When I started teaching 6th grade almost 3
decades ago, I quickly learned that if I could get a little friendly
competition going, add some motivation for achievement, or add in levels of
advancement to student learning, my job of teaching students became easier. Not
only did students increase their knowledge, but classroom management issues
were reduced, and students were happier and enjoyed school more. Until I
attended an ISTE session on Gamification and Digital Gaming taught by Ryan
Schaaf, I didn’t realize that Gamification is what I had been doing in my
classroom for years.
Gamification is taking an element of gaming (incentives,
levels, problem solving, time limits) and adding it to other experiences, like;
simulations, multiplication fact learning, spelling bees, and incentives for
100% on tests, just to name a few.
Gamification can be done in any subject, and without digital
devices.
Digital gaming requires digital devices, and can also be
done in any subject area. Digital games are abundant and motivating for
students, but the challenge comes with knowing the game your students are
playing is actually reinforcing the concept you are trying to teach. Although
it is time consuming, the teacher responsibility with digital gaming is to
review the games students are playing.
One of the resources I received from the session from Ryan
Schaaf is a link (click here) for a list of great digital gaming sites and
specific concepts it is designed to teach. UEN also has a fantastic compilation
of digital games (click here).
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