Have you ever wondered how you can make education fun for your child? Or are you thinking of learning a new skill in a fun way? Well, here comes gamified education or learning.
What is Technological Gamification of Education?
Gamification simply means applying game designs and gaming principles in a non-game context. It is not some new concept and is prevalent in contexts like digital marketing, productivity tools, etc. However, it has gained immense popularity in the field of education.
Gamification makes boring concepts interesting. The primary objective of gamified education is to help learn complex concepts while having fun. They do so by implementing various levels, goals, peer competition, teamwork, point-scoring, etc.
Gamification is a methodology to increase motivation in both children and adults. It can be technical and non-technical. Technological gamification focuses on using apps and educational games on computers and tablets.
Impact of Gamification in Education
A recent study found that challenge-based gamification can improve students’ performance by 35%. Combining traditional learning methods with gamification can further improve the statistics.
Gamification triggers real, powerful human emotions like happiness, intrigue, excitement, and accomplishment. Another important reason for successful gamification in education is the addictive feature of video games.
Moreover, everyone loves playing games, and when the same addictive features are applied to support learning, we get similar results. Gamification further helps in:
- Our decreasing attention span poses numerous problems. Gamification gives learners small chunks of data to process. As a result, it helps them stay focused and retain more information.
- Game elements like immediate feedback and badges keep learners motivated and engaged. Social interactions through games have numerous benefits, including delaying dementia in the elderly population.
- Receiving positive feedback for completing challenging tasks activates the brain’s pleasure circuits. Plus, it results in a long-lasting affinity for the subject.
How can you Implement Gamification in Education?
Gamification has several benefits, as discussed above. Hence, teachers must build gamified classrooms so that students can reap the most benefits from the lectures. Educators can follow the below-given points for creating an effective classroom:
- Points-based system: Give points to students for well-structured answers, which will help them move up the ranks.
- Create competition: Organize friendly competitions within the classrooms or with other classes. The winner can receive rewards like fewer homework tasks, extended break time, etc.
- Learning badges: Give colorful learning badges when students reach a certain level.
- Gaming elements: You can use all or some of the gaming elements, which include narrative, immediate feedback, fun, increasing challenges, leveling up, social connection, player control, and progress indicators.
Takeaway
Whether children or adults, everyone can enjoy learning through gamification. Moreover, teachers can easily grab learners’ attention to teach complex concepts. Hence, every educator must adopt it to make their lectures fun.
