At EdCamp Houston this past weekend, a session was held on Game Based Learning and gamification of the classroom. I shared my page of resources that generally fit those categories and the link to Paul Anderson's TED Talk on the subject. Shari Hiltbrand shared Jane McGonigal's TED Talks as well.
During the discussion, we spoke about how to make the classroom into a game. We talked about ClassDojo, ClassBadges, Sokikom, Manga High, Scootpad, Minecraft EDU, and lots of sites for games for students to play to practice skills as well as tools for students to create games. We also spoke quite a bit about failure and the stigma that we place on it at schools. This reminded me a lot of Dave Guymon's book "If You Can't Fail, It Doesn't Count," which I recommend to those that believe that Failure is Not an Option. We talked about risk and affective filters. Videogames teach kids that failure is how we learn and that we must take risks to earn rewards. We talked about student-driven learning and the idea that we don't all learn at the same pace. We also spoke quite a bit about Project Based Learning and its eight main tenets. It was a very interesting discussion that I wish I would have streamed.
One big idea that kept popping up in the conversation is that teachers would like to see a gaming-style learning management system. Where is the "Achievement Unlocked" feature on any of the existing systems? There should be an LMS that resembles the interface of a gaming system. When a student logs in, they see the same kind of interface they would see on an XBox or PlayStation. For each game (class), they see their current level and need to accumulate points to level up and unlock achievements. Assignments could be missions or quests.
Badges or something similar (I'm obviously not a gamer) could serve as a grading system. I realize that this poses the issue of grades being publicly posted, but the leaderboard could be based on repeated practice or improvement rather than the game (still class) scores. The LMS should also maintain the "walled garden" environment in order to ensure the privacy of the students of course.
It doesn't seem that difficult to take all the tools and features of the existing learning management systems and build a more engaging gaming-style interface for students. These students are done with Facebook; the ability to use an LMS does not engage them anymore (if it really ever did). The novelty of them has worn off. Teachers like Paul Anderson and the folks at EdCamp Houston are gamifying their classrooms. Why haven't we begun to gamify our online classrooms? What is the next step for the LMS? Does this exist now? If not, then someone please gamify an LMS for these teachers!
4/10 Update: I asked Andrew Miller if he knew of any tool or LMS that has these features that I've been looking for, and he told me about 3D Game Lab. I had been following them on Twitter for a while but never really looked into it. Check out their Guild site for more information and to see what users think of it. It opens in closed beta on May 1st, 2013. So, it still doesn't exist for me, but it's coming! I'm sure it's not perfect, but I'm getting very excited! Check out the video below as well. Woo hoo!!! Thanks 3D Game Lab! Oh, and I suppose I'd accept an invite to beta test if you were to offer ;-)
