Virtual Education Journal Winter 2013

Page 132

After a presentation by the great James Paul Gee about gamification, the idea acted as resurgence through the educational community like wild fire. We too, were looking to incorporate game design into the Games MOOC back in the P2PU rendition. The site, however, didn’t offer that sort of thing we needed, thus adding another positive chalk mark on Shivtr. Even though it was a hard decision, it was made for the better, as we switched to the more Game-­‐friendly lms, Shivtr. The last major change for all of us was the new requirement of either having to attend or comment, on or during, the live sessions that were scheduled once or twice a week in the evenings. Back in the P2PU we met frequently in SL at Front Range to do introductions before speeding off into other programs. True, SL was a great place to meet, but more and more participants became weary (I would think) of doing the whole SL program and then going into multiple programs/games soon after. For many people, just getting situated in SL became a task in and of itself. So we still have that SL option. We live stream the Google Hangouts in the Diner on ISTE for those that want. Between Youtube and Twitter the competition is clear. It is fun to see which media people lean to. Anyway, the weekly meetings have topics that revolve around most of the readings, links to other pages of interest, and additional resources located on the Shivtr site. The bulk of the discussion happens live with easily twenty or more people attending. In its current episode, we are seeing over 500 participants with an astonishing growing number of 1700 posts and beyond. Having regulated meetings at predictable dates and times was a must. On P2PU, it was practically a free-­‐for-­‐all trying to schedule meetings so multiple people could come on different days. Sure, it was the summer, but a line needed to be drawn. For myself going from a head first volunteer of moderating and facilitating to a reserved Advisory Board member and seeing how the Games MOOC

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