Week 5

Essential Question: What are the arguments for using gamification to improve learning?

According to an article written by Ashley Deese (which I really enjoyed because it talks about Mendeleev using gamification to create the periodic table way back in the 1869), gamification improves students learning in the following ways:

  • Gamification aids in cognitive development (and in some cases, physical development) in adolescents.
  • Gamification increases the level of engagement in classrooms.
  • Gamification aids in accessibility in the classroom (Deese, 2020).

Another important benefit of gamification is the freedom to fail. Freedom to fail means giving students the chance to experiment and fail without pressure or fear of irreversible damage (Stott & Neustaedter, 2013). As I have mentioned many times before, it is so important that we foster a growth mindset in our students and gamification is one way to do so.

Michael Matera’s book is filled with arguments for using gamification. He says that “games make kids want to learn”. He backs this statement up by writing that students will work to become the best version of themselves due to the nature of games (2015, p. 27). Matera says that games inspire students to be extraordinary (2015, p. 28) and “the power of play moves us away from average by helping our dreams become our realities” (2015, p.72).

In the closing statements of his book, Matera summarizes the answer to this essential question by writing that gamification “helps us build self-actualized, confident, lifelong learners. Games connect people; they inspire us to do the impossible by working together to reach our fullest potential. Game-based learning provides opportunities to take risks, to fail, and to try again with newly acquired knowledge of the content and ourselves” (2015, p. 228).


Resources:
Deese, A. (2020, January 8). 5 Benefits of Gamification. Retrieved June 11, 2020, from https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/5-benefits-gamification

Matera, M. (2015). Explore Like A Pirate: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich, and Elevate Your Learners. San Diego, CA, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting.

Stott, A. & Neustaedter, C. (2013). Analysis of Gamification in Education, Technical Report. Connections Lab. Surrey, BC, Canada: Simon Fraser University. Retrieved from http://clab.iat.sfu.ca/pubs/Stott-Gamification.pdf

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 15, 2020 at 2:44 PM

    Good post. As some educators have observed, nothing is new in education, just rediscovered. Gamification is not really new, but technology has allowed for it to be better employed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Douglas WJune 20, 2020 at 3:35 PM

    Good Post. I see you put freedom to fail as a reason for gamification. Is that a problem in today's education?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Coby HaasJuly 20, 2020 at 1:32 PM

      I enjoyed Heather's post as well, and the "freedom to fail" part caught my eye as well. My answer to your question would be that is IS a problem in our education environment. If and when a student fails an assignment, there is often no recourse and they are defeated and less motivated to move forward. The growth mindset concept would take that failure and have the student reevaluate what they did, and try again. Many teachers do not allow for this kind of learning in their classrooms, subscribing to the idea that if you did not do this assignment/quiz/test correctly, you fail and cannot revisit it in an attempt to show additional learning.

      Delete

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