Thomas Edison’s teachers used to say that he was too dumb to learn anything, and now we have that same “dumb” student gracing the pages of our textbooks. A lot of genius minds are known to have done poorly in school and/or left formal education. Now we’re not trying to encourage the children to leave their school, but what if we, as educators could mold the educational environment using game-based learning?

No child is dumb. Every child has some or other skills or talent that need to be brushed up to reach excellence. Since everyone’s learning style is different, many students find it difficult to learn through the typical classroom learning style. Gamification in education is one such concept where you ‘gamify classrooms’, i.e. apply the concepts of gaming to education and boost the student’s curiosity, creativity, and interest.

A rather interesting take on distraction by T. S. Eliot which, knowingly or not, gives a great piece of advice to us educators. Even though they can be interpreted in as many ways as the number of human minds that exist, these two lines, to view them from the perspective of educators, talk about the natural tendency of the human mind to be distracted by the matters which are “filled with fancies and empty of meaning”. While the real, meaningful – is still dismissed as “boring”. We have all seen the creatively stifled yawns and bathroom breaks in our classes!

In this article, we will discuss some obvious questions that may pop up in our mind: What is gamification? Why should I consider gamification in education? and How do I gamify my classroom? Let’s take a look at that.

What is Game-Based Learning?

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There is a flaw in how we teach in today’s world. Schools are bound by the government and are required to follow only a certain method. Because of which the school classes often become long and boring monologues. We talk about that quite exhaustively, to be fair. But very few of the discussions include the solutions that can practically bring the change. Game-based learning is one such solution. When we talk about gamification, we talk about bringing a drastic change in the students’ learning environment. Gamification in education refers to implementing the elements of gaming in the education system. This can be done in numerous ways and some of them are:

1. Modify the scoring system to include gaming points and awards
2. Introduce levels of progress
3. Introduce a constructive battle between good and evil
4. Offer instant feedback.

Why do we need Gamification in the Classroom?

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Gamification is a tried and tested method. According to the literature review published in Springer International in 2014, gamification in education has proved to improve certain skills in students. “Learner Outcome” is- gamification in the classroom that has enhanced the qualities of engagement, participation, motivation, enjoyment, productivity, sense of achievement, and sense of accomplishment. The authors of this literature review have gone through more than 15 studies done on the subject of gamification in education and have demonstrated that it has only made the learning method better than what it has been for decades.

Here is a real-life example: a professor named Vicki Davis had a student to whom points or grades had never mattered. What genuinely mattered to the student was the victory of good against evil. After noticing this trait, Vicki and his team decided to slightly change the course of their gamification project to focus more on “world-changing games”, which resulted in substantial growth of the child. In Vicki’s own words – “Now his face lights up when he sees me. He’s one of the first kids to class. He’s an engaged gamer and, finally, an engaged student.”

How to Gamify Classrooms?

We have already discussed how to utilize the creative freedom bestowed upon us by the STEM learning method before. Game-based learning is also another example of this. However, the principles used are slightly different:

·        Game Studies

If you want to gamify your classroom, you first need to understand what gaming is. To teach, first, you have to learn. Only after grasping the core nature of gaming, you can try to gamify your classroom. Game Studies is the study of the ‘what’s, ‘how’s, and ‘why’s of gamification in general. There is a popular in the education sector that ONLY changing your scoring method and teaching a couple of activities in the classroom will gamify your course. That’s not true.

• Individualized Method

Every brain works uniquely. Psychologists have exhausted their voice boxes by constantly reminding humankind, and especially the educators, of the subjectivity of the human mind. Now it is fair enough that a handful of educators cannot possibly cater to millions of learning brains out there (including their own), but a primary classification is possible. Bartle taxonomy of player types is a classification that we can use to define the general personality of your student as a gamer and then accommodate your course in a way that can be the most useful for your students. Never forget, how you teach will only be appreciated if you actually end up teaching, in its true sense.

·        Gamification in One Classroom Is Not Enough

Again, we would like to put more importance on the fact that throwing in activities at regular intervals is not how to gamify classrooms. We have to change the way we think first, to shape how our students think. We have to start from the very bottom and plan the whole year through gamification. Only then we will be truly inculcating gamification in education. Here is a video if you are new to gamification and would like to be guided from the scratch about how to move further. Mr. Matera, a sixth-grade teacher had taken up the initiative of creating a powerful and fun learning environment for his students some years ago. By now, he has expanded his wings and has his own YouTube channel, podcast, books, and what not! Through all of these different mediums of communication, Mr. Matera tries to guide educators all around the world on how to make the best of gamification in the classroom. 

Conclusion

Game-based learning is a tried and tested method that has seen significant growth in whoever encounters it. It is very easy to indulge in and be distracted by the things that seem easy and are fun to do. Maybe, if we think smartly enough, education (the supposed “bore”) can be fun as well! Gamification is a concept that applies the elements of gaming in the non-gaming contexts, and as focused on in this article, education. However, there are some important things that you should be aware of (your homework as a teacher) before blindly following the concept just because it has the word “game” in it.

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