This week the major obstacles to be overcome were a variety of not very bright insects, and a golem. There was really no choice but to confront the insects (we tried ‘sneaking past’ them twice before it worked), but we finessed the golem by not attacking it. It actually helped us by attracting the attention Read more about The GOBLIN learning experience, week 4[…]
For the past few years I’ve been reading here and there about games in the classroom. The most provocative example I’ve found is Reacting to the Past, a role-playing game designed at Barnard College that has students inhabit historical events. The idea is that the game inspires students to prepare much more thoroughly than they […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about failure lately. I’ve implemented Specifications Grading in Intro to Hispanic Literary Texts, Spanish Conversation, and Composition in Spanish courses over the past two semesters, with mostly positive results. The basic idea is that assignments have very clear requirements, are graded pass/fail, and that failure is mitigated through tokens students […]
This post was written by guest blogger Keegan Long-Wheeler and cross-posted from his blog, Keeganslw.com. Keegan is the educational technologist at the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Oklahoma and my collaborator on GOBLIN. My first experiences of online multiplayer gaming were dominated byHalo 2. This Xbox title was the most popular game of its time in my […]
I’m currently teaching my 4-year old daughter, Evie, to play board games. Before we get to chess or Scrabble or even Sorry, we’re starting off with some really simple games that can demonstrate for her how games work. Candy Land is mind-numbingly simple and a great starting point for her. Players race down a string […]
While the thought of gamifying an entire class or even elements of a class will be daunting for many, GOBLIN also includes more universal and applicable concepts. Well designed games introduce game mechanics and then increase the difficulty of tasks to encourage mastery of those mechanics. They encourage team work, challenging players to combine the […]
