Gamification...what is it?

     I had never heard of Gamification until this week. Video games have never really interested me so this week was an eye-opener. Wiki defines Gamification "as the infusion of game design techniques, game mechanics, and/or game style into anything." After seeing some examples of these types of games, I can clearly see the advantage they can have in education. Today's educational world is not about testing to show what facts and formulas students have memorized but rather testing students on APPLYING that information to problem solving. In this YouTube video it discusses online gaming implications in the classroom, the speaker makes some great arguments for the benefits of inline gaming in the classroom. He states that these games promote cognitive skills, specifically situated cognition. In short, when teaching, we need to teach them in the environment that they are going to demonstrate that knowledge, as stated by the speaker in this video.
       In addition to using cognitive skills, online gaming also promotes collaboration and problem solving- which is exactly what NYS education is gearing their assessments towards!

       
      Online games, like The Curfew use problem solving techniques along with reading and writing skills to navigate through the game. I have played this game a few times this past week and I keep getting more and more into it each time! This game asks questions that you need to answer in order to gain the trust of the game players. The Curfew promotes interactive education to learn about civil liberties in and outside of the classroom. This game would be for the secondary English language learner and I would first present it after discussing cultural freedoms and rights, comparing our country to the L2's, problem solving, etc. I would first provide a walkthrough of the game so each learner has the general idea of what is being asked of him/her. Then I would allow the students to attempt the game individually, to explore and form questions that they have along the way. As they travel through the game, critical thinking and comprehension is a must. The player must make decisions, ask and answer questions in order to get the outcome he/she is looking for. After having each person attempt it on his/her own, I would then ask the students to work in pairs or small groups to compare their strategies and to see what worked and what did not. This would allow for collaboration, personal interaction with others by verbal communication as well as exercising their problem solving skills together. 
      Using these strategies of asking questions and using critical thinking from the game and their discussions about it with classmates, the students will be assigned a small group to work with. Each group will have a part to complete within the activity before the next member can begin. In order to complete the activity each member must trust each other, ask questions to gain information and use critical thinking to solve their assigned activity. This will show me if the strategies that were outlined in the game, The Curfew, were understood and if they can successfully use them. The objective will be for each group, and group member, to work together and complete their activity using the strategies learned- asking questions, trusting others, using critical thinking and problem solving.