Leighton Chiverton – Describing Communication Technologies

Gamification for the Development of Literacy Skills in Student

Introduction

As literacy has grown and evolved with the digital economy, so have the ways in which literacy skills are developed. Gamification has shown itself to be a promising approach to skill development in students. Gamification is when a teacher takes an activity or concept and adds mechanics to it such as achievement badges, levels, collection of experience in order to increase student engagement and achievement (Kingsley & Grabner-Hagen, 2015, p. 52). As teachers continue to try and find the best way in which to reach their students is gamification of literacy skill development able to improve the rate at which students acquire and develop literacy skills?

Digital Media

When discussing digital media Gee and Hayes (2011) point out that it delivers knowledge and language faster, wider, and more easily than its’ print counterpart. Digital media is also much more rapidly modified and allows for a wider participation and greatly enhances the proliferation of specialized knowledge and language (pp.88). The implementation of digital media in the classroom means that the conceptualization of literacy must be challenged. Beavis (2014) argues that students can learn about how texts work from the study of popular culture, including video games (pp.434). Furthermore, Squire (2006) makes the case that video games are focused around doing meaning they are far more engaging and interesting by nature than passive skill work often done in classrooms (pp.22). Gamification takes elements of video games and combines the skill work with a high interest medium of delivery in turn creating a highly engaging environment for students to develop and acquire skills.

Video Games and Gamification

Beavis (2014) has been an advocate for video games as tools for developing literacy skills since the 1990s (pp.435). What makes video games so interesting as far as literacy development tools is that they are by nature, a multimodal and multiliterate medium that requires players to learn a vast range of new skills in order to properly play the games. Players must develop their own form of meaning making by interpreting words, symbols, music, movement, and so on. This directly connects to contemporary ways of thinking about literacy (2014, pp.435). When it comes to new skill development Fisher et al. (2016) point out that students need to have time to acquire and consolidate these skills. This means that a student must be provided with an opportunity to plan, organize, elaborate, and reflect on what they are learning to work with (pp.76). A well-designed video game will do much the same. Most games provide a tutorial for the player when learning new in-game skills followed by practice against weaker opponents and then the release of the player into the game’s world to effectively use the new skills that the player has acquired. These elements can be transitioned into a gamified learning experience. The ideal approach for harnessing gamification is explained in Downie and Proulx’s (2022) discussion on gamification best practices in which they state that one must shape their users experience through authentic rewards, support unique approaches to meaning making and the sharing of learning with peers, and allowing for individual exploration and learning with guiding goals and aims (pp.401).

Gamified Classrooms in the Real World

Kingsley and Grabner-Hagen (2015) highlight Mr. Wallen’s gamified classroom and how he utilized gamification to teach his students. Using a quest-based learning platform, Mr. Wallen was able to provide a learning environment in which students are able to acquire new skills, practice, and achieve mastery of these skills through quests and experience collection. As students complete quests (assignments) they are able to gain more experience unlocking new steps and lessons guiding them to the mastery of the skill that they are developing (pp.54-55). One of the most important features of Mr. Wallen’s classroom was that the students were able to practice their skills in a low-threat environment. Failure in the instructional environment had a minimal cost and gave the students opportunity for more practice of their skills (pp.56). Fisher et al. (2016) state that when it comes to general literacy learning practices, one must implement a three phase model in which students are challenged, they have self-efficacy, and there are learning intentions with clear success criteria. When comparing Mr. Wallen’s classroom with what Fisher et al. state about literacy development, Mr. Wallen’s classroom contains all three core elements needed for general literacy learning practices. Students are challenged by completing quests. They have self-efficacy in their learning by being able to choose the quests they wish to complete. There are clear learning intentions with success criteria in the form of students learning a new skill and once they have obtained that skill they collect experience that allows them to move on. Mr. Wallen’s classroom demonstrates that the general practices for literacy learning are a possibility within a classroom using gamification.

Similarly, Beavis et al. (2017) discovered a case in which a teacher (Jacinta) was using a video game as her primary text within the classroom while teaching narrative writing (pp.139-141). Jacinta replaced her book with a video game without changing her classroom pedagogy. Students would play the game and Jacinta would stop them and have them consider elements of a story being incorporated into the game such as characters, setting, and narrative elements. Students would then develop vocabulary and a plot sequence to be implemented and begin writing narratives about the game that they were playing as a class. Jacinta was effectively implementing the interpreting, analysis, and creation required for a narrative writing unit through a video game and she found it to be highly successful and engaging for her students (pp.141). Jacinta’s classroom is an excellent model on modern thinking in relation to video games and digital media. She took the old structures and pedagogical approach and aligned it with the implementation of a video game in a highly effective manner.

Alternate Approaches to Gamification

Gamification does not need to be a fully digitalized experience. Downie and Proulx (2022) point out that libraries have been using gamified learning to promote literacy for years. By the 2000s, 95% of US libraries offered a reward-based summer reading program in their communities. Those children who participated in these summer literacy programs read significantly better than those children who did not participate in any library programs (pp. 392-393). Downie and Proulx also discovered that libraries are offering other types of gamification in the form of play-based responses to literature. These programs offer children the ability to respond to texts through puppets, pantomime, and finger art allowing young children to begin acquiring and developing early literacy skills through interpretation of the stories they explore (pp.397). Some libraries are changing their literacy programs to start using online programs that use the same reward and badge systems that were once physically displayed in the library. Applications like Beanstack are beginning to be more widely used as they use the same rewards and badge system but also include space for checklists, visual iconography, clearly organized goals, and the capacity for readers to reflect on their reading (pp.394-5). Beanstack does a good job of providing the three-phase model for literacy education by providing challenges for the students, self-efficacy in the form of goal setting, and clear success criteria in the form of badges and visual iconography for milestones and goals achieved.

Digital Skill Development

A common theme across the research for this paper was the idea of digital literacy and the need for students to develop new types of literacy to tackle the modern world. This aligns with Beavis et al.’s (2017) point on how teachers need to reconceptualize what literacy means in today’s world (pp. 136). Modern literacy should require some form of multimodal literacy as students today are dealing with a broader variety of texts and media both in and out of the classroom. Beavis (2014) argues that video games are a form of multiliteracy skill development available “in the wild” (pp.435). Beavis goes on to argue is that games occupy an important place as uniquely challenging hybrid texts that are linked with action (pp. 439). What this suggests is that video games and gamified approaches to literacy would allow students not only to develop traditional literacy skills, but also to develop multiliteracy skills suited for the modern digital age. Gee (2001) states that literacy is situated within social contexts and digital tools afford new and increased opportunities for social interaction and collaboration providing for authentic opportunities within multiple modalities (pp. 715-16). Students connected to digitally and gamified tools will also be able to explore and share their learning with their peers in the form of in-game chats, message boards, quest logs, or any other forms of traditional classroom sharing such as discussions. Fisher et al. (2016) state that classrooms should be filled with student-to-student interactions and that these interactions should be dialogues as opposed to monologues (pp. 23). A digital tool with gamified elements and a form of directed discussion forum related to the skills being developed would be the ideal tool for a teacher to develop the literacy skills of their students.

Conclusion

Gamification holds promise for the development of literacy skills. The most interesting element of the gamified approach to literacy skill development is its capacity for highly engaging acquirement and development of student skills. Mr. Wallen’s classroom was an excellent model to view as it provided students with clear goals and challenges that were guided by low-risk practice. Mr. Wallen’s classroom was designed so that students were able to go from basic skill acquisition to mastery of the skill through a gamified experience. The gamified learning experience also taps into the social aspect of literacy as students can have access to discussion spaces in which they are able to discuss and share their learning with their peers. The gamified learning experience also allows students to not only develop the skill that is being directly targeted by teachers but also to adapt and develop new digital literacy skills that will allow them to navigate through modern digital media. The multiliteracies that students develop through gamified learning experiences should be accounted for and sought after. This means that educators must begin shifting their perspective on literacy and what literacy education should entail in order to encompass these skills as well. Gamification does not only need to be in a digital form. There is plenty of power and practicality to gamified learning available in physical spaces. Gamification of learning has a place in the development of literacy skills and should be taken seriously as a tool that will help students not only develop traditional literacy skills but also digital literacy skills.

 

References

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Downie, S., & Proulx, S. (2022). Investigating the role of gamification in public libraries’ literacy-centered youth programming. International Journal of Play, 11(4), 382–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2022.2136637

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Squire, K. (2006). From content to context: videogames as designed experience. Educational Researcher, 35(8), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189×035008019