Dona Thanushi Hettipathirana

EDUC 639 Trends and Issues in Educational Technology

Liberty University

Wiki LR Reflections Narratives The Beginning, the End and the Middle

As an avid proponent of Constructivism and a STEAM educator, Collaboration, I believe is one of

the most effective learning approaches that enhances ones knowledge and skills not only in

the academic but also in the personal and professional realms. The greatest outcome of

Collaboration in my view is knowledge sharing. It also provides opportunities to bolster skills in

communication, interpersonal and social engagement, problem solving, critical and higher-

order thinking, but more importantly helps build up self-esteem through authentic and real-life,

academic, social and professional interactions and engagements. It was an amazing experience

working with Tom and LEmuelle on this Wiki Literature Review project. In my opinion, we all

had a wonderful understanding of the context and expectations of this literature review and

operated with mutual respect and independence throughout the project while working towards

augmenting our strengths and diminishing weaknesses. All in all, the Wiki literature review

experience was rather enriching towards expanding my knowledge domain on gamification in

education and bolstering my skills and competencies in collaboration.

The BEGINNING of WIKI Literature Review

The first task on the agenda was to find a team for WIKI Literature Review Collaboration. This

was a no brainer since there was only three of us who registered for EDUC 639 in FALL D01,
2017. To begin with, we communicated with each other on the Liberty Black Board Discussion

Board and agreed on a means of communication for conferencing and a tentative set of topics

related to trends and issues in educational technology. Initially, we decided to go with Skype as

a medium for conferencing, but switched over to Goggle Hangouts due to some technical

difficulties. I created a personal account on Wikispaces just to check out as to what it is all

about as it was my first time creating a Wiki. Once the team Wiki site was set up for the

Literature Review, Gamification in Education, each of us worked on creating, editing, and

modifying content on the team Wikispaces page. We soon realized that, although, Wikispaces

was user friendly as a Webhosting service, it was not of much use as a collaborative platform,

especially, for a paper that involves sophisticated document and word processing based on

strict guidelines of APA. So, as a team we agreed to go with Google Docs as the Collaborative

Platform, but had to shift to Microsoft SharePoint due to its superior document and

information processing capabilities compared to Google and Wikispaces.

My Contributions:

My first contribution was to provide input to the brainstorm session on the chosen topic

Gamification in Education. I suggested a few subtopics for discussion and created a proposal

outline on Google Docs covering all areas of discussion relevant to the topic. Sticking to APA on

Google Docs soon became a mammoth task, so I had to persuade the team to switch to

SharePoint which provided more sophisticated tools and options for Web-based collaboration. I

created a SharePoint Group Project and other files and folders for the Literature Review

Proposal and Literature Review. Then, I started rummaging through online libraries and journal

archive for Peer-reviewed articles that falls under the scope of our research topic
Gamification in Education. We ended up with an extensive and detailed Literature Review

proposal outline and gathered 25 solid research articles collectively as a team.

Contributions of the WIKI LR experience towards knowledge development, Attitude towards

the subject matter, career development, sense of collaboration among my students:

Mobile Learning in Education was my topic of choice for the Webliography and hence

Gamification was not my first topic of choice for the Literature Review. However, as part of

collaboration, I went along with the decision of the majority and agreed to proceed with

Gamification as the topic for the Literature Review. So, I had to do start foraging for a new set

of research articles on a new topic that I was familiar with on a practical level rather than on

conceptual and theoretical level. As I started skimming through research articles on the subject,

I slowly started comprehending and processing the conceptual and theoretical context on the

application of gamification in non-game contexts. This contributed immensely towards

expanding my horizons on Gamification and furthering my positive attitude towards

gamification in education. The initial brainstorming and knowledge sharing session was very

constructive towards gaining first-hand experience a mirroring real-world working environment

in the technology sector. This also enhanced my ability to facilitate and empathize with my

students in their dealings with collaborative projects.

The END of WIKI Literature Review

The next phase was completing Literature Review composition on Conceptual and Theoretical

framework and overview and conclusions, creation of multimedia elements, drafting the final

exam questions and answers, and submission of the literature review to a professional
organization or a peer-reviewed journal. Yet again the team worked seamlessly delegating the

work between members and being on task at all times.

My Contributions:

As I perused through the literature looking for evidence on the conceptual and theoretical

framework on Gamification, I experienced a slight overload due to the extensive reading and

note taking. Based on the research articles reviewed in the study, it was clear that there was no

evidence supporting a precise conceptual or theoretical framework which specifically applies to

gamification. I had to scrutinize the articles one at a time to gather all available data and

information that is even remotely connected to the development of a conceptual and

theoretical framework for the design of game-based learning. I ended up with an assortment of

concepts and theories that are key in the design of game-based learning, which were

immensely enriching in understanding the design of game-based learning. I narrated the

discussion and conclusions of the literature review reflecting on the findings of the reviewed

literature.

Contributions of the WIKI LR experience towards knowledge development, attitude towards

the subject matter, career development, sense of collaboration among my students:

The review of literature on the conceptual and theoretical framework for design of game-based

learning enhanced my knowledge base on a range of concepts and theories related to game-

based learning. I also engaged in further research of the concepts and theories found in the

literature such as, flow theory, game engagement, taxonomy of game-based design and game

design life-cycle, in order to gain a better understanding of the subject matter. The process of
scrutinizing journals and professional organizations for the submission of the paper was quite

edifying in terms of professional as well as personal development. Exploration of the

publication process and documentation requirement for the paper submission greatly

constructive towards professional and personal development and possible mentoring of my

students in the future.

In the MIDDLE of WIKI Literature Review

Based on very thoughtful and constructive feedback on the Wiki Literature Proposal from our

professor, Dr. Daniel Baer, we had to engage in some crucial decision making on narrowing

down the scope of initial proposal. So, we decided to eliminate a number of subtopics and

ended up with a much slender yet, elaborate and enlightening literature review on

Gamification. We delegated the writing on the subtopics between team members and

proceeded with the composition of the portions of the review.

My Contributions:

The two of the sub topics I worked on were Gamification and Learners with Exceptionalities and

Gamification and STEAM education. I also started composing the abstract and the introduction.

As I started the writing on the STEAM portion, I felt as the STEAM portion itself was a mini

literature review all by itself, since it involved reading on fives completely independent

academic disciplines Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. I ended up

having to engage myself in a reading and note taking marathon that lasted over 72 hours on six

separate academic disciplines.

Contributions of the WIKI LR experience towards knowledge development, attitude towards

the subject matter, career development, sense of collaboration among my students:

This part of the composition contributed immensely in expanding my knowledge domain as it

involves researching on six independent academic content areas namely, Science, Technology,

Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics education and Education of Exceptional Learners. Scanning

through the literature helped me realize the versatility and potential of Gamification as a

learning tool and contributed immensely in shaping my attitude towards the recognizing and

promoting gamification as an effective instructional tool. As a STEAM educator and a mom of a

learner with exceptionalities, I found the review of literature to be vastly enriching and

enhancing my knowledge domain on the application of gamification to the respective content

areas.

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