Verena Roberts @verenanz and Dr. Lee Graham @ak_leeg approached me back in October about
To learn more about the Gamifi-ED: P4 Project go to the website http://gamifi-ed.wikispaces.com/home
an idea they had and it fits with my 9th grader global collaborative curriculum requirements and some new objectives I’d written into the curriculum this year for some gamification elements of the classroom.
(Colin Osterhout has signed on as our game maker and we’re excited.) You can see the full project here at Gamifi-ED.
Here’s the premise.
Can students co-create serious games? What will that look like?
We want to work on some serious games with high school students and highered education students. (See Jane McGonigal’s Gaming Can Make a Better World TED Talk) but our question is, can we integrate crowdsourcing (we’re calling it student sourcing) so that students select the ideas that go forward and create their own teams as the work towards a final objective? Can we truly co-create a game that has a serious purpose?
Phase 1: Ideation and Creation of Multimedia based upon the Educurious Hunger Games Module
Verena Roberts came across a scenario called the Educurious Hunger Games Module [PDF] that is the starting point for the project. Anyone can participate and really, the technology and time requirements aren’t that much. Read the Educurious Overview. This will be Phase 1 of the project and aligns with Common Create Reading, Writing, and Listening Standards (see the PDF) and Student NET-S 1, 3, and 4.
This is a fantastic idea and students will produce a multimedia artifact of their choice with their vision along with backup information shared on the project wiki. (The curriculum suggests a glog but it could be anything.) Students will also earn Educurious badges through this module. (Educurious is a nonprofit, you can learn more about them.)
Gamification using Minecraft This special part of the project is optional but we hope to have 50-100 students creating a mod in Minecraft based upon the student-sourced winner of the P4 Challenge in order to create a game that promotes sustainability and conservation while incorporating elements from the Hunger Games novels. Students who participate in this phase must participate in the earlier elements of the project, however if you wish to volunteer as an advisor or in a leadership role, contact Colin Osterhout to participate.
Squirrel Chaser Community During Phase 1 of the project, there will be an opportunity for mentors and extra support for project participants in web literacy and gamification skills. If you are interested in supporting project participants as a mentor or if you are interested in participating in a two week Squirrel Chaser OOC(Open Online Course), please contact Verena Roberts.
Students aged 13 and older and the Gamifi-ED P4 Challenge – Students at Westwood Schools in Camilla, GA and other classrooms who apply and are accepted to participate will create a vision of how today’s world could end up as a Panem-like world unless interventions are made. There are three stages to participate in. The product for stage 1 is to create a variety of multimedia artifacts as they cast their vision for Preventing the Path to Panem. Contact Verena Roberts if you are considering Stage 1. The students could apply for Stage 2 with a collaboratively edited video and the final result being a student-selected game in Minecraft that is co-created by students under the leadership of Colin Osterhout, student at the University of Alaska Southeast. Contact Vicki Davis if you’re interested in this part of the project.
Anyone can participate at this stage and there will be a Squirrel Chaser OOC to help with literacy and gamification skills.
Phase 2: Video Creation
To begin this phase, all multimedia ideas will be put into a list.ly (or other voting platform) and students (all 13+) will vote on the best. These student sourced ideas and teams will move to the Video Creation Phase.
We are going to co-create here and students will collaboratively edit their video at this phase. This is something that most students have never done and is the next step in true co-creation.
You’ll only need Internet access and a way to capture and upload video to participate in this phase.
Again, theses videos will be compiled into a student sourced voting mechanism so that the final idea can be selected for the creation of the game using Minecraft. Not all teachers who participate to this point have to go onto Phase 3 but only those in Phase 3 will vote because they are the one creating the mod.
Phase 3: Gamification using Minecraft
This is where it gets really exciting. Dr. Graham’s University, the University of Alaska Southeast is supporting a Minecraft server and IT Integrator and Masters in Education Technology Student Colin Osterhout has agreed to be the Game Maker for a community he has dubbed the “Squirrel Chasers” as the students work together to create a serious game to promote sustainability and build upon the vision of the final student sourced concept for “preventing the path to panem.”
The students will be co-creating a Minecraft mod taking forth their vision. We’re ready to try it but are still working to recruit volunteers to help see how this will work.
The highered students will have a research and supporting role throughout the entire project.
Phase 4: Presentation and Reflection
Organizers – Organizers are participating in this project have the objective of testing several innovations in collaboration and student co-creation including: a) student sourcing project progression of ideas, b) testing a collaboratively edited video environment, c) collaborative co-creation of a gaming mod for Minecraft, d) further integration of a project’s ideation with the curriculum of a college level course and e) gamification expertise in online and blended learning. The organizers will be transparent and inclusive to share best practices and help others develop similar projects.Contact Verena Roberts if you’re interested in this part of the project.
When we’re done, all of the participants will reflect and share what they’ve learned and how to improve cocreation of videos, student sourcing, and cocreation of serious games in the future.
The goal is to try to do this based upon what we already know and to share everything we learn transparently so that others can build upon the model in new, powerful ways.
Project supporters Educurious, the University of Alaska Southest, Westwood Schools and other organizers (to be named) are supporting the project with time, resources, server space, technical support or in-kind donations of software
How can I join in?
The timeline is here. The project is free but we do ask that you have some experience with collaborating with your classroom. I have 35 students in the project and we’ve sized it so we can run it with just that but have agreed to take up to 5 more teachers into the project if there is interest.
If you’re a teacher, you can apply for any phase of the project but let us know what you can bring to the table in terms of expertise. We’re looking for teacherpreneurs who are willing to experiment and push co-creation to the next level.
If you’re in highered, or a Minecraft fanatic, or any other thing we haven’t dreamed of yet, read our homepage and contact the appropriate gamemaker.
We plan to push the envelope about what education can and should be by creating the Gamifi-ED community and hope that some of you creative educators out there might join us to push the envelope too.
My thanks to Verena and Lee for reaching out and including me. I talked to my students about this in December and they are pumped.
I will be responding to all inquiries in January but meanwhile, wanted to go ahead and let you know about it.
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