Running Head: Reflective Writing 1 1. PIDP 3240 Reflective Writing 1. School of Instructor Education, Vancouver Community College

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1 Running Head: Reflective Writing 1 1 PIDP 3240 Reflective Writing 1 School of Instructor Education, Vancouver Community College Eamonn Bourke (Student I.D ) Aug 11, 2016

2 Reflective Writing 1 2 Objective Canada s video game industry: 19 million Canadians are gamers. 54% of the Canadian population. 33 years: Average age of Canadian gamer. 52% male, 48% female. (Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC), 2015). Video game use is also on the rise. The proportion of people reporting playing video games on the diary day doubled, from 3% in 1998 to 6% in The amount of time spent playing video games increased from 1 hour 48 minutes to 2 hours 20 minutes between 1998 and (Statistics Canada, 2010). The Canadian video game industry spent approximately $2.36 billion in 2015, an increase of almost 50% over (Nordicity, 2015) Canadians like to play video games and the number of Canadians playing video games is rising. The video game industry is a huge sector of the Canadian economy. Reflective Video games are a waste of time. You spend lots of time playing them and when you are finished. You have nothing to show for your time. Worse still, you may have spent money to complete the game faster or to defeat your peers online. Whenever I played video games, it was a form of escapism. I did not want to do anything that required real thought. I just set the game to easy and played. The idea that we should teach through gamification does not stack up with the reasons why I played video games. It is akin to making learners read textbooks because they like reading novels. The experiences are widely different and the escape provided by a novel does not compare to the experience of reading a textbook. Yet we use reading as

3 Reflective Writing 1 3 a tool for our learners to gain exposure to a subject. Why not use video games as another tool? Interpretive Through gamification, maybe I could take that time that people are willing to spend playing pointless video games and redirect learner s time and energy to playing video games that are educational. The trick here is recognising when gamification would be appropriate. Sure, 54% of the population play video games but 46% on the population don t play video games. They may be alienated by the prospect of learning how to play video games and learning how to learn about the topic at hand. We would not teach someone poetry before they learned how to read and write. The overall average salary for a full-time worker in the video game industry in Canada was $71,300 in 2015 (Nordicity, 2015). That is comparable to a full time college instructor. The idea of an instructor designing a game for their class should not be considered except in the rarest of circumstances. Instructors to not have the time or skills for such a task. Education video games are available for common subjects but it can be tricky to source games for a specialised subject. What concepts of video games are relevant to underlying dynamics and concepts found in game design are shown to be more consistently successful than others when applied to learning environments, these are: o Freedom to Fail o Rapid Feedback o Progression

4 Reflective Writing 1 4 o Storytelling. (Stott & Neustaedter, 2014) Here are some concepts that I can relate to my teaching experience. Fear of failure can stop a student from expressing themselves or take them down a path that they perceive the teacher would prefer instead of trying out an idea. Many instructors (myself included) would admit to an allergy to marking. A vehicle for rapid feedback is in the best interests of learning. Progression would provide the learners with a sense of accomplishment. What they know today is far removed from the first day of the semester. The concept of Storytelling is a new idea to me. How does this relate to learning? On further review, I recall countless times that I told a story to the class. The aim was to relate the class topic / activity to the real world. This skill will be useful in the future. Storytelling should provide relevance to the learner. All learning must happen in a certain context and a video game can provide that context. Decisional I will use gamification in my teaching. I would love to just download a game that fits the learning outcomes of my course but that s not how the world works. My plan for gamification involves my Urban Design course. I will get my department to purchase an Oculus Rift headset and compatible phone. This will allow learners to walk around any city in the world. This interface is very engaging. The activity will revolve around the urban planning of a major city. I will provide a list of cities students may visit. They can suggest alternate cities for consideration. The grading of the activity will follow points system. 100 points for each architectural style

5 Reflective Writing 1 5 identified and described, 50 points for each landmark building such as a parliament building, historical site, public space, etc. Each tour must be compiled into a city flythrough that is presented to the class. Each student will self-grade their tour with reference to the points in the rubric.

6 Reflective Writing 1 6 References Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) (2015). Essential facts about the Canadian video game industry. Nordicity (2015). Canada s video game industry in 2015 Final report. Stott, Andrew and Neustaedter, Carmen (2012). Analysis of gamification in education. Surrey: Simon Fraser University. Statistics Canada (2010). General Social Survey 2010 Overview of the time use of Canadians.

Sample Sample ADMINISTRATION AND RESOURCE GUIDE. English Language Arts. Assesslet. Argumentative

Sample Sample ADMINISTRATION AND RESOURCE GUIDE. English Language Arts. Assesslet. Argumentative Grade 6 ADMINISTRATION AND RESOURCE GUIDE English Language Arts Assesslet Argumentative All items contained in this Assesslet are the property of the. Items may be used for formative purposes by the customer