This past week, MJ Linane, founder of www.guildway.com, Shawn Young, founder and CEO of ClassCraft, and myself conducted a webinar about gamification of the classroom. Our purpose was to inform interested teachers of the why, what and how of gamification. The full webinar is posted below and I encourage you to view it and post any comments or questions you may have. I, being the interested, but the non-experienced teacher pertaing this topic, will not answer them but will ask MJ and Shawn, the “Game-Masters,” for their feedback. Watch the webinar and view the outline below.
Outline:
I Introductions
II. WHY–A Discussion of Games We Enjoy & Why Game–We conversed about what makes games fun and how we can bring those elements into our classroom. Gamification is not playing games in the classroom, rather it is using elements of games to increase engagement in education. Shawn made the point that these elements are used to simply make the class more fun–and that should not be downplayed as an important aspect of the classroom environment.
III. WHAT–Flappy bird and Seven Elements–While I attempted to play Flappy Bird, Shawn described what made it fun and addictive. Shawn then presented seven elements he had identified as gamification elements.
IV. HOW–Practical Ideas & ClassCraft–MJ presented some very easy things I could do to start incorporating elements in my class and Shawn gives us a look at ClassCraft and how it could be used. I must admit, Shawn was very honest in explaining that a teacher does not need to use technology nor ClassCraft to gamify their instruction, however, technology and ClassCraft make it more manageable and efficient. Judging by what I saw in the webinar, I will be trying ClassCraft and posting an App Tested about it in the future.
Questions: Have you gamified your classroom? If so, what worked for you? If not, do you see any value in these elements and will you try it in your classroom? As always, thanks for posting your thoughts and questions in the comment section below.
Mr. Kamrowski 
August 23, 2015 at 7:02 pm
I am very intrigued with classcraft to use as mainly an Avatar creator and hub for potential XP. I am also looking into Schoology for my gradebook and assignments (quests).
– I want the various things students work on to go towards certain PERKS. When the read and article and answer questions they get XP towards a Literacy PERK. When they participate in class discussions they get social XP that goes toward an Eloquence PERK.
Would this be possible through classcraft? Or do you have any recommendations for organizing this? I hope this makes sense.
Casey
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August 23, 2015 at 7:49 pm
Casey, you can completely customize the conditions for giving XP in ClassCraft. I believe this will work for you. I am going to send this question to Shawn and MJ to get the answer from the pros. Until then, I would urge to go to ClassCraft.com and create an account and run a test course. It is completely free and they have great tutorials within the site.
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September 28, 2015 at 8:45 pm
Sorry for jumping in late!
Casey, you could definitely customize some of the powers to make them the “perks” you described. You could also make your own board of perks in your classroom and add on to Classcraft that way. So when students reach Level 2, they’d unlock X perk, Level 3, and so forth.
Let us know if you have any other questions!
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