Gamification

Gamification is a term and learning strategy that I am somewhat familiar with because we talked about it extensively in my video games in education course during my undergrad. My definition of gamification would be that it involves taking principles of videos games like quests, objectives, and points and applies them to classroom activities. I will now describe two reasons why teachers may want to include game elements in their instructional strategies, ie. gamify their classroom.

1. It creates an engaging learning environment

By gamifying activities, teachers are able to create an engaging and interesting learning environment for their students. Gamification allows students to have fun and challenge themselves while learning which should be the goal of every educator in my opinion. When students are engaged and having fun they can make meaning out of the classroom activities they are completing and retain more information than they would have otherwise. Gamification can also helps students see class material as relevant outside the classroom.

2. It is not too complicated to implement

While gamification may sound like a complex process, it certainly doesn't have to be. All teachers need to do is establish a point system (stickers or monopoly money are point systems that my own teachers have used in the past!) and a way to earn them that is related to the classroom activity or learning goal (such as completing assigned homework, reading books, etc.). A way teachers can take gamification to the next level and make it even more engaging for students is by interweaving a lesson into a fun quest or exploration. For example, students could go around to different stations school and complete a challenge (such as a math problem) to earn points (stickers, monopoly money, etc.). By completing all the stations the students have completed the "game level", but they have also have learned a great deal. In this sense, gamification can be used in a single lesson or over an extended period of time, it is really up to the educators imagination on how to make it work!