Gamifying Gravity: Content Gamification

I have now analysed my first worksheet from KS2, Year 5 Science, Forces, Gravity. Bellow is the original sessions with colour coded highlights for behavioural and cognitive learning outcomes and below that you can find the extracts which I have chosen to gamify. (formatted for ease of reading)

Green = Behavioural Learning       Orange = Cognitive Learning

Session A Gravity

Programme of study: Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object

Working scientifically

Take measurements using a range of scientific equipment

Resources needed

Fruit nets/plastic bags, various objects from classroom, force meters. Access to internet

Whole class teaching:

On f/c write the phrase ‘What is a force?’ Take suggestions from the children to assess their current understanding based on the study of forces in previous years, record all suggestions even if these are proven to be incorrect at a later date. Refer back to this list as you teach the strand & add to or amend the list as relevant. 

Encourage the children to think about everyday examples of forces in action. Forces are powerful and are everywhere – they can start something moving, stop something moving, speed something up, slow it down, change the direction of something or even change its shape! 

Everything that moves has had a force applied to it; even objects that aren’t moving are still under the action of forces!

At arm’s length hold a fruit net with a small object inside. Ask the children what will happen if you let go – it will fall to the floor!  Why? The force of gravity – demonstrate to prove it!! 

Ask volunteers to explain what gravity is. Gravity is the natural phenomenon by which objects attract each other with a force (the size of the force of attraction depends on: the masses involved – the bigger the masses the greater the force; and the distance between them - the greater the distance the smaller the force). The attractive force of gravity acts between the centres of two objects. For people standing on the Earth's surface, the effect of gravity is to attract us towards the centre of the Earth. As a result, no matter where you stand on the Earth, you don't fall off. Share ideas for diagrams to show this (see session resources) & other objects/activities pointing out how arrows are used to show the direction of the force.  [An explanation of the difference between mass (which we usually refer to as ‘weight’ in everyday life) – the amount of stuff it contains measured in grams/kilograms, & weight (gravitational force) is given at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/energy_electricity_forces/forces/revision/3/. 

Use being on the Moon as an example of mass staying the same & weight being different. The Moon's gravity is one sixth of the Earth's gravity. A 120 kg astronaut weighs approximately 1200N on Earth. On the Moon they would weigh only 200N. The astronaut's mass is 120kg wherever they are – note use of capital letter for abbreviation of unit’s name. Sometimes astronauts talk about weightlessness – that is exactly what they are - weight less, take a look at http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Video/freefall.mpg.]

Tell the children that with all these forces in action (remember we can’t always see them - only the effect of them!) it is important they know how to measure them. Show the children a force meter (newton meter or spring balance). Now hang the bag from the newton meter at arm’s length. What do the children notice now? – The bag hangs in the air. Why? Tell the children that as the bag is not moving (not being lifted or dropped) the force of gravity on the object and the force of lifting the object are equal – or balanced! 

The measure in newtons (N) shown on the scale on the force meter is the force needed to hold the object up (its weight, not its mass!) which is equal to the force pulling it down. Draw this on the board demonstrating how to use arrows to show in which direction the forces are pulling.

Group activities:

Adult-led activity: Discuss what life would be like without gravity. How would you walk along the ground? How would you have a shower? Sleep? How would you eat your breakfast? Point out that astronauts have had to overcome these problems. Discuss how they manage. Visit http://www.spacekids.co.uk/spacefood/ to find out about food & drink in space.

Independent activity: Chn write a simple explanation on the provided layout & create a diagram to show their understanding of what gravity is (session resources). They should add arrows to show the direction in which this powerful force acts.

Independent activity: Allow the children to measure the force acting on different common classroom objects by hanging them in a fruit bag/plastic bag from a force meter. Ask the children to draw one object being measured complete with arrows and record the force acting on other objects in a simple table (can use session resource or draw their own). Compare results, what do they show? Place ten of the commonly measured items in a line based on how many newtons were recorded. What does this show?  

Support: Children visit http://www.racemath.info/forcesandpressure/ks2_force_b.htm & use online force meter.

Independent activity: Investigate the centre of gravity of a ruler at

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/5th-+-6th-class/science/gravity/some-ideas-about-gravity/.

Plenary: What actually is a newton? One newton is the force of Earth’s gravity on a mass of about 100g (hand around a 100g weight), so a mass of 1 kg applies a force of about 10N (9.81N) on the Earth’s surface. The force of Earth's gravity on (= the weight of) a human being with a mass of 70 kg is approximately 686N. A newton is equal to the amount of net force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one metre per second squared. Who was Isaac Newton (that the unit is named after)? Tell the children that he made many important discoveries and that they will find out more about him and what he discovered in the next session.

I can:  

1. Discuss every day examples of forces in action.

2. Explain gravity in simple terms.

3. Use a force meter to measure force acting upon an object.  

_______________________________________________________________________________

The learning points that result in the student learning knowledge that is to be remembered and recalled falls under the cognitive learning and hence is in orange. The Knowledge that involved good working practice, in this case working with scientific diagrams and newton-meters, is a behavioural change and is highlighted green. These are only my opinions based on the readings I have undertaken in previous blog posts. 

Below here are the sections I have taken in an attempt to gamify the content to improve motivation and engagement within the classroom. I will colour code once more, this time to link the sections together across my proposed changes. (like colours will attempt to elicit the same outcome)

• Encourage the children to think about everyday examples of forces in action.
• Explain that even objects that aren’t moving are still under the action of forces!
• Ask the children "what will happen if I let go of an object"
• Ask volunteers to explain what gravity is
• Show how arrows are used to show the direction of the force.
• Allow the children to measure the force acting on different objects with a force meter.
• How would we function without gravity?
• What actually is a newton? 
• Include the information on the moon and how mass stays the same but weight changes.

For this session I would like to add a narrative or story to the session. Using Karl Kapp's idea of letting the students become investigators. I have taken the 3 act story structure set out in Challenges for Game Designers: non-digital exercises for video game designers (Brathwaite, Schreiber, and Media, 2009, p172)

• (The Inciting Moment) I propose that upon entering the class, students are immediately met with a model of a car hanging off the edge of a desk suspended by a ruler and counterbalanced with your hand.
• Tell the children that George and Mandy were going on holiday in this car, and George took a wrong turn and ended up on this ledge.
• Ask the children "what will happen if I let go" - They will fall to the floor and their holiday will be ruined. 
• Ask why and ask what gravity is?
•  Ask the children why they are not falling when your hand is holding it down and explain that gravity is still acting on the car pulling it down at the same time you are exerting a force on the other end to counter the force. The ruler is stopping the car from falling but gravity is holding the car down to the ruler.
• Tell the children that George and Mandy don't understand why they are not falling, Ask the children to explain what is happening using every day examples of forces in action. Include Isaac Newton's apple for cognitive and potentially tangential trivia. 
• Then inform the children that George and Mandy still dont get the concept so they must be shown. Introduce the use of arrows in diagrams to depict forces. Larger forces are larger arrows and smaller forces are smaller arrows.
• Introduce the Newton meter and explain how it is used. Show the children how much force the car requires to be held up and then ask the children how much is the minimum force required to keep George and Mandy from falling? Challenge the children to find objects in the class room that can save George and Mandy from having their holiday ruined and have them measure the objects force with the meter. Challenge the children to find the closest match to the cars force. 
• (The Reversal (Turning Point)) Describe how George and Mandy arrive at their destination safely and as it happens, all of the children are there too waiting to catch their flight. Their holiday is on the moon! Tell the children that while they are all on their way to the moon, they will have no gravity. Ask them how they will do basic things like eat, sleep and move around without gravity.
• (The Resolution) After the children have finished with their discussion, Explain that when they reach the moon they find that they feel light because the moons gravity is lower than Earth's, because it is smaller.
• Inform the students that the Moon's gravity is one sixth of the Earth's gravity. A 120 kg astronaut weighs approximately 1200 N on Earth. On the Moon they would weigh only 200 N. The astronaut's mass is 120 kg wherever they are.
• At this point children can be either set homework or be set a personal study task to go onto the internet and find out what a Newton is. Open the next session discussing what gravity is and what a newton is.
• One newton is the force of Earth’s gravity on a mass of about 100g, so a mass of 1 kg applies a force of about 10 N (9.81 N) on the Earth’s surface. The force of Earth's gravity on a human being with a mass of 70 kg is approximately 686 N. A newton is equal to the amount of net force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one metre per second squared.

Tangential Learning can be inserted into the homework freely and via use of websites and links. There are many opportunity for competition in this worksheet which I will revisit when I come to structural gamification, at which point I may add a form points system in to the model. 

At the end of the session are the following outcomes achieved?

• I can discuss every day examples of forces in action?
• Yes
• I can explain gravity in simple terms?
• Yes
• I can use a force meter to measure forces acting upon an object?
• Yes

I believe that all worksheet outcome have been met. Some further work will need to be undertaken but this will come with further iterations to the materials. Please feel free to comment on this post as feedback at this stage is at its most valuable.

Thank you for reading!

References

Forces (Year 5) | Hamilton Trust. 2015. Forces (Year 5) | Hamilton Trust. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/browse/science/y5/forces-year-5/86859. [Accessed 27 November 2015].

Structural gamification. 2015. Structural gamification. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.lynda.com/Higher-Education-tutorials/Structural-gamification/173211/197011-4.html. [Accessed 27 November 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.

Brathwaite, B., Schreiber, I. and Media, C. R. (2009) Challenges for game designers. 1st edn. Boston, MA: Course Technology/Cengage Learning.

Games and Simulation

What is a game?

The word game casts a very wide net in terms of its definition. Tic Tac Toe is a game in which players take it in turns to draw O's and X's on a three by three grid to try and create a line, however Halo: Combat Evolved is also a game which is digital first person shooter (FPS) and involves complex mechanics, 3D environments and enemy AI. These two examples seem very far apart however there are clear similarities when broken down.

Karl Kapp defines a game as an "Abstract challenge, defined by rules, interactivity and feedback, that results in a quantifiable outcome, often eliciting an emotional response."

In Tic Tac Toe the challenge is to out smart your opponent, the rules are that players take turns to draw their own symbol (X or O), a square can only be occupied by one symbol and cant be changed once drawn, the winner is the first to create an unbroken line of three of their own symbol. It is interactive because you are interacting with the paper and pencil as well as each other and the feedback comes from seeing your opponents response and the outcome is either winning or loosing. The emotional response really depends on the attitudes of the players (for instance is either is a bad loser/winner).

In Halo (focusing on single player) the challenge is variable depending on difficulty level with the end goal being to save the human race. The rules are far more complex but enforced by the game itself, you shoot enemies, head shots do more damage, try not to get hit too many times or your shields and then life will be depleted. If your health hits 0 then you die and must start again form the next check point. Feedback comes in many forms but most prominently is both the progression of the levels/story and of a more frequent nature, the defeating of enemies. The emotional responses can range from anger, sadness and sorrow right the way through to joy and fiero. Without the rules and goals then games become just play.

What is a simulation?

Again Karl Kapp defines a simulation as "A realistic, controlled risk environment where learners can practice specific behaviours or decisions and experience the impacts of their behaviours and or those decisions" The most commonly thought of simulators are flight or driving simulators where people practice both flying and driving in safe conditions. These conditions allow for experimentation too with minimal risk. However there are also many other simulators and not all of them digital. RPG's are a type of simulation where behaviours, responses and attitudes can be practices as well as procedures. Simulators are realistic scenarios in contrast to abstract.

Moving on from all of this I would like to look at applying some of the methods I have learned over the last few weeks. Please see my next post for my analyses of the worksheet and my first pass on gamifying the content of my first work sheet, Gravity.


References

Games vs. gamification. 2015. Games vs. gamification. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.lynda.com/Higher-Education-tutorials/Games-vs-gamification/173211/197008-4.html?autoplay=true. [Accessed 26 November 2015].

Learning Taxonomies

This last week I have been researching into, learning about and distilling down texts on learning taxonomies. This has been in order to accurately analyse the learning materials and worksheets I have chosen as well as assign game elements to them.

There have been countless theories of learning throughout history but the most prominent in modern day is Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning. Created in 1956 by Dr Benjamin Bloom the idea was to promote higher forms of thinking in education in lieu of more traditional methods such as rote learning (basically just remembering the facts). This taxonomy is mostly used for designing educational processes.

Learning in this taxonomy is split into three domains, cognitive, affective and psychomotor. First off I want to leave out psychomotor as it bases itself on manual or physical skills such as learned in physical education, the learning I am looking at is defiantly NOT psychomotor learning.

Affective learning is based on personal growth in areas such as emotions and feelings etc.

Cognitive learning is the learning of mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge. These are common traditional education such as maths and science. This is most likely the type of learning I will be gamifying in this project.

Cognitive learning includes the development of intellectual skills and the recall and recognition of specific knowledge. Cognitive learning is divided into six categories, Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. Each category sits in a hierarchy with the stages being considered difficulty levels. Usually the previous step must be mastered before the next is acquired. In 2000 a revised version of the cognitive domain was released by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl. This revisions most notable changes were the changing of category names from nouns to verbs, rearranging the stages to a more fitting hierarchy and creating a processes and levels of knowledge matrix.

Below is a picture of the new domain hierarchy:

I will be using this hierarchy to base my gamification on as it is widely considered to be the more accurate. Bellow is the table taken from The Performance Juxtaposition website explaining each of the above categories in order from lowest to highest in difficulty. 

Table of the Revised Cognitive Domain

Category	Examples, key words (verbs), and technologies for learning (activities)
Remembering: Recall or retrieve previous learned information.	Examples: Recite a policy. Quote prices from memory to a customer. Recite the safety rules. Key Words: defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states Technologies: book marking, flash cards, rote learning based on repetition, reading
Understanding: Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words.	Examples: Rewrite the principles of test writing. Explain in one's own words the steps for performing a complex task. Translate an equation into a computer spreadsheet. Key Words: comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives an example, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates Technologies: create an analogy, participating incooperative learning, taking notes, storytelling, Internet search
Applying: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.	Examples: Use a manual to calculate an employee's vacation time. Apply laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test. Key Words: applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, uses Technologies:collaborative learning, create a process, blog, practice
Analyzing: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.	Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information from a department and selects the required tasks for training. Key Words: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates Technologies:Fishbowls, debating, questioning what happened, run a test
Evaluating: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.	Examples: Select the most effective solution. Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and justify a new budget. Key Words: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports Technologies: survey, blogging
Creating: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.	Examples: Write a company operations or process manual. Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. Revises and process to improve the outcome. Key Words: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes Technologies: Create a new model, write an essay, network with others

For now I have seen enough to be able to analyse the type of learning within my first worksheet. There is another breakdown on The Affective Domain which I will cover when necessary and please see my next post for the analyses of my first worksheet.

References:

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains: The Cognitive Domain. 2015. Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains: The Cognitive Domain. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html. [Accessed 19 November 2015].

Forces Worksheets

Hello again,

Firstly due to circumstances out of my control I have been unable to gather worksheets from the sources previously mentioned. However I have now sourced online resources of which to base my studies and end product upon. The resources are all from the very helpful Hamilton Trust, please see the reference below for the link to their forces worksheets page.

I have begun work on the first session proposed by Hamilton Trust, Gravity. Once this sheet has been gamified I shall evaluate it, seek feedback form current science teachers and then revisit the design and implementation phase again before moving on to the next sheet to start the cycle over again. I aim to introduce different types of gamification into the separate sessions but I still aim to encompass them all into a single structure that include the homework sections. Please see future blog posts for the elemental breakdown tables for the worksheets.


References

Forces (Year 5) | Hamilton Trust. 2015. Forces (Year 5) | Hamilton Trust. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/browse/science/y5/forces-year-5/86859. [Accessed 16 November 2015].

What I Aim For (My End Product)

I wanted to take a quick moment to post and lay out my plan for my final project module as a computer games design student at UCS.

The Slice

I want to take a slice of the National Curriculum for Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6 at Primary School) and gamify its delivery. I will be exploring the different kinds of gamification methods and delivery methods and working to the development methodology laid out in my previous post "In Regard to Timescales and ADDIE vs Scrum" 

The slice of the curriculum I have chosen to gamify and deliver is on Forces from the Science section for Year 5 students. Below is a copy of that section from the DfEE National Curriculum for England, September 2013 detailing the outcomes and requirements.

DfEE (2013)

DfEE (2013)

The Goal

My goal is to provide gamified pre existing content and a delivery method that has also been gamified to improve motivation in students and at the same time I want to ensure that at no point it feels like a Skinner box to the students, tricking them into doing something they don't really want to do. (Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013).

I will explore both Content Gamification and Structural Gamification. The final product should be delivered over several hour long lessons with a gamified structure overlaid that encompasses the entire module and includes homework to bride the lessons. These components should all work together to help engage the student in the content. I also hope to include elements of tangential learning in the form of additional facts and snippets that encourage students to willingly invest their spare time into personal researching on the topic.

The worksheets I hope to use for this project will be from a school from back home. I have connections with the school and I hope to include their science teachers in the process by getting their feedback throughout the project. If all goes acording to plan I will have the worksheets by close of play Tuesday next week (10th November 2015). Failing this I will be using existing worksheets etc. sourced online.

I hope this goes some way to clarify my aims and goals for my final year project and I will post further on the matter when I have the information next week.

References

DfEE (2013) The National Curriculum HMSO. .

Enders, B., Kapp, K. and The eLearning Guild Research (2013) ‘Gamification, Games, And Learning: What Managers and Prtactitioners Need to Know’, Hot Topics, , pp. 1–7.

 

In Regard to Timescales and ADDIE vs Scrum

Over the last week I have been researching into different development methods and using them to construct a time scale for my project.

Firstly there is a two main methods of development, Scrum (agile) and ADDIE (waterfall). ADDIE stands for Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement and Eventuate. This is sometimes referred to as MADDIE where the M stands for Management. Scrum is not an acronym but named after the scrums during a game of rugby. 

A.D.D.I.E

The analyse phase would consist of analysing the problem to be solved. This is to ensure that the requirement is from a knowledge gap and not from a badly designed lesson plan etc. This phase is also used to ascertain the content types to be delivered along with the pre-requisite skills needed to undertake the learning as well as the types of technologies that are available to the teachers and learners.

Once the analyses is complete, the next step is design. During this phase all requirements and objectives are written up in a way that the learner would be able comprehend (much like an assignment brief). Assessment items are created and the design document is drawn up. In this method the design document is a complete plan from start to completion to show everyone involved exactly where the project is heading so there are no major surprises along the way.

Development is where the product is created. Throughout this process meetings are held with learners and stake holders to make sure that the project is still on track and performing to expectation. It is not unheard of for products to be scrapped and projects reverted back to the design phase if the products is not up to scratch.

After development is complete and the product has passed all tests and inspections, it moves on to the implementation phase in which the product is rolled out to learners. This includes making sure that all materials are ready and any computer based components work on every machine. 

Evaluation takes place throughout the entire project and is divided into two. 'Formative evaluation offers during the design and development, materials are reviewed, feedback is presented to the team, and changes are made as needed. Summative evaluation occurs at the end when an assessment is made of the utility of the instruction.' (Kapp, 2012)

Scrum

Scrum methodology is a form of agile development and is a much faster style of production in which a minimum viable product can be produced in a matter of weeks. To do this an iterative approach to development is used. All ideas and requirements go into a list called a backlog and, in contrast to a design document in ADDIE, is by no means complete. More requirements and ideas are added to the project backlog as they emerge. Alterations can be implemented in any of the sprint cycles as required and it also provides the facility to quickly iterate new ideas and mechanics with minimal risk. 

Scrums allow for much faster results and therefore far more opportunity for feedback and review. These reviews are often held between team members and stake holders and usually aims to answer several key questions. What have we done since the last meeting, what do we still need to do and what obstetrical have we encountered along the way? These meetings are held at regular intervals throughout the entire project. I am most familiar with this method as it is the style of development we implement at UCS.

Hybrid

These methods both have their pros and cons. Scrum allows for rapid alterations and prototyping as well as being more easily monitored, whereas ADDIE focuses more on preparation with a solid goal in mind. Unfortunately neither of these methods on their own fit what is required for developing gamified content. With gamification, due to the smaller workloads compared to large scale games development, scrum can be too much but ADDIE does not allow for the rapid changes and turnarounds that are inevitably required during development. In this case a hybrid method is most likely the best option.

Take mostly from Kapp's The Gamification of learning and instruction (2012) here is a step by step process that I will be using for development of my end product.

1. Determine learning outcomes. This is similar to the analysis phase from ADDIE. It should aim to answer the following questions
• Is the content delivering  an affective or behavioural change?
• Will productivity be improved?
• What will be the difference as a result of the learning?
2. Identify types of content.
• Conceptual learning?
• Problem solving?
3. Identify the learning outcomes and link them to each type of content to ascertain the game elements required for gamification.
4. Mind map with subject experts, the development team (me) and stake holders(lecturers) all of the requirements etc. for the project. This should yield a sufficient mix of content and process knowledge being integrated into the final product. This should also include a rough storyline if required, details on discussions of point/reward systems that may be implemented and in game activities that best teach the to the identified educational standards. By the end of the mind mapping session learning outcomes and game elements should be well aligned and the start of development should be well mapped out with clear constraints.
5. Learning outcomes then need to be linked to in game activities and assessments of learning. This is best achieved via use of the following table again taken from Kapp (2012)

Concept to be Taught	In-Game Activity	Assessment of Learning
Negotiation skills related to obtaining the best price in the shortest time for a given product	Bartering and purchasing supplies. (For example, in a space game, jet packs might be rare but extremely helpful within the game but expensive and hard to obtain, while oxygen tanks might be abundant and east to obtain.)	Learners will be required to purchase a jet pack and oxygen tank within “the right price range” based on the scarcity of the item. Learners will be assessed based on starting bid, subsequent bids, and amount of time to acquire object.

(Kapp, 2012)

At this point Kapp recommends paper prototyping the product and playing it to find out if the concept works and the game is fun and enjoyable. 

From this I have formed a brief timeline for the rest of this semester leading up to Christmas. 

Week Beginning	Task to complete
Week 1 - 16th November	Analyse learning outcomes and aim to answer the three questions noted above in step 1
Week 2 - 23rd November	Identify types of content and take the learning outcomes to link them to game elements and gamified mechanics
Week 3 - 30th November	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
Week 4 - 7th December	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
Week 5 - 14th December	Sprint week two, continued iteration of paper prototyping of gamified elements. Assessment of previous weeks findings and further readings into gamification
Week 6 - 21st December	Christmas Break, Reading and analysis. No official sprint.

The remainder of my timeline will come once I have read more into methods etc. This is because I want to avoid haphazardly guessing completion times. As you may see above the first few weeks are designed around the ADDIE methodology but from week 4 the agile method of development is implemented as well to allow for rapid iterations and modifications as development progresses.

References

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.

What I would like to do when I finish my degree.

So recently I have been asked (several times in fact) what I am aiming to do when I finish my degree here at UCS. I have always had a passion for teaching and in the last couple of years I have been given many opportunities to experience teaching subjects to almost level of education. However when I think about what stage of education I would like to teach at I find myself in two minds. I would ideally like to teach at Higher Education level (University Lecturer) but at the same time I really do love teaching primary years. 

With this in mind I have been searching for jobs at these two levels and looking for the common attributes potential employers are looking for. As you may have seen I have recently been looking at other jobs and using a colour scheme to highlight traits and qualifications that I have, don't have and have but need improving upon. By the end of this post I will have consolidated key points these jobs have in common and again highlight them accordingly.

Once again here is the highlight key but this time I will compile these points at the bottom for charity. These points will be used to guide my final project and product.

Green  representing skills I already have, Orange for skills that need improvement and Red for skills which I do not currently have. 

Here are the original findings consolidated along with some newer job posts I have found.

KS2 Science Teacher

• Primary teacher who has gained QTS with a Science specialism
• Enthusiastic and passionate individual who is confident working in KS2
• Flexible and adaptable person who is looking to be a part of a strong team
• Up to date with current initiatives and strategies, including the National Curriculum
• Willingness to embrace the full culture of the school and to become an integral part of school life

Teaching Assisstant

• Hold a childcare based qualification – minimum NVQ 3

• Be able to provide at least 1 school based reference from the last 2 years.

• Have a professional and flexible attitude.

• Be able to work as a team as well as own initiative

• Be able to take responsibility for planning and assessing across the EYFS curriculum

Game Design Lecturer 1 

• Holding a full teaching certificate - Cert Ed, DTLLs or PGDE

• Have a relevant degree

• Recent experience in delivering Games design/Games development/Creative Media

• A DBS in place

Game Design Lecturer 2

• Candidates will hold a degree or professional qualification in an relevant area.

• They should also have a teaching qualification. 

• Have a good theoretical foundation and established research practice as well as documented experience in the design and development of digital games in a studio or other collaborative environment. 

Game Design Lecturer 3

• Hold a relevant Games qualification at level 4 or above

• Be enthusiastic, creative, flexible and self-motivated

• Have experience of working within the Games industry

• Be able to design and develop interesting and challenging schemes of work and session plans

• Teach creatively, adapting to the needs of a variety of students

• Hold a teaching qualification to PGCE, Cert. Ed., DTTLS, PTLLS or be prepared to undertake this

• Engage students and monitor their retention and achievement by using effective assessment strategies

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Common points compiled together

• Flexible and adaptable attitude
• Enthusiastic and passionate
• Hold a relevant degree
• Be able to work as part of a team or on own initiative
• Be up to date with current initiatives and the National Curriculum
• Be able to take responsible for planning and assessing across the curriculum
• Experience delivering lessons and designing interesting and challenging lesson plans
• Hold a teaching qualification

From these findings I plan to focus on the points I have that need improving by focusing on creating a gamified lesson plan and teaching method of teaching that conform closely to the slice of the national curriculum I choose which can also be assessed against the curriculum also. 

Identifying Common Pitfalls and Issues With Gamification and My newest reading.

I have been reading Brenda Enders, Gamification, Games, and Learning: What Managers and Practitioners Need to Know. This text explains details methods that can be used to gamify any situation where learning or training is required.

For what I have read so far I would like to cover some of the issues and pitfalls that can befall anybody looking to use gamification. Firstly, where as it is possible to create a game entirely from scratch to attain a learning outcome, it is extremely difficult and will cost a LOT of money to create and implement effectively. This is what McDonald's Japan did and they reportedly spent an initial outlay of approximately $2.2 Million on the games development alone.(Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013)
Instead existing content can be taken and modified or added upon to include elements of games that facilitate motivation towards learning.

McDonald's training game in action on Nintendo DS
(Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013)

Another issue with the gamification of learning (seen most prominently, in my opinion, in educational games) is that they are seen as Skinner Boxes designed to trick and manipulate us into doing something we don't really want to do (Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013).

There are two types of gamification when we look at the existing content method. Firstly there is 'structural gamification' which is were you take the existing content and add a structure of gaming elements around it. The other type is 'content gamification' where the existing content is modified to include deeper elements of gaming such as story, freedom to fail and challenge.(Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013)

According to Karl Kapp (2013) 'the trick with learning games is to craft the game to meet the needs of learning while making it highly interactive.' This, in my recent experience as a STEM School Ambassador, I have found to be especially true with young males. They truly seem to engage with the subject when they are allowed to interact with any related materials on a playful level. For instance when isolating their own DNA from cheek cells, if faced with theory at the front of the class they would shut down, misbehave or just ignore what was going on. However when they were let loose to use the implements around them to actually perform the experiment under minimal guidance and supervision, they showed strong indications of taking in the subjects content. When quizzed at the end they even surprised themselves as to how much they had learnt.

Another pitfall with gamification (one I am ashamed to say I fell into) is people failing to grasp the concept of gamification. 'Simply put, gamification is taking the elements of games that lead to learning and using them individually.' 'One good way to begin to explore gamification is to read examples of how it is properly and improperly deployed, study the elements of games that are effective' (Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013) This will be a major focus of my research for my project. For instance how effective would adding a points system to homework be, or adding elements of competition into lessons. I have already added direct competition into a lesson which I planned and delivered recently on robotics programming. What I found was while smaller, self driven competition is a minor motivator, larger more structured competitions like the one I attempted seem to do little for motivation. This of course may have just been down to the cohort so I wont discard it as an option yet.

A table to show a contrast between Games and Gamification
(Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013)

One final take away from the text I have read so far is that a well implemented example of gamification is found in larger airlines. These airlines offer frequent flier miles or points to be accumulated when using their services. From these points you can gain various status levels to reward your achievements along with perks such as free checked luggage, free flights, priority boarding and free upgrades. These are not seen as gamified elements by the general public as they have been implemented at an abstract level to facilitate the task of customer retention but are however, game mechanics and elements all the same. (Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013) 

An example of game elements implemented by airlines
(Enders, Kapp, and The eLearning Guild Research, 2013)

References

Enders, B., Kapp, K. and The eLearning Guild Research (2013) ‘Gamification, Games, And Learning: What Managers and Prtactitioners Need to Know’, Hot Topics, , pp. 1–7.