Gamification

Recently, I have read some articles about Gamification and then I would introduce some aspects of Gamification.

       According to 7 Things You Should Know About Gamification , Gamification is the application of game elements in non-gaming situations, often to motivate or influence behavior. About the rational for using games for language learning, I have gained some insights from the article called Escape the Room Games , for example, in the genre Escape the room, what makes escape the fact that they are puzzles that have an inbuilt information gaps. The puzzles are usually very difficult to solve, unless you have a walkthrough. When a teacher talks about how to play the game or students are watching walkthrough videos, students can practice their listening. This is the easiest way of exploiting the game for language learning and it requires little preparation. All the teacher needs is the walkthrough to the game. The teacher read out to the students, grading the language to suit the level of the class, and check comprehension by noticing which students move on in the game. In other words, if they were listening to the teacher and understand, then they know what to do next.

       I have tried a causal game called The Great Kitchen Escape , I think the game is suitable for beginners of English learning because the aim of the game is to help learners get familiar with kitchen vocabulary such as kettle, spoon, bowl and so on. I have watched the walkthrough before I played the game. I have played the game twice and succeeded escaping the kitchen at the second time. As a teacher, I would set two objectives for my students, that is, understanding walkthrough or understanding me when I am telling them how to play the game. The second one is by playing the game, students need to be familiar with kitchen vocabulary. In addition, in order to make students engaged in the game actively, I have some strategies. For example, I would group students into pairs. Then time which they spend on escaping the kitchen would be counted. Whoever escapes the kitchen first can have some prize.

       In my opinion, the teacher’s role in Gamification is facilitator. In other words, the teacher helps students understand rules of the game and assess the students’ progress.

       During the game, I would use a walk through. I would use it before students play the game. Firstly, students will watch or read the walk through of the game. Then I would a student to recall the content of the walk through on in order to assess their understanding. As for images from the game, I would not use it because I think walk through is enough for understanding.

       After playing the game, I have several methods to assess whether learning objectives are met by students. For example, students can write out kitchen vocabulary which they met in the game as much as possible. Or pictures from the game are given, then students have to write correct name according to pictures.

       I think game is a creative teaching method which I will use in my future teaching.

 

How can we use serious games in L2 classroom ?

At present, I have played a serious game called Third World Farmer . I have played it for 5 times. In the game, you mainly plant things on the ground. You can choose what you want to plant in the upper left hand menu, such as cotton, wheat and peanuts and you can raise pigs, cattle and chicken. In addition, you can construct wells, sheds and barns.

       There are several learning language objectives for the game. At first, you can lean vocabulary related for farming, such as wheat, cotton, barn and cattle. Secondly, students can review name of 12 months because after you plant crops, 12 months would show on the screen means that a year has passed and you can harvest. Thirdly, students can practice reading in the game. For example, in the result of harvest, there is an event happened this year. For instance, crash of the national bank: although this year’s outcome from your farm was rather promising, a crash of the national bank unsettles the market in your disfavor. Students can practice reading as well as learn some background knowledge about farming.

       As for assessment, I would present pictures of crops to students and ask them to write the name according to the pictures. Furthermore, I can design some comprehension questions for them in order to assess them whether they understand “the events happened this year”.

Reflection on Twitterchat

Recently, I have joined the Twitterchat called Educational Technology Chat on Monday. In the Chat, the topic is education on bad weather. At present, many places in US are snowing and some schools are closed for several days. Therefore, teachers are discussing how to use educational technology to help students study when they cannot come to school. The first question is that have you continued work with students during weather situations? Why or Why not? Some teachers suggest that we can use mobile phone to give students assignments. A math teacher gives us some interesting advice. He says: “ I use a blended model in math. It helps for those that are out, i.e. independent study so they don't fall behind.” And I have asked a question in the chat, “when using educational technologies such as Twitter, PPT, etc, which level of students do you think are suitable for? Why and why not?

       I think it is a good form for my future professional development. In Twitterchat, there are many colleagues. Therefore, we can search for help when we meet some teaching problems. In addition, we can read other’s tweets and learn some possible problems which we may meet in the future. Most importantly, we can learn some questions which I have never thought about, for example, the topic of this week.

Using Twitter for Classroom

Recently, I have read some articles about functions of Twitter in classroom. I have gained some inspiration from them.

       According to A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom  , I have learned some functions of Twitter in classroom which I haven’t known before. For example, teachers can use it as an additional way to let students know if there is some last minute news, like class being cancelled. Thus, students would know the news immediately. Moreover, Twitter is more immediate than e-mail. Most importantly, Twitter can improve engagement of students in classroom. During lecture, students can tweet comments or questions via laptop or cell phone. In addition, students in another project agree that digital communication helps overcome the shyness barrier. One student said that it is just an easy way to answer questions in class without embarrassing yourself and raising your hand in a big lecture hall. Secondly, Twitter provides an opportunity for community learning. Students can exchange their opinions about some issues and even discuss some difficult questions in their homework after class. Finally, teachers can get instant feedback from students and even assign Twitter quiz to students.

       According to  10 Twitter Mitakes You should Avoid , I have learned some mistakes teachers should avoid in using Twitter. For example, over-tweeting. We shouldn’t overload our followers with too many tweets and we should get rid of the trivial tweets. Thus, once we put forward some tweets, students would notice and take them seriously immediately. Secondly, our opinions should be objective rather than insulting somebody because by doing so, we may displease some of our followers. Then, we shouldn’t have too many accounts. If we do so, we may make some mistakes such as posting homework assignment on our private account and messing up our communication.

       After reading these articles, I find that Twitter is a very useful tool for future teaching.