Gamification is about using game mechanics such as rewards, badges, levels, upgrades, currency, avatars, leaderboards, and more to motivate and engage the learners. Game-Based Learning is done through game or game like activities that incorporate gaming principles and usually involve the playing of a game. These games could be made with education in mind or can be made by students to demonstrate their understanding in a topic.
Opportunity Statement:
The ‘genii’ of digital gamification as originally championed by the video games industry is no longer captive in the ‘bottle’ of gaming consoles and closed-narrative titles – it can apply its engagement magic openly and generatively across platforms and networks. Have you got game?
Resources:
Educational Game Market Report
Gamification has a huge impact on education, especially since it is so popular and there is a huge misunderstanding on how to properly apply gamification and what the benefits are. For example, Blooket or Kahoot are games where you answer multiple choice questions for points and whomever answers the most questions in the same amount of time wins. However, this is actually not an effective way of learning, and often effective gamification that leads to relavent learning involves students creating their own games as they work through the principles of what they are learning. I think with the push for more technology to be used in schools, gamification will increase, but also be problematic through improper understanding and use.
Gamification is a fascinating topic to me, as I have spent the majority of my working life in the gaming industry. When I transitioned into education, I thought I could easily leverage my gaming experience in teaching. However, this proved to be a major misconception and has caused me to question the true effectiveness of gamification in learning. It has raised many questions, such as, “What about students who are not enticed by gamification?” and “Is this the best way to engage students given the frantic pace of the modern curriculum?” This seemingly limitless number of questions is what motivates me to dig deeper into gamification, and as such, the topic has remained at the forefront of my learning in Ed Tech.