MYTHS OR TRUTHS

MYTHS OR TRUTHS

MYTH #1 Games are just for play. There is no challenge or educational rigor.
TRUTH Games are filled with a motivational complexity that can be used to shed light on topics and increase content acquisition.

MYTH #2 If I give them a badge or points, my class will be gamified. 

TRUTH Combining the many elements of game mechanics helps create memorable experiences that push students well beyond the bounds of the traditional classroom

MYTH #3 It’s easy for you. It won’t work for me because I teach ___________ [Fill in the Blank].
TRUTH Gamification works for all grade levels, subject areas, and educational budgets.

MYTH #4 You need to be a gamer to gamify your class.

TRUTH You do not have to be a gamer to get started.

MYTH #5 Students should want to learn; I shouldn’t have to dress it up! 

TRUTH Finding meaning in our content unlocks students’ motivation.

MYTH #6 Gamification is just playing games… 

TRUTH Gamification is more about exploration of the course, 

content, and your crew than it is about playing a game

Myth #7 Girls don’t game. 

TRUTH Girls not only game, they dominate the game world.

MYTH #8 My classroom doesn’t have enough technology to make this work. 

TRUTH Gamification can be high tech, low tech, or no tech

PART THREE

PART III: Setting Sail

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel. 

—Augustus Hare

In this part of the book Michael Matera provides basic game theory and mechanics that will empower us to create an environment that more fully engages students’ motivations to learn while also producing better results. We, through gamification and playful planning, will create leaders, critical thinkers, and even legacy makers. 

In this passage the book provides you with additional ways to begin brainstorming ideas as well as guided processes to structure your gamified lesson, unit, or course. And it’s the key to keep a map of exploration in gamification. As well the book show us some game elements, such as mechanics, tools, items, badges, and mini-games, which will turn your current content into an even more engaged learning environment and he is shoving off to us in order to have a new sigth of the new educational world.

In this order the autor says that we need to set the course for our final destination. Along the route, you’ll want to make sure to explore the details around you. In this way:

Setting the Course: is important to start with the route that excites you the most and then come back to the others later.

Exploring: Use the general ideas you created above, spend time exploring possible names, characteristics, and connections. If you get stuck or lose motivation, move on to a new route and come back later with fresh eyes. In this part Matera says that we have different toutes to explore

Finally you can find ideas and examples that can be applied or adapted to any classroom from symbols and points, to mini-games and adventures, this is a resource which can return in different times anyway to join the adventure with explore like a pirate and discover how gamification can enrich our classrooms.

PART TWO

Part II: Scallywags and Seadogs.

In your life, you choose and create the people and events designed to bring you the perfect opportunity to know yourself as you truly are. —Neale Donald Walsch

All explorers are part of a crew; we need others, all of them offer valuable advice from their own perspective but don't forget that you are the explorer and the leader of your own adventure, so, you have to decide what is meaningful to you and you have the chance of discovering  it by yourself.

As teachers we have to allow our students that they find the freedom to play and explore within content, give to them the ability to make choices about their own learning.

“As the teacher and new game designer, you will learn exciting ways to motivate, inspire, and engage your students. You will master a new language of learning that leads your students to become educational explorers”.

Ahoy Mate!: A New Language of Learning

A different language is a different vision of life. —Federico Fellini

Gammification has to be so great, that our students want to learn more than we expected they can do 

and they will love to go to school!

Purpose-Driven Learning

Gaming concepts, like intrinsic motivation, self-taught exploration, and learning through failure, have transferred to the classroom with great success.In this chapter we  identified a list of ten qualities highly successful people have in common—confidence, creativity, enthusiasm, effort, focus, resilience, initiative, curiosity, dependability, and empathy.

Having a language built on action-oriented words help students carve their own paths toward becoming the best versions of themselves.When students talk about their own need to take the initiative in exploring  their own learning and growth mindset, or to be curious enough to discover their passions, the learning experience is meanignful.The mark of true excellence is when you can spark a student to not only learn what is expected but also to be engaged enough to have the initiative and curiosity to explore beyond the expectations and discover their true capabilities.”

Game-inspired course design is the best way to create that experience and achieve meaningful and powerful results. “We must begin inspiring students to, like chefs, confidently create their learning experiences”.

5: From the Helm: Getting to Know Your Crew

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. —Helen Keller

A good captain knows when to push the crew members and when to lead them along.

 In this chapter, we’ll review a few tools that will help you practice game-inspired course design with your students in mind. These tools, developed to help appeal to gamers, have proven to be windows into understanding how to construct course content activities to best motivate and engage students in the classroom.

Richard Bartle, the author and designer of the player type theory, identifies four key groups of gamer personalities: Achievers, Socializers, Explorers, and Killers (griefers).

immersion, cooperation, achievement, and competition are four main areas  on four key components that align well with Bartle’s gamer profiles.

Radoff, an American entrepreneur, game designer, and the author of Game On: Energizing Your Business with Social Media Games, notes that games are experiences and states that “experiences are more about happiness than they are about things.”

These four categories will help us think about different ways to view the elements in our course and inspire us to design new types of activities to deliver course objectives.

SAPS Model

SAPS stands for Status, Access, Power, and Stuff. This model is a powerful tool that can help educators to further understand what motivates their students. The SAPS Model help to incorporate different motivating factors to create a game-based course that ensures options for all students.

“When you start your voyage to the New World, remember to include your crew. You will need them on this adventure; you and the students will be the ones who inhabit this New World. As the captain, you must inspire them to explore with you. Show them the value of taking risks and exploring their interests”.

PART ONE

Part I: Plotting the Course.

After a very good motivation since the begining part, Now we go deep into detail, This first part begins with a very substantial summary about the implementation of the gamification in the classroom, Mr. Matera makes a description about the reason why he suggets to use gamification in our contexts, and how it allows the  real use of the contents in our clases by  the students, we can say as a real situation "game" with a clear purpose  makes learning content meaningful for students, giving them contexts where the language, or any content can be used immediately.


In this part Matera invite us to think about gamification and to start with analizing our content and the required standards and then explore how to apply layers and gamification on top. The game-inspired course design works offering students ways to go beyond the basics engage them their body, mind and spirit as he says "there are buccaneers to bring on board, because we all have interests, passions and ideas"


atera presents us in this part,  the definition of what gamification is, and by dispelling some myths that exist in front of the implementation of gamefication in the classroom, many people think that it has not an educational purpose; The author describes the gamification as the use of strategies or instructions from games, in the activities that we carry out in our classrooms.


On the other hand, in this chapter, the author presents the arguments and examples of how funtional is gamification, not only in the educational area, but also in areas such as research and industry.

ARE YOU A PIRATE?

ARE YOU A PIRATE?

Following the navigation of this book, and before going deeply into it, Matera challenge us to think and evaluate the pirate spirit that we have, deal with ourselves if we are educational real pirates, and in this way learn new ways to increase meaningful learning in our classroom.

In this short part the author encourage us to be Pirates with adventurous spirit and passion for what we do, pirates willing to take risks that lead us to find and educational treasure. 

EMDORSEMENT FOR EXPLORE LIKE A PIRATE

"Congratulations, we are really engage in this trip"

Since the beginning Michael Matera's book engages the reader, "Explorer like a pirate" presents us excellent recommendations and approvals from different points of view and educational champs.

These ratifications comments face the reader to a kind of movie trailer on the book, and in this way awake the audience interest to keep reading with the expectation of finding out what the book is about, how can we apply it or integrate in our educational reality in the classroom and hot can we integrate gamification and dispel the myths and preconceptions that administrative ones have.