Gamification, also known as getting to play games in the class.
All I know is that my favorite days in class when I was in school were those where we got to play games, whether that be having indoor recess and playing “heads up seven up” or playing those “educational” board games… you know what I’m talking about. Gamification is basically taking something that already exists and integrating game concepts to motivate participation and engagement.
Although this might be a new word to you, you’re probably aware of this concept without realizing it! Do you remember when you were in elementary school and you got a certain number of points for doing good things in class? Maybe eventually you got to pick a prize out of the prize box to reward your good behavior? Or perhaps you remember getting your name written on the board after doing something you shouldn’t have. These are both examples of gamification in the classroom. Here is a site with some more examples.
One example of gamification is by using a google spreadsheet with certain tasks on it. Once you complete a task, you get a certain number of points, and once you reach a certain number of points, you would get a badge of sorts. The person with the highest number of badges wins! Obviously, winning gives the students an incentive to complete the tasks. This could easily turn a boring lesson plan into something engaging, interactive, and fun for everyone!
Additionally, teachers are beginning to use apps which use gamification. These apps give students points for completing tasks and once again incentivize good behavior.Examples of apps which encourage gamification are Duolingo, TedEd, BreakoutEDU, and more.
Memrise Educational Language App
Another one of my favorite ways gamification was used in high school was in my German class. German could easily be a class which is hard to understand, but my teacher did a great job of turning lessons into educational games, which made her class one of my favorites. She used Kahoots, turned objectives into card games (old maid, matching words to pictures, go fish), and even allowed us to turn one german story into board games. These are all ways that I will use gamification in my future classroom, as I am aware of the effect that this has on students.
The Power of Gamification in Education | Scott Hebert TedTalk
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