What is Gamification?

Gamification is simply the use of game mechanics in the learning environment. Challenges, competition, collaboration, badges, points, and level ups can all be parts of a gamification.

Oh, and it’s also a pretty great way to increase engagement and excitement in your classroom, make your lessons more fun for your students, and improve your learners’ mastery of content.

A quick note: Try not to confuse this with Game-Based Learning, which is the process of using games in the learning process. It sounds similar, but there are significant differences between the two approaches!

So how do you bring gamification to your classroom? 

Whether you have been contemplating a gamification approach for a while, or are brand new to the idea, you are going to need some resources, inspiration, and problem solving to help you along the way. Let’s take a look at 4 gamification resources for teachers.

Explore Like a Pirate

You know how your car comes with one of those instruction manuals for troubleshooting, maintaining, and using your vehicle? Imagine a similar tool for gamification. Except one that  isn’t filled with confusing jargon or diagrams reminiscent of sketches of the wiring in a 100-year-old house.

I’m talking about the ultimate guide to conceptualizing, planning, implementing, and rocking out your gamification adventure. That is what you get when you pick up a copy of Michael Matera’s book “Explore Like a Pirate,” commonly called XPLAP. It is a quick read, incredibly informative, and makes launching your first gamification adventure seem easy.

Not only does Matera lay it all out in his book, but he also provides a myriad of resources through his website, blog, podcasts, Twitter account, and youtube channel. Before you do anything else with gamification, definitely check out his work!

We all know that when students are engaged, more thinking and understanding happens! Click To Tweet

Achievement Badges

Another powerful tool for gamification in your classroom is something that you probably already do in some way. Recognizing student behaviors in a positive way can go a long way towards improving classroom culture. Who doesn’t like getting kudos for hard work, kindness, and creativity? Many schools use a ticket system as a part of their positive behavioral interventions and support (PBIS) initiatives. But you can bring this into your own classroom specifically through the regular use of badges.

So, what are badges and why use them? A badge can be many things. It could be a sticker that students get for displaying specific behaviors. Maybe it’s a digital badge they earn when they accomplish specific goals. Or it could be printed tickets your students collect. The most important thing to understand is that the badge is a public recognition of the positive things our students do.

What can you create badges for?

• Creativity
• Helping others
• Bright ideas
• Organization
• Perseverance
• Problem Solving
• Anything else you want to support students in!

I personally like to print my badges out on address labels and leave room to write a quick comment recognizing why the student earned the badge. Then, the label can either go right on their folder or they can wear it home on their shirt to show their parents. They are an easy and powerful way to recognize awesomeness in your students!

Twitter

Another step in gamifying your class should be to head on over to Twitter! Twitter chats are a great way to connect with other educators. During a chat, participants have a shared discussion around a series of questions developed by the moderator of the night.

Once you participate in one Twitter chat with other educators, you will be hooked. Twitter is kind of like the digital cocktail party of networking and professional development that you didn’t realize you needed in your life!

Every Tuesday at 9PM CST (10PM EST), Michael Matera (@mrmatera) leads a Twitter chat called #XPLAP. Educators from around the world gather digitally to talk about how to make gamification awesome in their classroom. Adam Powley (@MrPowley) is another gamifier that you should definitely be following. He hosts a weekly chat called #XPLAPCamp that poses a single question. Throughout the course of a full week, people chime in to discuss and share ideas around that one question.

Still worried about diving into the Twitterverse for a chat? Check out this handy dandy guide for getting started with Twitter chats to boost your confidence before you try one!

Classcraft

I first heard about Classcraft from Stella Pollard on, you guessed it, Twitter! Stella (@stella_pollard) teaches in Kentucky and is a gamification, Flipgrid, GSuite, and Classcraft rockstar! This past summer I hung out digitally with a whole slew of gamification folks during the #XPLAP Twitter chat on a regular basis. Stella mentioned Classcraft during one of those chats and I fell in love!

So to start; your students choose their role: warrior, healer, or mage. They then go on an adventure all year long, earning experience points, or losing health points, for a variety of customizable reasons

There is a free version with a bunch of great features. There is also a pro version for $8/month, which gives you a bit more. Let’s take a sneak peak into what Classcraft can offer your class (paid features are marked with an asterisk):

• Create random events to make it a true adventure!
  • One day it could be that a random student gains 1,000 XP and the next day everyone could lose 10 activity points from fatigue. There is even a crazy cat lady random event that my students love. Another perk? These random events are fully customizable!
• Create quests* that take your students on a self paced adventure full of choice. (Great for pairing with a mastery learning based approach!)
• Create engaging formative assessments.* It’s a lot more fun when you battle monsters along the way!

These are just a few of the ways Classcraft can make gamification easier for you to manage in your classroom. Many of the aspects of gamifying a class are already created and ready for you to use at the click of a button rather than starting from scratch and building your own adventure.

Your turn!

How will you bring gamification elements into your classroom? Will you start small with badges? Will you go a little bigger and set up a Classcraft account? How about diving in full throttle and creating a year long gamified adventure?

Whether you take it step by step or dive right in to classroom transformation, gamification can increase engagement, excitement, and fun in your classroom. We all know that when students are engaged, more thinking and understanding happens!

So…are you ready to start the adventure?

Photo used in blog image by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash