheets I will use this narrative mapping to help guide the gamification process.

References

Hansen, K. (2015) Narrative Mapping.

My Project Proposal and Future Meetings

I recently submitted my project proposal and rationale for assessment and received the green light to continue. I thought I would take this time to post it here on my blog also. This is by no means the final form of the project however it is what I will be aiming for and only amending aspects as and when issues arise.

Student Name:

Darren Williams

Proposed Final Project Title:

The Gamification of a Curriculum: Can a slice of the national curriculum be successfully gamified?

Brief Outline of Work:

I plan to take a slice of the National Curriculum for Upper Key Stage 2 and gamifying its delivery to see if it can improve motivation, engagement and retention of knowledge in students. The slice I have chosen is on the subject of forces from the science section for year 5 students taken from the 2013 National Curriculum for England (DfEE, 2013).

I will be exploring the different kinds of gamification delivery methods available and using my findings to produce a package of materials, tools and a structure, which can be delivered to students over several one hour sessions and include scope for homework. The pack will be comprised of pre-existing worksheets and lesson plans which have been gamified along with any other digital content that may become part of the gamified structure.

This will all be contained within a gamified arc that will aim to engage students outside of lesson time making use of systems such as point/reward schemes (Kapp, 2012) and/or tangential learning (Portnow, 2008). 

I wish to be marked on my ability to gamify materials while staying conformed to the national curriculum. My ability to construct lesson and module plans, my ability to create easy to use tuition delivery tools and my ability to bring innovative methods to increase student engagement.

Rationale For The Project.

Growing up I suffered greatly with dyslexia and subsequently found it very hard to engage with most classroom content while studying at school. After years of “special needs” assistance and assessments I finally found out that this engagement issue came down to how the learning was facilitated. If I was doing something hands on or if there was some form of tangible incentive, then I would engage fully and retain the information better than if I was just being show slides or a whiteboard.

On top of this I am also very keen to break into the field of teaching and I have an interest in both primary and higher education. After researching into job posts based around these areas I have found that the most frequent requirement of which I do not have, yet can obtain through this project is the ability to design, implement and assess subject materials that conform to a curriculum.

Some examples of agencies and posts that require these are Just Teachers, Cambridge Science Centre, All Nottingham Secondary School, Morgan Hunt, Protocol National, Class People, teaching assistants, game design lecturers and key stage 2 science teachers for further information on these positions and what they look for in an candidate, you can see my analysis on my blog found at http://darrenwilliamsgamificationlearning.blogspot.co.uk/ . Taking all of this into account, I decided to look into the gamification of learning. After more research I found a lot of information on gamification of instruction from different businesses and eventually came across Karl Kapp and his gamification series on Lynda.com which I used to ask myself a question whether I could deliver a set of lessons within a gamified structure to help students in the same situation as I was in, engage with the course materials and retain information delivered to them.

Annotated Bibliography:

	TEXT	SUMMARY
	Karl M. Kapp, 2012. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Training and Education. 1 Edition. Pfeiffer.	This book is a well of information on gamification and development. It will be one of my primary sources of information while working on this project. So far I have used the information from the readings to scope my project and create a time line.
	Karl M. Kapp, 2013. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice. 1 Edition. Pfeiffer.	This is the second book by Karl Kapp and builds upon ideas from the first book. It is means as more of a practical reference guide.
	Brathwaite, B., Schreiber, I. and Media, C. R. (2009) Challenges for game designers. 1st edn. Boston, MA: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.	This is the game designer’s bible. I will be using this for game elements, mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. There is a lot more in this useful sections that will emerge as the project progresses.
	Schell, J. (2008) The art of game design: A book of lenses. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann.	This is another staple on any game designer’s shelf. I will be using this reading to aid me with game elements and mechanics, themes, narratives, iterative cycle, player (student) experience and, if I produce a digital element, user interfaces.
	Planning the Primary National Curriculum: A Complete Guide for Trainees and Teachers 2015, , Ringgold Inc, Beaverton.	This book is a guide to planning out the lessons and the national curriculum. I will be using this book to help me become familiar with the way in which curriculums and lessons are formed to ensure I keep the project academic. It will also teach me some more of the skills I would require in a teaching post.
	Kapp, K. and Learning, G. of (2014) Gamification of learning. Available at: http://www.lynda.com/Higher-Education-tutorials/Gamification-Learning/173211-2.html (Accessed: 10 November 2015).	This is the gamification of learning modal from Karl Kapp found at Lynda.com. This is a series of video lectures on the gamification of learning and (due to my aforementioned dyslexia) will aid me in keeping focus and context when reading the books as well as giving other useful exercises in gamification.
	Wallace, I. and Kirkman, L. (2014) Pimp your lesson!: Prepare, innovate, motivate and perfect. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.	This text helps plan lesson structure and assessments.
	Driscoll, P., Lambirth, A. and Roden, J. (eds.) (2015) The primary curriculum: A creative approach. United Kingdom: SAGE Publications.	This book discusses good working practice across all teaching of the primary national curriculum in England. I helps me to understand more fully the national curriculum and how to work within its constraints.
	Ward, H., Hewlett, C., Foreman, J. and Roden, J. (2005) Teaching science in the primary classroom A practical guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Paul Chapman Educational Publishing.	This book provides advice on teaching science to primary school children as well as further advice on assessments etc.
	Harlen, W. (2005) Teaching, learning and assessing science 5 - 12. London: Sage Publications.	This book I will use to learn about how children learn science and the goals set out in science. It covers topics such as peer and self-assessment, core skills and it also covers motivation in science learning for children 5 - 12
	DfEE (2013) The National Curriculum HMSO.	This is the national curriculum from 2013 which I have taken my slice from. This also contains information on what knowledge the students already have and additional learning outcomes.
	Extra Credits (2012) Extra Credits - Tangential Learning - How Games Can Teach Us While We Play. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQrTHrwyxQ (Accessed: 9 October 2015).	This video introduced me to some interesting points on gamification and educational games. It speaks mostly of tangential learning which is a component I am hoping to use in the overall gamified structure.
	Enders, B., Kapp, K. and The eLearning Guild Research (2013) ‘Gamification, Games, And Learning: What Managers and Practitioners Need to Know’, Hot Topics.	This reading contains research on gamification as well as game elements, design considerations and examples of learning solutions using game mechanics, elements and thinking.

PROJECT MILESTONES

2015-16		MILESTONE DELIVERABLES AND TASKS
9 - 13 Nov	Week 7	FINAL SUBMISSION OF PROJECT PROPOSAL FRIDAY 13TH DECEMBER 12:00 AM
16 - 20 Nov	Week 8	Analyze learning outcomes and aim to answer the three questions noted above in step 1
23 - 27 Nov	Week 9	Identify types of content and take the learning outcomes to link them to game elements and gamified mechanics
30 Nov - 4 Dec	Week 10	I aim to hold a meeting between myself, relevant lecturers and subject experts who are to be sourced prior to this week. Then to have all of the knowledge and relevant information distilled and written up into a Gamification Design Document
7 - 11 Dec	Week 11	Link the learning outcomes, in-game activities and assessment of learning to each other and start my first weeks sprint with paper prototyping of the gamified elements attained from previous weeks
14- 18 Dec	Week 12	Sprint week two, continued iteration of paper prototyping of gamified elements. Assessment of previous weeks findings and further readings into gamification
21 - 25 Dec	Xmas Break	Reading and analysis. No official sprint.
28 Dec - 1 Jan
4 - 8 Jan
11 - 15 Jan		Sprint week three. Re assess the project, check that scope is still attainable and start production of completed elements. (if able, I will pass out the product so far for testing and feedback in a live class.
18 - 22 Jan		Sprint week four. Continued iteration of product with recent readings and feedback in mind.
25 - 29 Jan	Week 13	Sprint week five. Consolidate elements, readings and findings ready for presentation week while further iterations continue.
1 - 5 Feb	Week 14	Seminar Presentation Week
8 - 12 Feb	Week 15	Sprint week six. Using feedback from presentations I will re-assess the materials and incorporate guidance. At this point I will be looking to create any digital elements I deem necessary.
15 - 19 Feb	Week 16	Sprint week seven. Further iterations, further assessment. Focus this week will be on ensuring all elements still tie together, work in tandem and conform to the curriculum.
22 - 26 Feb	Week 17	Sprint week eight. This week I will attempt further live classroom testing of the materials for further analyses. I will then assess further needs, further improvements and wright a final plan to incorporate  and implement them
29 Feb - 4 Mar	Week 18	Sprint week nine. Further iteration, The project will be approaching its final form by this point and is just being polished.
7 - 11 Mar	Week 19	Sprint week ten. As previous week.
14 - 18 Mar	Week 20	Final assessment week before elements are finalized and materials are brought together for the final time.
21 - 25 Mar	Easter Break	Further assessment if unable to the week prior. Focus on polishing up any digital elements that are required.
28 Mar - 1 Apr	Easter Break	Further polish to digital elements as required.
4 - 8 Apr		Final design phase. Sprint week eleven. Tweak any elements which remain unnecessary or are not achieving the required outcome from final feedback.
11 - 15 Apr	Week 21	Sprint week twelve. Continue to tweak elements. Use core design readings to maximize this final development step.
18 - 22 Apr	Week 22	Sprint week thirteen Package all materials together into the final, deliverable product.
25 Apr - 29 Apr	Week 23	Contingency week to allow for unforeseen setbacks in development
2 - 6 May	Week 24	Contingency week to allow for unforeseen setbacks in development
FRIDAY 13TH MAY 12:00 AM SUBMISSION OF FINAL PRODUCT AND BLOG

The above time line I will be sticking to as closely as possible, however Week 10 has been pushed back to next week and the week after. On the 11th of December I will be meeting with Dr Mohammed Ablel-Maguid, Head of Department for Science and Technology at University Campus Suffolk and then on the 14th December with Dr Erica Joslin, Head of Department for Children, Young People and Education at University Campus Suffolk. Once I have had these meetings I will post their comments and recommendations followed with my proposed actions. I also hope to source a school in which to apply my materials for feedback from real students.