"We're going to beat your team," Stratton hollered from the back row. "No you're not," volleyed back a student from the other side of the classroom in a not-so-confident-as-Stratton kind of way. This is Social Media Marketing. The students are having fun. They are playing. It's not work anymore. Oh, and, by the way, they're learning.
In the corporate world (and my application to the educational classroom) there seems to be a notification that "play" and "work" do not mix. If we're playing we can not be productive. If we're working it can not be fun? That simply is not true!
I want to be the Zappos.com of my college classroom, where they create a culture of fun and play. And no, work does not suffer. Work and play can not only co-exist, but thrive as they merge. Zappos.com is laughing all right … laughing all the way to the bank! So, lighten up a little bit. Let's have some fun. Here's four ways to PLAY and inspire learning!
# 1 MAKE A GAME OF IT (a little friendly competition)
I strategically divided my Social Media Marketing class into two teams. We were talking about viral videos. I said to my class two weeks earlier, "I had an epiphany last night! And The epitome of my epiphany is this …" Then I shared my idea of a competitive contest to create a 60-90 second viral video promoting the business department (self-serving I know) where I teach. This would give them some practical experience while having a little fun . To makes things more interesting I decided to raise the stakes. I offered to give the winning team (half the class) the last week of school off! Now I had their attention (and effort).
The competitive nature of the challenge inspired greater levels of desire, effort, collaboration, and purposeful play.
Here's another example. I took an on-line " Social Media Quiz " before heading to class. I got 10 of the 20 questions right approaching me a 50% mark. It was now time for my class to take the quiz. I told them my score and said, "If half the class beats my score then I'll let you go home early!" Some students who were tuned out were now tuning back in. I asked for a raise of hands at the completion of the quiz. It did not look like half of them had beat me but a student was quick to offer his "it looks pretty" close plea. Then Nate interrupted, "I have not had a chance to finish." He had started late because of something else he was working on. I said, "OK, no pressure or anything, but if Nate beats my score then the whole class can leave early." Nate rated 80% to the cheers of the rest of the class.
# 2 MAKE IT REAL (real world applications)
Last Wednesday my Introduction to Business class (aka Snow Biz) completed their real live business project. It was awards day to recognize top sellers. Weave away the following verses: 2 'A's' in the class, 2 'A's' on the final, an IPAD, an IPAD mini, a 32 "TV, an XBOX, a 19" TV and a set of headphones.
We start a business each semester in that class. We divide into teams such as: management, marketing, sales, advertising and production. Teams develop and implement their promotional strategies. The class decides what to order and sell, how many to order and what to charge. Teams decide how to market and sell the product. This semester the class sold baseball hats and hoodies with college insignia embroidered on the hats and silk-screened on the hoodies.
We made enough money to pay for our product and expenses (including $ 1300 worth of prizes). If a top seller is already expecting an 'A' in the class then they choose one of the other prizes and then the next highest seller will choose from remaining prizes.
Students are excited about starting a real business. They take pride in their team assignments and the prizes motivate them to go out and sell. They find great satisfaction when they see other students around campus wearing their project apparel.
Work becomes play. The arrival goes way beyond what the textbook or lecture could offer up.
# 3 MAKE IT UNIQUE (different ways to approach things)
I ask my Strategic Selling class, "What is the title of our chapter today?" A student responds, "Formal negotiating." Then I launch my what-can-be-negotiated discussion for a few minutes and then ask, "Is there anything you'd be interested in negotiating?" Invariably a student offers up, "how about the final exam" with great enthusiasm, but lack of hope that it will actually happen. "Sure" I say. A look of "really" comes over their faces. What do you have to offer in return I ask explaining to them that I can not be bought with money, deeds or bribery. I can be bought with "educational offerings" of your choice.
I leave the room while they brainstorm. I get a call on my cell phone from my office. Lawrence calls me and after I say "hello" he says, "I'll have a large pepperoni pizza!" I can hear the class laugh in the background. He says, "We're ready to negotiate." We dicker back and forth and finally arrive at an agreement. I actually get more learning tricks than I had anticipated and they get the prized take home final.
While my Strategic Selling class was discussing options like: true / false questions, multiple choice questions, short answer questions and essay questions a brief discussion ensued about the fact that they (the students) have a 50% chance of getting a true / false question right but only a 25% chance (based on 4 choices) of getting a multiple choice question right.
A much smarter student (Mike) sitting behind this discussion finally blurted out, "Come on guys, we're basing these percentages as if we are going to be guessing!" We can study and prepare he went on to say. Hilarious!
# 4 MAKE IT THEIR IDEA (self-directed learning)
So what do you want to do today? That's how I'll actually start some of my classes. Once we get beyond the "let's not do anything" today then we start to talk about some ideas (usually initiated by me). I finally get some buy-in and we're on our way and the students usually think it WAS THEIR IDEA! If it's their idea they give more effort.
These are not new principals, but the implementation of the idea is.
Play changes behavior.
Let me know how you play in the classroom!
The post Four Ways to Play in Your Classroom and Inspire Learning! appeared first on IrresistibleMT.
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