Hello readers :*
Have you ever heard about ‘gamification‘ ? Yes obviously it derives from the word ‘game‘. So, what does gamification means ?
By definition, “gamification” is the use of gamemechanics, dynamics, and frameworks to promote desired behaviors, has found its way into domains likemarketing, politics, health and fitness, with analysts predicting that it will become a multi-billion dollar industry by 2015 (MacMillan, 2011).
GAMIFICATION is the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.
So let’s relate this to our education context.
How can I gamify education in my classroom ?
Let’s throwback. *get into time machine*
Once you were a student back then, were you attracted to games ? Instead of traditional chalk and talk by the teacher, would you prefer the teacher to conduct games or activities during the class session ?
Well, I don’t know about others but I enjoyed the activities and games more ! I was a student who will easily get bored. I always fall asleep in class. HAHAHA ! For me, it’s a nature anyway for kids or students to enjoy playing games and activities. Back then, my teacher used to conduct simple games like ‘Simon Says’. And during my practicum days, I did conduct some activities and game with my students like ‘Bingo’ and many more. They enjoyed the class session very much. At least, the students learnt something rather than just listen to the lecture without we, the teachers know whether they understand the subject taught or not.
Here, I found 4 ways to bring gamification in the classroom.
- Gamify grading
- Award student with badges
- Integrate educational video games into your curriculum
- Stir up a little competition
credit source : http://blog.tophat.com/4-ways-to-gamify-learning-in-your-classroom/
It is undeniable that games, in any form, can increase motivation through engagement. Nowhere else is this more important than education. You know, when there’s element of competition, everybody will be mentally challenged. It is going to be obvious that everybody want to WIN !
By the way, students LOVE to be challenged.
In case you don’t realize, games somehow can make every of your students feel important. But how ? INVOLVEMENT. Yes. By involving with the games of activities that you conduct.
If your school or classroom has a very good internet connection and computers for the students to assess, I would really love to recommend to use these 2 medium in your teaching, that focus on the gamification elements.
- Kahoot !
- Socrative
As for today, I want to share my experience of using Kahoot ! during one of my classes here 🙂
Kahoot ! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages ! A Kahoot is a collection of questions on specific topics. Created by teachers, students, business-people and social users, they are asked in real-time, to an unlimited number of “players”, creating a social, fun and game-like learning environment.
Currently, there are 3 types of Kahoot !
1. Quiz
This is the most common type of Kahoot, epitomising our game-based approach to blended learning. There is no limit to the number of questions in a quiz. Each question can have an associated picture or video, and 2 – 4 multiple choice answers. There must be at least one correct answer (but more can be chosen), and the time-limit for each question can be individually set from 5 seconds to 2 minutes.
Aside from being a great way to engage and focus a whole room of people, quizzes can be used to formatively assess the knowledge of each individual in the room, and adapt their learning accordingly. They can be used to track progress of individuals over time, and inspire learners to enquire further by creating their own quizzes.
Players answer questions displayed at the front of the room on their personal device, motivated to answer correctly and score the most points. The faster someone answers a question correctly, the more points they get. The top 5 highest points scorers are displayed on the leaderboard at the front in-between each question, and the ultimate winner is shown at the end. Results, including who answered what for each question, can be downloaded afterwards.
2. Discussion (previously ‘Quick poll’)
Discussions are designed to do exactly what they say – facilitate a conversation. They are simply one quick question with no right or wrong answer, which can have an associated picture or video and 2 – 4 alternative answers. They should be used to gather opinions on current affairs, divisive topics, or even ask “what shall we do today?”.
Once again, players answer the question on their personal device. There is still a time-limit to answer within, however no points are involved. The collective results of the question are displayed at the front, acting as the basis for the discussion.
3. Survey
There are no limits to the number of questions in a survey. Each question can have an associated picture or video, and 2 – 4 multiple choice answers – however there are no right or wrong answers. They are just like traditional surveys except questions are asked in real-time to those present who answer on their personal devices. The results of each question can be debated there-and-then, and all survey results can be downloaded at the end.
As for educational purpose, I would like to recommend for the teachers to use the ‘Quiz’. Here, teacher can create questions on their own for the students to answer. Surely it must be based on the English lesson. Like me, once the lecturer asked us to create a quiz for the other classmates to answer, I chose to create 5 questions regarding ‘Mr. Nobody’ ; a poem that should be learnt by the Form 1 students. But my classmates hated it so much because it wasn’t fun at all. How sad could that be 😥 Ala tapi sebenarnye sebab dyorang tak bole nak jawabchahahahahahapadanmukahahaha.
- First of all, teacher needs to sign in the application.
- Second, they can choose to create quiz, discussion or survey.
- Only after that teacher can proceed with questions and options for the answers. The format of the quiz should be in multiple choice with 4 options. But, the answer can be more than 1 if the teacher wished to. Besides, teacher can put images to reflect the questions too as well as the time limit for every questions to be answered by the students.
- Once the quiz is done constructed, get the students to get their own computer and give the game pin which will direct them to the respected page for the quiz. Oh before that, they need to go to https://kahoot.it/ first and hen only they can put the game pin.
- Students will then need to put on their nicknames and after done with all players, teacher can start the quiz. By the way, it is important to know that the question will only appear on the teacher’s monitor or the white screen while only the options for the answer appear on the student’s screen or monitor. So, students must be very fast and alert with this.
- At the end, teacher can assess the students performance because there will be scoreboard as well as the analysis of the questions. With this, teacher can see the answers from all students, like how many answered the questions correctly and wrongly. This can help the teacher in improving or even pay ore attention to the particular topic or lesson.
Signing-in.
Choose.
Create questions and answer options.
Game pin.
Nickname.
Scoreboard.
Analysis.
DON’T YOU THINK THIS KAHOOT ! THING IS AWESOME ?!
You should try this with your students. If we, the university students enjoyed it so much, what kind of reaction do you expect from your school students ?
As for an English classroom context, teacher can create questions that relates to vocabulary, writing or even tenses. Well, it will just depend on your lesson plan.
In my opinion, those who resist gamification in education often cite its improper use of rewards as a motivator. Critics argue that relying on games can be detrimental to intrinsic motivation. Receiving a badge for a job well done is meaningless without an understanding of what specific skills this badge rewards. I agree; games can’t be used to replace pedagogy, but can be used to enhance the overall learning experience.
Come to think of this =)
Till then ~~~
JannahGhulamuddin 