It's pretty amazing that after all of the cutting-edge technological discoveries over the past 6 weeks, I find myself using some good ol' fashioned low-tech paper & pen(cil) gaming! It just so happens that I have been offered a 5-week Latin substitute position to finish up the year. What follows is the overview of this game:

Objective: Gain skills necessary to pass as a true Roman

Narrative: "The ability to travel time is inevitable...just as Virgin Airlines has planned for the first space-flight, so too, will travel in history become a recreational passtime in the future. For the next 5 weeks, you must go through training in order to work towards becoming Time Traveler Certified."

Rationale: Since I have limited time with these particular students and they are used to class a certain way, the introduction of a wide variety of sources or massively altering what materials students interact with is out of the question. Thus, this game is based on the material from a single chapter in the students' textbook, with a few novel features that should hook them for the last month of school. Class levels 1 through 4 will each follow the same game premise, but their assignments differ according to text's material.

Research: Aside from Tom Chatfield's "boxes" and rewarding the brain, I am grounding this game in differentiated instruction principles outlined in Deborah Blaz's book. The Assignment Grid is a classic example of offering students some choice in their learning by providing options that accomplish similar goals. For instance, the first three assignments deal with public speaking, while assignments 11 - 13 all deal with translating.



Mechanics: Each assignment on the grid awards skill points based on real-world skills (Logic = Grammar, Wit = Vocabulary, Scribe = Writing, etc...). With six skills and a choice of different assignments, roughly 10 completed assignments earns a B. While a few minutes of class time is devoted to direct instruction on certain grammar and cultural points, students are given the remainder of class as well as out of class time (homework) to complete assignments. Students choose an Expertise (WoW profession) about which to research, speak, and compose brief sentences.



Assessment: Formative includes review of completed assignments (checked daily by me stamping their Assignment Grid), Summative are 3 letter grades - Excellence (based on all skill points added and divided by 6), and Growth/Effort grades based on self-assessed (checked by me) holistic rubrics given at the game's end.

Rewards: Achievements based on assignment completion, such as completing all of the Speaking at the Senate assignments. Achievements earned will be announced each week on my teacher site (Character names), and administrators will be invited to the weekly (Fridays) Senate meeting (desks arranged in a half-moon w/ speakers/performers) to hear Expertise talks in both English and Latin, and thoughts on the cultural topic in the text.
Latin Teacher
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MOOC III Week 2 Artisan
MOOC III Week 4 Collabrateur

I don't know yet how many students have access to mobile devices or home Internet, but worth looking into, thanks.

I just attended a regional Classical conference and came upon a fantastic paper at a panel. C. McKinney is a mathematics professor, but studied and teaches Greek. The Classics department was looking for a math course that students could take instead of Calculus, so he created Readings in Ancient Greek Mathematics (http://www.camws.org/meeting/2013/files/abstracts/161.Let%20No%20One%20Enter..pdf). Now, this is very much a math course on Euclid's proofs, but he found out that the students began with having challenges understanding the Greek, and then once they mastered Euclids' pattern of language, the latter part of the course presented challenges in the math itself.

I immediately thought that this could be easily adapted for Latin, and then he said something that struck me, referring to the many "If, then" statements. Wow, Latin certainly has those...and when it came time to learn them maybe I could use some mathematical proofs...that would be relevant. All of a sudden, I was flooded with ideas...Latin Via Logic. Not only would proofs create purpose to reading Latin, but even simple operations, such as:

Quintus has 2 apples. Marcus gives Quintus 2 apples. How many
apples does Quintus have now?

Now that might not look intriguing, but there's actually quite a bit of linguistic features involved in responding to and/or translating that problem. The result? A little puzzle to solve. Yes, there is an obvious answer, but the challenge is in the use of the Latin. Instead of there just being a narrative, I could incorporate perceivable answers that most 9th graders could figure out.

So, my original story involved going back in time to solve _____. Well, I can't think of anything more relevant to us in the US than the prospects of Financial ruin. Why not travel back in time and take part in the Roman economic trade system, gaining "lost skills" that would help balance the US budget? In this sense, my game may end up looking like a Sim City/Age of Empires type in which allocation of resources is the big mechanic.

Perhaps Sam could help with some ideas on this one.

In John Seely Brown and Thomas Douglas' HBR article - The Gamer Disposition, I think what struck me the most is this little gem:


They [gamers] understand the power of diversity


Of course! The WoW example is great...you must work with other players/characters that have various qualities/traits, OR you push the limits and attempt an Instance (dungeon) with an unorthodox, sometimes asinine, group configurations (i.e. no Healer, Tanks only?).

I may focus on this one characteristic while creating a game/assignment. The only question is HOW to design a game that requires students to work with one another? And by "requires," I don't simply mean group work in which a student can hang out and get credit, but a system in which certain individuals/groups of students are truly NEEDED in order to advance in the game, while also allowing the unengaged students to do minimal work. ***Let's face it, some students are determined to fail and/or content with mediocrity...we shouldn't create games that punish other students for being in that same class, but maybe, just maybe, the game might actually influence them for the better.***

An initial idea I had was modelling WoW's "profession" system, but instead of choosing actual Roman professions, students' "expertise" would be in a topic of choice about which to write/speak in Latin at various points of the game. In other words, one student may be really into gladiators, while another is interested in attire...they would be learning key topical vocabulary and cultural traits independently. Perhaps this characteristic of "the power of diversity" can be as open as requiring certain assignments to include viewpoints from students/characters from 3 or 4 different expertise areas. That may help to eliminate the tendency for friends to all work together on the same topic (you know that group in the corner who always come up with eerily similar responses...).

Someone mentioned having to look up "differentiated instruction" - this is good. I think it's perhaps the most important aspect of planning/teaching. The idea that students can choose what to focus on (without the curriculum being thrown into chaos) and HOW to complete certain assignments (formats, media, etc) is at the root of differentiating. The power of diversity can be increased if given proper avenues in game design and lesson/unit planning.


Find the Future (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20049498-52.html)

Scavenger? Don't think so...definitely ARG. After creating a character, I soon discovered that one of Jane's mechanics reminded me of Tom Chatfield's idea of "opening boxes." Questing in Find the Future (i.e. looking at summaries of source documents) earns "powers" which, besides being requirements for certain achievements, are not really needed to play the game at all (but we WANT to collect them to earn the achievements, even if the achievements stay in this Alternate Reality).

Badges are one example of achievements that we can offer our students. Any other suggestions?




Rewards vs. Achievements
The Xbox Live Rewards Program is a great example of what I was thinking in terms of Rewards vs. Achievement in the digital/gaming realm. I am more of a fan of the in-game perks you can buy. Again, I think having students "purchase" a grade or bypass rules is the wrong message, but perhaps allowing them to purchase "gear" or something that enhances (rather than gives an ADVANTAGE to) gameplay might help students being more "invested" in their character, or role in the game.

On the topic of extrinsic motivation, the References page of Punishment by Rewards is amazing. You'll need access to JSTOR or databases in order to read most of the work, but for those without access, I found this an excerpt from a blog (Pedagogically Correct) that references one of the articles...

"A wildly popular example of this approach is the "Book It!" program established by Pizza Hut in 1985 and promoted in teachers' colleges to this day. This program, which has been used in 900,000 classrooms by 22 million students, offers children certificates for a personal pan pizza in exchange for meeting a monthly reading goal."

I think the research and commentary are encouraging us to separate the two...that achievements should not yield rewards...that a "title" earned after completing an achievement IS the reward. I've arrived at the following considerations...

1) Is the enjoyment is in the gameplay itself?
2) Is the motivation seeing a representation of progress (XP, Titles, Badges)?
3) Is the reward not having to sit through a "normal" boring class!?

This is a great low-tech example of...luddology? These cubes have a wide range of gaming applications. The basic version is 1) roll, 2) create a story, 3) win life.






Aurasma:
After playing around with Aurasma, I've discovered that the first major hurdle is finding/creating engaging content in terms the auras themselves. Yes, there are templates to use in their library, but they are more "cute" than relevant. For example, using a cartoon in the textbook as a trigger, I was able to create an aura of a squirrel skittering across the cartoon panel. Entertaining, but not worth the effort.

So, the most work will be creating engaging auras for a location based AR game. If students are walking up to a location in a school, does an old version of that site pop-up (student art, archived photo/video)? I want to know whether A) this aura content exists, and B) what use is that for any classes other than local history?

For a murder mystery, are we to grab Clipart, dare to swipe copy-written materials, make our own short clips/audio files? I think the danger is to have a product that is NOT coherent in its presentation (a Disney character aura, a home-produced guitar recording, a ripped video from CNN, etc), and since this whole idea relies on its presentation, how effective can it be?

I am VERY interested in this technology and game design, despite what I see as a lack of relevant resources **UNLESS** it is classroom/student created as part of the project/process. The only caveat I have is that this seems rather time-consuming with standard 40-45min meetings each day in a typical high school. Emily Forand even said that her time was limited while working with college students (I realize she was working with IF, but I am using the basic prjoect creation idea and age group as examples).

Magicians:
Read about Magicians (http://www.magiciansrpg.com/about/), a game that relies on player-created narratives. I realize this kind of crosses over with Week 2's Mobile Apps idea (Dragon Dictation or similar app needed), but the game design sounds great.

So what happens if one of the players sticks to limited actions and doesn't really contribute to the narrative as much as others? Well, the way Kyle Simons designed this game is so that at least that player is still practicing the target language [Korean]. I see Differentiated Instruction (by process/activity) built right into this, so check it out!

Good stuff.

The prompts for this week's discussions have been hard for me to contribute to on account of A) not playing mobile games myself, and B) not having a great deal of smartphones in my cooperating teacher's classroom.

I WILL say that I found the following games quite interested in terms of design and how I felt about playing them:

Shadow Era:
Modeled on the Magic the Gathering card game, I found myself able to play most games in about 15-20 min, which didn't take a great deal of time. What I noticed was that I kept playing the game to see what would happen next, just like http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html #5 "Element of Uncertainty."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94373586@N04/8604792478/in/photostream

Roads of Rome II:
Got this gem free from the AppsGonefree app. At least as far as I've progressed, there isn't a great deal of historic accuracy in terms of the story, but was an entertaining game nonetheless. I soon noticed that same "hook" of rewarding the brain, #5 "Element of Uncertainty."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94373586@N04/8603690089/in/photostream

All this has prompted me to re-think the platform of gaming in my classroom. Like all technology I use (e.g. Google Form exit slips), I also have a physical version for the students without a device. I'd like to create gaming mechanics able to exist in the physical world before using technology as enhancements.

Also, I was surprised that attention wasn't called to the http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2012-horizon-report-K12.pdf]2012" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2012-horizon-report-K12.pdf in which Augmented Reality got some great coverage (4-5 years away).

Here's a good link from that:

http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/getting-learning-out-of-classroom-with.html

The 7th Guest started it all for me.

At this point, sadly, I am only really playing Words with Friends since I'm seriously "in it" in terms of grad school. Games will return, oh yes they will.

On Words with Friends remaining...well, it isn't much of a continuation seeing as I got my first mobile device (iPod Touch) this winter. Of course, it MIGHT be the virtual continuation of my enjoyment derived from Scrabble - which has always been around. Convenience is key here, though...I can choose when to play turns without annoying people in real time, or setting up a "game night." Game nights have become "game minutes" and are easier to fit into my schedule at this point.

Also, for discussion...I like that Words w/ Friends games will end at some point and then I'll get a clean slate during a rematch. When I played WoW, I was the type that would create a character on a Friday night, level up to 10, then repeat the same with a different class, etc. for the evening. I had a main, naturally, but developing that character took work and sometimes I wanted to reach that Fiero moment in a slightly different environment (new spells, tactic, etc.).

A similar experience would be when I play Monopoly and vary my strategy..."perhaps this time I WON'T build-up Baltic and Mediterranean early in the game."