Gamifying Research and Resources

Goals: For our school, digital citizenship has been a focal point for our students in all grade
levels this year. We are a 1:1 school, and it is vital that our students understand how to behave
in an online world. By using gamification to teach our students about research skills and
appropriate citations, I am able to bring a topic that is not always the most fun and change their
way of interacting with it. Additionally, the classroom teachers involved will learn the process
necessary for creating their own Classcraft activity.

Players / Students

For this activity, I will work with 6th grade Language Arts
teachers as they begin their research project. There are
approximately 624 students in the 6th grade class at our
middle school. Most of our students are very familiar
with technology use and the idea of gaming. However,
there are students that have never used a computer
until they are given their first computer at our school.
There will be differentiation necessary in order to reach
our special needs population and ELL students as well.

Learning Objectives / Target Behaviors

 Cite sources correctly in research-based projects.

 Collaborate and work with classmates to create a well-informed research paper.
 Give proper credit to resources, both text and images.
 Avoid plagiarism and practice summarizing.

Gamification Strategies

Application of the Octalysis Framework

Strategies Rationales
Core Drive 1: Epic
Meaning & Calling
Core Drive 2: Students will work together in As students learn more
Development & groups to practice their about the need to
Accomplishment summarizing skills and citation summarize effectively they
skills. will have little need to worry
about possible plagiarism.

Core Drive 3: Students will be able to choose As students are able to

Empowerment of their own research topic within choose their own research
Creativity & Feedback the group. project they will be more
invested in the information
and research needed.

Each group member will select By selecting their avatar and

and set up their own avatar and team name, the students get
create a team name. to use their creativity in their
design and name creation.

Students can receive instant Instant feedback allows the

feedback on their behavior and students to know where
citation skills through their they stand and how they can
points earned. improve.
Core Drive 4: Students will work as a team to When students have the
Ownership & create a team name and crest. ability to create their own
Possession gaming team, they will seek
to continue to do the right
thing because it is something
that they have created
together.
Core Drive 5: Social Students will work together, not Students will be able to
Influence & only as their individual teams, encourage others to do the
Relatedness but also as a class. The class right thing. Additionally,
with the overall highest points they will model the
th
in 6 grade after the behaviors that are
completion of the project will appropriate relating to their
receive a reward party. everyday behavior and in
their research projects.
Core Drive 6: Scarcity Due to the nature of research, Research skills are meant to
& Impatience students may not receive points take some time and in order
at very fast intervals, which may to fully develop those skills,
cause frustration for those there may not be many
students that need constant points given out quickly.
affirmation. Students need to be
encouraged to research
 thoroughly and given the
time needed to be accurate
in their products.
Core Drive 7:
Unpredictability &
Curiosity
Core Drive 8: Loss & Students can lose points, not When students feel that
Avoidance only for themselves, but for the they may lose points
team, should they be caught because of a negative
behaving inappropriately. behavior or because of an
Additionally, incorrect citations academic set back, they will
or plagiarism will cause a begin to pay closer attention
deduction in points. to the task at hand.
Left Brain vs. Right Due to the importance of digital Both the left brain drives
Brain Drives citizenship in everyday life as and right brain drives should
our students interact with be incorporated in order to
technology, one hopes that the appeal to a variety of
right brain drives the students learners in the classroom.
in this game. The right brain
drives allow the students to
behave in the correct way
without needing rewards.
Ideally, this would be how the
students would react through
the gamification of digital
citizenship, however, to also
satisfy the left brain drives
there will be a reward for the
classroom with the highest
number of points at the end of
the research project.
White Hat vs. Black The majority of this gamification The positivity of a white hat
Hat Gamification experience for our students will gamification allows our
be white hat. This gives our students to work toward a
students a sense of goal and learn a topic that is
accomplishment and ownership often difficult. However,
in the process. However, they must also be aware
students must also be aware of that anything that they do
the black hat gamification of incorrectly may have its
loss of points in case of negative consequences.
behavior or inappropriate
digital citizenship.
Use of Classcraft

Classcraft will be used with a variety of Language Arts classes, as we work through the
research process. Since this will be the first introduction to Classcraft for most of our 6 th
grade Language Arts teachers, as well as for our students, we will begin by using the
behaviors to encourage and discourage. These behaviors can be based on their actions in
class or on their academic abilities through their research skills. Additionally, the team
aspect will be used for this classroom activity. Students will be divided up into 2 or 3-
person teams in each class to work collaboratively. Finally, of the twenty Language Arts
classes, the class with the highest points will earn a party/reward in the media center.

Students will earn points through both classroom behavior and the work they do to prove
good digital citizenship skills during the research process.
Students will be able to create their own avatar within their team in order to use their
creativity and create a sense of ownership of their game.

Boss Battles will be available for students to engage in to work with their citation and
research skills. These will be informal assessments for the students to demonstrate
understanding.

Process

Day 1: Students will be introduced to the Classcraft game and how they will be using it
 as they work through the research process. During this time, they will learn how
log in and begin creating their avatar.

Day 2: Students will be divided into teams and we will go over how they will be able to
earn points throughout the game and how points can be deducted if necessary.

Day 3: Students will begin working on their research projects in teams.

Day 4 and on: Students will work on their research projects. Throughout the process,
the classroom teacher will spot check for correct citation procedures and
reference lists. Plagiarism checking will also continue throughout the
process.

End of project: After research projects are completed, graded and all scores tabulated,
the Language Arts class with the highest score will receive a reward
party.

Reflection

As a media specialist, I truly found myself struggling to find a way to incorporate a

gamifying experience with our students. After many tries, I realized that realistically, it
could only be done through collaboration with other classroom teachers. To be able to use
this game effectively, someone needs to consistently be able to help in entering the scores
daily—this is where the classroom teachers come in. Not only can we get the classes set up
for this research project, but the teachers will also be able to learn more about Classcraft
and use it in future lessons.