GE4L Store of Tools and Resources

In this post, I will collect all the resources and tools being mentioned during the 4-week GE4L MOOC either suggested by the instructors or my colleagues:

Game Elements for Learning

Retrieved July 2, 2013 from here

Another learning adventure just starts on Canvas. It is the Game Elements for Learning (GE4L) professional development Micro-MOOC. It introduces us to game thinking and design, game elements, and a variety of opportunities to gamify and play games. What attracts me is its clear objectives and the short time it takes (Just a month). Having a look at week one, we have a lot of things to do such as trying new tools, creating avatars, tweeting (#GE4L), blogging, attending webinars facilitated by gaming experts, playing game elements, discussing ideas, and sharing experiences. Moreover, I notice a lot of gamification features like points, leaderboard, ambassador badges, and many more things that we will see in the coming weeks. I hear that there are a lot of surprises.I'm looking forward to learning more about games, gamification, and how to create my own products. 

It is Time to Gamify your Classroom!

Gamification is a new term that has recently gained more attention in the field of education. When first saw this term among Coursera online courses, a couple of questions came to mind. Is it similar to the game-based learning? Does it mean playing games to achieve some learning objectives? To answer these questions, I decided to take this course by Prof. Kevin Werbach offered by University of Pennsylvania. It was run from Aug. 27 - Oct. 7., 2012. The course was divided up into 12 units, which were in turn divided into short video lecture segments. Each unit included 45-60 minutes of material, and there were two units per week. There were 4 quizzes, 3 written assignments (including peer assessment) and a final exam. We communicated with each other through the discussion forms and collaborated to create a wiki as a resource for gamification. 

What is Gamification?

It is applying game mechanics,e.g., points, badges, rewards, levels, bar progress ... etc to an existing content to make students more interactive, motivated and engaged. 

How to Gamify?

Reading this article, one or more of the following can be done:

• Add points to tasks that need to be completed
• Define badges/rewards to be given out after a criteria is met
• Create a Leaderboard to show top performers
• Define levels to repeat tasks or to perform harder tasks
• Earning of badges can be tied to unlocking higher levels

How to start Gamifying your teaching?

After completing this course, I tried some simple steps to incorporate such a new trend in my traditional classrooms. I just tried to gamify my whiteboard. Here are some of my tips:

•  Divide your students into 3 large groups. Each group will complete some questions. If the students of a group answer correctly, they will get a POINT. At the end of the activity, add up these points and tell them the Winner Group.
• A list of active students can be created on the right top of the whiteboard. 
• Smiley faces are given to students instead of points or badges. I can give students a happy face if they did a great job, a wow face if they did an amazing job, sad face if they didn't complete a task or answer incorrectly ... etc. Students love this technique so much because it is a visual funny way that expresses their performances and learning progress.

Leave you with this Video!

Read More about Gamification:

1. ClassBadges Is A Free Way To Gamify Your Classroom
2. 5 Reasons to Gamify Your Classroom
3. 3 Easy Ways To Gamify Your Classroom
4. 11 Steps to Gamify Your Next Lesson
5. 4 Ways to Gamify Learning in Your Classroom

6. Gamification 101: Design the Player Journey

Practice your English with Academy Island Game!

An unknown alien life form lands on earth and has to learn English to get by in a range of social situations. Players of Academy Island have to progress through different difficulty levels by helping the alien use English in a range of situations such as shopping in a bakery and visiting places such as an art gallery and library. Our game is designed to help learners improve their English language ability, in a fun way.

You can also play this game on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CambridgeESOL.

Retrieved from Cambridge ESOL

You can embed it into your classroom wiki or Facebook group. Students can use it to apply what the have learnt. They can practice new vocabulary, grammatical rules, idioms and more. What do you think of it?