IETA 2023

As many of our students are interested in the gaming world, gamification in our music programs makes retention of concepts something that students find enjoyable. The days of flashcards and drills are something that most students dread or do not find enjoyable - a necessary evil let's say. However, creating a game system is very easy to do in most programs and there are so many tools out there to foster this concept. The session I propose is to give guidance on this Gamification process and give teachers options on how to implement them into their programs. Gamification is the concept that students can "level up" and retry "failed levels" again and again without the incredible pressure to always succeed. Gamification also gives students a pathway where critical thinking and reasoning skills must be applied in order for it to work. Currently, in my own program, I have two forms of gamification, one is for technology to take the lead and the other is an "extra" program that all students can try and level themselves up using skills.

As my Masters Degree is in Instructional Technology and Design, I enjoy finding new ways to implement technology and making it accessible and fun for students and teachers. Things like GimKit lend itself to a wide variety of fields and grades. There are multiple others as well that have been highlighted as integration of video games has become more and more of an interest in students - both private, charter, and public.

The longer sessions would allow me to have attendees participate in some of the gamification process and we can create different games together. Longer sessions would also permit designing projects and development of integration into individual instructor's programs. I can do it in a shorter session as well as it is incredibly adaptable. If given the opportunity to present, a lot will be based on time allotted.