50% of administrators said help personalize instruction.
This is what jumped out the most to me in this infographic. While all the information presented was equally important, the personalization portion remains prominent in my mind.
The social shift in collaboration has been a defining moment in our society. With that shift we’ve also seen the power of individualization emerge. This may seem contradictory but let me explain. While being connected more than ever, we’ve also seen the importance of remaining individualized. This is why profile pictures, gamer pictures, clothes, music, and styles remain an important aspect for those looking to define who they are.
In the world of education sometimes it’s hard to develop and maintain the pace of a class while managing the course work. The problem with that is the WHOLE class does not learn the same way, retain the same way, or keep pace the same way. We've created a massive platform(classroom) for players(students) that treates the players as one set of charactersitics. Think of a game that has all the characters look the same as the main player. For example, in sports games like John Madden Football, the crowd while massive has few distinguishing characteristics (in some classes this is the case not all, this again is just my opinion for reflection) Sometimes it’s hard to see the individual tree through the forest. The individual student has the potential to get lost in the ‘class. In my opinion this has been an issue plaguing education. We can learn and research learning styles for years, but ultimately a class is still run as a collective grouping of individual students. Individuals are sometimes left to correlate learning objectives, lessons and ideas the same way as everyone else, for example, a homework assignments' goals do not change from student to student. All students are requested to accomplish the homework task the same way. Read Chapter 5 and answer the end of chapter questions. That is great for the students that can focus on the reading, correlate the authors words, and re-iterate that reading into their own ideas. What about the student that needs to see the author’s ideas and lesson play out in a scenario, or better yet be part of the scenario. This type of student(and they do exist) may struggle with the assignment; they may even not attempt it. Personalization in gaming can help this. While we have gotten better setting up courses to touch upon ALL learning styles, that personalized instruction can still elude us.
In the world of education sometimes it’s hard to develop and maintain the pace of a class while managing the course work. The problem with that is the WHOLE class does not learn the same way, retain the same way, or keep pace the same way. We've created a massive platform(classroom) for players(students) that treates the players as one set of charactersitics. Think of a game that has all the characters look the same as the main player. For example, in sports games like John Madden Football, the crowd while massive has few distinguishing characteristics (in some classes this is the case not all, this again is just my opinion for reflection) Sometimes it’s hard to see the individual tree through the forest. The individual student has the potential to get lost in the ‘class. In my opinion this has been an issue plaguing education. We can learn and research learning styles for years, but ultimately a class is still run as a collective grouping of individual students. Individuals are sometimes left to correlate learning objectives, lessons and ideas the same way as everyone else, for example, a homework assignments' goals do not change from student to student. All students are requested to accomplish the homework task the same way. Read Chapter 5 and answer the end of chapter questions. That is great for the students that can focus on the reading, correlate the authors words, and re-iterate that reading into their own ideas. What about the student that needs to see the author’s ideas and lesson play out in a scenario, or better yet be part of the scenario. This type of student(and they do exist) may struggle with the assignment; they may even not attempt it. Personalization in gaming can help this. While we have gotten better setting up courses to touch upon ALL learning styles, that personalized instruction can still elude us.
I think the gamifying field can help close the gap. The flexibility of game rules, and gaming in the classroom from rewards to quests really opens the door for this personalization to be taken to the next level (level up gaming in the classroom as a whole!). Like personalizing a character, students can have greater autonomy within their own learning adventures. This level of personalization will in my mind change the face of how some view gamifying courses, and maybe even lead the charge to gamifying schools. The ultimate goal of all educators should be to reach EVERY student, not just the ones who get ‘it’, why not explore every avenue and possibility for us to reach thee entire class. That is why the personalization information in this graphic really struck me as important and I hope to see it grow in percentage over the coming years.
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