While I have not taught in the classroom for a few years, I used play in my classroom quite often while I was teaching. I would play “Do You Want to Be a Millionaire?” and Jeopardy as ways to review material. I also used competition for cooperative learning and rewarded teams for playing by the rules, cooperating with each other and for classroom management items. I would also have a “Question Off Challenge”, in which students would answer questions on random topics and teams could steal answers if the other team didn’t have the correct answer. More recently I have used Kahoot.it at staff meetings. I included several other games, but they were in the same general arena of review.
I see this as a great strategy to spice up and make boring material a little more exciting. For example, I am creating a whole Canvas class that gamifies Personal Learning Communities (PLC) training, which is required by our school district. I have included experience points, levels, badges challenges, control of the content and a Super Hero Theme.
We know teachers can be a difficult audience, but we have to review PLC’s each year and this is a fun way of doing it. In the game I am creating, teachers can go as far as they want to go while having to complete the minimum requirements and several interesting challenges. It is not perfect, but it sure is a lot better than what we were doing before.
In the future I also plan on using themes and storytelling in various subjects I have to teach, whether it be to students or to staff. I will definitely continue to use badges, rewards, experience points, leader boards, Easter eggs, challenges and more. This whole format is just more fun and engaging for me as an educator and spices everything up. If I am energized and excited about gamification of the content, my students are bound to catch some of that. I believe that gamification is a worthwhile strategy that all teachers from kindergarten to college can use to improve their teacher and student achievement.
Resources
Matera, M. (2015). Explore Like a PIRATE: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners. Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc..
Majumdar, A. (2016, June 13). 5 Game Elements That Create Effective Learning Games. eLearning. https://elearningindustry.com/5-game-elements-create-effective-learning-games
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Good discussion. I think games have been part of the classroom for many years, but the shift of gaming in teaching has become more for every day and definitely is becoming more diverse with some teachers using some elements, but not completely playing a game.
I agree. I don’t think it has to be a pure game. We can gamify it a little and make it more interesting and motivating.
Gamifying bits and pieces is great. Not everything allows itself to that kind of instructions, but your game did a nice job of applying gamification theory to teacher training as well, showing it works for us older students as well.