Games 4 Good Wrap Up!

Did you play some Games4Good this weekend?  If so, we wanna know about it!  Please take a few minutes to let us know about your experience with this game-a-thon experiment!  We can't wait to hear how you used games to change the world!

Note:  we're asking for a list of the names of folks who sponsored you so that we can publicly thank them.  Please do not include contact info or the amounts each person gave, just let us know who they were so that we can give them a well deserved high five!

Games 4 Good

We all know that games are fun, engaging and can greatly impact student learning when put to use in the classroom.  However, given the magnitude of Hurricane Sandy and its impact on folks up and down the east coast of the US, we've decided it's time that we take a closer look at how games can, as Jane McGonigal says, make the world a better place.

So... buckle your seat belts, #levelupbc, we're about to change the world!

For the next #levelupbc challenge we're gonna play games AND raise money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  How, you ask?  Well, that's simple... we're having a Game-A-Thon!

Here's how it works:

Step 1:  Commit to playing a game (or many games) over a period of however many hours you would like, between 12:00am Saturday, November 11th and 11:59pm Sunday, November 12th.  If you think you can play for 5 hours, go for it!  If you think you can play for 2 hours, great!  If you think you can play for 48 hours, you're crazy, but we love it!  Bottom line, it doesn't matter how you play (console, phone, tablet, PC) or how long you can play, you just need to commit to being a gamer for part of that weekend.

Step 2:  Get your friends, neighbors, coworkers, compadres, brothers, sisters, cousins, distant relatives and sworn enemies to sponsor you! Tell them you're raising money for the victims of Hurricane Sandy and need their help!  If you've committed to gaming for 5 hours AND you can get 5 people to sponsor you at a rate of $2.00 an hour, by the end of the weekend, you'll have raised $40.00.  Get it?  You can even print out this handy, dandy sponsorship form to help you keep track of all the cash you're gonna collect! 

Step 3: Play some games, yo!  What games, you ask?  Well... any games!  However, now might be an AWESOME time to explore some of the games that have been specifically designed to foster social good.  Some of the ones we've been playing include:

• Free Rice (http://freerice.com) - "For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through World Food Programme to help end hunger."
• Games for Change (http://www.gamesforchange.org) - "Catalyzing social impact through digital games." Over 100 games created by independent game designers to inspire and challenge users.
• Lure of the Labyrinth (http://labyrinth.thinkport.org/www/) - A puzzling world with puzzling puzzles for you to discover, uncover, and, hopefully, solve. The focus here is clearly on math, but it's just so enticing we couldn't bare to leave it off our list.

Of course, you can play any game you want. In fact, use this challenge as an excuse to spend a little time this weekend just playing.  We've all got mountains of work to do and sometimes it feels frivolous to spend time engrossed in a game - but this weekend, you're not playing... you're SAVING THE WORLD!  (The dishes can wait!) 

Step 4:  Donate your earnings to charity.  Again, how you choose to donate is up to you, but one of the easiest way is by sending a text to the Red Cross.  Once you've collected your sponsorships you can just text that amount in and voila! Your sponsors can give directly to the Red Cross Disaster Relief, too, if you'd prefer not to handle any money exchange. TeacherCast has made it possible for your school or district to help those in New Jersey affected by the hurricane. Regardless of how you choose to help, you and your posse have made the world just a little bit better.

Step 5:  Document your experience!  If you're participating in this challenge, there are a few ways that you can share your journey and cheer on your fellow philanthropists.  

• Fill out this Google Form to let us know that you're participating.
• Send us some photos (either via Tumblr or Twitter) of you getting your game on!
• Spread the word!  One of the things that is sooooo motivating about games is that they are SOCIAL.  What fun is playing Guitar Hero if you've got no one to giggle with?  Mario Kart stinks without someone to trash talk!  And Monopoly wouldn't be the same without someone else to land on your Park Place hotels!  Plus, the more people we can get to play, the more we can help others!
• Tweet about it using the hashtags #levelupbc and #games4good
• Finally, keep track of your donations.  Once the games have begun, we'll give you a way to share how much you raised.   

And, of course, there will be kudos and prizes for folks who raise the most money, get the most people to play and other fun stuff. 

So... spend this week committing to play, soliciting sponsorships and challenging your friends to play too.  In the end, all of your efforts will go to help some folks who really need it. 

Task #5: Game Based Crowdsourcing

This week's challenge was inspired by last week's #levelupbc Twitter Chat in which one of our members asked the Twitterverse for help.  Check it out:

If you've been following the #levelupbc Twitter feed then you already know that, in addition to quotes from our reads and convos about how these books will inform our practice, #levelupbc members also, from time to time, post articles, videos and other resources related to video games and gamification.  Indeed, #levelupbc is becoming a resource for anyone interested in this topic - even if they're not keen on reading the books and officially joining our madcap group (although I can't imagine why they wouldn't be!)

So... this week, while we're all waiting for our copies of James Paul Gee's What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy to arrive, we're challenging you to be a part of the #levelupbc crowdsourced gratification revolution!  Here's what to do:

Directions: Find and share awesome articles, videos and other resources related to gamification and game based learning.  Resources can be posted to either the #levelupbc tumblr or to Twitter using the #levelupbc hashtag.  Easy, right!?

Update: Super kudos to #levelupbc member Katy Vance who created a Diigo group for the bookmarks collected by this challenge and beyond!  Feel free to post these resources to Katie's Diigo which we've linked to above!  Woot! +1 Initiative to Katy for being a #levelupbc rock star!

Reward: This week, the more resources you share, the more points you get!  AND the person at the top of the leaderboard by the end of the week will not only have major bragging rights, but will also win a one off video thank you card from one of your #levelupbc hosts.  Sweet!

Deadline: 11:59pm Friday, July 6th. Good luck!

PS:  Even though this isn't the official challenge this week, we'd also like to invite you to share photos of you + our next read on our Tumblr.  It's always fun seeing our members sporting some super summer reading material. 

And The Winner Is...

Last week we challenged you to get your Game On! by showing us pictures of YOU playing one of the games mentioned in Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken. Lots of you participated and the games of choice varied from Free Rice to Four Square to Super Better and countless others! Once the week was over, I put the names of all our participants into the app PikMe! (which I use for school to select students at random). A few clicks later and we have a winner!

Congratulations to Misti Sykes whose mad World of Warcraft skillz not only bumped her up a notch on the Level Up Book Club Leader Board, but also made her the winner of this week's crazy epic prize! Can I get a Woot! Woot!?

Now the only question is WHO will Misti pick to do record the message for her voice mail??

Thanks to everyone who participated! It was a blast seeing all of you in your gaming glory. Stay tuned for next week's Level Up Book Club Challenge. It's gonna be EPIC! AND don't forget:

a) Our first #levelupbc twitter chat is coming up on Thursday, June 28th (that's this Thursday!) starting at 8pm EST. We'll be using the hashtag #levelupbc to discuss Reality is Broken before moving on to our next read. Speaking of which...
b) YOU get to choose the next Level Up Book Club selection! So, if you haven't already done so, be sure to cast your vote soon! The book with the most votes will be announced during our twitter chat on the 28th!

Happy Reading!

Task #3: Game On!

Are you loving Level Up as much as we're loving Level Up?

Jennifer and I (Matthew) have conversations almost daily over how much we're enjoying this mega book club and all of the opportunities to explore gamification through what we read and how we interact with one another and all of you! And so, naturally, it's time to get our game on!

Task 3:

GAME CHALLENGE:  “Show Us Your Game”

Directions: Select a game mentioned in Reality is Broken and play it. That's it! No hidden tricks. Just potential wins for you and your friends, family, and allies. Will you use Superbetter to overcome an obstacle? Will Chore Wars bring adventure to where only dread once existed? Will you build a world with Minecraft and lose yourself in it? No matter what game you select, these or otherwise, snap a photo or screenshot of you playing and upload to our Level Up tumblr page or share on Twitter using #levelupbc.

Reward:  Sharing your gaming experience will pay off bigger than ever this week. Kicking it Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me style, a winner will be selected at random from this week's participants and will receive a personalized voicemail message from one of us (Jennifer or Matthew).

Deadline: 11:59pm Friday, June 22nd.  Share photos via Twitter and Tumblr as often as you'd like. One chance per participant to win.

Happy reading, sharing, and winning!