Day Off and Playing Games

I took the day off today to rest after Tuesday’s ER trip.

On previous times when I have taken a sick day I have not increased my official day count so I am going to continue that here. I wrote one yesterday because I was at school in the morning, I just ended up leaving earlier than normal.

But today I did not go at all so I won’t update the count.

Instead I want to write about something I have been thinking about lately, which is gamification of the math classroom and how there is a difference between gamification of the entire class and gamifcation.

Here’s what I mean. One trend that I have seen lately with the advent of more ubiquitous ed-tech is gamification of the entire classroom. I get targeted ads in my Twitter about turning my class into an RPG where students “level up”. Learning itself becomes a game that students play (and one could argue that students were doing this before gamification was a formal idea). They earn rewards to complete the class. I am not a fan of this type of gamification.

But I do like to play games in my class and I think that kind of gamification has uses. We play grudgeball to review. I just wrote about zombie graveyard as a way to practice. I have either a Quizlet or Kahoot for my students at least weekly. I don’t mind this kind of gamification.

I’m not sure why I prefer one type of gamification over the other and I need to think about it more so that I can more properly express my thoughts. In particular I am having trouble fully articulating my opposition to the first time of gamification and what the real difference between the two is.

Any, I’ve got a day off to enjoy and I am going to continue to do that and rest up.

Thanks for reading.