Worth Sharing: ‘Collaboration’ Creates Mediocrity, Not Excellence, According to Science | Inc.com

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Boy, can I relate to this:

A recent study published in Applied Psychology has now confirmed that a collaborative work environment can make top performers–the innovators and hard-workers–feel miserable and socially isolated.

The problem is that rather than seeing a top performer as a role models, mediocre employees tend to see them as threats, either to their own position in the company or to their own feelings of self-worth.

Rather than improving their own performance, mediocre employees socially isolate top performers, spread nasty rumors about them, and either sabotage, or attempt to steal credit for, the top performers’ work. As the study put it: “Cooperative contexts proved socially disadvantageous for high performers.”

Source: ‘Collaboration’ Creates Mediocrity, Not Excellence, According to Science | Inc.com

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[Gameful Learning] Table of Contents for Gamification 101

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Here is the current Table of Contents for Gamification 101 (Book 1)

Gamification 101: An Inquiry Based Journey

Part 1 – Background

  1. Prologue
  2. What s Gamification?
  3. A Description of the Course

Part 2 – The Journal

  1. Reflecting on Previous Versions
  2. Module Maps
  3. Scoring
    1. It All Adds Up
    2. On The Randomness of Grades
    3. Death to Deadlines
    4. 5 Ways to Make Marking Easier
    5. Breaking Molds
      1. Prior Work
      2. Double Dipping
      3. Collaborative Exams
  4. Questing
    1. About Those Quests
    2. The Iterative Quest
    3. Other Chain Quests
    4. New Quests
  5. Getting the Course Up and Running
    1. Submission and Grading System
    2. What Does a Gamified App Need to Be?
    3. Efficient Marking That Doesn’t Short-change Students
  6. ShowTime
    1. The First Few Weeks
    2. Mid-Term Reality Check
    3. Reaching Out to My Students
    4. The Home Stretch

Part 3 – End Game

  1. Bona Fide Criterion-References Assessment
  2. Lessons Learned – Again

Part 4 – Supplementary Materials

  1. Endnotes
  2. Quest List
  3. Quest Log
  4. Master Grade Book
  5. Brief Primer on Google Sheets
    1. Sheets Basics
    2. Linking Sheets Together
    3. Doctopus
    4. Mail Merge
  6. Glossary

Thoughts?

Source: gameful-blog:table_of_contents_for_gamification_101 [Gameful Learning]

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[Gameful Learning]: TWO BOOKS

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I’ve decided to split my new book into two parts.

Book 1 working title – Gamification 101: An Inquiry Based Journey

~ 150-200 pages; likely retail price: under $30

This book is written as a kind of journal that describes the process I went through while setting up and running a fully gamified course.
It is meant to be both guide for people who want to get a course up and running quickly as well as for those who are still trying to decide if this is something they want to do so they can see what’s involved.

Book 2 working title – Gamification: A Practical Guide for the Classroom
will take a more ‘structured’ approach and will include more in the way of supporting research and theory.

~ 350-400 pages; preferred retail price: under $50

See: Table of Contents

Thoughts?
Source: gameful-blog:two_books [Gameful Learning]

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New Book: Choosing and Using Digital Games in the Classroom: A Practical Guide

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I am thrilled to announce that my book is now available. This book is full of lists and practical advice on how to use games in the classroom. It takes you from the theories that underpin both learning and teaching with games to the practical application of these theories. There are dozens of strategies for using games in the classroom and templates to help you design and build lesson plans for single classes or entire courses.

For some sneak peeks – including some of the many images – try here.

Springer Site (includes both hardcover and eBook versions)

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The Clark-Kozma Debate in the 21st Century

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For a long time now, this paper has been the most popular paper on my academia.edu collection, and I finally figured out why……

© K.Becker 2016

© K.Becker 2016

Turns out, this paper is required reading in a number of courses, both at the undergrad and the grad level. Cool.

This paper takes a fresh look at the Clark/Kozma debate from the perspective of 21st century new media technologies in general and serious games in particular. After a brief re-cap of the key elements of the debate, a relatively recent article by R.E.Clark is summarized that brings serious games into the conversation. Clark’s allegations are addressed and the case is made that digital games form a distinct medium that can not easily be lumped in with other educational technologies. The author draws on over a decade of personal experience teaching with games to move the debate to the next level and offer some recommendations for when and how games can be used effectively in formal contexts.

snap02859Becker, K. (2010) The Clark-Kozma Debate in the 21st Century , CNIE Conference 2010, “Heritage Matters: Inspiring Tomorrow” Saint John, New Brunswick, May 16-19, 2010.

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Formative vs Summative vs Confirmative vs Predictive Evaluation

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0101-evaluation

© K.Becker 2016

Confused about the difference between summative and formative evaluation? Did you know there are two other kinds of assessment that we rarely talk about in education? This image from my upcoming book shows where they typically apply in the development lifecycle.

Robert Stakes analogy for formative vs summative evaluation is one of my favorites: “When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative. When the guests taste the soup, that’s summative“.

  • Formative evaluation tends to focus on the process and normally takes place during development and  before the intervention has been deployed.
  • Summative evaluation normally takes place after deployment and focuses on its overall effects.
  • Confirmative evaluation is normally performed after the summative evaluation has been complete for some time, and its purpose is to confirm that the instruction is still effective weeks, months, and even years later. This is rarely done in formal education, partly (but not entirely) for practical reasons.
  • Predictive evaluation takes place before the instruction is even developed. This kind of evaluation can help us decide whether or not to proceed with a project before we have devoted too much time or too many resources to back out. It can also give us information we need to know to be able to proceed with confidence.
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Who has a good anonymous blog?

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2009-03-22_13-22-25-001_wmA new semester means a new set of students doing my “internet stalking” quest. This an adaptation of an assignment created by Robert Runte (ULeth), where students choose an anonymous blog and try to find out as much as they can about the person/people behind it. This is an exercise about privacy. The point of the exercise is to discover just how easy it usually is to find out information about people even when they don’t share it freely. I am looking for suggestions: if anyone has or knows of a blog that does not identify the blogger(s) that they think might be suitable for this quest, please share!

2.02 Achievement Quest - Profiling Mission 1_Page_1

2.02 Achievement Quest - Profiling Mission 1_Page_2

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There’s more to Gamification than Narratives and Competition

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Survival of the Fittest (Gamification)

by http://simplifyingradicals2.blogspot.ca/
Tuesday, May 10, 2016

I start class by explaining to the students that they have been cast on a reality TV show called “Survival of the Fittest”.  This is the letter I give them:  (all materials can be found in this shared document).

Dear Students,

In an effort to supplement my teaching salary, I have volunteered all of you to be part of a new reality show called Survival of the Fittest.  The producers of the show and I are very excited to begin this endeavor.
Survival of the Fittest is a game where you are a member of a team and need to only stay alive for the duration of the show in order to win.  There will only be one winning team in the game.    Winners will receive bragging rights along with extensive knowlegde of     ___________________.

In order to survive, you will need supplies such as water, food, weapons, and a bit of good luck.  Other teams may try to sabotage you, so be alert.  Anything could happen in this game as the “game-creators” are attempting to put on a good show and boost television ratings.

 To begin, you will be flown to a remote location without any communication devices available to you.  You and your team will have the opportunity to earn supplies to help keep you alive.  Guard these supplies with your life, as you may need them to survive.

 I wish you luck and may the best team win!
Sincerely,

 

I’m using a gamified design in my classes that’s working extremely well, but I don’t layer a narrative on top of my course.

I have two concerns with this design:
1. There is a risk that the narrative will overshadow the actual learning objectives of the course of unit. The ‘content’ is depreciated to become little more than the thing you need to do to win the game. Good gamification should do the opposite: it should focus attention on the content. I don’t have a problem with narratives per se, but they need to be specifically tailored to the content of the unit. A narrative into which we can “drop” course content is really not much different from a game wrapper. If there are ANY people in your class who don’t like the narrative, then it becomes a barrier to learning. If all you are doing is switching one group of disengaged learners for a different group of disengaged learners, you are not making progress.

2. Only SOME students like competing against each other. They tend to be the more extroverted students. Introverts are often put off by competition. I think punitive measures (like losing health) interfere with learning, unless the ‘failure’ is directly related to the thing they are trying to learn.

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