Getting Serious About Games: Part 1- What is it?

I’ve never been one to shy away from trying something new. The thought of failure doesn’t scare me, so when I first began my foray into “gamification”, my ultimate goal was to seek new and exciting ways in which I would ultimately better engage students in my classroom.

So I began foraging for resources and asking questions… What new and exciting things are out there? What are other teachers doing in their classrooms? What are students into that will help me gain their attention in class? I read blogs… numerous blogs, conducted a vast amount of research, read about varying pedagogies, and reached out to a few unsuspecting educators who had begun their own transition to “gamification”. I don’t want to go off on a tangent, but this part of the research- “reaching out to a few unsuspecting educators” scares people, and I’m not sure why…

Which LMS is MVP?

I’m not going to discuss the reasons why you should be teaching using an LMS (here’s to hoping you already are). The benefits are endless. Instead, my goal is to break down a few of the different choices of Learning Management Systems, in order to find the best “bang for your buck”. I will be examining 3 that I feel have the most potential. With so many choices of programs to use, which one truly is deserving of the title MVP?

Emerging Learning Design 2015

I had the opportunity to present last week at Montclair State University’s Emerging Learning Design Conference on Gamification in the Classroom. I want to first thank Chris Aviles for contacting me about taking over this presentation for him as he got called up to the Big Leagues to attend a conference for the Department of Education. Thanks Chris and way to go!

The Emerging Learning Conference was a wonderful experience. For those of you who do not know, the Emerging Learning Design Conference is a showcase of innovation in education, as well as a way to engage in pedagogy and how technology can better enhance or transform it.