Gamification of Education

What do we mean by the gamification of education?

Lee and Hammer (2011) suggest that schools already have several game-like elements for example students receiving points for completing assignments which translate to “badges,”or grades. Students are rewarded for desired behaviors and punished for undesirable behaviors using this common currency as a reward system (Lee and Hammer, 2011). However, McGonigal, (2011) argues that regardless of these parallels schools are generally failing to engage students whereas the video game and virtual world are excelling. Gee, (2008) suggests that gamers voluntarily invest countless hours in developing their problem-solving skills within the context of games, developing what McGonigal (2011) identifies as personal qualities such as persistence, creativity, and resilience through extended play.

According to Lee and Hammer, (2011) gamification projects offer the opportunity to experiment with rules, emotions, and social roles. At the micro-scale -- individual teachers who gamify their own class structures (Laster, 2010) at the macro level new schools, using game design as an organizing framework for teaching and learning (Corbett, 2011).

How can gamification be used?

Koster, (2004) suggests that games guide players through the mastery process and keep them engaged with potentially difficult tasks potentially according to Lee and Hammer (2011) providing students clear, actionable tasks and promises them immediate rewards instead of vague long-term benefits. Games according to Lazarro, (2004) invoke a range of powerful emotions, from curiosity to frustration to joy. McGonigal, (2011) argues that for many games provide many positive emotional experiences, such as optimism and pride. Lee and Hammer, (2011) argues that games maintains a positive relationship with failure by making feedback cycles rapid and keeping the stakes low compared to schools, where the stakes of failure are high and the feedback cycles long (Lee and Hammer, 2011). Indeed Pope (2003) argues that there is little wonder that students experience anxiety, not anticipation, when offered the chance to fail.

It may be argued that games allow players to try on new identities and roles, asking them to make in-game decisions from their new vantage points (Squire, 2006; Gee, 2008) yet according to Klopfer, et al (2009) this focus on playfulness may require freedom - the freedom to experiment, to fail, to explore multiple identities, to control one’s own investment and experience.

As a framework I can see many positives in exploring this in my own teaching. However at a broader level the entire education system may need to be rewired and re-educated before this approach is embedded or accepted.

References

Corbett, S. (2010, September 19). Learning by playing: Video games in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html

Gee, J. P. (2008). Learning and games. In Katie Salen (Ed.) The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation series on digital media and learning). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S. & Salen, K. (2009) Moving learning games forward. Retrieved from:

http://education.mit.edu/papers/MovingLearningGamesForward_EdArcade.pdf

Koster (2004). A theory of fun. Paraglyph Press. New York, NY.

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

Laster, J. (2010). At Indiana U., a class on game design has students playing to win. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/at-indiana-u-a-class-on-game-design-has-students-playing-towin/21981

Lazzaro, N. (2004). Why we play games: Four keys to more emotion without story. Retrieved from: http://www.xeodesign.com/xeodesign_whyweplaygames.pdf

McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Penguin Press. New York, NY.

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Pope, D. (2003). Doing school: How we are creating a generation of stressed-out, materialistic, and miseducated students. Yale University Press.

Squire, K. (2006). From content to context: Videogames as designed experience. Educational Researcher, 35(8): 19-29.