Resources to Dig Deeper:
Gamification Corp is a premier site for anything related to gamification and its application in education. The site has great education guides, a database and wiki page, and even a buyer’s guide to help trouble shoot any questionable products.
2. BunchBall
BunchBall’s piece, Gamification 101: An Introduction to the Use of Game Dynamics to Influence Behavior details the use of gamification in the context of a business setting. The guide has information on gamification basics, why it’s useful, and advice on practical business application.
A good resource to see examples of other institutions that are practicing the use of gamification in learning and know more about the tools that you can inherit in your use.
Games & Learning is a colorful site that compiles market research, analysis, and the latest reports on the gamification of education. Through illustrating the benefits, as well as obstacles faced, the site helps paint a realistic picture of what it will take to get games further integrated into technology.
5. Educational Gaming Reviews.com
They break down all the latest educational games and provides valuable commentary as to their educational value, while simultaneously reviewing the quality of the game overall. They categorize games by device they’re used on and even have a useful “Best Video Games” section.
6. Game-Based Learning: Resource Roundup
Check the edutopia’s curated list of helpful game-based learning resources.
Gamifying My Class is run by a 6th grade language arts teacher and chronicles her journey to implement gamification into education. Aside from all the great posts commenting on both side of gamification, the blog also has an impressive section of resources for teachers looking to get started.
Cherry On The Top Tips:
And these are some techniques that you can mix match with your Gamified class to create a balance.
1. Design With Your Students
Well in case you are thinking of designing a game to suit your needs for your class, you can ask your students to join you with that. Understand what do they expect and you can take their voice to design the gamification syllabus.
2. There’s Always a Second Chance
When you embed video based quizzes and games, give students another chance/s. The good thing is that by making a mistake once and playing it again the student will learn in the process of making a right choice. When a challenge is failed in a video game, users are able to learn from their mistakes, try again, and succeed.
3. Create Challenges
If you are using one of the quiz based games then you may use this thing to keep your students active. Instead of giving boring assignments and homework sheets, try creating a quiz based challenge in the games that will keep students enthusiastic and up for their learning.
4. Badges and Reward
Often games come with this feature of giving badges and rewards but you can also do this within the class to keep kids motivated and striving to earn their badge by learning.
You cannot deny the fact that gamification helps in creating a much enjoyable learning environment and adaptation of this technique helps in fostering learning.
What’s your take on gamification in learning? Share with us in the comment section below.
