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Task Three

8/10/2019

4 Comments

 
This post is also a self-guided quest on using game design lenses to make your current curriculum more contemporary. You ultimately get to decide your destination and the impact that this will have on curriculum design, instruction, and assessment. I am going to lay out some thinking points, and you will get to apply them to your current curriculum. I invite you to share any “AHA!” moments that you have in the comments section, so we can collaboratively grow from each other’s ideas and expertise.

​Note: You can also lead students through this process to help them think of ways to make products and/or presentations more engaging.

Quest Action One: Introduction
  1. Download Jesse Schell’s Art of Game Design app: A Deck of Lenses (iOS Link | Android Link). The app is free, and you can follow Jesse on Twitter if you are interested in more of his work: @jesseschell.
  2. Scroll through the lenses to gain a sense of familiarity with them, noting ones in particular that grab your attention.
  3. Think of a game you’ve played and lenses that might be involved. Have a discussion with someone else about how understanding design lenses impacts the player’s (your) experience and how the addition of other lenses might enhance the game.

Quest Action Two: Analysis
  1. Let’s start with a popular game like Angry Birds. When you first open up the app to play the game, you are given a goal. There is also a visualization of what you must do to meet your goal.
  2. You perform an action that either completes the goal or necessitates a do-over. The goal can be completed at a low level (one star) or a high level (three stars), with the higher level as an indication that you have an improved skill set.
  3. Getting the stars and advancing (leveling up) to the next levels are affirmations of your skills. In the case of Angry Birds, there is actual cheering when you complete the level.
  4. You continue to play so that you can reach your goals, which may include: leveling up, achievement of experience points, more stars, or actual rewards that may help you achieve subsequent levels.
  5. The positive feeling reaching all these goals keeps you in a state of engaged play, a toward state that keeps you interested, motivated, and continuing to play.
  6. In-game challenges give you opportunities to put your skill sets to the test in a uniquely challenging problem or scenario. These challenges often have additional rewards for completing them, maintaining that high level of intrinsic motivation.

Quest Action Three: Application
Note: Your response to these questions are just for you and you are not required to document your answers. 
  1. What lenses can you identify, using the Deck of Lenses App, when thinking about Angry Birds or any other game you play?
  2. What lenses do you wish you saw?
  3. How could you improve the games you play by using additional lenses?

Quest Action Four: Extension
Your responses to these questions will be documented in the Comments section. Directions for this are at the end of this blog post.
  1. Thinking about the lenses you saw in the app, the lenses you aligned with a game you play, and your thoughts about improving the games you play with additional lenses, how could you improve your curriculum using these lenses?
  2. In what ways could the lenses improve instructional actions?
  3. In what ways could the lenses improve assessment?
  4. What happens when you invite students into this conversation to co-create instructional actions and assessments?

The goal here is intentional thought about the impact that these game design lenses might have on your curriculum. This is not the same as Gamifying the curriculum, where science content is layered on top of Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders, or where video games might be used to improve content knowledge or motor skills. The is more along the lines of decisions we make about instruction and assessment, and in this case, those decisions include facets of what game designers consider to make their games more engaging, more addictive, and more exciting. We want those same things in curriculum design.


Please respond in the comments section to just the Questions in Quest Action Four.  Be sure to comment on one or more of the other participants' responses.
4 Comments
Kate
8/13/2019 06:48:17 am

Q1: Thinking about the lenses you saw in the app, the lenses you aligned with a game you play, and your thoughts about improving the games you play with additional lenses, how could you improve your curriculum using these lenses?
A1: Swiping through the lenses on the Art of Game Design gave me a lot to think about with my curriculum and how shifting one lens could enhance the experience in some small way. For example, part of my curriculum is book talking new YA literature with my students to try to get reluctant readers to try reading books. I usually do this in my classoom, but the lens of venue, I considered doing this in the library. The lens of cooperation made me think about trying book clubs this year. The lens of surprise could be changing up our classroom arrangement (moving tables) or classroom structure.

Q2: In what ways could the lenses improve instructional actions?
A2: The lens of endogenous value made me think about how I present my subject area - reading - as something of value, something that can enhance their lives and impact their future. The lens of emotion impacts the books we read, as I want to build empathy, questioning, and thinking skills through text we are making meaning of together.

Q3: In what ways could the lenses improve assessment?
A3: The lens of fun made me wonder if there is a way to make my progress monitoring more fun so students actually try, giving me more accurate data.

Q4: What happens when you invite students into this conversation to co-create instructional actions and assessments?
A4: Inviting students into conversations scares me a little, but I do think it gives them ownership and a sense of freedom and feeling respected.

Reply
Kimm
9/2/2019 07:09:25 am

These lenses can help me improve my curriculum by allowing me to focus on individual and group learning needs. For example, many of my students struggle with problem solving, finding the theme of main idea of a passage, and figuring out what they need to do to complete the task. When they encounter these difficulties they mostly choose to give up and not complete the assignment. If I were to use the Lens of The Problem Statement, The Lens of Unification, or The Lens of Problem Solving in my curriculum I could motivate my students to gain the skills needed to get through difficult situations and be more goal oriented.

Lens could improve instructional actions by keeping students more focused, giving teachers a platform to fall back on, and increasing engagement for all. Which hopefully will improve attendance, work performance, grades, and graduation rates.

Lens could improve assessment by better engaging students resulting in more focus on task. It can also help the students become better problem solvers and be more goal oriented.

Inviting students to co-create instructional actions and assessments makes the students more engaged and interested. They will tend to be more focused and get tasks done. The shared experience is much more positive to both the students and teachers. The shared experience will also allow for the teacher to get a better understanding of the student's strengths and weaknesses and develop ideas on how to best help the student become successful and gain a more positive outlook on education.

Reply
Albert Petty link
11/2/2022 06:36:34 am

Create address before big. Level PM others series build. Respond student feeling. Adult prepare model part tend hear southern.

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aula bolboreta link
7/16/2023 03:14:55 pm

Thank yyou for this

Reply



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