Students Learn...
When a student partakes in gamification, they are given the opportunity to not only learn the content, but also:- participate in gaming which they may already find entertaining and engaging
- work at their own pace
- earn points or badges for their hard work
- learn without having the pressure of knowing everything the first time
- engage in a social environment where all students support each other
- experience immediate feedback related to their learning
With gamification comes badging - where students can earn badges or points each time a level is completed. This first time I heard of badging was at a 2013 conference where Todd Nesloney (Tech Ninja Todd) spoke about how he successfully used badging to teach students the elements of Google Education Apps. Each time a student completed a unit successfully, they moved on to the next unit and also earned a badge for their work. The badging, I believe, aid students in understanding what they have already mastered, have yet to master, and provides motivation to continue.
Test Driving a Game
To test out gamification in education, I worked through levels in GameStar Mechanic. The reason why I chose this one is because I know of a Gifted and Talented teacher that uses GameStar Mechanic as an avenue for students to learn game design. Even though she touts how her students are extremely interested in the game and learn along the way, I had not yet had a chance to see what GameStar Mechanic had to offer, until today.
What caught my interest immediately was the fact that students had the opportunity to just play games through the first few levels. Though it felt like these levels were just there for fun, the user is actually learning how games work by playing one! Once the player is accustomed to how games are made, they are moved onto levels which provide them opportunities to build their own games, using what was seen and learned in the first part of GameStar Mechanic.
After playing levels, I have come to conclusions about gamification in general. Since gaming is something my students are already extremely immersed in and have experience with, it makes since to bring games to education. When reading about gamification, various students came to mind; those who really love video games and want to be gamers when they grow up, students who are not motivated by typical lessons, and competitive students. I do believe all these students would be served extremely well with gamified education. Gamification can be extrinsically motivating to the students due to the earning of badges and competition between classmates. However, intrinsic motivation is provided as well in the form of engagement and excitement created by the games. I believe a good game must have a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic to keep students motivated. When playing GameStar Mechanic, I was thinking about my English Language Learners and low readers in relation to the hurdles they would face reading the back story at the beginning of the game. The game itself was frustrating at times; there was one level I just couldn't seem to get passed and no help was provided by the game. This is where intrinsic motivators may fail but there still is extrinsic motivation for the user to cling to.
Explore Like a Pirate
One of the people I follow on Twitter is Michael Matera (@mrmatera) who is the author of Explore Like a Pirate. I've always really enjoyed his tweets and even take time to explore what he posts. This education game-changer has his students learning their content through games. He even sells badges on his personal website. In a blog post, he calls learning involving games "purpose driven learning". At the beginning of the year he talks about this kind of learning and discusses their learning using the words enthusiasm, effort, confidence, focus, resilience, dependability, initiative, creativity, curiosity and empathy. What an exciting yet focused way to begin a gamification unit. Right away, the students are understanding they aren't just playing a game, but instead instilling various abilities in themselves.
References
Chou, A. Y. (2017, February 26). Gamification in Education: Top 10 Gamification Case Studies that will Change our Future. Retrieved April 12, 2017, from http://yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/top-10-education-gamification-examples/
Gamification of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2017, from http://ed.ted.com/on/uk36wtoI
Matera, M. (2016, December 05). Building Inner Strength Through Purpose Driven Learning…. Retrieved April 12, 2017, from http://explorelikeapirate.com/building-inner-strength-through-purpose-driven-learning/
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like games would work great for you. I do like the idea of badges and being able to visually see what you have accomplished and what is yet to be accomplished. As a high school teacher I find it challenging finding games with content at a high enough level. Sometimes I think it would be more fun to teach something in a lower grade because it seems like a lot more games can apply. I find it difficult to find one good place for my students to play games and learn at. I also like your point about motivation. It is very true that using some sort of game really helps motivate the students. I try to vary my activities to catch them, even if they aren't an online game, I can very clearly see how anything that remotely resembles a game catches their attention better than a standard list of problems from a textbook or worksheet. Great thoughts.
-Shannon
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI can understand your struggle with finding appropriate games for high school. Good for you, though, for trying to make it work as best you can. I'm sure your students appreciate the change in pace.