Educational Institutions – Jennifer Diggens

What is Gamification?

I found the following definitions from [Gamification Wiki]

“The Gamification Wiki defines Gamification as the infusion of game design techniques, game mechanics, and/or game style into anything. This definition is purposely broad to support the many uses of the word outside of the context of business.”

A few other definitions of Gamification are:

Gamification is the use of game design techniques and game mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences
Simply put, the term refers to incorporating game elements and mechanics into non-gaming websites and software

[Marketing] Way for educational institutions and libraries to engage with their users on a deeper level.

Gamification to me would be a great way for educational institutions and libraries to interact with children and young adults and bring back the love of libraries and learning. Gamification would be a great tool for information literacy for kids if it is done correctly otherwise parents would be in an uproar!

Reference

Huotari, K., & Hamari, J. (2012). “Defining Gamification – A Service Marketing Perspective”. Proceedings of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference 2012, Tampere, Finland, October 3–5.

When week 9 began I thought to myself I am lucky that the rules were changed for play activities because I have no way of participating this week. However, I am here to learn so I started to search the Internet to see if there is any way for me to play with QR codes. Following information I found surfing the Internet:

QR Codes

[Jeff Korhan] QR codes are like barcodes but they hold more information and they originate in Japan by [Denso Wave]

[Terrence O’Brien] QR codes are used to link information onto a smartphone. To read them you need to install an [App] that allows you to read the code. There are number of [App] available but the most common one is the QR Reader from iPhone App store.

I also asked a question on [Inn333 Group Blog]

jennifer – I do not have a smart phone! Can I add a QR Code Widget from WordPress so that I can play with QR Codes? http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/qr-code-widget/
sarah Hi there, if all you want to do is read the QR code then there are other options, for example if you download Google Chrome (it’s a browser like Firefox or IE) you can add the QReader extension. There are also free online tools to create QR codes – if you do a basic web search you’ll see hundreds of services!

I downloaded Google Chrome and I found the following sites. They are both very easy to use but I like the second one because you can use colour. Yeah! I can now play with QR Codes.