Gamifying Education

James Portnow contends that the goal of games should be to facilitate or enable learning, as opposed to overtly educating players.  In his video, he talks about how tangential learning occurs when people are interested in a topic and invested in learning more.  This coincides with Jane McGonigal’s assertion that games provide a sense of epic meaning that increases the investment of players over time, because they believe their work in the game is truly meaningful.  In an educative context, perhaps the most important thing to remember about gamifying our classrooms is that the element of choice is essential.  Self-direction stimulates a greater sense of intrinsic value than a universal approach to learning about a topic. Now, some concepts will be best taught overtly, but there are many more concepts that can be developed indirectly.

Portnow says, “If we’re interested in something, we’ll have an easy time learning it.  The problem with the educational approach is that it tries to jazz up a topic we just don’t care about, rather than trying to get us engaged in a topic and care about it in a personal way. But video games have a huge advantage here. We inherently care about what we’re doing when we play games. The enthusiasm is already there. The game designer just has to channel it.” This quote is especially powerful to me because the teacher is essentially the game designer.  Our biggest challenge in the classroom every day is getting kids to care about what we’re learning and engage with content in a meaningful way. Portnow goes on to say that the whole idea of effective game design is “Enhancing the experience without getting in the way of the fun…Games, above all, should be fun.” I think many educators – particularly administrators – would argue that the content should be front and center at all times, which conflicts with Portnow’s points of view.  Perhaps that is the value of teacher-trailblazers; they have the job of challenging traditional thought.

As I continue to refine my understanding of gamification, I have questions that require further exploration.  Pressing questions for me include the following:

• How can we effectively design our classrooms to provide epic meaning? Do we include an overarching narrative story?
• How can we keep content front and center when fun is the foundation of gaming?
• How do we choose the best tools to gamify our curriculum and what are some of the suites of tools that other educators utilize?