Games in the classroom, I thought I knew (1)

        

Being a teacher for over 25 years, I thought I knew about games in the classroom.  But when I came to design and create my own digital games, I realised there was much more to games based learning than I thought I knew.

Games have been around for thousands of years.  Games in teaching and learning, just as long, they go together don't they?  When I look back at my university days and studying to be a teacher, I really cannot recall any topics in our courses about teaching with games, maybe it was too long ago and the old memory just isn't working like it use to.  Everyone knew about games though as we all grew up playing games and much of our interactions with others somehow integrate games.

The basics of games, sometimes known as game mechanics, are competition, rewards or points, engagement and enthusiasm towards an action.  It is amazing how much of these gaming components or mechanics are in everything we do.  Here is a quick question, think about how playing one of your favourites sports like football or basketball or a board game like monopoly and chess, how competitive are you when you play?  These are obvious game examples, but think about when you were younger, and how even at home and being motivated to do something for your parents and receiving a reward for something even as simple as taking out the garbage or cleaning your room.  Your parents knowingly or unknowingly took these game strategies to get you to do something.  Would you have done these jobs without game mechanics involved?  The use of game mechanics is also known as gamification, taking these components and placing them in a non-game environment, like home or in the classroom.

Gamification is not only used in the home and at school though.  Gamification is everywhere, look at advertisements, reward cards and programs, end of season sales in shops and even big business and corporate structures and employee incentives, they all involve gamification.

In the educational setting, classrooms are set up to reward good behaviour and results.  Every school does it slightly differently, but the basics of game mechanics stay the same.  Expectations (rules of the game), rewards and points, competition.  Not all students are motivated by the gamification of the classroom though, this may be due to the type of gamification used or other factors.

Before things get too complicated and discussing the other "factors", I recommend reading some of the articles in Edutopia and by Joseph Shapiro whose research and articles on games give an excellent overall view of the pros and cons of games based learning and gamification in the classroom.

My main focus is on games based learning in the classroom, particularly digital games based learning.  There has been a significant amount of research conducted in this area regarding student engagement and progress made where their teachers integrated digital games based learning.  The research article in the Canadian Journal of Action Research, Vol 13, No.1, 2012,  shows that there is improvement in learning outcomes for students using digital games based learning.