Can Gamification Be Used Effectively in Education?

Gamification is being used to sell more shoes and cereal, get workers to participate more fully in company programs, encourage individuals to pursue nutrition and fitness goals, engage people in solving problems like world hunger, and train soldiers.  LinkedIn uses gamification to encourage users to complete more steps in their profile. Khan Academy uses it to reward learners as they progress through lessons.  If you are looking for a tool to engage people, gamification is worth looking at (and trying out).

But what is Gamification, and what application does it have, if any, in the realm of K-12 education?

Gamification involves using principles of game design that make games so engaging, and applying them to non-game situations.  It doesn't mean turning everything into a game, although games are a valid teaching tool.  In education, the goal of using gamification is to improve the engagement of students as they learn the content and skills presented to them in whatever learning platform they are using.  This could mean a wholly face-to-face, traditional classroom setting, or some combination of computer-based and face-to-face learning situation.

Gamification, like anything else, can be an effective tool for engaging learners.  Also, like anything else, it can fall flat on its face.  A tool is just a tool.  Its effectiveness is all in how the tool is used, and the skill of the person or group wielding it. 

As students do more work in a blended or wholly online setting, gamification is bound to get more serious scrutiny.  This is especially true because K-12 students today are so involved in games already.  Appealing to a generation of students who cut their teeth on a tablet or on mom or dad's smart phone requires an openness to adding new tools to the education toolbox.

The following infographic is a good place to start the conversation, and thinking, about effective ways gamification could be used to foster real learning.



Created by Knewton and Column Five Media