Gamification in the Classroom

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I will learn”
- Benjamin Franklin

There are many ways to make learning fun, and gamification is one of them. Gamification is the incorporation of game mechanics into regular activities, like classroom course work. Using components of games, like levels, badges, points, etc., in the classroom can motivate students to work hard and put effort into learning. This technique was introduced to me in my "Intro to Instructional Technology for Educators" course.

Gamification is different from game-based learning because game-based learning is when students learn through the use of games that are integrated into their coursework. The lessons and content they need to learn and/or review is within the games. An example of this would be Kahoot, a game where students compete against their classmates to answer course material correctly and quickly. Game-based learning activities are easy to identify because they include actual games. Gamification is a little more difficult to recognize because it doesn't actually involve games, just components and incentives that are a part of games.

Growing up I never realized that gamification was in most of my classes, but it turns out that gamification was within many lessons and classroom activities. For example, when I was in elementary school our teachers created a reading program to encourage students to read more difficult books. Each time we read at a higher grade level, our names would move up on the board to indicate to everyone what level of reading we were at. We also got to pick something out from the “treat box” like a toy or candy when we moved up. This program was similar to games that include actual levels of difficulty players can advance through and then leaderboards at the end of the games to judge where you are compared to your peers. The treat we got was similar to a badge we would’ve received in a game to reward us and also to give recognition for an achievement.

Gamified classroom activities like this can help students stay motivated and keep them interested in the task at hand. Students will want to do well because nobody likes losing at a game. When students play a video game they realize that the more they play and practice, the better they get, and this applies to gamified activities in class as well. For example, in the reading program at my elementary school, the more students read at a higher reading level, the better they got at reading. My teacher could have just told us that, but the program gave students incentives to actually try to grow. Gamification also teaches students to set short and long-term goals for themselves. Going back to our previous example, students would set a goal for the week on how many books they want to read and then set another goal, a little more long-term, about when they want to reach a certain reading level. The following video reviews the benefits I mentioned and explains a couple more as well as gives examples on how gamification can be used in the classroom in the form of individual experience points.

While gamification can be helpful, there are also some dangers to using it. In the website linked here (http://www.nea.org/tools/59782.htm), one of the risks of gamification listed is that it could serve solely as an extrinsic motivator. We want our students to be intrinsically motivated to learn, grow, and succeed so we need to be careful to give them too many tangible rewards. Whenever teachers give students tangible rewards for doing a task in the classroom, they are likely portraying to the students that the task was uninteresting in the first place and that they should only be motivated to complete it because of the reward. For example, students in my elementary reading program may have only been motivated by the treat we received for moving up a reading level, and in future years those students may not want to read anymore because they aren’t being offered a reward for reading. My only warning to teachers planning to use gamification, is to think through the badges and rewards they offer to students to make sure that the rewards aren’t hindering a student’s intrinsic motivation.

In my future classroom I plan to use gamification techniques similar to the reading program in my elementary school to encourage students to grow and develop a love for learning. In my technology course we watched a TedTalk by Tom Chatfield explaining the benefits of gaming. To sum up, he listed 7 way games reward the brain that I believe applies to gamification as well:

1. Experience bars (or badges or levels) measure progress
2. There are multiple long and short term aims (or goals)
3. Effort is rewarded (rewarding effort is a great way to increase intrinsic motivation and limit extrinsic motivation)
4. Players receive feedback (they learn how to improve if they keep trying)
5. There is an element of uncertainty (excites and engages students)
6. Dopamine produced in the brain during gaming enhances memory (students will better remember lessons involving gamification)
7. Dopamine produced in the brain during gaming increases confidence (students are more likely to take risks and view failures as a learning experience)

Gamification is very beneficial to students if used correctly! Teachers should be wary of hindering students’ intrinsic motivation, but a correctly gamified activity will give students motivation to improve, keep them excited over a friendly competition, and engage them in lessons that would otherwise not interest them. Gamification also teaches students perseverance when they are performing activities they may not be good at. This is because effort is rewarded and progress is visible. To all the teachers out there ... consider using gamification in your classroom to make learning effective, fun, and enjoyable for your students!