For this week's assignments, we were asked to do a personal reflection of the module 12 content: the gamification and the ideas of emerging technology in the classroom in education. I think this needs to be dealt with in an appropriate and accessible way. I have included my reflection post below. I recommend taking a read through. If you ever have any questions, feel free to send me a message at the                  tab. Thanks!

 

Reflection: Question #2: Read the article, "The Slow Gamification of K-12 Classrooms."  Examine the reasons Lynch (2013) identifies for the lack of gamification in K-12 Classrooms. How might you use gaming to increase student motivation?

 

Here is my reflection: 

 

"I think one of the biggest factors that affects the integration of gamification into k-12 classrooms is the limit on funding in schools, in addition to the constantly changing world of games (Lunch, 2013). I think that these two do have a very significant affect on whether schools are able to implement integration of games into the classroom, and it also limits us to what schools can implement this and which ones cannot. 

 

Lynch (2013) talks about the classrooms and how “once young learners enter a classroom, learning through tech ‘games’ disappears” (lynch, 2013), and the question is why, when kids are so prone to loving video games. The reason being is that the process off implementing gamification in schools is actually quite slow and tends to require many resources that schools sometimes do not have, in order to continue their use in school (lynch, 2013). MONEY plays a massive role in this. Not every school has the funds to actually maintain “mobile technology initiatives” (lynch, 2013), making it very difficult to “gamify” a classroom, and especially maintain it. As Lynch (2013) correctly states, technology, including video games and learning games, are constantly changing to get better and more high tech; the transition time is extremely low and it often does cause an issue with justifying the use and necessity of the technology. If this technology is constantly changing, what is the use of buying it if it is just going to get replaced within the year, right? It can be easier to justify this kind of thing if you are a kid, finding personal technology, or a parent justifying buying a piece of technology for the kids (Lynch, 2013) but sometimes when there are so many other things that need to be funded by a school, it can be really difficult to justify buying a set of electronic gaming-like learning technologies (that outdate really fast) for the classroom. 

 

That being said, I think it still definitely does have its pros. Gamification can be an incredibly engaging way of reinforcing your teaching to students, as it shows their complete understanding and application of what they are learning. For example, in math, I had the opportunity to play math games during work time when I was in school, and the entire class performed better on the test because in order to achieve the highest score in the game, they had to understand the math. It was much more fun than working on question sheets individually in class. I also had the opportunity of doing this in my science and computers classes, and it makes class content a lot more relatable and enjoyable to do and practice. It also gives students an end-goal and direction when studying. Often, when studying for a test, students get bored but having gamified options pushes students to “achieve the next level” and compete with their peers in a whole new way. Sometimes the accumulation of points and getting more points than their peers is enough for students (Wu, 2011). For others, positive reinforcement, through getting awards such as digital badges and other technological awarding systems, helps provide students the motivation to keep going when they start (Wu, 2011). It shows them that they are progressing and that they are improving as they move from level to level. I think for these reasons, gamification gives students the direction and engagement that they need in their education in order to stay motivated. It has an aspect of fun that makes it less like studying and more like a personal and fun achievement. I would use it for this reason; to use it as a fun way of evaluating student's progress and understanding of a topic, in place of worksheets. This also helps with addressing different learner's profiles, since people can progress at their own pace. " -- Neesha

 

 

Reference:

 

Lynch, M. (2013). The Slow Gamification of K-12 Classrooms. Huffpost Education. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/the-slow-gamification-of_b_4301758.html 

 

Wu, M. (2011). Gamification 101: The Psychology of Motivation. Science of Social Blogs. Retrieved from: http://community.lithium.com/t5/Science-of-Social-blog/Gamification-101-The-Psychology-of-Motivation/ba-p/21864