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Reddit mentions of The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game

Sentiment score: 5
Reddit mentions: 7

We found 7 Reddit mentions of The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game. Here are the top ones.

The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game
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Found 7 comments on The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game:

u/wat_is_a_reddit · 6 pointsr/Teachers

My colleague (suburban high school) does this and it seems really fun and successful. She mainly relies on this book.

u/Belisariusissimus · 4 pointsr/education

First off, I'm operating under the assumption that you're looking into English classes at the secondary school level.

Second, it might be helpful note the type of class(es) that could incorporate PnPRPG elements.
Specifically, are you interested in writing about teaching - Literature, Grammar, ESL, Critical Theory, all of the above, or something else entirely?

Finally, here are a couple links to get you started:
The Multiplayer Classroom

Classrealm Start Guide

Analysis of Gamification in Education

u/shuckleberryfinn · 3 pointsr/education

I'm interested in doing this too (getting an undergrad degree in game design right now). I feel like it has a lot of potential when implemented well. I don't believe the Extra Credits video does a super good job of explaining the concept, because it focuses too heavily on reward systems (more on that in my comment to u/notjawn), which should not be the core of a gamification experience.

Have you heard about ClassRealm? From what I've seen/read, its creator has had a lot of success with it. However, don't be fooled - it might seem easy, but gamification can be very difficult to implement correctly.

I've read some good books on the subject that I highly recommend: The Gamification of Learning and Instruction and The Multiplayer Classroom.

Additionally, I don't know where you are in your schooling right now, but NYU has a great graduate program in this vein.

EDIT: For anyone looking for an overview of true gamification, here's a quick and simple slideset. It is much more than just giving out points.

u/daretoeatapeach · 2 pointsr/education

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

The opening essay of this short read is a condemnation of traditional schooling techniques---and it's also the speech he delivered when he (again) won the NY Teacher of the Year award. Gatto gets at the heart of why public schools consistently produce pencil pushers, not leaders. Every teacher should read this book.

How to Survive in Your Native Land by James Herndon

If Dumbing Us Down is the manifesto in favor of a more liberal pedagogy, Herdon's book is a memoir of someone trying to put that pedagogy in action. It's also a simple, beautiful easy to read book, the kind that is so good it reminds us just how good a book can be. I've read the teaching memoir that made Jonahton Kozol famous, this one is better.

The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori

In the early 1900s, Maria Montessori taught literacy to children that society had otherwise assumed were unreachable. She did this by using the scientific method to study each child's learning style. Some of what she introduced has been widely incorporated (like child-sized furniture) and some of it seems great but unworkable in overcrowded schools. The bottom line is that the Montessori method was one of the first pedagogical techniques that was backed by real results: both in test scores and in growing kids that thrive on learning and participation.

"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity by Beverly Daniel Tatum

While not precisely a book on how to teach, this book is incredibly helpful to any teacher working with a diverse student population, or one where the race they are teaching differs from their own. It explains the process that white, black, and children of other races go through in identifying themselves as part of a particular race. In the US, race is possibly the most taboo subject, so it is rare to find a book this honest and straightforward on a subject most educators try not to talk about at all. I highly recommend this book.

If there is any chance you will be teaching history, definitely read:

Lies My Teacher Told Me and A People's History of the United States (the latter book is a classic and, personally, changed my life).

Also recommend: The Multi-player Classroom by Lee Sheldon and Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov

Finally, anyone who plans to teach math should read this essay, "Lockhart's Lament" [PDF at the bottom of the page].

PS, I was tempted to use Amazon affiliate links, but my conscious wouldn't let me.

u/NameIdeas · 2 pointsr/Teachers

My first thought was that is was a great idea, but then I thought about classifying students as slaves, it might be a bit of an issue.

One of my big things for student engagement was to design and build in game-like structures in class.

I hate, absolutely hated lecturing and if I needed to have a class lecture, I kept it to ten-fifteen minutes. Then students used the information from that to create a game, play a game, have a debate, something within the class. I found that games were the surefire way of holding student engagement.

Here is a good book about building in game structures into the classroom - http://www.amazon.com/The-Multiplayer-Classroom-Designing-Coursework/dp/1435458443. If you are a gamer, think about how games hold your attention, and your students' attention. Typically it's just a bit of work for a big payoff. You play for a while and you level up. If you can build your classroom along those lines. We learn/play for a bit, then we "level up" kids take pride in that.

Simulations are awesome for this as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Role-playing-Simulations-History-Classrooms/dp/0983426732

Here is a good article on game-based classroom learning - http://www.edutopia.org/blog/short-happy-history-of-historia-rick-brennan

I had a lot of fun building and designing simulations and games for my students. Because I was having fun, they fed off of that energy and they had fun as well. Some games we built the rules together.

I think one of the most fun lessons was when we were studying the American West and Populism - High School. Students had to research a particular aspect of that time period and teach it to their classmates by playing a board game. So I had four board games where kids were playing in my room. They had four stations and one person from each team stayed each turn to teach their games to the other group members. At the end, we had board game designer awards. One won for Best Game Design. One won for "I learned the Most". Another won for Best Game Artwork, etc. Each game design team won something and each team learned something. It took about three-four days from start to finish in a one hour - fifteen minute class. Day 1 - Quick mini-lecture on the basics of the time period. Students chose their topics, etc. Day 2 - Build day. Day 3 - Play/Awards day.

When I gave them my end of year evaluation. How did Mr. NameIdeas do this year? Did you learn something? What lesson/activity did you like best/least? How can Mr. NameIdeas improve his teaching, his relationships with students, his music choice, etc? They all remembered the games and, more importantly, the information from the games.

u/meriweather2 · 2 pointsr/rpg

I've been out of town, but I had a chance to ponder your response for a bit. Your classes seem well-developed. Would the students choose their class? Also, would you have set parties that rotate through playing their characters/roles? Since you said you'd play on Fridays, will they know ahead of time and have any particular prep or lead-in assignments as they approach the session?

I teach sophomores. Last year, I had five total classes (two Honors). This year, I'll still have five, but only one Honors. They will read F451 over the summer, and then we'll spend the first two or three weeks on it as a set up for the year. My hope is to continue to leverage that story's focus on the value of thinking as a set up for the tone of the year.

One of the points I've come across in researching game-based thinking is that games give people context for action. I've tried to think about the actions required to be successful at reading, writing, and speaking in terms of the core engine of the game. Right now, this has lead me to the hope of structuring the year around "mission-givers" found within our expanded world of F451.

I don't know enough about DMing to feel confident in running a set session yet; I just played my first and only game of D&D last spring (it was incredibly fun). I'm trying to think of my DM role as more big picture for the class by creating essay assignments given by NPCs for specific purposes or to specific audiences.

I haven't quite found a way to integrate rolling dice yet, but I love that it would set up events that I don't determine. One of the important concepts I try to emphasize is their need to work within boundaries (when reading texts, when writing essays that actually support their thesis statements, when figuring out what to say in a discussion, etc.). The dice rolls are so enticing as a mechanic, and I want to find a way to work them in. Maybe I'll be brave enough this year to try a live session and see how it goes.

Here are some resources that have been inspiring in the intersection of learning and games:

The Multi-Player Classroom (A game designer who taught about game design by using game design)
Reality is Broken (also, I have her book Superbetter, but I haven't read it yet, and her TED Talks are good)

The latest point of interest for me has been the structure and mechanics of story games. They seem like RPGs, except they don't have number crunching. I think I can pull from different ones to help create context as I move throughout the year (Seven Wonders seems particularly interesting).

Also, The Big List of RPG Plots might prove helpful to quickly create trajectories for the story that develops. I'm worried about bogging down once we get a couple months in like I did last year. This might help to keep it fresh.