Today was my first time presenting for Professional Development outside of my district. I decided to present about a topic that is near and dear to my heart and my passion: Gamification. I have had a gamified classroom for 2 years and it has completely changed my life, the way that I teach and the way that I think about education. So I prepared my notes, and my presentation, and showed up early so that I would be good to go. I brought my laptop, ipad and a chromebook. No this is not device overload. In fact, I needed another device but I'll get to that.
I power on my laptop, hook it up to the projector provided, and there's no image. Reset the laptop, try to connect with Windows key + Shift +P. Nothing worked. I am not sure if it is Windows 8 or perhaps a hardware issue with the VGA port, I'll figure that out when I'm home. My plan was to connect my laptop then use splashtop streamer on my iPad which allows me to walk around and not be "tied" to the projector which is something that drives me crazy.
But I digress. I was able to borrow another laptop and the day was saved with Google Drive. And then we were off. We started out by playing a couple of games, with the participants leveling up and earning rewards (sure it was just a candy bar but we have to start somewhere). There was so much more that I wanted to say about gamification, how the process works, how I started, and how 3D Game Lab has changed my life. The time went SO fast, and I wish that I had had more time.
I felt SO good when I was done because I got to see people make the connection between the process and student success which is what we're after. It was a great way to start my day. I also got to meet another fellow 3D Game Lab player Murray which was super cool to put a name with a face and a face with a gamertag.
I am looking forward to tweaking and planning my groups for next year and seeing where the game takes us.
