Savides, S. (2016, January 17). What is gamification? Bright Classroom Ideas [Web log post] Retrieved from http://brightclassroomideas.com/2016/01/17/what-is-gamification/?utm_content=buffer030ac&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer – more-317

To make things simple, gamification is “the use of elements of game-playing in another activity, usually in order to make that activity more interesting”. This seems like it would be something that your students would like yes? Gamification is an idea that is rooted deeply in how educators bring competition into their classroom. More often than not, it is gamification that is the platform for competition in the classroom and it is gamification that can act as a means to get our students engaged and active in content they might have not been otherwise. SO what are some key elements of gamification? As discussed in Savas Savides 2016 article on What is Gamification?, besides the winning or losing, students enjoy problem-solving, exploring, creating, imagining, collecting, role-playing, collaborating, or the simple relaxing atmosphere games can produce. These are elements that can permeate throughout your lessons and act to hook your students into the content. Therefore, I feel that incorporating elements of gamification into your class can serve as a motivation tool, in connection to competition, to engage student sin both an intrinsic and extrinsic way. Additionally, elements of gamification can be taken outside the context of an actual game and be worked into parts of your class to serves a specific motivational purpose. These can include learning progression, challenges, competition, cooperation, rewards, win states, achievements, badges, leaderboards, ssroteams. There are many possibilities for gamification in the classroom so take it engage with it, explore, and then extrapolate.