Gamification of the classrom
What is it?
What is it not?
Why do it?
Gamification is to make something game-like (Chou, 2016, p. 6) Creating a character and playing education (or life! or business!) like a game is to make it engaging, fun and meaningful. It "is the craft of deriving fun and engaging elements found typically in games and thoughtfully applying them to ... productive activities." (p. 8)
​
Gamification is NOT simply putting up leaderboards and giving points and badges to students. It is meant to be engaging, encourage social interaction, and lead to more learning.
It is not simply using already existing games like Minecraft and Angry Birds to teach curriculum in a new way (although there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not gamification.)
Gamification can "create a return beyond simple aesthetics" (p. 11) and can help students learn material deeply.
It can create an atmosphere where learning is more enjoyable (Venables, 2012) instead of merely expected (Chou, p. 8)