Computers in Human Behavior - Special Issue on Gamification: Call for Submissions

Call for submissions to Computers in Human Behavior - Special Issue on Gamification: Gameful Design, Research, and Applications.

Following the conference on Gamification 2013: Gameful Design, Research, and Applications (see the conference videos here), the conference organizers and editors of this special issue invite researchers to submit contributions on all aspects of gamification to this special issue of Computers in Human Behavior. See this other post, with a link to the Proceedings of Gamification 2013.

Gamification uses game design to make a system that primarily supports non-game tasks more fun, engaging, and motivating. We invite a wide variety of high-quality research papers into our special issue. We seek to understand the research necessary for increasingly effective implementation of,gamification in business, health, education andmentertainment. We welcome substantial research studies of gamification successes and failures, unanswered questions about gamification, gamification metrics and processes, methods of gamification commercialization and more.

This special issue aims gamification researchers interested in - but not limited to - the following fields:

• Game Design
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Psychology
• Computer Science and Informatics
• Game Studies
• Education
• User Experience and Interaction Design
• Social Sciences and Humanities (e.g., digital humanities,
  communication research, sociology)

Special Issue Editors:

• Lennart Nacke, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
• Sebastian Deterding, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Kevin Harrigan, University of Waterloo
• Neil Randall, University of Waterloo

Important dates:

• May 30, 2014: Submission deadline
• August 30, 2014: Notification back to authors
• April, 2015: Planned date of publication

Horizon Report 2014 - Higher Education Edition

The Horizon Report 2014 - Higher Education Edition has been released. This year's edition has a new format that now includes Key Trends Accelerating Higher Education Technology Adoption and Significant Challenges Impeding Higher Education Technology Adoption.

The 2014 six important developments in educational technology are listed in in the report's third section, Important Developments in Educational Technology for Higher Education:

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

• Flipped Classroom
• Learning Analytics

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

• 3D Printing
• Games and Gamification

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

• Quantified Self
• Virtual Assistants

Regarding last year's report, Quantified Self and Flipped Classrooms are new. Games and Gamification is kept on the "Two to Three Years" horizon. This is what the report says about it:

"The games culture has grown to include a substantial proportion of the world’s population, with the age of the average gamer increasing with each passing year. As tablets and smartphones have proliferated, desktop and laptop computers, television sets, and gaming consoles are no longer the only way to connect with other players online, making game-play a portable activity that can happen in a diverse array of settings. Gameplay has long since moved on from solely being recreational and has found considerable traction in the military, business and industry, and increasingly, education as a useful training and motivation tool. While a growing number of educational institutions and programs are experimenting with game-play, there has also been increased attention surrounding gamification — the integration of gaming elements, mechanics, and frameworks into non-game situations and scenarios. Businesses have embraced gamification as a way to design incentive programs that engage employees through rewards, leader boards, and badges, often with a mobile component. Although more nascent than in military or industry settings, the gamification of education is gaining support among educators who recognize that effectively designed games can stimulate large gains in productivity and creativity among learners."

About the Quantified Self trend, the report mentions that:

"People have always demonstrated interest in learning about themselves by tracking and measuring their behaviors and activities. Students already spend time in formal classroom settings gathering data about themselves or research topics. Quantified self technologies tap into this interest in the form of mobile apps, wearable devices, and cloud-based services that make the data collection process much easier."

The Quantified Self movement can benefit from gamification. In fact, if people are able to track and measure their behaviors, adding the proper game elements, they can be motivated to improve those behaviors, increase engagement in activities promoting those behaviors and change undesirable behaviors. This is the all idea behind gamification. And Education can benefit from both trends: gamification and the quantified self.

In this post published on Gamifeye, four approaches were mentioned to collecting data in gamified systems. Quantified self with gamification is the second approach, "using some external device". In Education they are also connected to Learning Analytics.

ticEDUCA2014: Call for Papers

The III International Congress on ICT and Education - ticEDUCA2014, a biennial event carried out since 2010, will be held in Lisbon, at the Institute of Education of Lisbon University, on the 14-16, November, 2014.

Themes:

• Theme 1: Formal and Informal Learning Environments and Technologies
• Theme 2: Computer Mediated Communication, Relationships and  Expression of Emotions Online
• Theme 3: Digital Technologies and Professional Development
• Theme 4: eLearning in Higher Education and Vocational Training
• Theme 5: Technologies and Special (Educational) Needs

Important dates:

• Paper Submission: June, 20, 2014
• Notification of Acceptance: September, 5, 2014
• Submission of Accepted Papers: September, 14, 2014

Proceedings of ticEDUCA2012 are available on line.

Post in Gamifeye - Recap: Gamification in Education in 2013

My fourth contribution to Gamifeye: Recap: Gamification in Education in 2013. This post highlights some of the most important things around the research on gamification of education that happened in 2013.

Again, many thanks to Sam Geuter, the man behind Gamifeye.

See the other contributions:

• Post em Gamifeye: "Education and Training: From Game-Based Learning to Gamification (October, 2012);

• Post em Gamifeye: "How Gamification Can Drive Behavioural Change" (November, 2012); 

• Post em Gamifeye: Four Approaches to Collecting Data in Gamified Systems (February, 2013).