All Fun & Games (while learning!)

For the first time in my life, I feel a little behind in the world of technology. In class yesterday, students introduced me to Schoology and Notability. While this concept seemed odd to me at first, the classroom runs as if it is a video game at a point three hundred years in the future, and the students are part of a society that withholds information from them, but they have found a device (iPad) that has allowed them to illegally obtain that information for themselves. While the game storyline is much more complicated than this, this concept guides the entire class, including classroom management, as students complete assignments and earn points. They also can gain or lose points based upon their classroom behavior. If they help another student, are particularly active in discussions, or do any number of great things for others, they earn extra points that day. If they are disruptive or otherwise causing distractions that are particularly negative for the learning environment, they stand to lose a few points that day. Because Carter was really helpful and volunteered to explain Notability and some parts of Schoology to me and the rest of the class, he was able to earn 50 extra points on the first day.

Through Schoology, the game storyline continues. Units of study (referred to as quests in our classroom) are uploaded where students have different tasks to complete. These include what Mr. Scott calls missions (mini-units within the larger topic), mission briefings (introductions to each mini-unit), recon (vocabulary), challenges (assignments for submission), intel (discussion forums), and encounters (projects, tests, summative assessments).

As I previously mention, for each of the assignment types I listed above students earn points, pre-determined by Mr. Scott. Students can't earn points unless they complete the task and do what is asked of them. These points give students the opportunity to "level up" in the class and move their way through different ranks within their branch of government. They were evenly split between legislative, executive, and judicial and were given a beginning occupation. As they gain points, they gain prestige and make their way up through the society. Furthermore, students can "purchase" activities and advantages using points. For instance, they may be able to earn the right to eat a snack during class, add emojis to their secret username that appears on the leaderboard (so nobody else knows who is doing the best or worst), change their secret username, etc. Essentially, the points can incentivize being an active participant in the classroom and being a good classmate.

I still don't understand the whole system as it is just being set up, but I love this concept. The students all seemed really into the idea of having a storyline to set the stage for the class, and they loved being able to earn points. It seems to already be working in terms of engagement - they were excited about earning points for the pre-test they had to take. I could also tell that they were happy to show me the ropes when I didn't understand what their apps were capable of.

It was a very informative day and I'm excited to see how this whole storyline plays out over the coming weeks and months!