INSTTECH 5153

Using Digital and Social Media in Education

1. What was the context (the course, purpose, situation, etc.) in which this artifact was
created?

In this course, we had a choice for our final project. I selected gamification (instead of
global collaboration) and with a colleague, we created a unit for second graders using
Goosechase. We gamified a science unit centered around animals and their habitats.
The details of the project are below, but I also used ​my blog​ to talk about this
experience.

2. What outcome(s) (ISTE standards) were you demonstrating in creating it? For each
outcome, describe how the artifact addresses the indicators within the standard.

Standard 1 Learner:​ ​Educators continually improve their practice by learning from and
with others and exploring proven and promising practices that leverage technology to
improve student learning.
1c​ Stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes,
including findings from the learning sciences.

The gamification artifact meets this benchmark because we used both a project-based
learning approach and the design process. Research for both of these suggests that
students will have a deeper understanding of the learning outcomes when they
participate in these approaches to teaching and learning.
.
Standard 2 Leader: ​Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student
empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning.
2c​ Model for colleagues the identification, exploration, evaluation, curation, and
adoption of new digital resources and tools for learning.

My artifact met this standard because my colleague and I used the gamification tool
Goosechase, a new digital resource, to meet student science standards. This new tool
for learning allowed us to model for our colleagues how to use gamification in both a
classroom and a library setting.

Standard 3 Citizen: ​Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and

responsibly participate in the digital world.
3b​ Establish a learning culture that promotes curiosity and critical examination of
online resources and fosters digital literacy and media fluency.

With this artifact, students were expected to research different animals and their
habitats. Part of this requires students to think critically about the sources they are
finding and ask questions about the reliability and relevance to their topic. Students
were also encouraged to ask questions about what they were finding in their research.

Standard 4 Collaborator: ​Educators dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues

and students to improve practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve
problems.
4c​ Use collaborative tools to expand students' authentic, real-world learning
experiences by engaging virtually with experts, teams, and students, locally and
globally.

This benchmark was met by the gamification lesson because students had to work
collaboratively in the Goosechase app in order to complete challenges and further their
knowledge about animals and necessary habitats.

Standard 5 Designer: ​Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and

environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability.
5a ​Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that
foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
5b ​Design authentic learning activities that align with content area standards and
use digital tools and resources to maximize active deep learning.
5c​ Explore and apply instructional design principles to create innovative digital
learning environments that engage and support learning.
 My artifact met this standard because the Goosechase allowed us to personalize the
learning experience for students. We could modify challenges and how they could be
met using many modalities. Students also had to use the design process to decide what
their animal needed to survive. Gamification technology enhanced how students met
the standards and allowed us to create innovative digital learning environments as
students use the Goosechase platform.

Standard 6 Facilitator: ​Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student

achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students.
6b​ Manage the use of technology and student learning strategies in digital
platforms, virtual environments, hands-on makerspaces or in the field.
6c​ Create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process
and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems.

These benchmarks were met by my artifact because students had to work in

collaborative groups using the gamification platform of Goosechase to create their new
animal and it’s habitat. Students used the Engineering design process to ask questions
about animals and habitats, imagine and plan their own animal, as well as create a
habitat for their animal.

3. What challenge(s) did you encounter in creating this artifact? What did you learn from
encountering this/these challenge(s), and how can you turn these challenges into
opportunities in your current or future professional life?

One of the challenges in creating this unit was that I had never used gamification before
and had never used it with younger students. It was challenging at first to think about
how to best incorporate this into a lower elementary classroom. This challenge taught
me that just like I tell my students, it’s okay to try new things, make mistakes, and learn
from them. I can turn these challenges into opportunities because I can talk to and
model for my students that it’s okay not to know everything or how everything will work.
It’s okay to make a mistake in the middle of something and make adjustments to make
things, ideas, projects work better.
 4. What does this work show about you and your capabilities?

This work showed that I am capable of working collaboratively with classroom teachers
and go beyond scheduled library times in order to meet the needs of my students. It
shows that I am capable of pushing myself to try something new, even if I’m not sure
how it may work or turn out.

5. What did completing this work teach you about yourself as a 21st Century educator?

This work taught me that gamification is a great tool to incorporate in the elementary
classroom and library lessons. It also taught me that I am much more effective when I
work together with other teachers to integrate technology. I am not an expert in
everything so when I partner with teachers, we are able to combine our expertise in
order to best meet the needs of our students while creatively implementing meaningful
technology.

Gaming to Learn Artifact