Cleaning Kingdom: An Application of ChoreWars to the Woodworking Lab

As a final project for my DSM graduate class, I was tasked with gamifying my classroom. I chose the platform of ChoreWars because it offered an easily accessible and user friendly experience that my students could quickly gain a grasp of. This game was designed for application in the 7-12 Woodworking Lab. I feel that middle school-9th grade students may be most open to participation in the game. The set up process was simple, and the game took little time to create once all of the brainstorming on paper had been finished. This is a great creative outlet for teachers who want to try to gamify their rooms to add a fun and competitive aspect among their students. Below is a quick outline of the process that my gamification took. This would also be a handy way to introduce the idea to administration, or to show other teachers in your field what new and exciting things you are doing.

Game Name: Cleaning Kingdom

Link to Game: Cleaning Kingdom

Audience: Woodworking Students

Learning Goal(s) of the Game:

• Students will demonstrate professionalism in maintaining a clean and safe work environment.
• Students will communicate and work productively with others.
• Students will establish roles of responsibility and show initiative to participate in lab maintenance.
• Students will adapt to varied roles, responsibilities, and and expectations.
• Students will work effectively in a climate of ambiguity and changing priorities.
• Students will deliver quality performance on time.
• Students will interpersonal skills to influence and guide others towards a goal.
• Students will demonstrate accountability for individual performance.

Game Description:  

• Why you selected this theme/game:
• One of the biggest struggles we face while working in the production labs is clean up time. We use at least 5 minutes at the end of each class to reorganize and clean the lab so that the next students will come in to a well maintained space and can start working right away. It is the student's responsibility to maintain the lab, tools, and machines as part of participating in the course. ChoreWars gave an easy way to organize the cleaning tasks, and also allows for easy tracking of points. The game is simple to log in to, and students can input their points very quickly so that class time is not being consumed. I am hoping that by making some of the more tedious jobs worth more points, students competitive nature will drive them to choose these tasks in order to stay ahead.
• Learning goals align with Iowa Core Curriculum Employability Skills Standards which is something that we are trying to prepare students for in vocational training classes.
• Tell about progressing through the game:
• Students earn varying amounts of points based on the cleaning chore that they choose to do each day. Students will fill out a physical work log daily and will then be given an opportunity at the end of each week to input their chore points by selecting the jobs that they have completed throughout the week. By having the physical work log, students cannot claim tasks that they have not completed because their points will not properly align. As students progress through the game, they will encounter different monsters that they will have to battle including: SplinterQueen, DustpanMan, LazyClassmate, DustintheWind, GlueMan, SlowDuster, etc. If they beat these monsters, they may win treasures that include a free pass for skipping cleaning for a day worth 25 experience points! More tedious jobs have a higher risk of facing a monster, but that also means a higher chance of gaining the treasure.
• What will be the outcome of playing this game:
• This game will help students to develop employability skills that align with the Iowa Core Curriculum Standards. These skills will prepare students who want to go into the workforce by exposing them to communication, responsibility, and expectations that reflect that required in a working environment.
• Include an explanation about how you incorporated
• Experience Points
• Students will gain a varying amount of experience points for each quest that correlates with the time, energy, and skills involved for the completion of the task.
• Leveling Up
• As students level up, according to chorewars preset levels, they will be able to beat the monsters that they run into more easily. This will allow opportunity for treasure wins which should motivate students to take responsibility for more difficult tasks.
• Rewarding Mastery
• Once students reach certain levels, they may be asked to complete “special quests” which will be uploaded and assigned directly. Special quests can be certain cleaning jobs, or assisting in motivating students who are lagging behind.
• The Leaderboard
• The leaderboard will be used as a motivator for pushing students to try new jobs. Leaderboard will be displayed in classroom on a bi-weekly basis so students can see what their progress is.

Directions for Playing the Game:

Students will sign up for a cleaning task for each day of the week on a physical work log (this can be completed daily or have them sign up for the entire week worth of jobs on one day). As the week progresses, teacher will observe students completing clean up and mark whether they have accomplished their job to a satisfactory level. At the end of the week, students will log on to Chore Wars to claim the tasks that they have completed that week. Teacher will update leaderboard bi-weekly to be posted in the classroom for students to see how they stand in the ranks of the class.

Gamification is Growing On Me

Gabe Zichermann gives a great Ted Talk on how our newest generation, which he terms "Generation G", but what I have learned in my studies to  have also been called the iGeneration, is being influenced by their number one hobby, video games. He explains the influence video games have on Gen G's lives, and how this is effecting their experience in the educational setting. To put it simple, students are bored, and they can't find motivation in the classroom because things don't move fast enough. He touches on our new student's ability to multitask, and confirms the belief that I have been forming recently about the need to incorporate multitasking into the classroom. His suggested method of incorporation, games.

I was challenged this week to wage a battle of defenses in the game Kingdom Rush for my DSM course. As I started this gaming experience, I was at first bored by the repetitious gameplay, and the slow pace of assault by the goblins and trolls. As the game progressed and became a true challenge, I felt my interest peaking. I felt that I was finally getting into a state of Flow. Feeling my sense of time slip, I ended up playing the entire assigned 3 hours in my first pass at the game. Finally, I hit a point of frustration as I reached a level that I could not conquer. I found myself falling into a pattern, getting to the final wave, and once again being defeated. I started setting things up the same wave over and over again. I got to a point where I decided that I needed to walk away, to return with fresh eyes the next day. When I came back, I was refreshed and ready to take on the challenge again, and at this point was finally triumphant in my battle.

This situation made me really think about my experiences in the classroom. Often we pose a problem to our students, then give them time to work on finding a solution. What we fail to recognize, is that some students will not be able to achieve this goal without walking away from the problem for a time. When our students express to us that they can't focus, or give a defeated sigh as a statement that they can't find the solution, we tell them to keep trying. Instead, we should give the students something else to focus on. A different activity, a new problem, or even the ability to collaborate with a group to find a solution. By giving the students a break, they will remove themselves from the pattern of defeat, and will come back with the ability to change their approach and solve the problem more efficiently.

Autodesk Ribbon Toolbar Changes 2014-2015 Appsmash

This week I was assigned to create an AppSmash for my Digital and Social Media in Education class. I chose to create a smash using three apps: Skitch, Tellagami, and YouTube. I started the process by doing a google search for an image of the Autodesk Inventor toolbar. Autodesk is a 3-D modeling program that is often used in engineering classes. It offers a very user friendly interface, that is constantly being changed every year to try simplify use for all users. It can also be used as a collaboration tool for group projects by using the assembly function. This allows for multiple parts to be created separately, and then combined together into one file. During my search, I found an image that sparked an idea. It showed a clear change between the 2014 and 2015 ribbon for extruding(turning a 2-D sketch into a 3-D part). I chose to use this photo because I knew that Tellagami had a 30 second recording limit, and I knew that I could easily summarize the change that we saw. I then copy and pasted the image into Skitch, where I added circles and a label to make it more clear of where the viewer was suppose to focus their attention while my avatar was talking. I thought that some students may be distracted by the avatar, and this way it would be easy for their eyes to pop right over to the area of focus. After completing my annotation in Skitch, I assigned the image as the background for my Tellagami. After creating a quick avatar(there weren't many option for changes with the free version), I recorded my message. I then saved my Tellagami, emailed it to myself, and moved to my desktop to upload the video to YouTube. The entire process was pretty simple and took me about 45 minutes to complete once I knew which Apps I wanted to incorporate. This was my final product:







Through the assignment, I was able to explore some other Apps that could be useful in an educational AppSmash. One that I came across was Hyperlapse. While I didn't have the time to incorporate it into this assignment, I felt it could be useful for instructional videos and how-to's. Bellow are links to the Apps that I used and also to Hyperlapse. My only issue with this assignment was that most Apps seem to be more user friendly for those with an apple product. I was lucky enough to have an IPad to work from, but I found myself bouncing back and forth between my IPad and desktop between the different Apps.



Tools Used:

Skitch- used to annotate image

Tellagami- used to record message, animate avatar, save video

YouTube- used as medium to upload video for sharing

Blogger - used to share video, add commentary/explanation of video creation

9 Ways to Use Hyperlapse in Your Schools Video Efforts

Printing Doesn't Have To Leave A Paper Trail

3-D Printing isn't exactly "new" technology, but it is something new that has been making its way into schools. I was recently reminded of this while surfing through a blog and coming across the article Jaw Dropping Classroom 3D Printer Creations. This caught my eye because the school I previously taught at had been working to master the art of 3-D printing. My plan was to integrate 3-D printing into the pre-engineering class that I taught, allowing students to create a solution to a problem and actually be able to generate a prototype. This would also integrate design challenges and the use of 3-D modeling software. After coming across this article, I wondered how 3-D printing could be used in other classrooms. Some great examples were allowing biology students to print organs in order to get a more realistic view of their structure, or allowing foods students to design their own cookie cutters! I now see this as an amazing tool to engage students, allowing the ideas that started out in their minds, to translate into reality.



 The possibilities are endless, and after doing research I found myself opening up to the investment in 3D printing technologies for all students. Check out some of my links and comment your ideas about 3-D printing integration for your classroom!

• 3-D Printing Revolutionizing the Classroom
• Year 1 With A 3-D Printer: 17 Tips
• How and Why To Get Started With 3-D Printing In The Classroom

5 Pedagogical Needs That Can Be Improved Through Use of Social Media: Gamification

Through several readings including the book assigned for my Digital and Social Media course titled, Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices, I have come to the conclusion that social media does have the capability to change the traditional classroom in many ways. The book references five pedagogical needs that we need to examine when considering incorporating social media into our classrooms. This list can be found in chapter 2, p. 30 of Joosten's book:

1. Increasing communication and contact
2. Engaging students through rich, current media
3. Gathering and providing feedback
4. Creating cooperative and collaborative learning opportunities
5. Providing experiential learning opportunities

I would like to explore the idea of experiential learning opportunities, the fifth of Joosten's pedagogical list. Through other readings, I found that some teachers are using what they dub "gamification" techniques in the classroom. "The theory is that by changing at least some of the curriculum to adopt familiar social media activities like checking in or collecting incremental rewards for completing various tasks, that the education system will become more relevant to students more comfortable with the “gamification” culture." (Power) This idea really peaked my interest, because I use to be a "gamer" when I was in high school, and even through college. I built rapport with many students by discussing the latest gaming technologies that were coming out, or the best strategies during game play. It is becoming harder and harder to motivate students to participate in class, but if we could find a way to create a gaming sequence out of a class, it could really make breakthroughs with these students and help them to achieve a higher academic standing and remain more engaged in the classroom. I even found an article that suggested doing a "twitter treasure hunt", which seemed like a great idea to me as I just created a twitter and am already swimming in new information and resources. Teaching students to use social media as more than just a communication tool with friends, showing them that it can also be a great way to find new information about their interests. Even something as simple as having students comment on blogs, or youtube videos as an assignment. Leaving comments has become second nature, as Facebook has radically changed the way we communicate, and to create assignments that utilize this nature will keep students more engaged. 

 Power, D. (2012, January 10). How Social Media Is Changing Education | Sprout Social. Retrieved September 28, 2015. 

Joosten, T. (2012). Social Media for Educators: Strategies and Best Practices. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Here are some links that further explore Social Media in Education and the bold idea of "gamificiation":

• 4 Ways To Bring Gamification of Education to Your Classroom
• Gamification: The Right or Wrong Way to Motivate Students
• Social Media and Gamification Take Center Stage in Learning
• Use of Student Data: Social Media and Gamification in Education
• Epic Fail or Win?

Do Schools Kill Creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED Talks

Ken Robinson takes a humorous approach in explaining the downfalls of our education system toward the creative student. He gives examples that show how we define intelligence, and where our flaw in this definition lies. Bold statements are made such as, "We need to radically rethink our idea of intelligence", and that "Education goes deep with people, like religion or money." He speaks on the capacity of children to be innovative, and to take chances.Ken believes that, "creativity in education is as important as literacy",  take a few minutes if you have the time and find out why. Our education system teaches students that it is wrong to make mistakes, and because of this, we are killing the creativity before it has a chance to expand the minds of those who will one day lead our society. This reminded me of a quote that I have seen often on the internet, and that I try to remember when I am working with students that can't seem to grasp a concept.   There are many factors that need to be considered when we think upon intelligence. People can be "smart" in so many different ways, so why do we as a society put a label on intelligence?

SlamNation: Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make"

This is my first written blog. Something totally new to me, as teaching was just a few years ago. During my first year of teaching, I came across a video on YouTube that really helped me get through the tough time I was dealing with. I would like to share that video now so that others who are struggling to remember their purpose in the realm of education may be as motivated as I was upon listening/watching. Enjoy!



The following video is a performance at a slam poetry event. Taylor Mali shows an empowering response to the questions "What do teachers make?"