Shameless Gamification: Epic Win my Daily Awesome

All three of you that actually read my blog know how big of a fan I am about gamification in learning.  Previous posts aside, I have been using Awesome Note for my to-do lists for some time now and have doubled my productivity from a teacher standpoint, mercilessly ticking checkboxes  while keeping track of long-term projects and scheduling all of the other insane activities that happen daily in elementary Art and Technology classrooms.
I recommend Awesome Note to people all of the time, but lately, checkboxes hasn't been that rewarding lately, but Epic Win has created a nice fix for people like me who need a little adventure in our lives.
Epic Win  takes your to-do list and shuffles around your tasks into a alternate realm of RPG games like Dungeons and Dragons (last RPG I played-showing my age) where your list becomes a quest and checkboxes are traded with experience points, gold, and a few more steps along the middle-earth-type map.  Where are you going?  I have no clue, but now my to-do list has a little gamification, which has turbo-boosted my productivity once again to the sound of falling gold coins and level-ups like the "Helm of Questionable Appeal" where I don't know what I can buy or what the items are used for, but I have them and I want more.
Just another example of how gamification can motivate students to continue to work towards leveling-up in their schoolwork.  Task lists like Epic Win have the ability to capture your imagination and will remind you of those nights you stayed up trying to get another piece of the Triforce.
My goal is to use develop some instructional strategies in the coming months that use gamification and technology to help students master 21st century skills in the classroom.  I'll keep you updated on the project here, but until then, it is time to collect my 100 gold coins for finishing a blog post!