MindLab Blog 2019- Part 2

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? What? The data that I have collected for my inquiry is qualitative and quantitative. My quantitative data was a tally of week one engagement through our My Te Kura portal and also again as endpoint data in week five. I chose this method of collecting data at it was a true representation if the student was logging into our online platform to access their learning content, which would then would show that they are engaging. I needed to gather baseline data and endpoint data this way so that I could make comparisons between the data and begin to analyse it. This is a snapshot of my quantitative data from week one: And week five: I also collected weekly data for the weeks in between: I also sent out a Google Form survey which looked at qualitative and quantitive data, which I sent out in wee...

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? What? The wider audience context for my inquiry is my community of learning (COL) which include my mentor teacher and other teachers in my office. I also think that my wider community involves other teachers that are a part of The MindLab community as I share these blog posts with them. The theme that I have chosen to look at in this reflection has been identified in  Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkin's (2012) reading of New views of equity, diversity, and inclusivity (pg.25). So what? I chose to look at this weeks reflection through the equity, diversity and inclusivity lense because raising engagement drives my inquiry which aligns perfectly with Bolstad et al's (2012) idea of 'producing educational engagement and success for all learners is an important priority.' (p.25). My mentor teacher's perspective towards my practice is very supportive and op...

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? I am continuing to use  Rolfe's Reflective model (n.d) to reflect this week. What? I have identified that I do have an ethical issue that potentially could be a problem if it were to arise. The data that I collect on a weekly basis, from our online learning platform, does have the students name on it, however, for my inquiry purposes my students and their supervisors were told their identity would remain anonymous throughout it. I need to make sure that throughout my inquiry, anything that is written down does not and cannot identify the students directly. So What? For this part I have chosen to use  Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program (2015) framework: What possible issues/concerns might this scenario raise? This scenario could raise a breach of privacy issue. How could this situation become a violation of the law, the “Code” or other school policies? This...

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? This week I am using Rolfe's Reflective model (n.d) again to review and reflect on the process so far. What? My understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness is being aware of who my students are, who their families are, where they have come from and what I can do as their teacher to make them feel like they are safe, included and feel like they belong. The area that I have chosen to focus on for the next part of the discussion is communication methods. So what?  I have chosen the ‘Culturally Responsive Practice for Maori Scale’ as the framework for the reflection and the concept I have chosen is Whanaungatanga (building relationships). I chose this as I believe that I am making my relationship with my students and their families stronger by providing them with another way that they can communicate with me, which is value number two in the Whanaungatanga con...

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? This week I am using Rolfe's Reflective model (n.d) to review and reflect on the process so far. What? During the Take Action phase of my Inquiry, the most notable event has been that I have started to give out Dojo Points! The Dojo Points are carefully thought out and consist of the behaviours that I desire the most. These behaviours have been allocated the most points in the hopes that the students will keep repeating them: By the end of this week, I had given out a total of 40 Dojo points to five different students, which was super exciting! The points that I have given out have been for contacting me, completing a module on My Te Kura and asking questions. This is a really positive start for my Inquiry as the lack of contact with my distance students I have found very frustrating and has lead to even more disengagement. The majority of the students on my class list are ones th...

To what extent does gamification impact on behavioural engagement for distance learners? This week was a very busy one as my school had only been open for two days prior. I decided to flag my Year 10 only part of my inquiry as I only have a small class list, to begin with. I have 11 students that I have planned to use ClassDojo with which range from Year 5 to Year 10. I decided to do this so I had enough numbers. This week I sent out informational emails welcoming students back for the year and explained that I needed to set up face to face meetings with them. I followed these emails up with texts to the supervisors to say that I had sent them an email. Being a distance school, contacting students and families can prove to be very difficult at times and sometimes an email won't even get a response. I found this to be a much better strategy as it prompted responses via text from the supervisors and they went on to check their emails. It worked extremely well as I had four stud...

The potential impact of the findings What are the possible benefits (and disadvantages of the inquiry)? Benefits- that it improves the students engagement and I get higher levels of students contacting me, completing work and enjoying their learning. Disadvantages- the students may see the points as being unmotivating and therefore not want to participate or see it as a negative competition. How might it impact on your communities or your practice? It may impact on my student's engagement levels, which may warrant other colleagues to become interested and perhaps even try something different themselves. The knowledge that I took from my research essay was that e ngagement is the biggest challenge for a distance learner and it is very difficult to overcome the challenge as all responsibility is down to the learner themselves. My inquiry will provide some insight into what may motivate and engage distance learners. The results of this inquiry may show that using gamif...