Would You Like Some Help With Any of Our Assignments?

I enjoy helping people and honestly, in most cases, helping others reinforces my knowledge about a certain topic, making it easier for me in general. I just wanted to let you all know, that if you want or need help in regards to HUM 101: Introduction to Popular Culture, I’m here for you! Comment on this blog post and I’ll try to get back to you ASAP, but sometimes that won’t happen, of course, though I’ll certainly try.

Photo Credit:
"Help Is On The Way"

Gamifying Education

After watching Penny Arcade TV’s season 2, episode 15, “Gamifying Education”, I found myself fond of the idea, but worried about the faults.

 

To begin, I agree with the video’s phrase, “Progress encourages progress”. With a systematic grading procedure, if I coincidentally get an A+ on a class test, therefore making progress towards passing the class with a positive grade, I’ll want to proceed to get A’s on future tests to hopefully end the class with a positively passing grade. I also agree that a point-based XP grading system appears more rewarding and self-satisfying.

 

The idea of letting students receive powers can choose themselves and class-wide achievements, is very appealing to me; however, the idea of letting students choose powers seems pointless. Why would I, as a student, want game-based powers which actually will do nothing for me?

 

 

As I continued to watch the video, I began thinking of the obstacles implementing gamified schooling and I thought about the introduction phase. The video discusses how essentially hiding quests creates mystery, pulling the students attention towards discovering new quests, but, as with every experiment, there are always going to be outliers. What would instructors do if the students simply don’t want to progress, don’t want to learn, don’t believe they will be learning anything new or aren’t pulled in by the so-called mystery and don’t want to discover new quests? Should instructors simply ignore the student or should they try to implement a discipline system? (Ah, but now I’m going off on a tangent.) This brings me to a related question, if quest subjects are spread across the board to encourage every individual to achieve top experience points on a quest, what about the outliers?

 

Overall, the idea of gamifying education has much merit and the idea of experience points appears to be very self-rewarding, but I think there are hurdles the ideas must overcome.  What do you think magnificent readers? What’s your opinion on the possible oversights of gamifying education?

Photo credit:
"Gamifiying Education"
"XP"
"Badges"
"Question mark"

 

List of Associated Accounts

My name's meaning: "Stellar" means 'consisting of stars' and "dreamer" means 'one who dreams' so I am one whose dreams consist of stars. I really adore stars, space, galaxies, nebulae, etc. haha. :D

Blogger
Username: Stellar Dreamery (For my first couple of posts, my real name shows up.)
Blog URL: http://stellardreaming-star.blogspot.com/

3D GameLab
Username: Stellar Dreamer

YouTube
Username: Stellar Dreamery (Google wouldn't let me use "dreamer" as a last name, so I went with "dreamery.")
Channel URL: http://www.youtube.com/stellardreamery (Subscribe to my channel, please.)
Check out my first video for this class! (I didn't feel like embedding the video, sorry.)

Spicynodes
Username: stellardreamer

Twitter
Username: DreamerStellar
Search for "DreamerStellar" and follow me please! :D

Audioboo
Username: DreamerStellar

Chogger
Username: StellarDreamer
(Navigating this website is kind of unfortunate.)

Glogster
Username: stellardreamer

VoiceThread
Name: Stellar Dreamery
Check out my first Voicethread!

(I will be updating this post will all of my associated humanities class accounts.)

Foreboding Ducklings

Before your eyes is my first blog post full of wonderful text. I am sure you magnificent viewers are very excited to read this. Let us begin. To demonstrate my knowledge about posting format, I am going to type a short, but efficient, paragraph, full of voice, about ducks. (Yes, you read that correctly, ducks.)

Ducks

Now ducks are ominous creatures, I kid you not. According to About.com,

It is a myth that a duck's quack won't echo. This has been conclusively disproved through different scientific acoustic tests, and was even featured as "busted" on an episode of the Discovery Channel show Mythbusters.

 How odd! The supposedly busted myth of a duck's quack not echoing is fairly strange in itself. Does it not make you wonder where and why the myth began in the first place and why the myth was passed around so much before it was busted? Even our ancestors believed there was a boding evil surrounding ducks. One might wonder, what is the significance of a duck's quack not echoing, when in all actuality, it does? Well, to further explain the ominously of ducks: did you know fare readers, that ducks have three eyelids? Three, I tell you! Yes, I am sure you are surprised as well. The eyelid fact makes me think of a possible duck-monster which could be incorporated into the movie, Monsters Inc. (Photo featured below.)

(Photo Credit: Ecletech)

Awkwardly, I have only provided two facts about ducks, but are these facts providing enough information to become weary of ducklings, if you are not already? If I were you, who I most certainly am not, I would need more information to become seriously weary of ducks; however, the featured duckling above only helps to prove my case. The duckling has unusual, fluffy dog-like ears, bizarre, wide and lightly colored eyes, atypical, sharp and ragged teeth, and certainly strange, legs and feet which are at least the same length as the duck's body.
To conclude this first posting, duck story adventure: duck are ominous and foreboding. Be warned.

Farewell magnificent readers, be sure those ominous, lidded quackers don't cluck their ways into your hearts, for if they do, what is lurking up their sleeves may be too much for one to handle.