Gamification in Education Pt. 1

We all remember sitting in a classroom, staring at a screen for hours upon hours wishing that we could play a game. Even on those lucky days when our teachers said we had games, the end result was usually just a poor excuse for entertainment. Whether you are from the generation that had Hangman, Oregon Trail, or even Angry Birds, you probably realized that there were better ways to learn material while still having fun.



As a former teacher myself, I know that I struggled constantly to maintain my students’ attention. Despite the dulcet tone of my voice, I had the usual gaggle of sleepers and day-dreamers. Like most teachers, I tried to integrate some fun into my lectures. I made sure to include tongue-twisters and word games in my English classes, while my science students were able to perform experiments and egg drops (ridiculously amusing when you have to save the egg from a two-story drop). However, the classes that my students looked forward to the most were the ones when we pulled out the computer and played educational games there.

This new generation doesn’t just think different figuratively, they think differently in a neuroscientific way. Given the recent study on the mind of regular teenage gamers, it is safe to say that many youth respond better to educational tools that mimic the games that they play for fun. A Psychology Today report expanded on this further by stating that this research can be used by “teachers to increase their [students] brains' motivation to be attentive class participants, do homework with focus, and even reverse school negativity to reignite the joy of learning.” While this is all fine and dandy for the younger generations, is there anything that can be extrapolated to the population as a whole?



That is of course debatable, but I know for myself as a language learner (and I guess as an MBA student too), I struggle to motivate myself when I can only see the big picture. Thankfully, Busuu.com has taken this knowledge about gamification and created a language-learning tool that will suite most of us better than rote language learning. By incorporating a step-by-step language lesson, along with various games to keep us interested, Busuu successfully combines the world of gaming with languages. And you know it has to be a good website since it was built by a couple of IE Business School alums.



So while most of us had to go through learning conjugations and math formulas in a rote fashion, the kids today will likely be able to enjoy school learning a bit more than we did thanks to gamification.

Links
1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15720178
2) http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/radical-teaching/201110/neuroscience-insights-video-game-drug-addiction
3) http://www.busuu.com/

Why does it Work? - Future of Gamification.

 ‘’why does Gamification work?’’

The concept of ‘’games’’ is adopted in this regard, since by human nature (for elders as much as it is for youngsters), games satisfy ones curiosity. 

www.slideshare.net

Many reasons as to why people may love such games, and yes, some get addicted to them. One can think of the stress relief and relaxation these games provide, as they trigger a different part of the brains. The new broad dimension of social networking and mental simulation are yet other reasons that are driving these numbers higher with every tick of the clock. 

     

Not to miss on the competitive spirit, the fun and the excitement this tool provides to the user… a set of reasons that a Tv, a radio or a billboard lack in the 21^st century!

Gamification is the future:

The following schematic shows the spot gamification occupies with respect to other emerging technologies in the year 2011, taken from: www.bunnerworks.com

According to www.mashable.com, in an article written by Sarah Kessler, the number of players per day that play social games has jumped over 30 million players worldwide. When comparing this number to 24 million views for the prime TV show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ one got to pause and think twice of the power this social gaming has!

According to the same article, some 56 million Americans spend their time playing social games !!!

Become a Google Doodler

Become a Google Doodler - Apply now!

Woman's Day 2012

Designers, creatives, and illustrators pay attention: Google is desperatly looking for a full-time «doodler».

What is a doodler? The doodlers are those designers that every day reinterpret the Google logo in different amazing ways using as main inspirational driver a specific event that happened in the past.

Ernest Shackleton's Birthday

This represents a great example of gamification since it is an engaging way to spread information among all Internet users in a non-gaming context, like the homepage of a web search engine.


In particular, google doodle daily provides information on some specific historical events or commemorations that we would never have known otherwise.
Some examples of google doodles are related to the date of birth of an important personality, date of an important discovery, commemoration of a day, etc.

The job offer has been recently published some days ago on the Google website on the section jobs.

Anniversary of the First Man in the Space

The only requisites are a strong “sense of humour” and a passion for all the historic, artistic and creative things.
Surely, the candidates need to be able to draw, but remember that it’s the first impression the most important one!

What is gamification?

Who are we?

We are a group of professionals from different backgrounds with a keen interest in the latest applications of gamification to business. We come from HR, Advertising, Education and Consulting,  so you can be sure that the info we will share will reflect this diversity.

What is gamification?

One definition of gamification is that it consists of applying game mechanics (e.g. points, badges, leader boards, challenges) to any activity to encourage or modify certain behavior. What this really means is that through gamification our everyday less than glamorous activities can become fun and exciting. 

Gamification allows companies to engage their consumers in a way that is rewarding and makes us feel part of a community. Some clear examples of gamification are:

• Nike+ where you can compare your running stats with others.
• Foursquare rewards you with badges for exploring your  neighborhood hangout spots.
• Epic Win gives you points for completing your everyday chores. 

Gamification has applications in several industries: health, art, entertainment, design, social good and many others that we will explore throughout the next couple of months, so please come back and feel free to comment.

Thanks,

iTeamIE

2010 Bunchball, Inc. "Gamification 101: An introduction to the use of Game dynamics to influence behavior" http://www.bunchball.com/sites/default/files/downloads/gamification101.pdf

Gamification Wiki. "What is gamification?" http://gamification.org/wiki/Gamification