If you aren’t familiar with gamification it is where you turn learning into a game. This can anything from leveling up as you pass courses to the content being in the form of a game. You may have seen some of the children’s games where balloons fall that have math problems and when the child gets the math correct it pops the balloon. Gamifying learning can get much more complex though, and it has shown many superior qualities to regular learning systems.
Gamification help with motivation:
“Some of the best examples of gamification are exergames that encourage exercise by turning physical activity into a game.”
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0141076813480996
Fortune 500 companies use games to engage employees:
“The list is practically endless. Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Deloitte, Sun Microsystems, IBM, L’Oreal, Canon, Lexus, FedEx, UPS, Wells Fargo and countless others have embraced games to make workers more satisfied, better-trained and focused on their jobs, as well as to improve products and services.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/10/07/adam-penenberg-how-g...
Gamification has proven its ability to motivate and engage and our education system in America really needs the help. When you look at USA ranking in comparison with the other developed countries of the world we continue to fall further and further behind:
“One of the biggest cross-national tests is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which every three years measures reading ability, math and science literacy and other key skills among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent PISA results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.”
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internation...
From a very good article which gives several examples of gamification as well as some of the drawbacks and roadblocks gamification can meet:
“The combination of an increased focus on student engagement and the possibilities provided by digital learning make gamification a powerful tool for educators.” and “The principles of gamification have been fully embraced by a school in two cases, at Quest to Learn (Q2L) in New York City and CICS ChicagoQuest.”
https://www.worldgovernmentsummit.org/api/publications/document?id=2b0d6...
If we want to reverse our negative trend of falling further and further behind on the global educational comparison charts we need a radical overhaul of our education system here in America. Digital is the obvious answer because not only does it low costs to update material and provide customized education it also increases motivation and engagement with the students. If America wants to take back the lead we need to start now.
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I have to admit, on the surface it sound like a great idea. Matter of fact, I kinda wish we would have had more of that during the days I was in school. Now that you mention it, I do happen to remember during my high school physics class we had a computer game that involved a cannon shooting a cannon ball at a target from various elevations, and to hit the target we had to manually work out the calculations involving the elevation of the cannon, the weight of the cannon ball, the amount of charge needed, and the angle of the cannon barrel. It was a very basic program with monochrome digital graphics, but I loved playing that stupid game. So, yeah, I believe making things fun for kids definitely helps in the learning process. So, that being said, I am going to play devil's advocate and wonder what would be the drawbacks (if any) to the methods suggested in the OP? (Again, personally, I enjoy educational games and puzzles.)
The last article goes over some of the drawbacks to gamification just open it up and do a search and you should find some of the issue gamification runs into. (and it's a really good article on the topic)
I disagree Mark.
I think the best way to learn something is Rote learning. That means hard work, not games and tricks. I hate gimmicks every kind. And this is just a gimmick.
@Mykcob4: I think the best way to learn something is Rote learning.
Rote learning is essential for basic arithmetic and language learning, but games can be useful for teaching kids logic and critical thinking. My kids used to do something called "problem solving" at elementary school in New Zealand back in the 1980s. It seemed to be a mixture of logic and algebra packaged in scenarios that reflected actual life.
There is a difference between 'learning' and 'education'. Rote learning works for basic math and grammar, however after that you are falling into the 'religious' trap. Like the Catechism, prayers etc they are rote learnt so that a predictable response is elicited, not necessarily a true one.
Like learning all the presidents and their dates a good rote basis...but which were the effective ones? That has to be learnt by questioning and research, and yes games if you will.
In English schools one learnt by rote all the kings and queens, but that was a two fold experience; 1. to allow a false continuity of the concept of continuous 'royalty' 2. To reinforce the concept of "higher authority" in the peasantry
I found that pretty horrifying coming from Scotland and finding the "history" taught as 'fact' in England differed so markedly from my school learning and family history in Scotland.
Rote learning has a very small place in education.
I also agree, especially when it comes to mathematics. Rote learning of the 0-9, (10 base system) of add subtract multiply and divide is needed. While there are a few tricks here and there, it is best to simply memorize this. Beyond this it is more comprehension and understanding. Sure memorization of things, (already worked out formulas,) can be helpful and speed things up, in today's world where everyone has near instant answers from the internet/computer in their pocket available almost anywhere humans go, understanding and knowing how to use tools to get the correct answer is far more important and useful.
I know my alma mater now requires a Mathematica course for several different engineering degrees, and made room by dropping a different traditional high level math class. The test in the mathematica class gives you full access to the internet and of course mathematica itself. No memorization required, only an understanding of the concepts behind the math, and how to use mathematica it self. The test is done in school (proctored,) with a time limit. (If you do not have a good understanding of how to use mathematica, how to input equations and spot obviously incorrect answers due to input error you were going to fail the test hard.) And how to read and interpret the results back to solve the original problem.
Engineering grad students that took this course that were interviewed for the article in the Alumni circular I read, frequently stated that class is the hardest math course they ever took, and also the most useful for their job in the engineering field. Even though no memorization was required.
I suspect it was so hard for so many students because by the time you hit high level 400 level math classes your memorization skills get very good, but frequently at the cost of comprehension skills.
@Old man shouts: prayers etc they are rote learnt
Too true. Did any kid in your schools understand a word of the Lord's Prayer? We were forced to recite it daily, but none of us ever had a clue what most of it meant. I think that was intentional. They didn't want us to think about it. Until I was about 8, I was continually puzzled about what "our men" meant at the end of thing.
@ Algebe Re Lord's Prayer
I didn't get it...at 6 years old I was asking my Grandda why we didnt get free bread if god was giving it away, and why if I "trespassed" " in Old Man MacFarlanes garden and stole his raspberries why wasn't I forgiven? He answered " because its all lies son" I can still remember the look of horror on my Granmas face...as he continued " just don't get caught ya wee scunner, then you wont need forgiving!" and more ( as he saw her expression) " But if I catch you, you wont sit doon for a week!"
After that and a few other discussions with Pops and my sadly conventional parents I just never paid attention and never actually said the words. I didn't learn them until my teens when I started my quest for the truth about 'god'
Hah both of these stories, OMSC's and algebe's got a chuckle out of me. I wish I was that clever around that age.
Food pellets and mild electric shock - that's the way to go!
;)
Dont spoli the kids, whats this about "food pellets" just the shocks and the odd beating for reinforcement of 'god's love' and we are jake....
Totally agree with using gamification as one of the tools in education. I have an MA in Education (although I'm not currently a teacher), and this was one of the strategies taught to us. I did a 10 page research paper on the pros and cons, and your articles outlined them very well.
Personally, I've seen the benefits of this with my own daughter. She is learning algebra this year, and her class uses an online game that allows her to practice the math skills she learned in class. The game tracks her progress and allows her teacher to see where she's getting stuck and where she's advancing. My daughter loves to do her math homework now, and she's actually learning. I believe it's because the work has been made much more enjoyable and motivational for the kids through gamification.
I’ve used gamification (as well as a number of other techniques) for years professionally and have worked in adult education for decades. Each technique is optimal in different circumstances and often with different sets of folks.
It works. A great example is Alice, developed by (one of my heroes) Randy Pausch to teach kids computer programming.
I won't even begin to pretend to know as much as California girl and CyberLN know about the subject, but I too think its another useful tool in the tool box, perhaps an under utilized one.
To me gamification, at least in part, plays off of fast, sometimes near instant, gratification and reward. Keeping a child motivated and interested in learning is huge. But also I think one of the most critical components of schooling and education is stretching those instant gratification muscles to something more where people can work towards a long goal that is not so much about the short term. The attention span of children can sometimes be measured in seconds, and sadly, (I put a lot of blame on media,) lots of people really never develop those "muscles" to a longer attention span and working towards a larger long term goal where the reward and gratification may be months or years of hard work out.
There is a reason many tv ads are 30 seconds or less. Why movies are rarely over 100 minutes, and nearly all high level video production for media involves camera angle changing, (or scene changes,) that ranges anywhere from 1 a second every second, to about: a change once every 10 seconds. Why facebook scrolling occurs at such a blinding pace, (ever watch a 14 year old scroll their facebook feed?) Why a response frequently is just a "like" or a emoticon that takes less then a second? Teachers got their work cut out for them trying to hold kid's (and even adults) interest.
I believe in evidence based approaches to education. I also think all of us learn a bit differently. I am for what works. I remember an anecdote I read in the 1970's. A professor teaching astronomy was having a hard time teaching students the concept of zenith and nadir in relation to themselves. Many students could not grasp it. He realized after a time that the students were bookworms lacking in a lifetime of rough and tumble play in their youth. He took these students and future students through a basic tumbling course. Somersaults, cartwheels, etc. They did better with zenith/ nadir.
Edited for astronomy!
Wow thanks for all the great comments! Everything from examples to talk of food pellets! haha Awesome stuff.
@Mark
Fun topic. Like I said, I wish we would have had more gaming type of teaching aids when I was in school. Makes learning more interesting.
@Tin-man
Me too man, me too. The little bit of learning that I have done with gamification has been SO much better than rote memorization and I retained it better.
i really like this, and it is something I enjoy doing.
recently I did a short spell teaching some science to children and made it fun and interesting.
we even managed to understand general relativity at a very basic level.
at a higher level of education I found learning easier but I had many friends who struggled with it being overly dull.
I wouldn't want to resort to games in higher education, but perhaps more hands on work to invigorate the mind.