Gamification In The Classroom

Quests, and badges, and battles! - Oh my!  

Gamification in the classroom is taking off.    Gamification aims to harness the motivation power of games and apply it to real world problems (Lee & Hammer, 2011).  It is a process where teachers are bringing elements of gaming into their lessons to encourage higher levels of student engagement. Elements could include points, lives, badges, levels - all mixed in with a healthy dose of competition. Gamification can happen on many different levels, from the simple to the complex.

Simple ways to begin gamification include using great apps such as Kahoot and Socratic.  These provide teachers with a fabulous way to engage students and get immediate feedback on student knowledge.

Some teachers have gone to a whole different level and gamified their entire curriculum.  Scott Hebert is one such teacher.  This year he decided to gamify his Grade 8 science curriculum and turned it into "The Fight For Scientia Terra".  His blog is an excellent source of thoughts and information on gamification.  Although he started his gamification project in August, he recently won the Gamification of Education Project award - an international award for those using gamification in education.  What are the positive benefits of gamification?  Scott has noticed huge changes in his students this year:

Looking deeper at the numbers I have, again out of those same 100 students, 71 of them have achieved honours status (a grade 80% or higher) right now in science which represents 71% of the entire grade.  Comparing that to last year's grade 8 classes, I had, out of a possible 119 students, only 68 that were above 80 to this point which is 57%. 

My high achievers are flourishing with the ability to lead, and follow, and taking on all challenges, often going above and beyond. My collectors are gobbling up cards and fuelling the buy, sell and trade market of Scientia Terra. My competitive people are motivating themselves and their guilds to push beyond their limits in order to achieve their maximum and work their way in amongst the top players and guilds. My independent learners and my team oriented players are learning to push their boundaries and work outside of their comfort zones and the success is almost palpable. My self described "low achievers" are achieving grades they have not achieved before and finding a comfort in their learning. 

(for struggling learners) ... the Gamification concept has allowed them to grow and develop the skills where they struggled.  

Benefits of Gamification In The Classroom
Several studies have shown that the following benefits are likely to occur as a result of gamification:

• fosters cognitive development
• fosters a growth mindset
• boosts enthusiasm and engagement
• allows students to track their progress
• provides autonomy
• encourage risk taking
• turn failure into opportunity to explore and learn

Some of our teachers have begun to explore gamification in their rooms ... Why not explore in your classroom?!  The DLCs would love to help you experiment.  Drop us a line or stop by.

References:

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Groff, J., & Haas, J. (2009)  The instructional power of digital games, social networking, simulations and how teachers can leverage them.  Retrieved from:  http://education.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S. & Salen, K. (2009) Moving learning games forward. Retrieved from: http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf

Lee, J. J. & Hammer, J. (2011). Gamification in Education: What, How, Why Bother? Academic Exchange Quarterly, 15(2).