What skills do our students need to be successful in their future? This should be the centering questions teachers have while creating their content. Next, they should question how will my students understand and engage in the content. I am a huge believer in the gamification of education. My first thought around the topic was how much time and work it would take to infuse gamification into my daily lessons. As I have begun looking into it more, one, I already use it sometimes, and two there are so many awesome resources out there. It will allow teachers to not have to work too hard to engage their students on a daily basis in their lessons. It’s almost like tricking your students into learning by doing things they would do in their free time. There are so many benefits to gamifying your classroom such as:
- Active Learning. Games often require active participation, encouraging hands-on learning and problem-solving. Interactive elements, challenges, and simulations within games provide practical experiences, helping students understand and apply concepts in real-world scenarios.
- Collaboration and Social Learning. Many games involve collaboration and teamwork, fostering social interaction among students. Multiplayer or collaborative game experiences can promote communication skills, teamwork, and a sense of community.
- Real-world Application. Educational games can simulate real-world scenarios, providing a practical context for learning and helping students see the relevance of their studies.
- Engagement and Motivation. Gamification introduces game elements, such as points, badges, levels, and rewards, into non-game contexts, making learning more engaging and motivating for students. The use of a narrative or storyline in educational games can create a sense of purpose and curiosity, driving students to explore and learn more.
I continued reading about gamification through this post this week.
Threshold Concept Connections
- Curriculum is more than standards, textbooks, or courses of study. Gamino mentions multiple times in his TedTalk that gaming has become so large that there are more and more job opportunities in gaming. By using gamification in our everyday teaching we are teaching students very real skills online through gaming.
- Both students and teachers have empowerment/agency. By incorporating things students value they are more likely to be confident in their skills. Students should be intrigued and want to be challenged.
- Teaching and learning honor people’s full humanity. Teachers need to not only know their content but how students will use that knowledge in their future. It is important that students know why they are learning the material. It needs to feel relevant and important.
One of the things I love about our class is the real life examples we get. Reading and watching videos about things I could use in my classroom the next day. Here is a video with 5 things you could tomorrow.
In class this week I used these two assignments to encourage my students to practice simplifying and solving equations. My students enjoyed using the escape room (left) to work with a partner and finish the puzzle. The second assignment was a Pixel Art assignment (right). My students enjoyed guessing what the image was. With each answer they get closer to the full image. The kids were excited to watch the images come together. In my intervention time I worked with students on creating spreadsheets. We used formulas to see different variables and how they would affect the outcomes. We simulated selling tickets to an amusement park. My students then made the connection to these two assignments. That these formulas are how the escape room and pixel art work. It was so fun watching my students get excited to make the connections.
Hi!
Your list of benefits stood out to me, especially in my role as an Admission Counselor. You mentioned “active learning, collaboration and social learning, real-world application, and engagement and motivation.” When I visit students at their schools, I often wonder if they are actively engaged and listening to what I am saying. Using gamification will help me tap into the competitiveness of my high schoolers when engaging with the material. This could be useful for students too shy to speak up or ask questions.
Hi!
I really enjoyed reading about your activities this week, especially because it is for intervention, which is what I teach as well! I think that the part about relating learning to real life. This IS so vitally important for our students who struggle. I loved how you put it…”providing a practical context for learning and helping students see the relevance of their studies.” We have to make these direct connections for students or help them to make those connections in order for their understanding to grow. How cool that you used an escape room with pixelization to relate that to something may might find boring or complex – a SPREADSHEET! I mean, I love a good spread sheet, but students, and especially SWDs may find it unrelateable. Fantastic job choosing a fun, gamified way to help them learn and make connections!
Hey!
Active learning and collaboration is such an important benefit of Gamification in the classroom. Allowing students to be more engaged in the activities can encourage students to do their best and apply skills that will prepare them for future scenarios. Collaboration is such an important life skill and it can be tricky to incorporate fun activities that allow students to practice collaborative skills. Having students participate in a group project is just another traditional school assignment. However, if we add the gaming component to a learning objective, it can change students’ perspective on the assignment and allow them to develop skills that will lead to successful collaboration.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Delaney!
You hit on two important points that I think are great takeaways from the concept of Gamification, being exploration and relevancy. Imagine going through your educational journey and realizing that even as a junior or senior, you still have accessibility to playing games in the classroom and feeling like a kid at heart. Learning should be innocent of all things defeatist and guilty of all things creative, innovative, and purposeful. Allowing our children to feel adventurous and playful while gaining meaningful knowledge will positively impact their reflection of their educational experience and remind them of why it was worthwhile. Exploring perspectives, ideas, careers, skills, and other interests should be at the epitome of education and through gaming, these curiosities are able to be fulfilled.
Relevancy is also another great topic because as educators, we have come to realize that students disengage from things they don’t feel they can relate to, matter, or applicable to their own lives. We need to start teaching our kids kids content and methods of substance that appeal to their young, intuitive minds and help them to draw connections between themselves and what they’re learning. It’s rewarding when your students can connect education to the world and find that much of what they learn functions as a resource or guide to their decisions they make outside of the classroom. Gamification continues to evolve from its many technologies to its systems of creativity that are at our children’s fingertips. Gaming helps to promote inclusivity and make everyone’s needs and wants feel welcomed, acknowledged, and met.
I came across a Blog post that I think you might like! It aligns with many of the ideas you stated as to how gaming enhances one’s learning and even includes examples of games that are great to play in the classroom. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-response-ways-to-use-games-effectively-in-the-classroom/2019/05
Thanks for sharing(: