Tuesday, April 30, 2013

ICERI2013: Call for Papers



After 5 years enjoying ICERI conferences in Madrid, this 6th edition will be held in Seville (Spain), on the 18th, 19th and 20th of November, 2013.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
There will be 3 presentation modalities: Oral, Poster or Virtual.
The deadline for abstracts submission is July 11th, 2013.
 
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the conference are to:
- Present and disseminate projects about education and emerging technologies
- Share best practices and promote international partnership and cooperation
- Create an international forum to discuss and exchange ideas about the latest innovations in education and research, applied to all fields and disciplines

ICERI2013 Publications will be sent to be reviewed for their inclusion in the ISI Conference Proceedings Citation Index.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES
- Abstract Submission Deadline: July 11th, 2013 (included)
- Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: September 2nd, 2013
- Final Paper Submission Deadline: October 3rd, 2013 (included)
- Registration deadline for authors: October 3rd, 2013 (included)


Sunday, April 21, 2013

GSummit 2013 and Education

Realizou-se em São Francisco, nos dias 16 a 18 de abril a GSummit 2013, um evento que procura reunir os principais atores do universo da gamification.


No âmbito deste evento foi lançada uma iniciativa para premiar as melhores aplicações do conceito de gamification em diversos setores (GAwards), entre eles a educação. A lista dos nomeados na área da educação pode ser consultada aqui. Os resultados deveriam ter sido anunciados durante o evento mas aparentemente ainda não foram divulgados. De qualquer forma destacam-se o primeiro classificado nas votações - World of Classcraft - e o quarto classificado - 3 Key Lessons Learned in 5 semesters of College Course Gamification. Este último é um exemplo de aplicação de gamification no ensino superior e podem ser encontrados mais detalhes num post de Steven L. Johnson, o professor que promoveu a iniciativa.

Johnson tem ainda um vídeo onde apresenta a sua experiência (47m):


Esta experiência é também mencionada no Horizon Report - Higher Education Edition 2013: At the Fox School of Business at Temple University, a professor designed his social media innovation course as a quest in which students earn points for blogging and engaging in social media activities. They are awarded badges, and those that excel earn a place on the leader board.

No vídeo, Steven Johnson apresenta também a sua definição de gamification (aos 7m30s): "using game elements in some other stuff", uma versão mais ligeira do que a tradicional "using game elements in non-game contexts" (e mais uma definição a juntar à coleção).

Na sua aplicação de gamification, recorreu aos habituais points, badges, achievements, leaderboards e levels, usando um plug-in para o Wordpress no que diz respeito a achievements. A isto juntou o que designa por careful incentive design.

A apresentação inclui uma demonstração do portal do curso e uma análise comparativa de resultados (com e sem gamification). São apresentados igualmente os depoimentos dos estudantes envolvidos.

Uma análise de diversos plug-ins para o Wordpress que podem ser usadas em aplicações de gamification é também referida na apresentação.

Não fica muito claro de que forma é que os elementos de jogos foram efetivamente aplicados. Aparentemente terá tudo a ver com a participação em blogs (do curso e dos alunos). Os resultados apresentados e os comentários apontam para resultados positivos mas ficam por conhecer os pormenores.

O portal do curso alvo desta experiência - social media innovation - está disponível on-line.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Business Gamification for Dummies

Já faltava um livro de gamification for dummies ...


Este tem como co-autor Kris Dugan, até há pouco tempo o CEO de Badgeville, tendo passado o cargo recentemente (ver aqui) para se tornar num global gamification evangelist, permanecendo na administração da empresa. Ver também este post, onde Dugan apresenta algumas das suas ideias sobre gamification da educação.

O livro Business Gamification for Dummies está disponível na Amazon em versão Kindle.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Whitepaper Case TechHub_Leaderboarded

Foi já divulgado o whitepaper do caso de estudo TechHub Leaderboarded (ver este post):



Comentários adicionais que foram enviados na contribuição submetida:

TechHub Noise Meter is an application of internal gamification or enterprise gamification. Is is used to improve collaborators' engagement that feel more motivated to participate since they receive feedback from their efforts through the leaderboard. Collaborators are not individually mentioned  or rewarded but they have the sense of participation in a greater cause, the success of their company. From this standpoint, I consider its application as a "best pratice".

A leaderboard is a mechanic for short term engagement. It appeals to extrinsic motivation (winning a competition and achieving a better status) and this kind of motivation is for short term engagement. These type of rewards work as long as they exist. If they cease to exist, engagement could fall. They can also reduce intrinsic motivation.

I see Leaderboarded as a gamification tool that can be used with other tools to achieve a wider gamification experience. Alone, Leaderboarded is limited to its own specific purpose but combined with other tools it can contribute to a wider experience. I used Leaderboarded in an educational context combined with ClassDojo, a reward tool based on points, targeting students behaviors. Leaderboarded proved to be a very helpful and effective tool.

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Call for Participation: Gamification 2013



University of Waterloo Stratford Campus, Stratford, Ontario, Canada
October 2-4, 2013
Twitter: #gameit2013


IMPORTANT DATES
  • May 1, 2013 - Submission system opens
  • June 21 - Deadline for full papers, short papers, Gamification Student Design Competition and industry/non-academic presentations
  • August 1 - Accept/Reject decision of the committee
  • August 8 - Poster, Demo Submission Deadline
  • August 30 - Camera-ready submission, Decision on Posters and Demos
  • October 2-4 - Gamification 2013 Conference in Stratford, ON

Gamification 2013: Gameful Design, Research, and Applications is a new international and interdisciplinary conference with a focus on researchers and professionals in gamification. Gamification uses game design to make a system that primarily supports non-game tasks more fun, engaging, and motivating. We invite a wide variety of research and applications to be submitted for presentation and showcasing at the conference.

The goal of the conference is to demonstrate current high quality research in gamification and encourage discussion of this research as a foundation of the future of gamification. To this end, the conference will feature streams that blend academic research and experimental applications with industry and non-profit examples, results and procedures.

We seek to understand the research necessary for increasingly effective implementation of gamification in business, health, education and entertainment. We welcome presentations of research projects, gamification successes and failures, unanswered questions about gamification, gamification metrics and processes, methods of gamification commercialization and more.

The conference looks for gamification researchers and professionals from - but not limited to - the following backgrounds:
  • Game Design
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Psychology
  • Computer Science and Informatics
  • Game Studies
  • Education
  • User Experience and Interaction Design
  • Social Sciences and Humanities (e.g., digital humanities, communication research, sociology

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Gamification: The Book!

Gamification in Education and Business - to be published by Springer under the care of the Editors:

    •    Dr. Torsten Reiners (Curtin University, Australia)
    •    Dr. Lincoln C. Wood (Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand)

Call for Chapters:

    •    Proposals Submission Deadline: May 15, 2013
    •    Full Chapters Due: August 31, 2013
    •    Submission Date: September 31, 2013