Gamification, what is it?

Hello everyone!!

As I told you in the previous post, #PalomICTeacher is a primary school teacher and her dream is to specialize in bilingual education, as she is doing this year. This type of teaching already presents a challenge in itself, both for students and teachers. So, in order to facilitate the work and maintain the motivation to learn, my approach to the methodology will be around gamification. 

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, keep calm; I’ll explain you what it’s based on next. 

Some of you, may be asking: "Is it to play video games?"

NO

Gamification is a teaching strategy that transfers the operation of games to the educational field in order to achieve better results, as well as to better understand some concepts, to get better some skill, or to reward concrete actions among many other objectives. Gamification has to be accompanied by narrative as well as aesthetics, usability and content.

Gamifying experiences are proposed depending on the final objectives you have prepared for them. For instance, you could consider applying these experiences so that they could be carried out throughout the learning process or, on the other hand, put it in isolation from the learning process and apply it as an evaluation.  In addition, there are different tools to apply gamification, whether with or without ITC resources (video games, websites, apps). 

According to many studies, gamification applied in the classroom has several advantages: 

• It encourages decision-making, problem-solving skills and increase creativity. 
• Enhances tolerance and cooperation with peers.
• Increases motivation and incites interest in learned content.
• It consolidates the knowledge previously acquired.
• It allows the possibility to learn from the approach of real roles or situations in which students may be present in the future.

The elements that a gamified experience should have are: 

Tecnopedagogía (XXVIII): Gamificación como instrumento pedagógico. Photograph by https://www.ui1.es

1. Compete: it shows a ranking of users according to points and objectives achieved, highlighting the best in a list or ranking that will encourage them to have ambition to be the best.
2. Challenge: it is necessary that the activities proposed in the experience present a challenge for the student. It is important that it is neither too easy or too difficult, if not it will mean a decrease in motivation.
3. Control: each student will advance according to their needs. The advantage of this is that the concepts will be clear and each student will go at the pace they need. Thanks to this, the quickest students will be able to reach higher levels before and those who are not so fast will be able to reach each level at the pace they need, but understanding everything they have learnt. 
4. Motivate: it is vital when considering a gamified experience of the two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.  Intrinsic motivation relates to the conduct of a person, assiduously, without any external influence. This group of players already feel a degree of happiness and fun by the mere fact of being performing the challenge. On the other hand, extrinsic motivations are associated with those activities in which the motives that impel the player to action are external to the activity. That is, the player seeks incentives and reinforcements for his actions and for his deeds. The component of happiness that comes close to fun, is achieved by collecting challenges, objects and achievements. 
5. Play: By using game dynamics, the student is learning in a different way than he or she is used to and, many times, will not be aware of the learning process even though it is happening. In addition, through the accumulation of points, a quantitative value is assigned to certain actions and they accumulate as they are realized.
6. Conquer: it is relevant students feel to be able to solve or to overcome a challenge or objective posed, either alone or as a team.
7. Move forward: it is important that there is a scaling of levels where a series of them are defined that the user must go over to reach the next one. 
8. Win: as different objectives are achieved, prizes are awarded in a “collection”. These are “gifts" which are given to the player or players for free when they achieve a goal.
9. Explore: it is necessary to keep in mind that the students have the feeling of surprise and discovery through the experience. It is better that you do not tell them everything. Let them search and explore to find it at their own pace!

These are just some basic features that gamification has. For those who did not know what it was, I wish you have now a clear idea about it. There are many more things to know about gamification, we will learn more about it soon, together. 

Hope you have learnt something interesting today with #PalomICTeacher. 

Feel free to write down  any idea or suggestion in comments 

and remember, #KnowledgeIsPower !

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