Gamification in Education

via http://matmiltd.tumblr.com/

Mini Matmian:
The use of Gamification techniques within education is not on the horizon…it is already here. 6 months ago I highlighted the fact that the work teachers have been doing in classrooms across the globe for many years could easily be seen as a form of non-digital Gamification. 

The very practice of stickers, group leader-boards and reward systems that are already in place in so many primary school classrooms is already, in part, a form of gamification …

I then went on to mention how digital media could be used to augment the education process:

…add a bespoke system that also incorporates digital media (yes games are part of it) for multiple purposes that not only serve the individual pupil but also provide an accurate and easy way of tracking progress [for teachers) can only benefit the whole school environment.

All those many months ago I kept it brief. My experience as a former teacher meant that the topic was close to my heart and I knew that if I didn’t reign in my key-tapping fingers I would end up with a 3000 word essay.

As a supporter of the good gamification techniques can bring, I wanted to make one thing absolutely clear:

Sticking the same API or just shoe-horning badges in is NOT taking advantage of the power of game mechanics. 

Read more... 

Topsy Review - Social Web Search Engine

What can you use the application for?

Topsy.com is a new search engine that returns results from sites such as Twitter, Blogs, Flickr, Digg, Yelp, Identica and others. The site returns search results that are up to the minute, so users get the latest news from the social networking world. Results are shown in page form, in order of the number of “Tweets” each result has received on Twitter. The results page displays the option of viewing All Results, or results that were written in the last Hour, Day, Week or Month. Results can also be viewed by the top authors. Authors with the most results on the topic searched are shown first. The Topsy home page is dominated by a large search bar. Users may also enter a Twitter username in the search bar, and the search engine will return all the results posted by that user. The home page also has links to an About Us page, to the Topsy blog, a link to follow Topsy on Twitter, a link to Send Feedback, a link to Terms (terms of usage for the site) and a link to Privacy (the site’s privacy policy).

Who would you recommend the application to?The Topsy site is recommended to anyone wishing up to date search results from the social networking and blogging world. The site does a very thorough job of searching and is very easy to use. Search results are returned very quickly and are displayed in a pleasing format.Topsy Features

• Search engine searches the major social networking and blogging sites, especially Twitter
• Search results are ordered according to the number of Tweets they have
• Users can filter the results to show results written in the last hour, day, week or month
• Users can filter the search results by top authors
• Search results are very up-to-date

Rated 4 out of 5 stars by AppAppeal Editor

►Mini Matmian:

A pretty neat little website for searching social media platforms and displaying real-time info from Twitter and Google+.

Check out the video below to see an interview with one of the creators of Topsy.

Topsy: real-time social platform (er, search)

Uploaded by Scobleizer

 Source: appappeal.com

The Return of Real-Time Social Environments

Via Scoop.it - New Digital Media

The last few months have seen an explosive resurgence in real-time environments, last popular in the late ’90s. The interesting thing is that this new zeitgeist seems to have taken root in multiple places within the space of a few short weeks.   I’ve seen this all before: I was one of the founders of an avatar chat company called The Palace, Inc. back in 1995. Although quite popular (10 million users at its peak in 1998), The Palace never found a revenue stream that worked. As Jake Winebaum once told me, Palace was a phenomenon, not a business. He was right. But that was then, and this is now.

The New Real-Time Landscape

Let’s examine a few examples. Avatar-based chat room Shaker took the gold two weeks ago at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. Created as a Facebook app, Shaker lets users enter an isometric environment that resembles a bar. You can see and interact with other fully articulated avatars that look like mannequins. Users can chat, dance, give other users virtual drinks, see which of your Facebook friends are nearby and invite them to join the party. There is no “point” to Shaker interaction; it’s simply fun and engaging.

Show original (Mashable)