Edugaming

As you may recall, my project with this group is the SeattleTeachers College, something I do not have the $100K laying around right now to launch, so I am working on one part of it, and that is creating the kinds of teachers who can work in that environment, worldwide.

(This is a lesson, if you do not have the resources to do what you want to do, do the part you can do. There is always a part you can do right now.)

A few years ago, I worked several months trying to understand why more people do not start businesses, even after taking a course in which they expressed desire to do so.  In essence it is a matter of pain, the devil you know vs the devil you don’t know.  People jump when the fire gets hot enough.

I’ve always believed in competition, which comes from the Greek word  “to strive with” in the good sense, not combat “to fight with.”

A young man suggested to me how I might introduce competition in the learning process, by using game dynamics as the process in helping people along in starting businesses.  Will it help?

I read this article http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/25/scvngr-game-mechanics/  and then took from the article these elements which could be integrated into the class.

So these weeks I am recreating my websites and classes to integrate these elements.

Since I have the gift of ADD/ADHD, I am also studying Islamic finance, with its prohibition on usury, which inexorably  results in what sure looks like a free market. (Government taxes are assumed to be only disaster-related, and temporary!) And why not, the Prophet was a merchant.

Anyway, I came across a website for the topic of Islamic Finance and it is the best laid out I’ve seen for a topic, course and book.

http://www.islamic-finance.com/indexnew.htm

http://www.islamic-finance.com/study.htm

Naturellement, I will use this superior layout as inspiration as I integrate some of the elements below, and come up with my own course design for my two courses.  Then I’ll see if the students get better results.

2. Appointment Dynamic

Definition: A dynamic in which to succeed, one must return at a predefined time to take some action. Appointment dynamics are often deeply related to interval based reward schedules or avoidance dyanmics.

Example: Cafe World and Farmville where if you return at a set time to do something you get something good, and if you don’t something bad happens.

7. Cascading Information Theory

Definition: The theory that information should be released in the minimum possible snippets to gain the appropriate level of understanding at each point during a game narrative.

Example: showing basic actions first, unlocking more as you progress through levels. Making building on SCVNGR a simple but staged process to avoid information overload.

15. Endless Games

Definition: Games that do not have an explicit end. Most applicable to casual games that can refresh their content or games where a static (but positive) state is a reward of its own.

Example: Farmville (static state is its own victory), SCVNGR (challenges constantly are being built by the community to refresh content)

16. Envy

Definition: The desire to have what others have. In order for this to be effective seeing what other people have (voyeurism) must be employed.

Example: my friend has this item and I want it!

17. Epic Meaning

Definition: players will be highly motivated if they believe they are working to achieve something great, something awe-inspiring, something bigger than themselves.

Example: From Jane McGonical’s Ted Talk where she discusses Warcraft’s ongoing story line and “epic meaning” that involves each individual has motivated players to participate outside the game and create the second largest wiki in the world to help them achieve their individual quests and collectively their epic meanings.

22. Fun Once, Fun Always

Definition: The concept that an action in enjoyable to repeat all the time. Generally this has to do with simple actions. There is often also a limitation to the total level of enjoyment of the action.

Example: the theory behind the check-in everywhere and the check-in and the default challenges on SCVNGR.

25. Loyalty

Definition: The concept of feeling a positive sustained connection to an entity leading to a feeling of partial ownership. Often reinforced with a visual representation.

Example: fealty in WOW, achieving status at physical places (mayorship, being on the wall of favorite customers)

30. Ownership

Definition: The act of controlling something, having it be *your* property.

Example: Ownership is interesting on a number of levels, from taking over places, to controlling a slot, to simply owning popularity by having a digital representation of many friends.

31. Pride

Definition: the feeling of ownership and joy at an accomplishment

Example: I have ten badges. I own them. They are mine. There are many like them, but these are mine. Hooray.

33. Progression Dynamic

Definition: a dynamic in which success is granularly displayed and measured through the process of completing itemized tasks.

Example: a progress bar, leveling up from paladin level 1 to paladin level 60

41. Social Fabric of Games

Definition: the idea that people like one another better after they’ve played games with them, have a higher level of trust and a great willingness to work together.

Example: From Jane McGonicgal’s TED talk where she suggests that it takes a lot of trust to play a game with someone because you need them to spend their time with you, play by the same rules, shoot for the same goals.