Week 10 - Gamification

 We started this week's lesson with a Minecraft background by Mr. Karacan 😸. The first question of the lesson was 'What is your favorite game?' but I missed that part; therefore I'll answer it here, it is Outlast (and maybe Resident Evil)! I'm a huuuge admirer of horror games.👹 

After, we learned the differences between games, game-based learning, and gamification. Games are, as we all know, programs that are produced to make people have fun. Game-based learning is providing education by using games and fun activities but in this way of learning, apparently, the whole content is based on the game. Meaning that the learning is guided by the game. This is the main feature that distinguishes gamification from game-based learning. The game does not direct the whole content, the teacher does. He/she gamifies an element but it does not take place the whole semester. Then Mr. Karacan showed us a list [Picture 1] that contained more detailed differences between the terms.

After that, we mentioned elements of game design;

Game Mechanics: Outlines key elements of the game. (Points, badges, levels, trophies...)

Game Dynamics: Defines how the game and the players will progress. (Reward, achievement, competition...)

Visual Aesthetics: Sets the visual representation of the game's features and functionalities.

Narrative Design: A storyline that is progressed through the game's components.

Incentives: Includes numerous motivating aspects, with the goal of encouraging players to keep working hard. (Points, stars, badges...)

Musical Score: Gives background sounds to draw the player's attention to a particular spot in the game.

Related Content and Skills: Covers all of the elements above.

In the next part, we mentioned classroom management with game-based learning. Apparently, teachers should not forget that this is not a special occasion for the lesson but a critical way of learning every day. Teachers should also assign students roles, facilitate gameplay, have students discover and wrap up with feedback in order to measure the success of the technique.

Then, we discussed player types [Picture 2]; killer (likes competition, plays to win), achiever (sensitive for status and power, plays for mastery), socializer (needs other people to form ideas, plays for social standing), explorer (needs experiment and freedom to fail, plays to discover).

The last part was the example activities. The ones we mentioned in the class were Board Race Game, Random Wheel Activity😜, Typical Board Game (something similar to Monopoly), Quizlet, and ClassDojo (which I used in middle school and got assigned with an ugly monster😓)...

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Another super fun lesson by Mr. Karacan and Mrs. Şahin! I've learned many terms and important aspects about a topic that I'm interested in. Thank you for the enjoyable class! 💝

[Picture 1]

[Picture 2]