Competency 2: Create Knowledge
- Demonstrates ability to describe common research methods in Educational Technology
- Demonstrates ability to read and evaluate Educational Technology research
- Applies research findings to the solution of common problems in Educational Technology
Artifact: “Gamification in Education”
The artifact that I have selected to demonstrate Competency 2 – Create Knowledge, is my final research paper from EDCI 513 – “Gamification in Education”. This was my first class in the program at Purdue, and my first research paper in nearly a decade. It was a lot of work, but I was able to choose a topic that interested me greatly, and demonstrate all three points of the competency within it.
Describe common research methods in Educational Technology
The beginning of this paper highlighted several areas of research and exploration in Educational Technology. I spent time researching and describing the characteristics of learners, both past and present, in order to show how Education is changing, and must continue to change. I cited research by top authors and instructors of the Gamification movement and tied it in with current trends in K-12 Education.
Read and Evaluate Educational Technology research
This paper required a minimum of 10 reputable sources, which I successfully used. When the paper was written, I was called-out by the professor on my use of some “non-reputable” sources such as Wikipedia, but as I argued then, I did not use any non-reputable sources for anything other than to fill in the current language surrounding Gamification and the learners that are immersed in a gamified world.
Each journal article that was read, each book that was read and cited, provided current and relevant research to support everything that I exhibited in this paper.
Apply research findings to the solution of common Educational Technology problems
Today’s learners in my K-4 classroom are changing. I hear every day about how different the kids are as compared to the adults that are teaching them. I feel the difference between a teacher like myself and some of my colleagues who are the teachers of yesteryear. This paper applied all of the current research and hot-topics into the assertions that today’s youth will not learn in the same ways that the previous generations did. Gamification is being pushed into every facet of our lives, from the “leaf” on my Nest Learning Thermostat to the games that I play on social networking sites. While these are just simple examples, Gamification is taking over education as well. Schools are using iPads and other devices on a daily basis. Students are playing with educational games to teach themselves math skills. Teachers are assigning these methods as homework and encouraging the students to embrace their own learning. Some teachers are even “flipping” their classrooms, shifting the responsibility of learning onto the students rather than the teachers.