I showcase examples and learning points relating to game mechanics for teachers. This was presented at New Media in Education Fiesta 2011, held at Innova JC on June 22, 2011

1. Game
mechanics
Learning as a
multiplayer
experience
with
Dr. Kevin Lim
NMiEF 2011 @ Innova JC
22nd June 2011

2. “Passionate Teacher / Sleeping Students”
at Yale Law School entrance frieze
http://www.henrytrotter.com/scholarship/yale-law-school-sculpture.html

3. “Passionate Students / Indifferent Teacher”
at Yale Law School entrance frieze
http://www.henrytrotter.com/scholarship/yale-law-school-sculpture.html

4. PUSH
How to naturalize
learning objectives.

5. Students everywhere using Facebook
Here’s a Russian clone, VKontakte.ru

6. PULL
Discover the hook of
social net works.

7. Teachable Moments Cartoon by Matthew Henry Hall (Jan 2007)
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/teachable_moments/cartoon24

8. Printed “essays” and
“response papers” used in
many classrooms
traditionally promoted a
closed dialogue bet ween
the student and teacher.

10. In contrast, social
net works allowed for an
open multi-logue among
the student, his or her
peers, the instructor, and
the potential public.

11. Our Story
When Derek Lackaff and
I taught our Internet
communication courses
back in Spring 2007, we
tried to see if blogging
could support a truly
active and collaborative
learning experience.

12. Our Magic Sauce
We also
worked it into
a multiplayer
game.

13. Michael Heilemann’s 25 Most Influential Games
http://www.flickr.com/photos/heilemann/5013484/

14. I'm interested in how game mechanics
acts as a form of architecture that
doesn't necessary focus on restriction,
but rather stimulates specific behaviors.

15. From video games to real-world settings
such as classrooms, we can be steered
towards socially productive ends, e.g. to
override tragedy of the commons

16. Why this is interesting...

17. Casual games consist of...
a crazy collection of
addictive mini-games
drive the player to perform
trivial tasks
in pursuit of the almighty
“dollar”.

18. Real-life consists of...
a tired collection of boring
mini-games
drive the player to perform
trivial tasks
in pursuit of the almighty
“dollar”.
Photo by flickr user: kenyee

19. Labor
need not be
laborious

20. making house / work chores fun... chorewars.com

22. Epic Win

23. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/science/earth/31compete.html

27. The Panic
Status Board
The Panic Inc. Status Board as seen
on http://www.panic.com/blog/
2010/03/the-panic-status-board/

28. How the heck
do we create
fun ?

29. What makes popular social platforms addictive?

31. Visible Scoreboard
To motivate students, I tried using
Amy Jo Kim's game mechanics (2006)

32. Photo by flickr user: Nemo's great uncle (Aug, 2008)
Amy Jo Kim explained game mechanics
with how Frequent Flyer Miles work

33. “I see a game
mechanics working well
on sites like YouTube,
Yelp, Twitter, and
Flickster. [...] like points,
Amy Jo Kim leaderboards, level-ups,
Creative Director
ShuffleBrain social exchanges, and
customization to a
strong core experience.”

34. Five Game Mechanics
1. Collecting
2. Earning Points
3. Feedback
Amy Jo Kim
Creative Director
4. Exchanges
ShuffleBrain
5. Customization

37. Earning Points
Amy Jo Kim’s idea was in the
presence of a scoring mechanism.
Established a blogging leaderboard
via technorati.com authority ranking
algorithm.
Provide our students a basic measure
of how they were doing against one
another.
Students also given weekly audits of
the class overall performance.

38. Collecting Things
For quality blog posts, students earned weekly awards
Variety of awards promotes diverse behaviors
Awards can be traded for extra credits or the ability to
gain “immunity” from extra assignments.

39. Feedback
Comments and trackback allow
students to understand the quality of
the blog and wiki contribution.
Students are given the opportunity to
improve on posts if they have not
reached the assignment deadline.
Accessibility of feedback allows
students to accelerate mastery in
each week’s theme.

40. Customization
Students instinctively personalized
their blogs by the first week of use.
Low level: Blog templates
High level: Sidebar widgets
Social Objects
- personal photos
- favorite music
- branding
- chat box

41. Exchanges
To track the layers of interaction, we visually aggregated
RSS feeds of their blogs and wikis using Netvibes.com

43. Motivations for Contributing
Reciprocity Need
Perhaps the most anticipated factor One may produce and contribute a
that motivates people to give. public good for the simple reason
that a person or the groups as a
Reputation whole has a need for it.
The willingness to help others can all
work to increase one's prestige in a
community.
Attachment
The commitment one has to the
group, one’s utility.
Sense of Efficacy
The feeling an individual has that
makes them feel that they have
Side-effect
some effect on the environment Private behavior makes cost of
around them. sharing near zero.

44. Title : JFDI Academy - http://jedi.ddns.comp.nus.edu.sg
Module : CS1101S Programming Methodology @ NUS
Professor : Ben Leong / Collaborator : Su Yuen

45. Capturing Spontaneity
The Third Place
Being a shared space means
fairly equal standing in power
Motivates the user by choice
(self-interest) over coercion
Informality
Informal channels allow for
more spontaneous interaction.
Image Source: http://mchabib.com/2006/10/05/digital-
library-as-third-place/
Distinguishing motivation for
using Facebook vs. Blackboard

46. !
The Digital Divide in terms of video media literacy (Stavchansky, 2006)

47. Dealing with Complexity
Digital Divide
- Parallel Backchannels
- Participatory Literacy
- Polarized Performance
Open to Subversion
- Private vs. Public discourse
- Opposing learning objectives
http://maxpictures.com/weblog/2007/04/11/product-placement/
- Community self-moderation
Swings both ways...

48. One more thing...

49. I work at The National Art Gallery, Singapore

52. foursquare iPhone app
location-aware gaming with virtual & real-world rewards

53. art.sg/307
Artwork as
Social Objects
✦ rapid & economical
✦ shared experiences
✦ game mechanics
✦ granular analytics

54. Thank You
If you are
on twitter
share your
thoughts
@brainopera