5 Minute Guide to Kahoot

Since last summer, several colleagues have mentioned how much their students enjoy playing "Kahoot."  We educators hear claims about this "great new app" or "awesome new website" daily, so its difficulty to discern the trend-chasing hype from resources that are actually worth-while.  After my wife Michaela (an excellent science teacher at Coventry High School) mentioned how her students love playing review games with this "new site called Kahoot," I knew it was time to check it out.

I gave it a shot a few weeks ago by creating one called "Halloween History."  It went so well, students asked when the next time they could play would be and if Kahoots could replace our existing review game.  In preparation for a recent Civics quiz, I then created this 13 Colonies Challenge.  Long story short, this is a classroom tool that seems poised to stay.

Here is a quick rundown of what Kahoot is and why I like it:

1. Kahoot is a student-response system with built-in game elements.
2. The game elements (ex. pts awarded based upon accuracy & speed, leaderboard...) make it much more fun and engaging for students.  
3. It is very easy to create and set up games.
4. The gameplay is very streamlined and simple to administer in class. (minimal steps, no log-ins, clear visuals...)
5. There is a growing collection of pre-made public Kahoots to choose from.

I have also created this quick "5 Minute Guide to Kahoot" (also embedded below) to help you set up and play in class in no time!

Stewart Parker Gamifies World Cultural Geography

I recently connected with Stewart Parker, a high school social studies teacher from Florida who is interested in the potential of gamification in education.  We engaged in a great conversation a few weeks ago about Flipped Learning, gamification, augmented reality... you name it.  It is clear how passionate he is about education and that he is doing the most to improve his instruction and the students' learning environment.

I then asked him to provide me with a brief synopsis of his plan to gamify his flipped courses.  In his reply, I realized that he is not only adding some game elements, but creating a rich narrative that provides context and relevance to the course!  Here is his response:

Tom-

     I'm excited about the potential gamification will add to my World Cultural Geography classroom.  I plan to create a game that allows the students to travel throughout the world while learning about various cultures and helping solve geographic issues throughout the world.  They will work to stop deforestation in South America or desertification in Africa. They will help cities in Asia deal with issues of monsoon rains or typhoons.  

     For the past few years, I have found the students engagement in the course dwindle. I wanted to find a way to get them excited about geography and various cultures around the world.  I am concerned if the students will find the game interesting enough to sustain it all year long.  I find high school students can be cynical about anything that changes the status quo. For this to be successful, the game needs to be interesting and engaging. That's what scares me the most trying to reimagine my classroom in a new way. I do, however, believe that gamification can bring a positive change in my class.

     I am excited about the potential gamification has for the students in my class and school!

- Stewart

If interested in connecting with Stewart, he can be found on Twitter @ParkersGeocats.  I highly suggest adding him to your PLN as he is a great resource and yet another passionate educator doing his best for kids!

ISTE & FlipCon (In Pictures)

Instead of attempting to summarize my incredible trips to Flipcon and ISTE, here is a collection of images from these events that I think exemplify the best part of these conferences: experiences and relationships.  

FlipCon 14 (Mars, PA)

Welcome to Mars!

The residents of Mars, PA hosted a great event for us that included local food, a car show, a miniature train, and of course, the Mars space ship.

Opening Keynote

With Jason Bretzmann, Kristin Daniels & April Gudenrath.

 

Flipping Social Studies Event

With Chelsea Katzenberg, Jason Bretzmann, and an excited David Fouch.

"Level Up with Gamification & Game Based Learning" Featured Session

With Dan Harrold and Tim Downing. 

Flipping 2.0 Panel Discussion

With Kristin Daniels, Kate Baker, Audrey McLaren, Cheryl Morris, Troy Cochrum, Andrew Tomasson, Jason Bretzman, & Heather Witten. 

A Night at the Carnegie Science Center

Yes, that is Aaron Sams and David Fouch standing in for the "14."

Watching "Back to the Moon" in the Planetarium

With David Fouch, Lindsay Cole, and Delia Bush. 

"Flipped Learning: Gateway to Student Engagement" Book Signing

With Crystal Kirch, Delia Bush, Kristin Daniels, Steve Kelly, Jon Thomas-Palmer (doing flip), Jon Bergmann, Aaron Sams, & Brian Bennett.  

Flipping With Hip Hughes

Yup, that is David Fouch featured in this video created during Keith Hughes' awesome session.

Closing Keynote

With Jon Bergmann

Mastery Learning Cycles

True, these are not pictures, but this session was incredible.  Here are a few screenshots from Hassan Wilson's presentation.  Check out his Flipcon recap post here. 

ISTE2014 (Atlanta, GA)

Meeting FlipCon Crew Upon Arrival

With Kate Baker

The Blogger's Cafe

With Michael Donnelly, Brad Waid, Todd Nesloney & Emily Swenson.

Meeting Karl, Enough Said

With Karl Lindgren-Streicher

ISTE Young Educators Network

With Jenny Schlie-Reed, Robert Provonost, Victoria Olson, Krista Moroder, and Karl Lindgren-Streicher.

Testing Out The New Anatomy 4D App in Blogger's Cafe

With Brad Waid & Roshni Mirchandani

Playing With Sphero in Blogger's Cafe

With Roshni Mirchandani, Kevin Maxwell & Matthew Brown.

Team Highlander

With Roshni Mirchandani, Cathy Sanford, Erin Brouillette, Carrie Sorensen, Dana Borrelli-Murray, Jeanne D'Agostino, Eric Butash, Shawn Rubin, & Stephanie Castilla.

THE TAKEAWAY

As the cliche' goes, that was just the tip of the iceberg.  I had the opportunity to meet and have incredible conversations with countless other educators throughout both conferences.  Although learning online through social media is valuable, I had underestimated the power of face-to-face conversations at events such as these.  

Whether it is an informal meet-up with 5-10 educators, or it is the ISTE conference with thousands, I urge everyone to reach out beyond the social media platform and strengthen relationships by attending live events when possible.  Of course, it is not always feasible due to cost, family commitments, etc.  I just suggest doing so when you can and making the most out of every opportunity you have!

Complete Gamification Series

Over the past few months, I have reflected upon my experiences with gamification and provided thoughts and implementation advice through a series of 15 thematic posts.  Below is a complete list of the Gamification Series.

Theses posts have also been compiled into one simple Google Document with a Table of Contents.

Click here to access this Google Doc version of the Gamication Series.

Complete Gamification Series

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: What is Gamification?

Part 3: Why Gamify?

Part 4: Our Quest

Part 5: Student Viewpoints on Gamification

Part 6: Gaming Terminology

Part 7: Leveling

Part 8: Badges & Achievements

Part 9: XP & Grades By Attrition

Part 10: Guilds / Team Missions

Part 11: Leaderboards

Part 12: Narrative / Avatars

Part 13: Managing Gamification

Part 14: Results

Part 15: The Next Level

Share these posts (or document) with anyone that you think is interested in the possibilities and potential of gamification in education. And, as always, feel free to reach out and connect with me if you have questions or would like to collaborate in any way. LEVEL UP!

Gamification Series Part 15: The Next Level

In this final post of the series, I will provide some insights regarding where I think gamification and game-based learning may lead in the not-so-distant future...

Augment Reality Integration

Throughout the year, students asked how our gamifed course could become more active, immersive, and engaging.  They also did not want to progress through missions and levels in front of a computer for long stretches of time.  This is where I think that Augmented Reality (AR) can bring gamification to a whole new level.   First, videos and images are no longer tethered to the computer as they can be "tagged" to any physical location and accessed with a mobile device.  One mission that I never developed but would like to in the future is a type of AR scavenger hunt that would lead students to different locations based upon the decisions that they made throughout the mission.  

AR is already making its way into the gaming world.  At last summer's GIE symposium, I was introduced to the new Google project called Ingress.  The attempt here seems to be the development of a gaming environment that, like many of our courses, is blended between both the physical and online world.  The only different here is that at many locations, those two world converge via augmented reality.  

Gamified Learning Management Systems

I have already mentioned a few platforms (ClassBadges, 3DGameLab, ClassDojo, Classcraft) that are doing a great job developing online tools and environments to help, or developed specifically for, gamified courses. This is the tip of the iceberg.  As more educators recognize the potential for gamification and game-based learning, the demand for a robust, easy to use online platform will rise. It is also apparent that the companies mentioned above are working closely with educators in the field to create the best product possible for students in K-12 settings.  I'm looking forward to great things to come on this front! 

Game-Based Curriculum / Gamified Schools

Believe it or not, this actually already exists.  Quest to Learn is a public middle and high school in New York City that "uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences.” (Source)

I also believe that the rise in mastery learning and proficiency-based graduation competencies opens the door for this type of innovative approach.  If schools begin to move away from "seat time" requirements and instead focus on students' ability to demonstrate competency in specific skills, a self or flex-paced gamified curriculum could serve as an effective type of learning environment.   

*** That concludes the gamification series.  I hope that my reflections from this year at PHS will serve as guidance and/or inspiration for many of you interested in the promise and potential for gamification and game-based learning in the field of education. If you have any questions, comments, advice, or would simply like to connect and chat, please get in touch!  @Mr_Driscoll / thdriscoll@gmail.com 

Complete Gamification Series

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: What is Gamification?

Part 3: Why Gamify?

Part 4: Our Quest

Part 5: Student Viewpoints on Gamification

Part 6: Gaming Terminology

Part 7: Leveling

Part 8: Badges & Achievements

Part 9: XP & Grades By Attrition

Part 10: Guilds / Team Missions

Part 11: Leaderboards

Part 12: Narrative / Avatars

Part 13: Managing Gamification

Part 14: Results

Part 15: The Next Level

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Gamification Series Part 14: Results

When reflecting upon whether gamification "worked" this year, I had to revisit the major reason why I ventured into this in the first place.  It all boils down to this brief explanation:

Problem =  Lack of Motivation & Engagement

Proposed Solution =  Gamification

Although this is admittedly oversimplified, it at least provides a frame of reference when evaluating this year's gamified course. 

STUDENT SURVEY

How did I measure whether gamification improved motivation and engagement? Simple, I asked the students.  Here are some results from a Google Form survey the students recently completed:

67% were more motivated to learn in a gamified learning environment.

88% were more engaged in class on a daily basis. 

Beyond motivation and engagement, they also reported the following: 

70%  learned more effectively in a gamified course.

79%  enjoyed the competition associated with gamification.

MY PERSPECTIVE

ACHIEVEMENTS 

Motivation & Engagement

As was evident in the survey, there was definitely improved motivation and classroom engagement for most students. This was typically the case for students who self-identified as "gamers," but many students who are not your traditional gamer enjoyed the course as well. These were typically students who were not as caught up in the narrative but instead with the competition and camaraderie that accompanied the gamified learning environment. 

Students Assume Role of Teachers / Coaches

I also recognized a new dynamic when it came to students working on group projects and assignments. The competition created a type of positive peer pressure to make sure others in the group succeeded. It also created opportunities for group leaders to assume the role of "teacher" as they often times coached their teammates through a particularly difficult part of the course. 

CHALLENGES 

Management

As described in the post on management, I did develop a system for managing the gamified learning environment by piecing together several different resources and strategies. This was, however, not ideal. In the future, I will consider adopting a more robust tool or platform to conduct the digital portion of the course. (Ex. 3DGamelab, Class Dojo)  

Narrative & Avatars

I also had a difficult time "selling" the idea of the narrative (storyline) and avatars. First, I do not think that I effectively wove the existing curriculum into the storyline effectively enough. I also did not make enough use of the avatars. Moving forward, I will make sure that each mission is tied more directly to the narrative, while creating differentiated tasks for students who are in different avatar classes. This will hopefully create more buy-in from those who were more reluctant to dive into this concept. 

More Games & Competitions

Many students enjoyed when we learned and competed with actual games throughout the course. For instance, we had a few competitions with Geoguessr to learn geography that were a big hit with students. Although this course applied "gamification" as opposed to "game-based learning," there can still be a place for leveraging existing games effectively. Back when I taught American Government, I thought that the iCivics games were great, and so did my students. I will certainly add in more games and competitions to each scenario for next year. 

NEXT POST: THE NEXT LEVEL (FINAL POST OF THE GAMIFICATION SERIES)

Complete Gamification Series

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: What is Gamification?

Part 3: Why Gamify?

Part 4: Our Quest

Part 5: Student Viewpoints on Gamification

Part 6: Gaming Terminology

Part 7: Leveling

Part 8: Badges & Achievements

Part 9: XP & Grades By Attrition

Part 10: Guilds / Team Missions

Part 11: Leaderboards

Part 12: Narrative / Avatars

Part 13: Managing Gamification

Part 14: Results

Part 15: The Next Level

GOOGLE DOC COMPILATION OF ALL POSTS

Gamification Series Part 13: Managing Gamification

For those of you interested in gamification yet unsure of how to actually implement it, here are some resources and ideas to help you actively manage a gamified course.


GRADING / TRACKING XP

Gamification Spreadsheet

This incredible Google spreadsheet by Mr. Matera is what I have used throughout the year.  It enables you to enter and track XP along with the ability to display leaderboards for individuals, groups, and classes. It was also easy to embed different pages of the spreadsheet into our LMS.






I know of a few teachers who have used the 3D Gamelab platform as their classroom LMS with great success.  Designed specifically with gamification in mind, this LMS has every feature that you would need in this type of learning environment.

BADGES & ACHIEVEMENTS



Class Badges gives educators the ability to customize and award badges to students based upon achievements, academic mastery, or even existing awards.  I am not familiar with how well this integrates into other online environments, but its' recent partnership with EdStart leads me to believe that this tool has incredible potential moving forward.

Many educators who use Edmodo have most likely noticed the badge feature.  If this is a platform that you currently use with your students, utilizing this makes sense since it is already built-in feature.

GOOGLE APPS

Even if you do not use an official badge app or LMS feature, you can of course develop your own badging system.  For instance, this year I simply created a list of achievements for each scenario with a "badge" that was compiled into a Google Presentation and shared with the class.


CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Class Dojo is a customizable tool that helps provide feedback and reinforcements for positive classroom behaviors.  There are also features to collect data and generate reports for parents and administrators.

As colleague (and awesome educator) Tim Downing states, "ClassCraft is like Class Dojo meets World of Warcraft."  What makes this stand out is its emphasis on the role-playing and risk/reward system that plays out in the classroom.

Swiping In

"Swiping In" is a technique that I developed with colleague Brian Germain to help students (and us educators) monitor their progress in a mastery learning environment.  Here is a post that describes the strategy in more detail as well as a quick video of student's demonstrating during class.

Mission Guides

These Google Documents help map out our gamified units. They include the type of mission, XP available, minimum XP to advance, assessments, and links to any resources and assignments needed.


Pacing

Of course, pacing is entirely up to the educator and how they would like to design their course.  You can establish a more traditional, teacher-directed pace in which all students progress together, or you can completely open things up in an autonomous, self-paced learning environment.  I have tried to find a middle ground, outlined below:

• Self-paced units, but we all start the next unit together. 
• Each mission is graded, but those that students do not progress to ARE NOT given 0's.
• 50% of grade is based upon scored missions, other 50% based upon progress. (Based upon XP Scale)

If you know of any other resources to help manage a gamified classroom, please share below!


NEXT POST: RESULTS

Complete Gamification Series

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: What is Gamification?

Part 3: Why Gamify?

Part 4: Our Quest

Part 5: Student Viewpoints on Gamification

Part 6: Gaming Terminology

Part 7: Leveling

Part 8: Badges & Achievements

Part 9: XP & Grades By Attrition

Part 10: Guilds / Team Missions

Part 11: Leaderboards

Part 12: Narrative / Avatars

Part 13: Managing Gamification

Part 14: Results

Part 15: The Next Level

GOOGLE DOC COMPILATION OF ALL POSTS

NCAA March Madness-Style AP Review Game (2014 Edition)

As a former college basketball player as well as High School coach, it is no surprise that my favorite sporting event of the year is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament - MARCH MADNESS.

Last year, I decided to turn my AP European History review into a March Madness style simulation.  The class worked together to narrow down the top 64 most influential figures/groups in modern European History.  Students ranked them from 1-16 based upon four different historical eras, then collaboratively created a 70 slide Google Presentation and presented to the class.  After this, they all filled out brackets to determine who they thought was the most influential.  Next, we had a game-by-game class vote to determine the "class bracket."  The student whose bracket was the closest match to the "class bracket" was the ultimate winner.  Here are the instructions that I provided the students for this assignment.  I also filmed each step of the process and created the following video depicting the game.




APEH MADNESS 2014

In March, Seth Watts (AP teacher from Southern California) stumbled upon the video above and asked a few questions regarding how to implement a similar game in his course.  I suggested that if both of our classes were going to do this, why not collaborate!   He was all in and away we went...

Creating the Field of 64

The first step was to select field of 64.  We created the following Google Presentation that would be collaboratively develop by students in both of our classes.  My students created the field for two eras, while Seth's students worked on the two others.  After a few days, we had a completed field of 64 influential figures.

Completing the Student Brackets

Students in both classes were then provided with a blank bracket with all 64 figures.  Each student filled out the bracket based upon their views of "historical significance."  This was a helpful review for many since they simply did not recognize some of the people.  It was also interesting that many students in Mr. Watts' course chose people that we did not discuss much (if at all) in the course.  This was great since it provided a different perspective on European History that they were not exposed to here at PHS.

Round-by-Round Voting
To manage the voting, Seth suggested that we use Poll Everywhere for each match-up and have each class vote for one round per day.  This worked out great as we were able to see exactly how all of the students in each class viewed the historical significance of each "player."  Similar to the experience students had when collaborating on the presentation, many were surprised with how the students in California voted.  This then led to great discussions about differing views on history from various angles (political, economic, social, religious, etc.)

RESULTS

I consider this year's game a greater success than last year's, primarily due to the collaboration with Seth's students in California.  The feedback from students was mostly positive, with the only real negative being that there should have been more time for this review game.  I agree, at times it seemed rushed and needed more than the 5-6 class days devoted to it.  As with everything else in teaching, I'll have to reflect and iterate on this concept for next year.  If you have any questions about the review game or would like to collaborate on one in the future, please reach out and let me know!

Gamification Series Part 12: Narrative & Avatars

Speaking at GIE13 last summer, Professor Lee Sheldon made a fascinating point that I had never really considered.  

It it is not necessarily the graphics or technology that make a "good" game.  Instead, it is the ability to create a story that engages and enables players to become emotionally invested in the overarching narrative.  (paraphrased)

How can this concept be applied in a classroom?  One example is a project that Sheldon continues to develop at the Emergent Reality Lab at Rensselaer.  He described how RPI students are taught Mandarin and Chinese culture by playing a live-action role playing game.  From what I recall from his lecture, the back story involves students who are brought into custody in a Chinese airport and are being interrogated by authorities (role played by native Mandarin speakers at RPI).  Another new project by Sheldon is call These Far Hills, "a game that teaches engineering by following the adventures of an extended Irish family emigrating to Mars." Source

If this all sounds a bit wild to you, it did to me as well.  After considering this for a while, it did start to make sense that developing a narrative for the course could create a greater sense of purpose for students progressing through our gamified World History class.  With a few weeks to go in the summer of 2013, I decided to give it a shot and dove in.


Step 1: Narrative - "The Blueprint"

I decided to create a narrative that would attempt to tie in all of the major historical eras in the curriculum.  No easy task.  Ultimately, I went with a post-apocalyptic theme that required students to enter a virtual world in order to study the achievements and mistakes of historical civilizations.  The goal was then to develop a Blueprint for future societies based upon what was learned through study of these eras.  Here is a copy of the complete BLUEPRINT narrative.

After students completed all of the missions for each scenario, as part of the narrative, they needed to Report to Mission Control.  This assignment helped students reflect upon the era while also staying true to the narrative by considering how they could use their newly acquired knowledge to develop THE BLUEPRINT.


Step 2:  Avatars

Part of the story line is that a team of experts from different facets of society have been chosen to work in teams and embark upon this journey.  I therefore had students create avatars based upon certain classes of people.  Each avatar class has designated skills and expertise, but students then created their own back story for their avatar.  The classes included General, Judge, Senator, Professor, Business Leader, Artist, Scientist, and Citizen. Students could also create a new class if approved.  Complete Avatar Class List Here.


Suggestions

• Try to develop a narrative that is broad enough to have appeal for the most students, yet not so vague that it is meaningless.  
• Give students flexibility regarding their avatar and how it will play out in the story.  
• Although there was enthusiasm to start, make sure to keep tying in the narrative and avatars.  If these components are not included and referred to regularly, many students will lose interest.   I made this mistake by Quarter 3 and had a difficult time getting traction moving forward. 
• Consider making the narrative/avatar component optional.  For instance, if a student wants to progress through each scenario yet is disinterested in the back story, I would allow it (as I did this year).
• Have fun with it, be creative, and include the students in the process!

NEXT POST: MANAGING GAMIFICATION

Complete Gamification Series

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: What is Gamification?

Part 3: Why Gamify?

Part 4: Our Quest

Part 5: Student Viewpoints on Gamification

Part 6: Gaming Terminology

Part 7: Leveling

Part 8: Badges & Achievements

Part 9: XP & Grades By Attrition

Part 10: Guilds / Team Missions

Part 11: Leaderboards

Part 12: Narrative / Avatars

Part 13: Managing Gamification

Part 14: Results

Part 15: The Next Level

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